Wheat breeding in figures

• UK wheat yields have increasedthree-fold from 2.8t/ha in 1948to 8t/ha today

• Current annual increase inwheat yields is 0.5 - 0.7%

• Between 1948 and 1982,57% of the increase in UKwheat yields was due to plantbreeding

• Between 1982 and 2007,93% of the increase in UKwheat yields was due to plantbreeding

• A 40-50% increase in UKwheat yields will be needed by2030 to meet food securitytargets

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Information from the British Society of Plant Breeders Spring 2012

Plant Breeding MattersPlant Breeding Matters

RASE seminar highlightscrucial role of wheat breeding

Professor Edwards paid tribute to thecontribution of UK plant breeders indelivering a three-fold increase in wheatyields from 2.8 t/ha in 1948 to around8t/ha today, and in reversing the UK’shistorical dependence on wheat imports byimproving grain quality for breadmaking.

He pointed to recent NIAB researchwhich showed that while just over half theincrease in wheat yields since 1948 couldbe attributed to plant breeding, morerecent yield gains since 1982 were almostentirely due to the contribution ofimproved varieties. Plant breeding wouldcontinue to be the main delivery

mechanism for future gains in wheatproductivity, he said.

But current rates of yield gain, at 0.5-0.7% per year, would produce a 13%increase in wheat yields by 2030, wellshort of the projected 40-50% increaserequired to meet food security objectives.

The recent levelling off in wheat yieldshighlighted the need to introduce newsources of germplasm and genetic variationinto existing wheat breeding programmes,he said.

However, limited royalty returns andthe commercial imperative to focus onRecommended List requirements offeredlittle scope for breeders in the privatesector to engage in high-risk, speculativeresearch to identify new sources ofvariation.

This was where academics had a keyrole to play, he said, using the power ofmodern sequencing and genetic markertechnology to adapt novel sources ofgermplasm from wild relatives, exoticmaterial and synthetic lines intobackgrounds that commercial breeders canwork with. Greater collaboration betweenpublic sector scientists and commercialplant breeders will significantly enhancethe prospects for meeting global foodsecurity targets.

Data extrapolated from HGCA RL

The future for wheat improvement in the UK is incredibly bright,built on a strengthening collaboration between the academiccommunity and commercial wheat breeders. That was the messagefrom Professor Keith Edwards of Bristol University, speaking atthis year’s prestigious RASE President’s Seminar attended by ahigh-level audience of farmers, researchers, policy-makers andindustry leaders.

Professor Keith Edwards

The most optimistic predictions are

that current breeding efforts can

increase wheat yields 13-15% by 2030;

major investment in public-private

partnerships is required to achieve the

40-50% increase that the world needs.

Comparative RL yield projection in wheat

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The British Society of Plant Breeders isdonating £50,000 to FARM-Africa tosupport a two-year seed and varietyimprovement project in Kenya. The projectwill work with 1500 local farmers inEastern Kenya to improve the quality andsupply of drought tolerant seeds. This inturn will boost local food security and theincomes for farmers’ families, benefiting9,000 people in the region.

The Society’s support for thisimportant food security project was madepossible by the success of last year’sInternational Seed Federation (ISF) WorldSeed Congress from 30 May to 1 June,when BSPB welcomed more than 1400representatives of the world’s seed industryto Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The record attendance in Belfastreflects a growing recognition thatinnovation in the plant breeding and seeds

sector will be a key factor in addressing theglobal challenges of food security andclimate change. It is also entirely fittingthat surplus revenue from organising thisinternational event should be used by BSPBto help smallholder farmers in thedeveloping world to access the benefits ofimproved varieties and better quality seeds.

According to FARM-Africa, thedonation from BSPB will help to transformthe lives of farmers struggling to growfood for their families on tiny plots inunimaginably harsh conditions. Theproject will provide these farmers withthe seeds they desperately need to feedcommunities in this highly vulnerableregion and, as food production grows,farmers will also be able to producesurpluses which can be sold to pay foressential household and medical expensesas well as schooling for children.

