Healthy, safe and sufficient food and feed Develop and produce safe and high-quality food

BIO-RESOURCES

Josef Schmidt / 2005 11 10

Healthy, safe and sufficient food and feed1. Develop and produce safe and high-quality food2. Create food products targeted at specific consumer groups and needs3. Produce safe, high quality, sufficient and sustainable feed

Sustainable agriculture, forestry and landscape1. Improve plant productivity and quality2. Reduce and optimise the environmental impact of agriculture3. Boost biodiversity4. Enhance the sustainability and aesthetical value of the landscape

Green products1. Plants as a basis for renewable resources2. Plant-based pharmaceutical and diagnostic products

Competitiveness, consumer choice and governance1. Vibrant basic research2. Human resources, infrastructure and networking3. Public and consumer involvement4. Ethics, safety, legal and financial environment

Plants for the Future

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Sustainable agriculture, forestry and landscape1. Improve plant productivity and quality2. Reduce and optimise the environmental impact of agriculture3. Boost biodiversity4. Enhance the sustainability and aesthetical value of the landscape

(1) There is still an urgent need for the sequencing and annotation of further important crop genomes.(1) Research into mechanisms - Development of new traits(1) Development of new methods and production of breeding stock with new/improved properties. Note: Basic gene pool and methods should be

brought as close as possible to the breeders.(1) Yield & yield stability are very complex traits. Especially, GxE for yield is highly important and needs regional analysis from crop to crop.(1) Introduction into local germplasm (partially together with breeders e.g. in projects) - Validation in new genetic background (1) SME plant breeders are to introduce improved traits/novel alleles into regionally adapted cvs, especially cereals, oilseed crops, legumes.

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1. Improve plant productivity and quality2. Reduce and optimise the environmental impact of agriculture3. Boost biodiversity4. Enhance the sustainability and aesthetical value of the landscape

(1,2) Molecular breeding & microbial ecology tools should be combined with sustainable management of agro- and phyto-chemicals for the improvement of cropping systems to obtain self-protected elite cultivars with site-effective plant – microbial communities.(1,2) Research into and development of modern tools for forest tree breeding and selection to improve both, wood/fibre quality and growth, under abiotic/biotic stress and/or low input conditions.(1,2,3) Genomes of crop, orphan and related wild species must be searched for functional genetic markers (gene resources or expressed sequence tags = ESTs) useful for marker assisted selection to derive varieties with novel qualities and tolerance or resistance to biotic (pest & disease) or abiotic stress.

Sustainable… cont.

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(1,2,4) The new knowledge of plants is to be integrated into current and future agro-ecosystems by regarding its agronomic, ecological, and social-economic impacts.(2,4) Sustainability pillars (economy – environment – society) require more input especially towards- Effects of plant research on environment- Solving societal problems (disparities, urbanization, income,

abandonment of land use)(2,4) Better economics of plant production – strengthening farms. Note: The solution is not only to improve plants for higher productivity, but to improve the productivity of agricultural systems with respect to sustainability, e.g. minimum tillage, low input, more crops or wider rotations.


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(4) The multifunctionality of the landscape, in providing habitat for plants & wild animals, and its role in the water cycle and for recreation have to be considered.(4) Following smart breeding methods allows to avoid transformation breeding and addresses public concern for GMO-free food and non-food products.


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• The new knowledge of plants is to be integrated into current and future agro-ecosystems by regarding its agronomic, ecological, and socio-economic impacts. Impacts of a further intensification of agricultural production on the multifunctionality of agro-ecosystems, on the environment and on interactions with the socio-economic systems have to be addressed.

• Molecular breeding tools can be used to obtain elite cultivars and effective plant – micro-organism symbioses, e.g. with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi.

• Only along with a consideration and improvement of the cropping systems, the management of agro- and phyto-chemicals and the development of self-protected plant varieties are promising approaches.

•The multifunctionality of the landscape, e.g. in providing a habitat for plants and wild animals, its role in the water cycle has to be considered as well as its importance for human recreation.

• The request of parts of the public for GMO-free food and non-food products can be considered by smart breeding methods using techniques of molecular biology e.g. for developing markers avoiding transformation breeding.

