Understanding and reducing lodging in cereals

Improved lodging resistance has contributed significantly to the dramatic increase in cereal yields observed in many countries during recent decades. Several advances in understanding lodging have been made since the last major review of lodging in 1973. These include: (1) a more thorough quantification of the effects of lodging on grain yield and quality, (2) collaborative studies by biologists and engineers have elucidated the mechanisms of stem and anchorage failure and the way in which cereal shoots interact with the wind and rain, (3) the development of models of the lodging process and (4) explanations for how crop husbandry decisions affect lodging. This review collates the new understanding of lodging and attempts to set out cultural and genetic-based approaches for the continued reduction of lodging risk in high-yielding cereals. The review demonstrates that the prospects for continuing to reduce lodging risk through the selection of shorter genotypes may be limited because there appears to be a minimum crop height that is compatible with high yields. There does appear to be significant scope for increasing lodging resistance by strengthening the stem and the anchorage system by exploiting the wide genetic variation in these plant characters and through crop management decisions. (C) 2004 by Elsevier Inc.