About the projectThe availability and affordability of qualitydrought tolerant seeds is a majorconstraint to local farmers in Kenya, whooften plant crops which are not suited tothe region’s drought-like conditions.

The BSPB-funded project seeks tobreak this cycle of crop failure and createfood security in Kenya by giving farmersaccess to drought tolerant crop varieties.

Based in Kitui County, Eastern Kenya,the project will test an approach fordisseminating drought tolerant seeds ofapproved varieties provided by the KenyaAgricultural Research Institute (KARI).

Over 80% of Kenya’s land is classifiedas either arid or semi-arid. The results ofthe project are therefore highly importantas successes will be shared andimplemented across other regions anddistricts.

A recent FARM-Africa project in thesame area doubled yields for smallholderfarmers by using drought tolerant cropsand improved soil and water conservationtechniques.

Working with three crops – sorghum,green grams and pigeon peas – and acrossfour cropping seasons, FARM-Africabelieves the long-term sustainability of theproject will hinge on three key factors:linking seed producers to local seed andinput dealers; improving farmers’awareness of the benefits of improvedvarieties; and linking seed producers toKARI for the supply of quality foundationseed and technical advice.

BSPB pledges £50k to FARM-Africa seed improvementproject in Kenya

A Kitui farmer using raised semi-circle beds to retain water

A Kitui woman preparing a shallow

well for water conservation

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About FARM-Africa

FARM-Africa is a registered charityfounded in 1985 to help poor farmers andherders in Africa grow more food, keeptheir livestock healthy, make a basic livingand manage their natural resources in asustainable way.

With a small office in the UK, aregional office in Nairobi and a countryoffice in Addis Ababa, over 90% ofFARM-Africa’s staff are African, workingdirectly with communities in easternAfrica.

With the right training and support,

FARM-Africa aims to help poor ruralcommunities identify and implementappropriate solutions to many of the keyproblems they face. Families are directlysupported to help work themselves out ofpoverty through improved ways tomanage their crops, livestock, forests andaccess to water.

Over the past two and a half decades,FARM-Africa has pioneered new modelsof sustainable agriculture, livestockproduction and forest management,seeking to increase the impact further bypushing for changes in policy that directlybenefit poor communities.

As a specialist international non-governmental organisation (INGO)working in remote and resource-poorrural areas, FARM-Africa is at theforefront of agricultural development,helping to transform thousands of liveseach year.

Find out more at www.farmafrica.org.ukGreen gram seeds Pigeon peas

Focus on maize breedingPrevious issues of Plant Breeding Matters have highlighted the contribution of plant breeding to thedevelopment of improved vegetable, forage grass and sugar beet varieties. The next crop under thespotlight is maize which, in a relatively short period of time, has become established as a major sourceof home-grown forage for UK livestock farmers.

Although the bulk of the crop grown in the UK is ensiled and

fed to livestock, interest in grain maize is increasing and

more maize is also being diverted into the renewable energy

sector of the market.

Maize is one of the most widely distributedcrops in the world. A sub-tropical crop, ithas been adapted by plant breeders tothrive under temperate and maritimeconditions, including the UK where theforage maize area has increased more thansix-fold over the past 25 years.

The introduction of hybrid varieties inthe United States in the early 20th centurymarked a significant improvement in

varieties, and hybrid crops were rapidlyadopted by US farmers from the mid-1920s onwards.

It took longer for the maize crop tobecome established in the UK’s climate butthe crop did gain a foothold, with 400hectares grown in 1965, rising to 1400hectares by 1970 and, thanks to breedersdeveloping adapted varieties, to 160,000hectares today.

Livestock farmers have come to valuemaize as more than just a ‘bulk’ feed, asbreeders have developed higher yieldingvarieties with improved silage quality,helping to reduce feed costs and boostanimal production. Survey data suggestthat British dairy and beef farmers haveincreased their forage maize acreage by anaverage of 30% in the past five years.

