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Purdue opens first field phenotyping facility in North America

Purdue University dedicated its $15 million-dollar state-of-the-art research facility for automated field phenotyping this week.  Purdue University Dean of Agriculture Jay Akridge says the Indiana Corn and Soybean Innovation Center will bring faculty and students across multiple disciplines together to develop innovative technologies in plant agriculture.   “And our ability to measure and monitor what’s going on with growing crops,” he says.  “And ultimately use that information to help us improve breeding programs and ultimately help us improve crops.”

AUDIO: Jay Akridge, Purdue University

The center is part of Purdue Moves – an initiative announced by Purdue president Mitch Daniels in 2013 to broaden Purdue’s global impact and enhance educational opportunities for students.

Daniels says the center will play a key role in helping meet one of world’s most urgent challenges – providing enough food for a growing global population.  “Feeding a hungry world and doing it in a more economically and environmentally sustainable way is as big of challenge as the world has,” he says.  “And we think Purdue can lead it.  This facility is really the single best example of why we will lead it.”

AUDIO: Mitch Daniels, Purdue University 

The center is supported with a combined 4-million-dollar investment from the Indiana Corn Marketing Council and the Indiana Soybean Alliance.

ISA president Joe Steinkamp says the agriculture industry will need to think outside of the box when developing new technologies needed to meet the increasing global demand for commodities.  “This center is going to be able to do things that my grandfather, that my father, that myself and my kids have always wanted to do,” he says.  “They’re going to be able to go out in the field and ask the corn plant or the soybean plant what it wants.  And with this technology they’ll be able to give that plant what it wants.”

AUDIO: Joe Steinkamp, Indiana Soybean Alliance

The facility is located on Purdue’s Agronomy Center for Research and Education grounds.

AUDIO: Chris Novak, National Corn Growers Association