This U of G plant breeder is a kind of hybrid himself.
Milad Eskandari grew up in Iran with a farmer father and a schoolteacher mother. Now at Guelph’s Ridgetown Campus, he combines traits of both pursuits in his research and teaching in the Department of Plant Agriculture.
Appointed as a faculty member in 2013, he studies soybean breeding. He’s using both conventional breeding methods and molecular biology to zero in on genetic traits for better-quality, higher-yielding soybeans that are more disease-resistant in the field.
About three million acres’ worth of soybeans were grown this year by Ontario farmers. The crop is worth more than $1 billion a year, much of it exported to Asian markets.
Eskandari expects his work will lead to new cultivars yielding more oil, protein and other components, mostly for food but also for industrial applications.
In his Ridgetown lab and in several field plots, he’s working with soybeans on several related projects. That research follows work begun for his PhD thesis with plant agriculture professor Istvan Rajcan, as well as earlier soybean breeding done by late professor Gary Ablett, former director of the Ridgetown Campus.
Eskandari has already seen improvements. Current soybean cultivars yield about 20 per cent oil on average. “Our breeding lines are up just above 21 per cent, and some new lines are more than 23 per cent” — a significant increase, he says.
He has also pinpointed a number of genes associated with higher oil and protein yield and validated genetic markers for the trait found by other researchers. For that work, he has adapted Rajcan’s analytical methods and is now collaborating with a researcher at the University of Georgia.
Another focus is breeding new strains resistant to soybean cyst nematode (SCN). For soybean farmers, this worm is “the most damaging pathogen in the world, including southern Ontario.” The nematode can reduce yields by one-third or even wipe out an entire crop in highly infested fields.
Ontario farmers already grow strains resistant to the pest, but Eskandari says, “We have seen those resistant lines lose resistance to new races of SCN.”
He’s also looking to breed new cultivars with more isoflavones, or plant hormones believed to help reduce the risk of diseases such as heart disease, osteoporosis and some types of cancer.
He has taught statistics and plant science at Ridgetown, where he’s eager to engage students in the science behind the everyday aspects of agriculture.
Eskandari taught for eight years in Iran after completing his master’s degree there. Benefits from teaching flow both ways, he says. “My philosophy is if you want to learn more about something, it’s best to teach it.
“We’re teaching the next generation of scientists and plant breeders and people in agriculture. I come from a farm background, so I know how important it is for future farmers to be educated.”
Eskandari completed his PhD in 2012 and worked with Rajcan as a researcher until being appointed as a faculty member in summer 2013.
He completed his B.Sc. and an M.Sc. on sugar beet genetics in Iran. As a teen, he found himself pondering questions about planting times and new crop varieties better suited to weather conditions.
He began considering U of G after a lecture given in Iran by Ken Kasha, now professor emeritus and a barley geneticist in plant agriculture.
Eskandari and his wife, Mina Asrar, came to Canada in 2006. They live in London, Ont., with their two sons.