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UK maize breeders have targeted anumber of key areas:

Earliness – shortening the growth periodhas been the single most important factorallowing the expansion of forage maizeacross the UK;

High and stable yields – improvements inplant breeding, agronomy and husbandryhave combined to deliver average annualyield gains of around 1%;

Standing power – varieties resistant tolodging have fewer pollination andharvesting problems, helping to realiseyield potential;

Dry matter content – increasing dry matterproduction is aimed at deliveringmaximum energy content at harvest;

Disease resistance – particularly toFusarium, the most common disease offorage maize which causes plants to ‘dieoff’ and reduces yield and quality;

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farmers who want to maximise

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Energy sources in a maize plant

Breeders also seek to improve the feed value of maize. This ismeasured as metabolisable energy (ME). Starch content is a majorfactor, with breeders aiming to produce varieties capable ofyielding 30-35% starch content at harvest. But the challengeremains to improve the digestible energy available from otherparts of the plant, including the leaves, stem and husk. This isassessed as cell wall digestibility (CWD), a measurement recentlyintroduced to the NIAB Descriptive List. Currently the range inCWD among varieties available for 2012 is from 53.2% to62.1%. Since plant components other than starch account foraround 50% of the maize DM yield, a 9% increase in CWDwould give farmers 810kg more feed per hectare from an 18t/hacrop through simple variety choice.

Starch content – starch in the cobaccounts for up to 50% of the energyyield of forage maize; breeders look forhigh starch content alongside earliness forthe UK market;

Stress resistance – improving the crop’sability to withstand a range of differentclimatic conditions and extreme weatherevents will enhance consistency andstability of yield and quality.

Alongside progress in developing thevalue of forage maize for livestock, thereis growing interest in the production ofgrain maize and in the use of maize as arenewable energy source. The crop is anexcellent feedstock for the production ofbiogas using Anaerobic Digestion (AD),and already accounts for 80% of thesubstrate used in biogas production acrossEurope. Breeders will include selection forthese markets and the expansion of theUK maize crop looks set to continue.

Leaves

Stalk

Husk

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Grain

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It is increasingly recognised that advancesin plant genetics, delivered to the marketthrough improved crop varieties, will bethe single biggest factor in helping UKagriculture respond to the challenge of‘sustainable intensification’.

The need to safeguard investment inthe plant breeding sector – through a fairreturn on the benefits of using both

REMINDER FSS Key Points

Five ways to declare

certified and farm-savedseed – is more importantthan ever.

In the UK, farm-savedseed payments now accountfor almost a third of the

total royalty income available to plantbreeders to invest in the development ofimproved varieties with better yields,quality and disease resistance.

BSPB continues to seek improvementsin the FSS process, often responding tothe comments we receive from farmersusing the system. This includes theintroduction of further improvements tothe on-line declaration process to helpmore farmers submit their FSS returnselectronically.

New voice forthe plantscience sectorBSPB welcomes the launch of the UKPlant Sciences Federation (UKPSF).As a founder member, BSPB joins morethan 20 other organisations from abroad spectrum of public and privatesector organisations with a sharedcommitment to increase the profileof plant and crop science amonggovernment, funders, industry and

update

society in general, and to promote a morejoined up approach on key issues such asresearch, policy and information.

An early objective for UKPSF will beto develop a co-ordinated strategy andvision for plant science in the UK, basedon a review of the status of currentresearch activity and expertise.

The Federation will also supportefforts to inspire, educate and train thenext generation of plant and cropscientists.

The first UKPSF annual conferencetook place at the John Innes Centre on18-19 April 2012, bringing together plantscientists from commercial and academicbackgrounds to discuss key challenges andopportunities for the sector.

The UK Government’s chief scientistProfessor Sir John Beddington gave the

opening address at the conference,emphasising the critical role of varietalimprovement and precision agronomyin securing future supplies of food andenergy crops in the face of populationgrowth, competition for arable land,water scarcity and climate change.

BSPB vice-chair Dr RichardSummers also spoke at the conference,highlighting the medium and long-termgoals for UK plant breeding and the roleof collaborative plant science researchinitiatives in delivering these objectives.In the short-term he also called forurgent agronomic investigations to helpreverse on-farm yield stagnation, takingaccount of key issues such as soil qualityand compaction, crop rotation,agronomy, and climate change. www.plantsci.org.uk

@ WWW

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N.B. The use of farm-saved seed from hybrid varieties is notpermitted without the breeder’s consent.

