Project
New system requirements for breeding
Plant and animal breeding will play a key role in the transition towards sustainable, resilient and circular food systems and forestry. Future system requirements and system boundaries will determine the choice of (combinations of) species within the system, and breeding goals for developing well-adapted crop, livestock, aquatic and tree varieties/breeds.
Decades of focus on agricultural intensification have led to problems related to the use of pesticides, antibiotics, fossil fuels and fertilizers; environmental pollution and high greenhouse gas emissions; issues with animal welfare, human and animal health; and soil degradation. Moreover, highly productive monocultures farming resulted in the loss of biodiversity in and around our agricultural production and forestry systems. Challenges are further exacerbated by climate change. Dutch and European policies now ask for a transition towards more sustainable, circular and resilient food and forestry systems.
Making best use of genetic diversity within crop, livestock, aquatic and tree species, will have to play an important role to overcome major challenges in agriculture, horticulture, livestock, forestry and aquatic systems, and to contribute to the transition towards sustainable, circular and resilient future food and forestry systems. The key contribution of breeding is to make available diverse and complementary breeds and varieties (genotypes) for a large range of future production systems, environmental conditions and consumer needs.
This project will look into the relationship between wider genetic resources use, beneficial species/breed/variety interactions, and the resilience of production systems (triangle). New insights, new breeding approaches and methods, including methods dealing with increased (data) complexity, will help the breeding sector to contribute to the transition in food and forestry systems.