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Steve's German Lessons
Munich scenes (opens in new window)
SAC Crop Specialist Steve Hoad has just returned from Germany and a meeting with some of Europe’s top cereal breeders.
His Travel Award was funded by the Farmers' Club Charitable Trust and involved a visit to the Saaten Union; an alliance of seven plant breeding companies in Hanover. In one-to-one discussions he learned of their priorities for wheat and barley and how it fitted long-term plans for sustainable agriculture.
The breeders came from all over western Europe; Strube Research near Braunschweig in Lower Saxony, Nordsaat near Halberstadt in Saxony-Anhalt, Ackermann north-east of Munich and Saaten Union France just north of Paris. Discussions focussed on open questions, circulated prior to the meetings.
Key questions concerned the appropriate use of genetic resources, adaptation and climate change. They also considered strategies for developing new varieties with particular emphasis on how breeding might contribute to increases in yield, improvements in quality, use of marginal land and greater efficiency.
Discussions about crop production were followed up with a much broader socio-economic view of plant breeding which considered variety improvement in terms of both market and wider environmental benefits, including how new varieties are evaluated, or might be evaluated in future. Interestingly, the need for improved linkages to applied research was highlighted as a way to put progress in genetic understanding into practice.
A more detailed report from Steve Hoad’s study is due early in the New Year.