Since the domestication of wheat about 7,500 years ago, this important crop has undergone significant changes (de Sousa et al. 2021). Through targeted breeding, high-yielding wheat varieties have been developed to feed the growing global population, but this comes at the cost of reduced genetic diversity (Balfourier et al. 2019).
Since the domestication of wheat about 7,500 years ago, this important crop has undergone significant changes (de Sousa et al. 2021). Through targeted breeding, high-yielding wheat varieties have been developed to feed the growing global population, but this comes at the cost of reduced genetic diversity (Balfourier et al. 2019).
From the Burren in Ireland and the Erins in France to the Alps in Switzerland, grasslands are vital ecosystems that play a crucial role in supporting biodiversity, providing ecosystem services, and ensuring food security. These vast and diverse grasslands are just a few of the many that cover around 17% of the European Union’s total surface area, as of 2018 (EUROSTAT 2021). Grasslands are among the most species-rich habitats on Earth (Petermann and Buzhdygan), home to a wide variety of flora and fauna, and are essential breeding grounds for birds and invertebrates. In addition, they provide numerous ecosystem services such as water purification, soil erosion prevention and carbon sequestration. Grasslands contain various species of forage grasses, crucial for feeding livestock. Forage grasses, such as Lolium spp. and Festuca spp. are valuable, environment-friendly sources of livestock feed. However, frequent and unpredictable droughts have threatened forage grass yields, posing significant challenges to farmers and livestock managers.
From the Burren in Ireland and the Erins in France to the Alps in Switzerland, grasslands are vital ecosystems that play a crucial role in supporting biodiversity, providing ecosystem services, and ensuring food security. These vast and diverse grasslands are just a few of the many that cover around 17% of the European Union’s total surface area, as of 2018 (EUROSTAT 2021). Grasslands are among the most species-rich habitats on Earth (Petermann and Buzhdygan), home to a wide variety of flora and fauna, and are essential breeding grounds for birds and invertebrates. In addition, they provide numerous ecosystem services such as water purification, soil erosion prevention and carbon sequestration. Grasslands contain various species of forage grasses, crucial for feeding livestock. Forage grasses, such as Lolium spp. and Festuca spp. are valuable, environment-friendly sources of livestock feed. However, frequent and unpredictable droughts have threatened forage grass yields, posing significant challenges to farmers and livestock managers.
Forage grasses are the primary source of roughage for ruminant livestock and substantially contribute to sustainable milk and meat production. Cultivars adapted to specific environments and management conditions are needed to produce the required amounts of high-quality roughage. Moreover, there is a need to efficiently breed for novel forage grass cultivars to mitigate challenges emerging through climate change and to facilitate sustainable and productive agriculture.
Im Rahmen der Doktorarbeit von Fabian Hess (ETH Zürich) zum Thema «Erschliessung genetischer Ressourcen von Buchweizen zur Diversifizierung der Schweizer Landwirtschafts- und Ernährungssysteme», die u.a. von ProSpecieRara mitbetreut wird, fand im August 2023 ein erster “Fachtag Buchweizen” statt.
Am Fachtag hat sich eine äusserst vielfältige Gruppe zusammengefunden, um sich gemeinsam vertieft mit dem Buchweizen auseinanderzusetzen und über die Chancen und Herausforderungen entlang der Wertschöpfungskette zu diskutieren.
Dieser sehr erfolgreiche Fachtag ist Teil des aktuellen und zukünftigen Engagement von ProSpecieRara, die Buchweizenvielfalt für die Praxis nutzbar zu machen.
Der umfassende Online-Artikel zum Fachtag befindet sich hier.
Diese Veranstaltung wurde geleitet von Fabian Hess (Doktorand an der ETH Zürich). Fabian Hess ist Stipendiat im Doktorandenprogramm RESPONSE (DP) ” RESPONSE – to society and policy needs through plant, food and energy sciences”, das durch das Forschungs- und Innovationsprogramm Horizon 2020 der Europäischen Union finanziert wird. Dies geschieht im Rahmen des Marie-Skłodowska-Curie-Fördervertrags Nr. 847585.
