Plant breeding for organic and sustainable, low-input agriculture

Developments in breeding cereals for organic farming systems in Europe
Edith T. Lammerts van Bueren 1 , JorgPeter Baresel 2 , Dominique Desclaux 3 , Isabelle
Goldringer 4 , Steven Hoad 5 , Geza Kovacs 6 , Franziska Löschenberger 7 , Thomas Miedaner 8 ,
Hanne Østergård 9 , Martin Wolfe 10
1 Wageningen University, Plant Sciences Group, Wageningen, The Netherlands; 2 Technical
University, München-Weihenstephan, Freising, Germany; 3 INRA - UMR Diversité et Génome
des Plantes Cultivées, Mauguio, France; 4 INRA - UMR de Génétique Végétale - INRA UPS
INA-PG CNRS, Gif sur Yvette, France; 5 SAC, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK; 6 Agricultural
Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Brunszvik, Hungary; 7 Saatzucht
Donau GesmbH & CoKG, Probstdorf, Austria; 8 University of Hohenheim,
Landessaatzuchtanstalt, State Plant Breeding Institute, Stuttgart, Germany; 9 Risø National
Laboratory, Biosystems Department, Roskilde, Denmark; 10 Elm Farm Research Centre,
Wakelyns Agroforestry, Fressingfield, Eye Suffolk, UK.
To deal with the rapidly increasing range of environmental diversity, caused by declining oilbased
support for agricultural systems together with global climate change, we will need a
tremendous increase in crop and livestock diversity. Therefore the current framework of cereal
pedigree line breeding focussed on large scale production of rapidly diminishing genetic
diversity will be increasingly inappropriate in the future. Organic farming systems are holistic
systems according to the concept of naturalness, including the non-chemical approach, agroecological
approach and the integrity of life approach. Such systems are necessarily adapted to (a
wide diversity of) their localities. This requires therefore a fine-grained adaptation of the crop
plants used on individual farms. We argue that there is a need for more breeding activities to
improve the organic farming systems and organic product quality. Within the organic sector we
distinguish roughly three farming systems: a) global commodity farming, b) regional market
farming and c) local market farming systems, each demanding different kind of variety
requirements. We also distinguish two type of breeding programmes: conventional breeding for
organic agriculture (BFOA) including testing of advanced lines under organic conditions in later
stages of breeding program, and organic breeding programs (OBP) where all steps in the
breeding process are taken under organic conditions, and including breeding techniques that
apply with the organic principles. Developing a holistic approach to breeding individual cereal
crops demands a different set of breeding objectives with respect to soil, weed, pest, disease and
quality management, and a different set of methods dealing with questions such as wide versus
specific adaptation, the structure of varieties (pure line, mixtures, composite cross populations),
the choice of selection environment, and participatory approaches. We will discuss the state of
the art of current approaches and research, and will end up with recommendations for further
breeding research and programs. A summary table is produced indicating the general
characteristics of breeding trends for a continuous range of organic farming systems.
Acknowledgement: This work was supported by COST Action 860 „SUSVAR” within
Working Group 1 Breeding and Genetics
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