Plant breeding and climatic change:
What do we know and what can we do?
Roland von Bothmer, Dept of Crop Genetics and Breeding,
Swedish Univ. of Agricultural Sciences, S-26800 Svalöv, Sweden
Roland.von.Bothmer@vv.slu.se
Summarized by Lila Towle, Frøsamlerne
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The ‘bottom line’: a paradox!
There has never been a greater need for breeding in the Nordic area, and based on Nordic PGR,
to help solve the challenges and problems which will be created by climatic and social change
in the coming years.
There have never been fewer breeding initiatives in the Nordic area.
The challenges of climate change
Some indicators of climate change in the Nordic area:
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By 2025, the period of vegetation in the southern half of Sweden is expected to increase
by 2-4 months compared to 1961.
In just the last five years, maize cultivation in some degree has spread from about half
of Sweden to the entire country.
Some of the effects of climatic change in the North:
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Rising temperatures lead to earlier harvest but also to heat stress
Precipitation will change – the result can be either drought or a rainier climate
We may be faced with harmful spring frosts
New or evolving pests and diseases will mean a huge challenge to resistance. At
present, new varieties of spring wheat released in Norway lose their resistance to
powdery mildew within 1-2 growing seasons. An increase of one degree C. in average
temperatures is believed to mean one additional fungicidal treatment per year.
We will need to develop new systems of cultivation as crops move north.
Greater diversity can give great advantages in quality and yields – which have always
been a problem in farming in the extreme north. Yet some of our modern crops, e.g.
oats, show very little diversity between varieties.
The Nordic area has unique older cultivars – but marginal (or no) breeding in many
crops! And cultivars must continuously be renewed to maintain quality and yield in
changing conditions.
Plant breeding is necessary to create cultivars which are adapted to these new climate demands,
which keep up with pest and disease evolution, and which also can meet new environmental
demands – while also meeting demands for quality and high yield. Among the social and
environmental demands of the present and future are: local production using local and regional
foods, and leading to rural development; organic produce; and “new Nordic foods”. All of
which depend to a great degree on the origin of varieties – available in the Nordic area through
the collections of NordGen – as well as on focused breeding.
At present, there are only 8 Nordic companies engaged in breeding agricultural crops – only one
in several of the Nordic countries. Breeding investments in minor crops have declined even
more than in the major crops in our area. There are no private companies involved in the
breeding of vegetable crops, and only one private breeder of fruit and berry crops (Norway),
and two institutional breeding programs (Sweden and Finland) – all with significant public
financing.
Why a public pre-breeding initiative?
Pre-breeding is the step before practical breeding for the market. Its aim is ”To introduce new
desirable traits/genes into an adapted genetic background. This will broaden the genetic base in
a breeding material in pace with environmental changes.”
Pre-breeding is the work of sifting through the many accessions available, and finding desirable
traits related, for example, to hardiness or multi-resistance, which can then be incorporated into
breeding material. This is something like finding a needle in a haystack, and can take several
years –after which the actual breeder still has to develop the new or improved varieties for sale.
The time and high costs involved are a major barrier to for-profit breeding work. Pre-breeding
is therefore highly dependent both on collaboration and on public funding.
A vital contribution of pre-breeding is in increasing the total genetic diversity in crops as well
as finding specific genes and traits. Pre-breeding is a vital link between conservation of PGR in
gene bank collections and utilisation of these resources in agriculture and horticulture.
The Nordic area is made up of many small submarkets, some of them with local demand for
minor specialty crops. International breeding is concentrated on the major crops and larger
markets. Private-public partnership is therefore a prerequisite for progress in breeding in the
Nordic area. This model is already in use in Germany.
Questions for the future
 Who will breed for local/regional markets?
 Who will be responsible for providing seed of older material on a commercial basis
(larger quantities)?
 Who will take care of the development of our gene resources of minor agricultural and
horticultural crops?
 How can we get a wider use of genetic resources also in major crops (pre-breeding)?