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Syngenta Brassica Crop Specialist, James Gray, believes variety breeders have got close to the top of the curve for yields, but will continue to make significant strides with quality and innovation that will improve growers’ returns and increase demand through the introduction of new vegetable products.

Edward Garner

He highlighted that new developments in conventional plant breeding technology by Syngenta, using marker and genomic assisted techniques that can select and breed-in a number of required traits simultaneously, could reduce new variety development times from the norm of 10 to 12 years, to three years or less.

Such developments will enable the company’s breeders to bolster and stack disease resistance traits into new varieties, further extending the White Blister resistance already utilised in green and savoy cabbages or Mycosphaerella Ringspot in cauliflower, he said. Further disease traits are being worked on and, in the future, could extend to natural pest resistance, such as whitefly, thrip or caterpillars - although that could be 10 or more years away.

It also enables breeders to work on naturally occurring beneficial traits for nutrition, taste and aroma, colour and shelf-life. "Already we are seeing new varieties that are more uniform at harvest, so there’s fewer passes through the crop to pick - requiring less labour and cost. Varieties with longer shelf life reduce waste, whilst those that require less trimming cut down waste, reduce cost and gets product onto the shelf faster and fresher."

But Mr Gray highlighted that whilst every variety produced aimed to have better agronomic traits for growers, the essential element was to enhance customer satisfaction in eating vegetables and provide improvements for the end consumer. He cited the company’s new white salad cabbage, with a mild taste and crisp bite that will create an entirely new salad product line for growers.

Furthermore, a new white cabbage variety has been developed with an orange core. The colour orange can be instantly associated with elevated levels of vitamins by consumers , and gives growers a clearly differentiated product. A new Syngenta pink cabbage can give packed salads great colour and visual appeal, without the problems of bleeding and contamination experienced with red varieties. He also reported the recently introduced red Brussels sprout had received very positive feedback from retailers and consumers – even those who have hitherto shunned sprouts.

"From a breeding perspective there are some really exciting varieties that are now coming to market and will continue to be introduced over the coming years. As a company, we are now working far more closely to find the integration between the genetics and the crop protection products to offer growers really effective solutions for retail and consumer customers," he added.

Crop protection innovation
Jon Ogborn of Syngenta reported the company’s new fungicide active, isopyrazam, has shown excellent results against a broad spectrum of diseases and across a wide range of vegetable crops in trials, he reported. It is planned to offer the product as a single active formulation, which growers and agronomists will be able to mix or integrate into programmes as required.

"The intrinsic disease activity of isopyrazam and the fact that it offers an alternative mode of action will make it especially useful for UK growers," he said. "We believe that it will have an important role in alternation with strobilurins and triazoles, such as. Amistar Top."

A further new development from Syngenta could see the introduction of a novel biological disease control agent for use in fruit and vegetables reported Mr Ogborn. An extract of Giant Knotweed (Reynoutria sachalinensis), known as ’reysa’, it stimulates the crop plant’s own immune systems to counter infection. With several mechanisms potentially involved, this multiple action may be the reason for the greater reliability of ’reysa’ seen in trials, compared with other bio-fungicides tested.

Trials across Europe have shown "quite remarkable results," he said, including reductions in powdery and downy mildew and Botrytis. Activity on bacterial diseases has been observed in the USA and will also be a target of further investigation in Europe. As a product of natural origin, residue studies are not required for approval and a zero harvest interval should be expected.

"This is an exciting development and our trials indicate it will have real potential, as a complement to the rest of our range. For instance, in high value salads we can see conventional fungicides being focussed earlier in the season to eradicate disease, with ’reysa’ used towards the end to keep the crop clean through to harvest."

Food story premium
Food produce sold with a story can pick up a price premium with consumers, but it has to be something with clear definition and resonance, according to retail trends pundit, Edward Garner of Kantar Worldpanel. Generic labels, such as ’organic’ have lost their shine and no longer gains premium status; in fact, in many instances premium organic products, such as Rachel’s dairy products, Duchy Originals and Green & Blacks chocolate hardly feature their organic provenance, he reported.

And when it comes to sustainability, Mr Garner believed consumers are far more likely to associate the issues with fish than with fresh produce. A review of retailers’ websites would typically find some reference to sustainability of farm sourced products, particularly with Waitrose and Sainsbury, but it’s likely to be far less evident than bold statements on price that emblazon the likes of Tesco, ASDA and Morrisons. "Sainsbury is an interesting case, where sustainability is important and they are big on ethical issues, but they won’t charge extra for it to their customers," he said.

However, Mr Garner pointed out there is evidence that whilst price is clearly important, it’s now less of a differentiator for mass-market retailers and less influential for consumers, as they perceive everyone is doing it. Own label products are becoming an increasingly important part of sales, at both the premium and value ends of the market.

What he has found encouraging for fresh produce, which has for so long been the battleground for supermarket price wars, is that retailers are seeing the presentation of food as a theatre, where the displays and the story around production can be a main feature, with the product as the hero.