Jürgen K. Friedel

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Allgemeine Anmerkungen

• Im Sinne der 3 Säulen der Nachhaltigkeit (Wirtschaft, Umwelt und Soziales) kommen insbesondere folgende Themen in der SRA zu kurz:– Auswirkungen der Pflanzenforschung auf die Umwelt– Lösung von sozialen bzw. gesellschaftlichen

Problemen, wie z.B. Disparitäten, Abwanderung, Einkommen, Aufgabe der Flächenbewirtschaftung

• Fokus erweitern um seltene Ackerkulturen und alternative Landbewirtschaftungsformen

Julia Neuwirth

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Anmerkungen zu Ziel 1• Der Bedarf an Lebens- und Futtermitteln, erneuerbaren

Energieträgern und anderen land- und forstwirtschaftlichen Rohstoffen sollte durch extensivere Bewirtschaftungsweisen gedeckt werden.

• Um den Bedarf zu decken, ist nicht nur die Produktivität von Kulturpflanzen bedeutsam, sondern auch deren Distribution, Vermarktung, Verarbeitung und Konsumption.

• Bei den konkreten Forschungszielen sollten seltene Ackerkulturen einbezogen, nachhaltige Bewirtschaftungsmethoden erprobt, die Interaktionen von Kulturpflanzen mit der Umwelt und soziale, ökonomische und ökologische Effekte ihres Anbaus erhoben bzw. abgeschätzt werden.

Julia Neuwirth cont.

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Anmerkungen zu Ziel 2• Verschiedene Formen der Landbewirtschaftung sollen

hinsichtlich des Ressourceneinsatzes, der Pflanzen- und Bodengesundheit untersucht werden, um darauf aufbauend Bewirtschaftungsmethoden mit geringen negativen Umwelteinflüssen zu entwickeln (z.B. Fruchtfolgen).

• Erprobung von Effekten neuer Landbewirtschaftungstechnologien auf die Bodenqualität (z.B. Bodenverdichtung, Erosion, Nährstoffverfügbarkeit).

• Konkrete Forschungsziele: Einflüsse verschiedener Landbewirtschaftungsmethoden auf Pflanzen- und Bodenqualität, optimierte Grünlandbewirtschaftung unter Berücksichtigung von Multifunktionalität und Biodiversität, sozioökonomische und ökologische Wirkungen neuer Bewirtschaftungsmethoden.


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Anmerkungen zu Ziel 3• Konkrete Forschungsaktivitäten:

– Nicht nur die Auswirkungen des Anbaus der wichtigsten Kulturpflanzen auf die Biodiversität erforschen, sondern auch jene der seltenen Kulturpflanzen berücksichtigen.

– Feststellung des potenziellen und des gesellschaftlich erwünschten Ausmaßes an Biodiversität sowie Grundlagenforschung zur Evolution von Biodiversität.

– Entwicklung von Landbewirtschaftungsmethoden mit positiven Auswirkungen auf die Biodiversität und deren ökonomische und soziale Effekte.

– Entwicklung eines Pflanzenproduktionsschemas, das Bewirtschaftung, Ernte, Verarbeitung und Entsorgung berücksichtigt und sich positiv auf die Biodiversität auswirkt.

– Risikobewertung der unerwünschten Ausbreitung von neuen Kulturpflanzen in der Umwelt, Entwicklung von Kontrollmechanismen.


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Anmerkungen zu Ziel 4• Nur den ästhetischen Wert einer Landschaft anzusprechen, ist zu

wenig. Vielmehr ist die Landschaft ein Ort des Wirtschaftens und des Lebens und ihr Erscheinungsbild stellt das Produkt dieser Tätigkeiten dar.

• Evaluierung von Risiken für heimische Arten durch den weltweiten Handel mit Zierpflanzen.

• Grundlagenforschung zur Neuanlage, Wiederherstellung und Pflege von Habitaten.

• Entwicklung von Monitoring- und Managementmethoden, um die Koexistenz von konventioneller und biologischer Land- und Forstwirtschaft sowie von anderen Landnutzungsformen mit gentechnisch veränderten Pflanzen zu ermöglichen.