Die Fotos wurden zur Verfügung gestellt von ProSpeciaRara und Michelle Nay (Agroscope).
Die ETH Zürich und ProSpecieRara laden Buchweizen-Produzent:innen und -Interessierte herzlich zu einer Fachtagung am Freitag, den 25.8.2023 in Lindau (Zürich) ein.
Der Bundesrat wurde vom Parlament beauftragt, bis Mitte 2024 risikobasierte Regeln für die Zulassung von Nutzpflanzen vorzulegen, die mit neuen Züchtungsmethoden gezüchtet wurden, kein artfremdes Erbmaterial enthalten und einen Mehrwert für Landwirtschaft, Umwelt und Konsumierende gegenüber herkömmlichen Züchtungsmethoden bieten. Die Vernehmlassung der vorgeschlagenen Zulassungsregelung ist für die 2. Jahreshälfte 2023 angekündigt. Als Beitrag zur Diskussion hat das Forum Genforschung der SCNAT untersucht, ob sich aktuell Projekte in Forschung und Entwicklung befinden, die diesen Kriterien entsprechen.
Pseudocereals such as buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench) are under-utilized as sources for plant-based proteins in current times, where the world is searching for a diversification of agricultural cropping systems. Buckwheat was an important crop in recent times in Western Europe including Switzerland and has several qualities:
It is a valuable source of proteins for human nutrition. Buckwheat contains all nine essential amino acids which makes it a high-quality, complete protein. It is rich in limiting amino acids like lysine and arginine, which are in shortest supply in plant-based diets.
It became popular in satisfying the increasing demand for gluten-free foods.
It has a unique taste – in contrast to rice or wheat.
So far, it is little affected by pests and diseases in the field that could reduce its yield.
As a cover crop, it contributes to soil protection and soil improvement as part of a crop rotation.
It is good for pollinators and a rich source of nectar while contributing to a biologically diverse agriculture.
Despite all these positive qualities, buckwheat cultivation suffers from low and unstable yields, and in comparison to wheat, the baking quality is inferior. Potentially, this bottleneck can be overcome with breeding. Here, the screening of genetic resources could unlock undiscovered potential and the cultivation of buckwheat on Swiss farms may experience a renaissance!
In a series of articles, we introduce research from the PSC network that support increases of ecological plant-based protein production for human nutrition in Switzerland and worldwide.
Peas, for example the yellow pea, have a high concentration of almost all essential amino acids. Compared to soy, they have no allergenic potential. They are particularly interesting for human nutrition, both in cooking and as a basis in the food industry for meat substitutes or protein-rich drinks.
A challenge, however, is their cultivation. Here it is necessary to maintain a crop rotation that allows up to 8 years break between cultivation on the same land. Why? Soil legume fatigue is caused by various harmful soil organisms and affects pea roots to the point of total crop failure.
Resistant and high-yielding peas were the focus of a collaboration between ETH Zurich and FIBL. Research was conducted to see if peas resistant to soil legume fatigue could be grown with shorter crop rotations. In fact, resistant pea plants were found whose roots were heavily colonized by helpful soil organisms. Do these soil organisms help repel the harmful organisms?
With a newly established resistance screening reproducible distinction between susceptible and resistant pea lines is possible. The screening system allows to predict PRRC resistance for a given field site and offers a tool for selection at the seedling stage in breeding nurseries.
Citation
Lukas Wille, Mario Kurmann, Monika M. Messmer, Bruno Studer and Pierre Hohmann (2021). Untangling the Pea Root Rot Complex Reveals Microbial Markers for Plant Health. Front. Plant Sci.: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.737820
Some of the researchers
Dr. Lukas Wille, researcher at FiBL, Switzerland and former researcher at ETH Zurich is working on complexes of root rot pathogens, resistance of pea against root rot disease and the role that microbial diversity and plant-microbe interactions play in shaping the pathobiome and plant resistance. Bruno Studer is professor for Molecular Plant Breeding at ETH Zurich