Sustainable swedes
Technology is the key to sustainable crop production, according to John Sedgwick, Swede Crop Manager for Stewarts of Tayside. Speaking at the ADAS Syngenta Vegetable Industry Conference, he said that adopting many of the latest tools to enhance the working efficiency of men and machines has brought incredible improvements in the utilisation of resources, as well as significant cost savings.

Coupling GPS guidance with an automatic shut off system on the sprayer, for example, has added a new level of precision that has improved accuracy and results, as well as minimised waste. Variable application of fertiliser has also proven highly successful improving efficiency of use.

"We now have incredible gadgets and amazing technology involved with modern production systems, and it has unending opportunities of where that might take us. That’s exciting for future generations and ought to be an encouragement to join the industry, which we need for a sustainable labour source."

Mr Sedgewick also urged vegetable growers to support the R&D initiatives of global crop protection businesses. "It’s physically impossible to grow vegetable crops without crop protection products; they are essential for the long-term sustainable production," he said. "If we don’t support the businesses that invest in new product development, then we’ll end up with nothing to use."

Growing Dutch
The Buijsman family are among the largest specialised cauliflower growers in Holland, with around 150 hectares of the crop in the north west of the country. Strong clay soils, the maritime climate and access to an ample supply of water, with every field linked to an irrigation canal, enables consistent supply from April to December.

But, like all growers, they face increasing pressure to deliver ever higher quality and to produce all year round; traceability, certification and sustainability are the major drivers, he said. A move to liquid fertilisers and GPS guidance application had cut fertiliser use by 30% and the business is making big efforts to improve irrigation efficiency. Labour availability is also a key concern, with the system set up to achieve cutting to cold store in just 10 minutes.

"Five years ago we could produce some crops with no fungicide inputs; now the supermarkets’ quality demands for the cleanest curds have increased so much, that fungicides are an essential part of the crop agronomy," advised Mr Buijsman. All crops will receive Folio Gold, with later season crops also treated with Amistar Top.

And to deliver year-round supply, the business now has 40 hectares of cauliflowers growing in Greece; a decision certainly not taken for the economic situation of the country, but the climate, soil type and water availability that could best match the production system in Holland. "Our customers wanted continuity of supply, but were nervous about further reliance on Spain and Portugal; Greece has given us differentiation over other producers," he added. But it has also presented some significant challenges, not least the lack of mechanisation, finding a stable and committed partner and changing the culture and mentality of the growers, particularly when it comes to assuring the 100% perfect quality criteria for Holland are met, compared to the local market.

Mr Buijsman believes the operation in Greece will play an important role in managing the threats he foresees for future production in Holland. These include growing competition from neighbours and Eastern Europe, the challenge of finding sufficient competent labour and especially the increasing legislative pressures on fertiliser and pesticide use – which he considers may be possible for cauliflower production, but could prove extremely difficult for other vegetable crops.

Attracting birds
Vegetable cropping has some potential advantages for management options that could encourage farmland birds. Gavin Siriwardena of the British Trust for Ornithology highlighted the significant area of spring cropping, the mix of cropping and the open nature of crops that allows greater access to the soil surface could make vegetable crop areas more attractive to birds, compared to large scale arable fields.

He reported that a study had shown bird numbers were generally more abundant in areas where there was a higher percentage of vegetable cropping, and that trends in farmland bird populations in particular were more positive in those areas. However, he qualified that there may be other factors involved and the findings could not be directly attributed to the vegetable cropping without further research.

Mr Siriwardena cited the Farmland Bird Index indicated bird numbers have continued to fall at the same rate as before the current stewardship schemes were established, but he added that without ELS and HLS, declines could have been even faster. "The right actions can have useful positive effects on bird populations," he said. "But hitherto they have not been widespread enough or of sufficient magnitude to redress the terminal decline in numbers of some species."

Growers now need to be encouraged to adopt the right strategies that can provide the greatest benefits to birds; winter feed sources from over wintered stubbles or planted areas have been shown to be especially important, whilst hedgerow or habitat creation has a less beneficial impact, he reported.

Chilling view on climate
Fluctuating extremes of temperatures over the past two winters are symptomatic of the increasingly variable weather patterns, which has a serious implication for eastern counties vegetable growers, reported Steve Dorling of WeatherQuest, based at the University of East Anglia.

Understanding periods of cold in the winter that are a crucial part of the vernalization process in brassica crops will be essential in breeding appropriate varieties, and for planning cropping schedules to assure continuity of supply, he warned. Speaking at the ADAS Syngenta Vegetable Industry Conference, Mr Dorling highlighted that simply looking at average temperatures would not be sufficient, but need to generate the detailed information on the specific number of chilling hours with temperatures that will trigger vernalization.

"Our current assessment is that the peaks in cold weather periods are not going to change much, but that we will see greater variability. We are going to need crops with greater resilience to the variability in vernalization opportunities." Working with researchers at the John Innes Centre the aim is to identify brassica genes responsible for the vernalization responses, with a view to having plants that can tolerate the extreme weather conditions, but better able to cope with a lower average number of chilling hours.

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