• Forschungsfragen: Einflüsse neuer Bewirtschaftungsformen auf die Landschaft und deren Multifunktionalität, effiziente Fördermaßnahmen zur Erreichung von Naturschutzzielen, Mehrfachnutzung von weniger wertvollen landwirtschaftlichen Nutzflächen, Erzeugung typischer regionaler Produkte, Entwicklung innovativer und nachhaltiger Produktionsketten (inkl. Recycling), Produktion von erneuerbarer Energie.


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As we already decided at our meeting, please change the order in the headline to: "Enhance the sustainability and aesthetical values of the landscapes"

Goal four can not be dealt with satisfactorily without meeting the requirements of the goals one to three. Nor can it be handled without considering the human and the socio-economic and ecological factors.

Now some basic facts to be taken into account:- Every change of agriculture unavoidably causes a change of landscape-ecology and in consequence also a change of the landscapes view, the aesthetics of landscape.- Therefore, it is essential to identify the essence, the character, the values and threads of the landscape. These measures are the preconditions of sustainable landscape maintenance (landscape preservation and development).Conclusions:- Change is immanent to landscapes. Thus it had been in the past, occurs nowadays and will be so in the future. We must allow the change but under the conditions of the preservation of the landscapes values.

Arthur Spiegler

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Goal 1, Del 1:

Yield and yield stability: are very complex traits, differing from crop to crop. Especially for yield GxE is of high importance, therefore analysis of such a trait is only possible crop by crop and regionally !!!

Important role of SME plant breeders, any improved traits or novel alleles (obtained by using genetic transformation or classical genetics) need to be introduced into regionally adapted cultivars, especially for cereal crops, oilseed crops, legumes.

Goal 2 Del 2:

Improve tolerance and resistance to pathogens and other biotic factors Plays a key role in sustainable agriculture in the future and should receive much attention in the whole context !

Hermann Bürstmayr

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A breeders comment to challenges one and two:

In challenge one: “Healthy, safe and sufficient food and feed” the draft is missing the point that this platform should deal primarily with plants as objects of research (food implies a slightly different focus and may have its own technology platform and thus socio-economic background).

Crop plants must first be healthy and second they should provide healthy food and feed (or raw material for other use).

The second aspect is considered in goals one and three with “high quality” food and feed, respectively. Missing in the draft is the exploitation of crop plant (and related wild species) genomes for functional genetic markers (gene resources or expressed sequence tags = ESTs) useful for marker assisted selection and smart breeding for varieties tolerant or resistant to biotic (disease, also pests) or abiotic stress. In challenge two: “Sustainable agriculture, forestry and landscape” goal two indeed refers to the importance of developing self-protecting plants, but only from the environmental point of view.

Felix Fuchs / Josef Schmidt

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Felix Fuchs / Josef Schmidt cont.

To summarize:

There is still an urgent need for the sequencing and annotation of further important crop genomes.

Comparative genomic approaches may be helpful to enhance progress in genome mining of alternative, minor and orphan crops.

This work should form the first goal in challenge one paving the ground for the other goals described to provide “Healthy, safe and sufficient food and feed”.

From the point of view of a crop (or seed) producer, more emphasis must be laid into the development of well performing plants under biotic and abiotic stress as well as low input conditions.

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FOREST-BASED SECTOR TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM (FTP)Strategic Research Agenda (Juni / November 2005)

5 Value Chains:

Forestry (Securing sustainable wood and forest biomass supply*), Forest and landscape management with respect to Climate Change, multifunctional management of forests, Economic viability of forests)Wood products (New surface performances, Mechanical and chemical bonding, Smart and substitutional performances)Pulp and Paper industry (New products and substitution of fossil based materials, Waterless papermaking, Significant reduction of energy demand, New pulping processes, Mineral use in pulp and paper technology)Bioenergy (Optimized raw material supply systems for production and energy*), Optimized cascade-utilization of forest resources and forest products, Enhancing conversion technologies for bioenergy production. Holistic models for optimized raw material utilization at European level)Specialities/ New Business (Wood refinery concept, Wood constituents as chemical feedstock, Cellulose –a multipurpose polymer, Advanced man-made wood)

Josef Schmidt

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*) This implies that the forestry, pulp and paper, and bioenergy sectors ask technology platform “Plants for the Future” to specifically include:

• Research into and development of modern tools for forest tree breeding and selection to improve both, wood/fibre quality and growth, under abiotic/biotic stress and/or low input conditions.

