Specialty: Organic and Specialty Crop Breeding

Research:
My research focuses on developing specialty crop and row crop cultivars that are suitable to the organic cropping systems in Texas and beyond. The breeding program focuses on developing cultivars with acceptable yields, high nutritional values, good agronomic performance, and better tolerance to abiotic stresses such as heat, drought, and salinity, and biotic stresses such as pests and diseases. Our approach integrates conventional and modern tools in plant breeding. Research also focuses on understanding the genetic basis of abiotic and biotic stresses in specialty crops (guar, cowpea, lentils…). Research topics also include genomic selection and high-throughput phenotyping.