Revolutionizing Agriculture with Dual-purpose Crops Bridging Food, Beauty | Insights

Chongqing - The "Breeding and Application of Dual-purpose Food Crops for Both Edible and Ornamental Use" project has recently been selected as a finalist in the Global Excellence Engineer Competition, making it the only agricultural project among the finalists.

In an exclusive interview with Bridging News on December 5, Du Chengzhang, a researcher at the Oilseed Institute of Chongqing Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the project's lead explained that dual-purpose food crops aim to enhance food crops by adding ornamental value and vice versa. This approach boosts food security while fostering the integration of agriculture and cultural tourism.

The dual-purpose edible and ornamental broad bean flower and stem phenotype. (Photo/Du Chengzhang)

This project's innovation lies in achieving the goal of "growing flowers while producing grain." Through breeding innovations, the project successfully combines food crop productivity with ornamental floral characteristics, fulfilling both nutritional needs and enhancing landscape aesthetics.

The dual-purpose concept is deeply rooted in green development principles, making the beauty of agriculture more tangible and accessible to the public. It also aligns with the "all-encompassing approach to food" philosophy, which advocates extracting food from flowers and beauty from food crops, Du added.

Unlike soybeans, research on peas and broad beans in China is fragmented and highly competitive. To stand out, he focused on developing unique traits. "Broad beans originally didn’t have top flowers or red-colored blooms, and peas had little ornamental value. Developing a variety with these features would be highly meaningful," Du said.

Integrating food and ornamental functions into grain crops presents three significant technical challenges. First, Du's team needed to establish a diagnostic system to identify which crop traits have aesthetic value.

Second, they focused on maintaining crop yields while enhancing aesthetic traits. For example, disease resistance, particularly to anthracnose, was crucial in improving broad beans. Traditional manual disease assessments were inefficient, so Du’s team developed an AI-powered, low-altitude drone system to evaluate anthracnose, significantly improving accuracy and breeding efficiency.

Third, Du's team actively promotes agricultural-tourism integration by developing application scenarios in which farming and ornamental economics can coexist and benefit both.

The wide-scale production of dual-purpose edible and ornamental broad beans with a flowering effect. (Photo/Du Chengzhang)

In 2020, Du's team bred "Doumei 1," the country’s first dual-purpose broad bean variety. This variety not only has excellent food qualities but also produces striking red flowers. Following this success, Du's team developed a series of ornamental pea varieties, such as the "Hydrangea Pea," which produces vibrant red and white flower clusters.

Du’s team has established seed production bases in Chongqing's Yongchuan District and Sichuan's Songpan County to further drive the adoption of this technology. Over the years, Du has tested and planted over a hundred new varieties in Songpan, offering solutions to local challenges such as "de-agriculturalization" and "de-foodification," thereby providing a model for the Chongqing region.

Du believes that the global agricultural market holds immense potential for dual-purpose food and ornamental crops, as the pursuit of beauty is a universal human desire.

To promote the global development of this concept, Du's team is collaborating with research institutions in countries, such as Egypt, involved in the Belt and Road Initiative to conduct joint technical trials and demonstrations, further expanding the reach and impact of this innovative approach.