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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.
ENDS
About
BSPB:
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.
For
further information contact:
Dr Penny Maplestone, BSPB Chief Executive
T: 01353 653200
E:
penny@bspb.co.uk
Issued
by:
Daniel Pearsall, Front Foot
Communications
T: 01487 831425
E:
daniel.pearsall@frontfoot.uk.com
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