ENVIRFOOD - Environment Friendly Food Production System: Requirements for Plant Breeding and Seed Production

The most rigorous low-input system is the organic farming system as defined by EU directive 2092/91, where pesticides and synthetic fertilisers are generally not allowed and yield stability and quality, has to be ensured by the cropping system itself. Often in low-input systems yields are highly variable and have varying quality, partly because the varieties grown have not been developed for this system and are therefore not optimal. An important means of stabilising crop yields and quality is, therefore, selection and evaluation of varieties and lines based on varieties characteristics of relevance for low-input production. Modern cereal varieties have been developed with the aim of combining high productivity and uniform product quality under high input conditions with pesticides, synthetic fertilizers and growth regulators, which also help to reduce environmental variation. This project will bring together the currently fragmented cereals research expertise with the EU in order to initiate emergence of strong transnational regional into a research network on cereals quality for food/feed production able to provide strong partnership to the colleagues in Baltic Sea region and EU.