Plant breeding can deliver on global challenges

Sustainable intensification in agriculture is not an aspiration, it is an imperative, and plant breeding is well-placed to deliver the genetic innovation required to meet the combined global challenges of food security, climate change and environmental protection.

That was the key message delivered by Nigel Moore, chairman of the British Society of Plant Breeders, speaking at a press briefing on the eve of the Cereals 2011 event in Lincolnshire.

The Government’s recent Foresight report was right to highlight the urgency of the food security challenge, he said, and to single out the importance of agricultural innovation in providing solutions.

"The Foresight report envisages a central role for advances in plant breeding, both through increased crop yields and by developing more climate-resilient varieties to keep pace with emerging pests and diseases and to cope with greater weather extremes arising from climate change," said Mr Moore.

"We must now turn these high-level recommendations into practical action. Current rates of genetic gain risk falling short of the food security targets set, and there is a need for increased and more focused investment by public and private sector in clear, crop-specific targets for productive yield and resource-use efficiency.

"For plant breeders that will require effective intellectual property protection and an efficient value-based chain that returns economic value to innovators. It will also require cost-effective, evidence-based legislation at UK and EU level, and a functioning R&D pipeline to support the rapid application and delivery of advances in our basic understanding of plant genetics."

Mr Moore welcomed an increasing recognition of the strategic importance of commercial plant breeding among policy-makers and R&D fund-holders in the UK, and a greater awareness of the value and contribution of crop genetic improvement to economic growth, jobs and wealth creation within the UK’s £86 billion food production chain.

He highlighted progress made by BSPB over the past 12 months, working in partnership with Government and other industry organisations, to create the conditions for plant breeders to respond, including:

• action to promote and safeguard the value of breeders’ intellectual property, delivered through continuing improvements in the efficiency of royalty collection on certified and farm-saved seed, the latter now generating nearly £8 million of investment income per year;

• a positive response to BSPB’s high-profile call for increased R&D funding to be directed towards more translational and applied objectives of relevance to UK commercial breeding programmes, reflected in significantly increased public sector support for breeding-related research projects;

• improvements in the cost-effectiveness and technical relevance of recommended and descriptive list trials – including the recent restructuring of the cereals and oilseeds Recommended List as a genuine cross-industry partnership focused on getting the best value and technical output from the trials process; and

• continuing discussions on a potential expansion of BSPB’s role in official trials organisation, to support further technical improvements and cost efficiencies in the variety registration process.

"In responding to the sustainable intensification agenda, recent developments are undoubtedly positive in supporting and recognising the value of genetic improvements delivered to the market by commercial plant breeders. Many challenges remain, but the industry is better placed to respond - with increased political, scientific and regulatory support - than at any time in recent years," concluded Mr Moore.