Our faculties of four different specializations collaborate with each other and form research teams. Current research include:
- Crop yield and physiological quality
- Crop stress tolerance
- Organic agriculture
- Distinguishment of crop species and origin
- Cloning of QTL for important agronomic traits in rice
- Molecular mark-assisted breeding
- Combining biometry and bioinformation in the research of crop genome
- Statistical analysis and application of crop model and stable yields
“Intelligent agriculture” and “Crop molecular breeding” are our department’s major research fields. To raise our research potential, we combined new plant breeding methods, such as crop genome editing, bioinformation, and biometry, to study research about genomic and expression of Taiwan major crops. Additionally, we are dedicated to accumulating systematic knowledge of molecular breeding and crop physiology, and leading Taiwan new generation’s intelligent agriculture by “Crop model expert system”.
“Intelligent Agriculture” and “Sustainable Agriculture” are two major fields that we are highly proactive developing. Our goal in next five years will be based on these two fields. We focus on responding to climate change, accelerating stress-tolerant plant breeding, application of enhancing crop breeding efficiency by genomic technology and cooperating with 'Agriculture 4.0'. Based on existing“Crop genome research center” and ‘”Crop stress research center, we import the latest technology research and with application and developing of bioinformation, big data, and cloud data, like phenotype analyst and building Applied Artificial Intelligence(AII), to enhance and implement teaching and research of these two fields.
The division of biometry and bioinformation's future research will connect other divisions and lasting previous research result. We focus on three research directions:
- Agriculture Intelligence and Crop Model:
Image monitoring system and agricultural weather stations can be used as objective basis for evaluating crop productivity and as a reference for agricultural farming adjustment by integrating meteorological, crop and soil information to calculate the yield and growth period. In order to comprehensively evaluate crop production, farmers’ benefits, and resource applications, we hope to use crop models to build decision support system by simulating crop growth.
- Agriculture Genomics Research: To extend our department' brilliant achievements in crop molecular breeding research, the main direction of crop whole-genome selection breeding research will be conducting whole-genome selection breeding research for more crops with next-generation digital image phenotype selection system. Moreover, in the industrialization model of agricultural genetics technology, this technology can accelerate the cultivation and development of new varieties. In the meantime, it will also involve more specific agronomic traits and more research fields to breed more high-yield, high-quality, disease-resistant, and eurytopic new crop varieties which can provide technical support to enhance the competitiveness of agricultural industries and become an industrialization potential field. It can be used as an important strategy for agricultural upgrading and improvement.
- Developing new breeding methods – accelerate breeding: Due to climate change and stress increasing, Taiwan’s future crop production environment will face the increasing variation frequency of abiotic stress like environment and biotic stress such as pest. Therefore, it is important to accelerate breeding, especially climate-ready crop, to support development of sustainable agriculture and food security. In terms of the development of biotechnology, the division of crop physiology will meet the needs of breeding, expand the diversity of germ plasm resources, create good parents for evolutionary favorable traits, and accelerate breeding to address future climate change.