Here is a reminder of the key points toensure compliance with the rules on farm-saved seed:

• All use of farm-saved seed must bedeclared to BSPB, including the use ofolder, previously zero-rated varieties.

• There are five ways to declare – bypost, e-mail, on-line, phone and fax.

• Payment for use of eligible varietiesmust be made to BSPB. Two paymentroutes are available:• via your NAAC or BSPB-registered

seed processor at a tonnage rate;• direct to BSPB at a hectarage rate.

• Farm-saved seed must be produced andsaved within a farmer's own holding(i.e. land farmed as the same business).

• Farm-saved seed rules apply whetherseed has been processed or takenstraight from the barn.

• Farmers cannot sell, buy, barter orotherwise transfer farm-saved seedoutside their own holding.

Following requests from a number offarmers, BSPB has also extended therange of FSS payment methods toinclude debit and credit cardtransactions by telephone. This newoption, to be introduced for the firsttime this spring, is offered as analternative to existingpayment routes bybank transfer(BACS orCHAPS) orby cheque.

Feedback on the FSS system fromfarmers on the ground is always welcometo help BSPB make the declaration andpayment process as user-friendly andhassle-free as possible.

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British Society of Plant Breeders Ltd

Woolpack Chambers, 16 market Street, ely, Cambs Cb7 4Nd

Tel +44(0)1353 653200 Fax +44(0)1353 661156

Email enquiries@bspb.co.uk Website www.bspb.co.uk

rapid expansion of plant breeding as acommercial enterprise in its own right.Today, private sector plant breedingcompanies provide the only route tomarket for improved crop varieties, fundeduniquely by seed royalties.

For more than 40 years, thisframework of intellectual property rightshas enabled commercial plant breeding todeliver major advances in the yield,performance and output value of the UK’smajor arable crops:

• a doubling of wheat yields andbreadmaking quality improvements hashelped reverse Britain’s historicaldependence on North American wheatimports, transforming the UK into a netwheat exporter;

• improvements in barley yields andquality for brewing and distilling havehelped boost production, reduce

CelebratingWorld IP Day As part of this year’s World IPDay celebrations, BSPB ishighlighting the vital role ofPlant Breeders’ Rights –a unique international form ofintellectual property protection– in supporting progress andinnovation in the yield, qualityand utility of our major cropspecies.

processing costs and expand vitalexport markets;

• by shortening the growth period inmaize, breeders have adapted a sub-tropical crop to thrive in the UK,establishing a new and rapidlyexpanding home-grown forage optionfor livestock farmers.

In these three crops alone, thecontribution of plant breeding exceeds£1 billion per year in additional value tothe UK farming and food supply chain,equivalent to a 40-fold return on the seedroyalty income received by breeders.

Strong and enforceable intellectualproperty protection will be critical tosupport continued innovation in plantbreeding, alongside a policy framework ofscience-based regulation and targetedpublic sector investment in relevantunderpinning crop research.

Every year on April 26, WorldIntellectual Property Day celebrates thecontribution of intellectual property inpromoting innovation and creativity acrossa range of sectors.

BSPB is an active member of the UKIntellectual Property Awareness Network(IPAN), and this year for the first time theSociety was invited to contribute to WorldIP Day by highlighting the role ofintellectual property within the plantbreeding industry.

Until the early 1960s, plant breedingaround the world was largely confined topublicly funded research. This situationchanged dramatically when aninternational agreement in 1961, known asthe UPOV Convention, established a legalbasis for royalty payments to breedersthrough a form of intellectual propertyprotection on individual plant varietiesknown as Plant Breeders’ Rights (PBR).

The introduction of PBR triggered a

The UK’s world leading plant scienceresearch and its application in food,fuel, medicines and materials will beshowcased across the country on andaround 18th and 19th May in a seriesof events being held across Europe to

mark ‘Fascination of Plants’ day anddraw attention to the importance ofplants for life on earth. Checkhttp://www.plantday12.eu/uk.htmto find an event near you.