United Kingdom
June 12, 2009
UK plant breeders are calling for
chronic Government underfunding of applied crop research to be
reversed, with an injection of at least £20million per year
required to help transfer new genetic knowledge into crops and
products of value to UK farmers and consumers.
Faced with major global challenges of food security, climate
change and pressure on the world’s natural resources, the
British Society of Plant
Breeders (BSPB) has welcomed a recent resurgence of
high-level interest in plant breeding.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Defra Secretary Hilary Benn and
Government Chief Scientist Professor John Beddington have all
singled out the importance of plant breeding in adapting crop
production to meet these challenges.
The recent explosion in our understanding of plant genetics
offers major opportunities for breeders to develop crops with
higher yields, greater climate resilience and improved end-use
quality.
But BSPB is warning that the investment needed to exploit this
rapidly advancing knowledge base – for example through the
development of new marker technologies, novel traits and
breeding methods – remains greater than commercial breeders can
manage alone.
While UK plant breeders continue to deliver incremental gains in
crop performance from existing breeding programmes and
germplasm, the limited income available from seed royalties is
restricting investment in speculative and long-term research.
As a result, opportunities to deliver dimension-changing crop
improvements are being lost.
To address this issue BSPB has formed a new R&D Working Group,
with a focus on bridging the hiatus in funding between basic and
applied research, and promoting improved collaboration between
public and private sector.
Speaking on the eve of the 2009 Cereals Event, BSPB Chairman Dr
Thomas Jolliffe said:
“Earlier this year, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn
highlighted the importance of plant breeding in helping
agriculture adapt to climate change. He also asked whether the
agricultural sector – Government, industry, levy bodies, food
chain – was investing enough to meet future priorities and to
apply existing knowledge and the science.
“In relation to UK crop science and plant breeding, the answer
is no – and this situation must be reversed as a matter of
urgency.
“Put simply, there is a serious imbalance between funding of
basic plant science, in which the UK remains a world leader, and
support for translating the outputs of that research into
relevant crop species and varieties of benefit to UK
agriculture.
“The modest and relatively inelastic income from seed royalties
limits commercial plant breeders’ ability to invest in more
speculative or long-term targets. Because of this, the
market-based approach to financing near-market and applied R&D
is not working, and opportunities to exploit major advances in
our understanding of plant science are being lost.
“There is an urgent need to bridge this hiatus in research
activity. Significant investment in publicly-funded
translational crop science and pre-breeding programmes is
required to ensure public benefit – for example in the form of
higher yielding, more climate resilient crop varieties - can be
derived from current taxpayer investment in basic scientific
research.
“Commercial plant breeding is the only route to market for such
improvements, and the role of plant breeders will be pivotal for
further exploitation of material developed or characterised
through such activities,” said Dr Jolliffe.
BSPB is the representative body for the UK plant breeding
industry. Acting on members’ behalf, BSPB licenses, collects and
distributes certified seed royalties and farm-saved seed
payments on agricultural and horticultural crops. BSPB
represents more than 50 members, comprising virtually 100% of
public and private sector breeding activity in the UK. |
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