Green breeding : new models for plant breeding: key elements for collaboration within the food chain

Summary

As the financial threshold for cost-effective breeding continues to be raised, increasingly more crops are becoming ‘too small’ for breeding. For example, an arable crop such as oats is nowadays considered unprofitable by some commercial breeding companies. For many grain legumes, breeding programmes were cut back years ago. And among vegetables, breeding programmes for minor crops such as black salsify and parsnip are gradually being abandoned. The long-term consequence is that production of these crops will become increasingly difficult, because the available varieties will not be adapted to future changes in the cultivation system (new methods, new diseases, etc). The question is how to develop alternative crop breeding models for small markets. The research programme Green Breeding (2010-2019) focusses on breeding of varieties that can cope with less nutrients and water and on resistance breeding to avoid pest and diseases. The research is on potato, leek, spinach and tomato. Next to those projects also some pilot studies are conducted on e.g. chain-approach in breeding and lupine breeding.