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PROGRESSES AND CHALLENGES FOR BREEDING CLIMATE RESILIENT CROP CULTIVARS

Merja Veteläinen, Boreal Plant Breeding Ltd

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CONTENTS

Introduction

Plant breeding progress in the past

Future challenges and opportunities

Summing up

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INTRODUCTION

Plant breeding = genetic improvement of plant traits

sustainable changes

Plant breeding products = cultivars

Cultivar development time 8-10 years

Climate resilient crop cultivars = crop cultivars adapted to weather extremes/changing environment?

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GOALS OF PLANT BREEDING

High yield

Adapatation to prevailing growing conditions

Winterhardiness for autumn sown crops

Good crop end- use quality

Resistance to pests and diseaases

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BOREAL BREEDING PROGRAMMES

cover all main species cultivated in Finland

Cereals

Barley, Oat, Spring/Winter-wheat, Winter-rye

Oil crops

Spring turnip rape

Grasses

Timothy, Tall fescue, Meadow fescue, Red clover

Other crops

Pea, Fababean

Several sub-programs

in order to produce

cultivars

in different maturity

groups

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PLANT BREEDING PROGRESS IN THE PAST

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INCREASED YIELD POTENTIAL…

CASE OAT

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

5000

5500

6000

Veli (1981) Aarre (1995) Fiia (2002) Akseli (2009)

Sato, kg/ha

lako-%

Source: Official variety trials

Yield kg/ha

Lodging %

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… WITHOUT COMPROMISING IN

EARLINESS

CASE 6-ROW BARLEY

4600

4800

5000

5200

5400

5600

5800

Rolfi (1997) Voitto (2005) Aukusti (2010)

84,1 d 84,7 d 84,6 d

Source: Official variety trials 2003-2012

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… ALONG WITH IMPROVED STRAW

STIFNESS…

Cv. Kaarle, Boreal trial 2015

Photo: Reino Aikasalo

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ALSO DISEASE RESISTANCE HAS BEEN

IMPROVED

CASE BARLEY MILDEW

Lähde: Viralliset lajikekokeet, 2006-2013

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Rolfi (1997) Wolmari (2010) Jalmari (2013)

Sen

sit

ivit

y t

o b

arl

ey m

ild

ew

%

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WINTER HARDINESS CRUCIAL TRAIT FOR

OVERWINTERING CROPS

Photo: Mika Isolahti Tall fescue, Sotkamo trial

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FUTURE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

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CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTION OPTIONS

FOR PLANT PRODUCTION

New varieties

and planting times

Crop diversi-fication

Preci-sion

agricul-ture

Conser-vation

agricul-ture

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Source: CGIAR

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Seasonal changes in temperature and moisture conditions

Drought resistance

Resistance to anaerobic/flooding conditions

Variation in over-wintering conditions

Cold hardening and resistance, optimization of growth cessation time (forage crops)

Resistance to snow molds

New pests and diseases

Continuous improvement of resistance

Weather extremes e.g. rainstorms

Straw stiffness

Robust plant architecture

Increasing precipitation late season/at ripening

Straw stiffness, resistance to Fusarium toxins, pre-harvest sprouting resistance

CLIMATE CHANGE CHALLENGES FOR PLANT BREEDING

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OPPORTUNITIES

Genomic

selection

Gene editing

Big data Automatic

phenotyping

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EXAMPLES ON RESEARCH NEEDS

• Genomic based plant breeding needs good phenotype measures

TRAITS

• Understanding of testing environments

ENVIRONMENT

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ROOTS!

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SUMMING UP

Plant breeding has always developed varieties for coming environmental conditions

New breeding tools would allow to meet the future demands more quickly and more precisely than before

Adaptation of northern agriculture for future climate demands new massive research efforts in plant production sciences – LUKE’s role should be strengthened

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THANK YOU

www.boreal.fi

31.10.2017