sign in sign up
<<
Home , Plant breeding

Plant Breeding The Essential Platform for Sustainable

The breeding industry is a major contributor to more and production.

This is the conclusion from an and reduced environmental impact. improved standing ability, better end-use independent review by ADAS of the In the report ADAS shows how quality and enhanced and disease scientific literature relating to key EU innovation in plant breeding provides the resistance brings reduced harvest losses food and forage for the 10-year essential platform for more sustainable and wastage in the supply chain. period 2005 to 2015. agriculture and food production. Public/private research partnerships The challenges of global The main focus of modern commercial are vital to this success. The plant growth, climate change and pressure breeding programmes is to increase and breeding industry works collaboratively on finite natural resources demand a protect marketable yields, increasing with the academic research community sustainable intensification solution – this production from the same amount of on the strategic R&D and pre-breeding means producing more output per unit of land with more efficient use of inputs and activities that pave the way for the resource and balancing that productivity reduced gas emissions per breeding achievements described in the gain with reduced environmental impact. tonne of output – key requirements of ADAS report. The companies then bring Plant breeding companies develop sustainable intensification. this to market through the crop varieties crop varieties with higher yields, better Alongside selection for physical developed and commercialised in their quality, improved resource use efficiency yield, the development of varieties with breeding programmes.

How plant breeding contributes to sustainable agriculture The ADAS study demonstrates how plant Improving contribute Increasing resource productivity use efficiency to improved Physical yield Land use sustainability Pest and disease resistance Water use End-use quality Fertiliser and chemical inputs in our farming Energy consumption systems – through More output per unit of resource and improved pest and environmental impact = disease resistance, SUSTAINABLE more efficient INTENSIFICATION land use and soil conservation, Reducing better negative and input use environmental efficiency, and effects Soil health improved resilience GHG emissions to a changing Climate resilience climate. Water quality Grain yield (t/ha) winter NIAB 9

8

7

6 1982 1987 1992 1997 2002 2007

national yield spline fitted to national yield

contribution of effect to national yield

Higher crop yields mean better performance More physical yield Plant breeding companies develop varieties with Plant breeding gains have added 0.5t/ha/decade to higher yield potential, more durable pest and national wheat yields over the past 50 years and disease resistance, and market-relevant 0.5t/ha/decade to oilseed rape since 1980. end-use quality, making plant breeding Genetic gain in new varieties developed by the single biggest contributor to breeding companies has produced annual productivity gains in our increases of 0.1t/ha in forage major crops. and sugar beet over the past 30-40 years. Jon Oakley

Stronger, more durable disease resistance Plant breeders strive to identify, understand and introduce disease resistance as the first line of defence for Preventing loss to pest attack the crop, reducing harvest losses and protecting yield Varieties resistant to pests have reduced harvest losses. potential. All commercial UK sugar beet varieties now Breeding companies have succeeded in commercialising carry rhizomania resistance genes, major progress has varieties with resistance to orange wheat blossom been made in understanding the of yellow midge, turnip yellows in oilseed rape and beet rust resistance and Septoria tritici in wheat and cyst nematode in sugar beet. Work is underway deploying new durable genetic defences, and to introduce aphid resistance in , stem new varieties of oilseed rape have been nematode resistance in field beans, and launched with better resistance to European corn borer resistance light leaf spot and canker. in maize. Quality adapted to market needs Improved milling and malting quality are key selection Better standing ability criteria in wheat and , with associated benefits for Varieties that stand better protect their yield potential, reduced wastage and enhanced processing efficiency. making standing ability an important breeding Breeders have also improved digestibility in , objective for most crops. Breeding success has introduced healthier oil profiles in oilseed rape, come from identifying height genes and and reduced anti-nutritional factors in developing molecular markers to improve pulses, and increased starch and selection for optimal height, stem energy content in forage strength and rooting. crops. ADAS

Reducing the negative environmental effects of food production Using higher yielding varieties to increase productivity on existing farmland leaves uncultivated land for . Crop varieties with improved resilience to climate extremes Promoting more efficient such as flooding, , frost and heat stress can help mitigate the effects of climate change for crop production. resource use Innovation in plant breeding has led to wheat with better Specific breeding targets to increase resource use rooting and new herbage crops that can improve soil efficiency have focused on improving plant structure. Selection for improved pest/disease uptake and use of resources, principally resistance and resource use efficiency can water and such as improve water quality by allowing and . reduced or fertiliser applications. The following table, featured in the ADAS report, shows how plant breeding helps meet sustainability objectives in major crops. Blue boxes denote breeding advances already brought to market by plant breeding companies Green boxes relate to areas of plant breeding where research is in the pipeline or where further R&D investment is required to realise potential genetic gains through commercial crop varieties.

Oilseed Forage Trait Wheat Barley Oats Field Beans Field Herbage Sugar beet rape Maize

Improve Faster 92% Increase harvest 0.5t/ha Little Little Focus on increase Increase increase Focus on by 0.7t/ha index and increase increase increase dry matter than any harvestable in W.B and dry matter decade no. grain per decade seen in last seen in last and starch UK arable yield 87% in S.B yield since 1980 per sq. since 1980 10 years 10 years yield crop since since 1982 metre 1980

Low Reduce Decrease Digestibility, End use ß-glucan Naked oats, tannins, Sugar making energy quality levels, low oil content amino acid content quality and fibre content ß-amylase content

Mildew, Eyespot rust, Light leaf wilt, Mildew, Rust, Leaf and Septoria, Rhynchosporium, spot, stem Downy Eyespot Rhynchosporium, Rhizomania mildew pod spot rust Ramularia, canker mildew rust Net blotch Resistance to disease Beet Mild Powdery Yellowing Verticillium, Ascochyta mildew, Fusarium Virus, Beet Alternaria blight, rust Ascochyta Yellows Virus

Orange wheat blossom midge Turnip Stem Beet cyst Resistance Little work Corn borer Little work Little work Yellows nematode Little work nematode to pests carried out resistance Aphid, Virus resistance tolerance Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus

Adaption Drought Traits Traits Drought Traits to env. traits Little work Little work Little work QTLs found identified identified tolerant identified extremes identified

Impact in market place Work in progress/development required

Read the full ADAS report – Review of the objectives of modern plant breeding and their relation to agricultural sustainability, June 2015 – by visiting www.bspb.co.uk

British Society of Plant Breeders Ltd, BSPB House, 114 Lancaster Way Business Park, ELY CB6 3NX, UK Tel +44 (0)1353 653200 Fax +44 (0)1353 661156 Email [email protected] Web www.bspb.co.uk