Perennial crops have been cultivated for thousands of years; their cultivation differs from the mainstream annual agriculture because regular tilling is not required and this results in decreased soil erosion and increased soil health.
[7] There is a growing movement to create perennial alternatives to annual crops particularly grains.
Interest waned when the crosses repeatedly resulted in sterile offspring, and seed yield decreased significantly.
The next major time the project of perennializing grain was picked up was a wheat hybrid developed by the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station in 1986, which the Rodale Institute field tested.
[8] For example, The Land Institute has bred a perennial wheat crop known as Kernza.