Plant breeding for organic and sustainable, low-input agriculture

SUSVAR - Winter wheat ringtest over 15 environments in Europe – Results
Franziska Löschenberger 1 , Gheorghe Ittu 2 , Hubert Kempf 3 , Bernard Rolland 4
David Schneider 5
1 Saatzucht Donau, Probstdorf, Austria; 2 RICIC Fundulea, Romania; 3 Saatzucht Schweiger, Moosburg,
Germany; 4 INRA Rennes, France; 5 Agroscope Changins-Wädenswil ACW, Switzerland.
The SUSVAR (www.cost860.dk) bread wheat ringtest aims at comparing the performance of a
particular set of varieties over contrasting environments across Europe with an emphasis on lowinput
and organic conditions. GxE interaction, specific and broad adaptation to environments,
stability of yield and quality as well as research for particularly useful germplasm, traits and
ideotypes for low-input and organic farming – for both direct use and breeding – are the main
interest of the testing network to the participants.
The ring test was performed on 15 different pedoclimatic environments from France (F) to
Romania (RO), all without fungicides, ranging from organic (Org) to conventional without
fertilisation (N0) or “low input” (LI) to a few “high input“(HI).
In the organic trials of Romania, Germany and Austria the best yielding genotype was always
coming from the respective country, reflecting the station or region of selection (Table: grey).
This shows the importance of specific adaptation to regional agro-environmental conditions and
the success of local breeding efforts in the past, but it also stresses the need for better
characterization of the environments. The yield results from six conventional N0 or LI trials are
highly correlated with Org trials (r=0,77*). The HI trial results are not related to neither Org nor
N0+LI. Protein content of the genotypes is similarly correlated between all three “input groups”:
ORG to N0+LI: r=0,74**; NO+LI to HI: r=0,64*, ORG to HI: r=0,70**.
Calculation of the dynamic stability parameter “ecovalence” according to Becker & Leon (1998)
revealed Titlis, Aurolus, Cornelius, Zinal and Bitop as first ranking for yield stability.
Winter hardiness, tillering capacity, early ground cover, plant height at booting, hanging growth
habit, vigorous growth dynamics and high leaf area index as well as final plant height all
significantly and positively influenced protein yield evaluated in organic trials. Disease
resistance did not show any significant correlation to mean yield or other agronomic traits.
Both LI and Org trials are useful for low-input and organic selection. Local adaptation was
advantageous under some of the organic conditions. Under organic conditions protein yield was
significantly influenced by several well defined criteria, which may facilitate selection for
improved varieties.
Country/location RO D F-2 R CH F-3 F-2 RO A F-1 A F-1 F-3 CH CH
System Org Org Org NO NO Org LI HI Org Org HI LI LI LI HI
Fertilizer kg N/ha 0 0 50 0 0 0 90 100 0 0 130 40 100 100 180
Mean yield t/ha 1,64 3,59 3,74 4,32 5,02 5,15 5,21 5,22 5,26 5,71 6,36 6,63 7,56 7,69 8,26
Best three varieties JP NA DI AR DI ZI FO AR CO CF JN DI DI DI CO
Grey: origin = testing BI ZI RE RE NA NA DI RE AU RE CO CF CO CO DI
country CO CO FO JN CO CF CF JP NA DI AR RE CF CF JP
Mean Protein %DM 10,0 -- 10,6 11,8 9,7 -- 12,3 13,8 15,3 13,3 16,4 12,0 11,7 11,7 13,7
Best three varieties SI AU TI BI RE AU SI AU AU TI TI AU TI
Grey: origin = testing DI BI AU AU JP BI TI TI TI AU AU TI SI
country AR TI BI JN AR CF AU SI SI BI BI SI AU
Varieties/ country: RO: Ardeal 1=AR; Junona=JN; Jupiter=JP; F: CF99102=CF; DI9714=DI; Renan=RE; D: Format=FO; Naturastar=NA;CH:
Siala=SI; Zinal=ZI, Titlis=TI; A: Bitop=BI; Aurolus=AU; Cornelius=CO.
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