Cultivar development 

Antony has been involved in the registration of 67 soybean and 41 dry bean cultivars in four southern African countries. His experience includes involvement in all the processes from identifying the producer or consumer need, choosing the parents, making the cross, selecting the progeny, testing the lines, protecting the intellectual property, placing the product in a cultivar range of a brand and finally retiring the product at the end of its competitive life.

Intellectual property protection

Apart from personally being involved in the mechanisms of placing cultivars on the National Variety List and applying for PBR, Antony was part of the team that ‘workshopped’ the Plant Breeder’s Right Act for South Africa. In 2012, he presented a contract-law alternative for property protection to the African Seed Trade Organization when it was clear that PBR had failed the soybean seed trade.

Entomology

Antony collected, identified and catalogued butterflies as a hobby before getting into plant breeding. In his career as a plant breeder, he has had to work with insects (in some case rearing insects) in order to evaluate differential insect damage in plants. Past projects include breeding for resistance to bruchids (Acanthosceledes and Zabrotes spp.), evaluating germplasm for resistance to bean stem maggot (Ophymia phaseoli) and screening soybean populations for native resistance to leaf feeding larvae. More recently, he has worked on lepidopteran insect pests of soybean and participated in the deregulation of Bt resistance traits in South Africa. He has served as a co-supervisor for a MSc project on breeding for resistance to bruchids.

Plant pathology

Over the years of working as plant breeder, he has honed his skills in working with host reaction to fungal, bacterial, and viral challenges. In many cases, he has had to develop screening nurseries to artificially induce high infection levels to maximize genotypic expression. He has published peer reviewed articles on tolerance to soybean rust (Phakopsora pachyrhizi), developed cultivars with resistance to common bean rust, angular leafspot, anthracnose and Bean Common Mosaic Virus.

Herbicide and fungicide work

In the mid 1990’s, he went through the process of evaluating a Sulphonyl Urea herbicide for use on soybean varieties with mutated native trait resistance to this family of chemistry. Work included evaluation of the herbicide at various rates, evaluating the weed spectrum controlled and measuring crop phytotoxicity and yield suppression. Neither the chemical nor the cultivars were ultimately commercialized, but valuable insight into the process was gained. He worked as a soybean breeder throughout the Roundup Ready era and has been fully engaged in herbicide trait integration, back crossing as well as forward breeding in cultivar development. More recently, Antony has contributed to herbicide residue studies and cultivar sensitivity trials that have resulted in the de-regulation of the E3 trait in South Africa.

Evaluation of dry bean cultivars developed with fungal pathogen resistance is done against a fungicide treated control. Managing split plot (sprayed/unsprayed or seed treated vs untreated) experiments has been a routine function throughout his career. Antony has received accreditation from AVCASA (through CropLife) to work in the Crop Protection Industry.