2026 Canadian Plant Breeding Innovation Scholarship recipients<\/a>, Fetterley is developing genomic tools that could help breeders create better hemp varieties for fibre, textiles, construction materials and other emerging markets \u2014 while using AI and genomics to dramatically speed up the breeding process.<\/p>\nIn the latest Seed World Canada Podcast episode, Fetterley shares how a wheat field covered in stripe rust convinced him to pursue plant breeding, why he left wheat research to focus on hemp, and how modern breeding is becoming faster, smarter and more precise than ever before.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re curious about where plant breeding is headed \u2014 and how Canada\u2019s next generation of researchers is helping shape that future \u2014 this episode is well worth a listen.<\/p>\n
KEY TAKEAWAYS<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udf31 AI is changing plant breeding.\u00a0Fetterley is combining genomics and artificial intelligence to help breeders make better decisions faster.<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udf3e His journey began in wheat.\u00a0Seeing stripe rust resistance segregate in a wheat population convinced him of genetics\u2019 power in plant breeding.<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udf3f Hemp is his new focus.\u00a0He believes hemp remains one of Canada\u2019s most overlooked crops despite its enormous potential.<\/p>\n
\ud83e\uddec Better tools mean better varieties.\u00a0His research aims to build genomic resources that allow breeders to develop hemp specifically for fibre, textiles, construction materials and other end uses.<\/p>\n
\ud83d\ude80 Faster breeding, fewer resources.\u00a0Marker-assisted selection can reduce the time, land and cost needed to develop improved varieties.<\/p>\n
\ud83e\udd1d Helping minor crops catch up.\u00a0Fetterley hopes shared genomic databases and AI will give smaller crops access to the same breeding tools already available for major crops like wheat and canola.<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfc6 Recognized nationally.\u00a0Fetterley is one of three recipients of the 2026 Canadian Plant Breeding Innovation Scholarship, recognizing Canada\u2019s next generation of plant breeding innovators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What if artificial intelligence could help unlock the potential of one of Canada\u2019s most underdeveloped crops? That\u2019s the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,11573,35183,39180,2450,11574,7869],"class_list":["post-113175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-featured-canada","tag-plant-breeding","tag-plant-breeding-innovation","tag-podcasts","tag-seed-world-canada","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}