Newswise — ITHACA, N.Y. – Broccoli is in the eye of the beholder.
A head of broccoli that might appeal to one person – perhaps because of its deep green color – may leave another cold, due to an asymmetrical shape or too-large buds.
Cornell University researchers participating in the Eastern Broccoli Project, which aims to produce broccoli varieties suited to grow on the East Coast, have devised a statistical method to standardize evaluations of broccoli, in order to make plant breeding decisions more consistent and efficient.
Now a Cornell group – doctoral student Zachary Stansell; Thomas Björkman, professor of horticulture at Cornell AgriTech; and Deniz Akdemir of the Cornell Statistical Consulting Unit – has released RateRvaR, a new software based on this method. RateRvaR is freely available, open source, easy to use and applicable to breeders of any vegetable, tree or flower with subjective features.
Using the software, breeders can select traits and ask multiple people to perform the same evaluation. The program will then analyze that data to determine which traits are more or less important in predicting overall quality, partly by prioritizing traits that are easier to judge objectively, such as size or color.
“Breeders want to know not only how another person would score a plant, but how they would score it themselves, or how some idealized consumer would score it. This should open up the opportunity for breeders to do evaluations in multiple locations,” Björkman said.
Researchers in the Eastern Broccoli Project grow at least 40 varieties of broccoli a year, aiming to find varieties that will thrive in particular climates, from Florida in the winter to Maine in the summer. Their goal is not only to breed plants well-suited to local climates, but to produce high-quality broccoli consumers will buy.
The project was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture Specialty Crop Research Initiative.
For additional information, see this Cornell Chronicle story.
Cornell University has dedicated television and audio studios available for media interviews supporting full HD, ISDN and web-based platforms.
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