Live Long and Prosper: A Theory For Yield Differences Between Annual And Perennial Grains

Abstract

Several decades of breeding efforts to produce a high-yielding, long-lived herbaceous grain have not been successful. Yet, such a plant is conjectured to have many advantages over the annual grains society uses to feed itself --- advantages which are sorely needed as population growth and environmental limitations coalesce. This work lays a mathematical foundation based on techniques from dynamic optimization and optimal control theory for determining whether such a plant can ever exist. Ultimately, this work argues that high-yielding herbaceous perennial grains are possible.