Cereal breeding strategies for organic and low-external-input crop production systems

Summary

Increasing trend in organic farming does not seem to have yet attracted the attention of many plant breeders. On the other side, in every cropping system, for every species, best performing cultivars are needed in each macro-ecology. Considering dif-ferent cropping systems, such as open or glasshouse production, main or second crop alternatives, plant breeders have to focus on the genotype-environment and genotype-input interactions.
Organic farming is in need of tailor-made genotypes for almost every crop. In fact, in the near future the same amount of organic registered cultivars will be needed as the conventional cultivars.
Conducting an immediate single or combined “seed-bed – pot – field test” might be a logical start to de-termine organic varieties. But selection targets are to many and varying in such a way that for short-term planned breeding activities have limited chance to cover the “variety” needs. Therefore we have to rear-range EU’s organic plant breeding strategies for short and for long terms. A collective work, initiated for example by IFOAM in a short period with continental base, might be a solution for organic variety needs. To avoid duplications and to get benefit from every scientist rationally, governing bodies or NGO’s would welcome a coordinated pilot project, such as one on wheat, covering all Europe*.