A pilot cultivation of Kernza® in Spain assessed the potential of this perennial grain under Mediterranean conditions. The COUSIN Project documents key agronomic lessons on establishment, crop management, and adaptation, providing practical guidance to support future field trials and the wider adoption of resilient perennial cropping systems.
This practice presents a protocol for testing soil for the presence of Aphanomyces euteiches, the causal agent of pea root rot. The COUSIN Project provides practical guidance on disease risk assessment using a soil bioassay, supporting field selection, crop management, and the evaluation of pea crop wild relatives for improved resistance to root rot.
Barley crop wild relatives (CWRs) offer valuable genetic diversity for improving the nutritional quality of future barley varieties. The COUSIN Project highlights variation in key nutritional traits, supporting the identification of promising breeding materials for healthier, more resilient, and sustainable cropping and food systems.
Crop wild relatives (CWRs) and CWR-derived materials from barley, wheat, pea and lettuce offer underused potential for innovative food product development. The COUSIN Project demonstrates how these resources can be incorporated into a range of food applications, supporting the creation of more diverse, nutritious and sustainable food systems.
Modern crops have lost valuable genetic diversity through domestication, while crop wild relatives (CWRs) retain traits important for resilience and adaptation. The COUSIN Project provides high-quality genomic resources and maps for multiple CWR species, enabling the identification of beneficial genes and supporting their targeted introgression into modern crops to accelerate breeding for improved performance and resistance.
Reliable phenotyping of pea crop wild relatives (CWRs) and breeding progeny is essential for effective selection in plant breeding, but field conditions often limit the assessment of individual plants. The COUSIN Project presents a fence-supported field screening system that improves the evaluation of pea genotypes under realistic growing conditions, enabling more precise selection for plant architecture, health and agronomic performance.
The conservation and collection CWRs are increasingly important for sustainable agriculture and climate resilience, but are governed by complex legal frameworks. The COUSIN Project provides an overview of international and EU regulations, including access and benefit-sharing requirements, supporting compliant and responsible use of CWR genetic resources in research and breeding.
The effective conservation and use of CWRs requires not only protection in their natural habitats but also standardized data systems for documenting their in situ populations. The COUSIN Project highlights key international and European descriptor frameworks, supporting harmonised recording of CWR populations to ensure data compatibility, traceability, and integration across conservation and breeding databases.
The transfer of CWRs between institutions is often hindered by inconsistent local identifiers, limiting traceability and data sharing. The COUSIN Project highlights the FAO Global Information System (GLIS) and its Digital Object Identifier (DOI) system as a solution for creating permanent, interoperable identifiers that link CWR material to its associated data across conservation and breeding networks.
The conservation ofCWRs is closely linked to rural communities, where land use change and rural depopulation can threaten in situ populations. The COUSIN Project demonstrates how participatory education initiatives between researchers and rural schools can raise awareness of CWR value, foster co-creation of learning activities, and strengthen the connection between biodiversity conservation and local communities.
