Researcher on perennial wheatgrass: "Part of a new revolution"

– Kernza is the first commercially available perennial grain crop in the world, says Valentin Picasso, professor at the Department of Crop Production Ecology at SLU.

In his research he works on developing cropping systems based on perennial crops. He runs experiments with Kernza at the Lönnstorp research station in Alnarp.

– I try to address all the practical questions a farmer might have. When is it optimal to sow? How wide should the row spacing be? How is yield affected by intercropping Kernza with legumes?

Ever since the agricultural revolution some 10,000 years ago, when humans first began to farm, we have relied on annual crops. The fact that Kernza is perennial is therefore something entirely new – and has the potential to transform modern farming, according to Valentin Picasso.

– I would say we are part of a new revolution.

Reducing soil erosion and nutrient leakage

Kernza offers several sustainability advantages over annual crops.

First, the crop covers the ground all year round. According to Valentin Picasso, this eliminates the problem of soil erosion, where bare soil is blown or washed away. The vegetation further provides a habitat for biodiversity.

– It also has a large root system that absorbs nutrients throughout the year, preventing nutrient leakage into the water. Eutrophication is a major problem worldwide, for instance in the Baltic Sea, says Valentin Picasso.

The root system also stores carbon, which helps mitigate climate change.

– So with perennial grains we can have food production and environmental conservation at the same time.

The researcher also sees an opportunity for farmers to gain greater control over their production, since the need for inputs such as seed and fertiliser is lower. The crop can also be used both as forage and as food, giving the farmer two potential sources of income.

Limited yields and bureaucratic obstacles

But a couple of challenges are slowing the entry of the perennial wheatgrass into the commercial market.

The process of approving Kernza as food is very slow in the EU. Until that is settled, Kernza may only be sold as forage, which is not worth the effort for the farmer.

– In the US, Kernza has long been approved, but in the EU, there is no system in place for approving new grains, says Valentin Picasso.

Yields are also low and decline each year. Harvesting is trickier too, because the grains are small and harvested while parts of the plant are still green.

– We have had yields of perhaps a thousand kilos per hectare, in some cases two thousand. But wheat yields are three or four times higher. Then again, wheat has already been bred for hundreds of years, whereas the breeding of Kernza only began in the 1990s.

Research at Lönnstorp

At the Lönnstorp research station in Alnarp, trials with Kernza have been running for more than ten years.

The wheatgrass features, among other things, in a long-term field experiment called SAFE. The facility comprises four different cropping systems available to researchers: organic, conventional, perennial and agroforestry. The perennial system uses Kernza.

– It is one of the more innovative systems, alongside agroforestry, says Johannes Albertsson, researcher and station manager of Lönnstorp.

He explains that there is strong interest in Kernza research in Alnarp, both for longer and shorter projects.

– We have four or five Kernza projects this year, and several of them are conducted together with Lund university. In total we run 45 projects a year at the research station, so this is a fairly large share for a new crop that nobody is yet growing commercially in Sweden.

Johannes Albertsson finds the crop rewarding to work with because it is new and constantly evolving. He believes Kernza could be an important piece of the puzzle, alongside many others, in meeting the future challenges of agriculture.

– But there is a great deal more we need to learn. We are only at the very beginning, says Johannes Albertsson.

Read more: Validating the introdution of Kernza in the Nordic-Baltic region (Viking).