Josef Schmidt cont.

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Vorab ist festzuhalten, dass wir uns inhaltlich der Stellungnahme Bürstmayr anschliessen.Zur Diskussion über Gentechnik möchten wir festhalten, dass für uns als Getreidezüchter

Forschung auf diesem Gebiet erst dann wieder prioritär erscheint, wenn (durchaus in Abstimmung mit kritischen NGO’s) ein gesellschaftlicher Konsens oder zumindest eine Mehrheit für die Nutzung der grünen Gentechnik besteht.

Grundsätzlich sehen wir die Forschung in der/für die Pflanzenzüchtung in 4 Stufen, von denen keine vernachlässigt werden darf - sonst gibt es keine praktische Auswirkung:

1. Erforschen von Mechanismen – Entwicklung neuer Merkmale (Research into mechanisms - Development of new traits)

2. Entwickeln von neuen Methoden und Erzeugen von Grundlagenmaterial mit neuen/verbesserten Eigenschaften (Development of new methods and production of breeding stock with new/improved properties)

3. Übertragen in lokal adaptierte Genetik (teilweise gemeinsam mit Züchtern z.B. in Projekten) – Validieren im neuen genetischen Hintergrund (Introduction into local germplasm (partially together with breeders e.g. in projects) - Validation in new genetic background)

4. Kombination mit anderen Leistungseigenschaften in Hochleistungssorten (privatwirtschaftliche Aufgabe der Züchter) (Combination with other yield characteristics in high yielding cultivars (breeders commercial interest and work))

Birschitzky, Lafferty & Löschenberger

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ad 1Grundlagenmaterial und Methoden sollen möglichst nahe an die Züchter

herangebracht werden. (Basic gene pool and methods should be brought as close as possible to the breeders.)

ad 3Der dritte Punkt gehört wesentlich dazu und bedeutet noch nicht Züchtung im

engeren Sinn.Dabei ist unserer Meinung nach von der Wissenschaft stärker als derzeit ein

mulitfaktorieller Ansatz gefordert, d.h. ähnlich wie in der praktischen Züchtung von Sorten, wo wir bis zu 30 verschiedene Merkmale (diverse Resistenzen, Ertrag, Qualität in allen ihren Facetten, agronomische Merkmale) gleichzeitig berücksichtigen müssen, sollte dabei darauf geachtet werden, dass mit dem Einkreuzen neuer interessanter Eigenschaften nicht zuviel unbrauchbare Genetik mitgeliefert wird, was eine Entwicklung von vermarktbaren Sorten um viele Jahre verzögert bzw. unmöglich macht.

(A multifactorial approach is mandatory to integrate diverse traits simultaneously without

ad 4Erst Punkt vier ist Aufgabe der Züchter (nur diesen können sie sich leisten)

Birschitzky, Lafferty & Löschenberger cont.

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Plants will be increasingly used as raw materials because they are relatively cheap to produce and renewable. Farm economics of plant production need to be strengthened. Example USA: In the past years low soil tillage or no soil tillage systems have been successfully introduced in the US basically to prevent soil erosion, but today it is proving to be the more economic production system.

I believe the solution is not only to improve plants for higher productivity, but to improve productivity of the agricultural system. Farms and growers are part of the system and their needs must be recognized. Agricultural research is required complementarily to plant research. More crops or wider rotations may be one of the options as mentioned. However the research target must be formulated as better economics of plant production.

Use of fertilizer and crop protection is expensive. Less use is more economic.

Plants as cost effective raw material will convince industrial players and create more use of plants in new areas as it becomes the better and more economic solution.

Krafft

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Healthy, safe and sufficient food and feed Develop and produce safe and high-quality food