PLANT BREEDING FOR MANKIND. SEMINAR INTRODUCTION

In 1992, the AGRIBEX International Forum was the occasion to come up with clear conclusions about the search for new perspectives in agriculture in general. Then five round table conferences have gathered about eighty specialists directly involved in the various facets of the sector and they were accompanied by professional farmers, horticulturists, etc.

Many challenges are nowadays introduced by a never known before crisis that arises from economic, financial and social problems. Facing such challenges in a world of mistrust, it has been shown that is was necessary to improve new ways for a production of quality and environmental sound. Agriculture and horticulture must fully play trumps like their location in the vicinity of large consumption centres, the abundance of information and commercialisation structures and the variety, the quality and the regional complementary possibilities in the production activities. They must do that while taking account of the scantiness of the resources for agriculture, the small size of the farms or enterprises, the individualism of the farmers and producers moreover in a period of all kind of difficulties.

All those reasons must enhance the possibilities of offering high added value products where means and techniques are abundant. The support to the promotion of such products and the new avenues for the trade must know how the things stand. Therefore the AGRIBEX Seminar 1994 is focused on a specific and actual subject about which much is to say and much is to understand correctly.

Improvement in plant breeding is continuously on the move. Various perspectives are introduced for applications in agriculture, horticulture, fruit and flower multiplication and in forestry. There are several technical, environmental and social-economic implications. Some practical results are already known. They are the outcome of long pioneer actions. It is obvious that plant breeding combined with clever genetics reflections and guided interventions will bring many new developments along.

Among these, the mechanization of the production, the control of the environment and the adaptation of the transformation and marketing processes will contribute to the welfare of mankind. Not only ergonomics for the workers and operators but also products for the consumers must gain in positive value.

Plant breeding is part of our task even if it is of importance to keep the original genetic capital available. Agriculture is interested in the production of the best phenotype because it is often the most profitable. Perhaps there is a distinction to be made between global efficiency related with yield and specific efficiency linked with quality. Even if it is sometime difficult to do so, we certainly will have to do it in the close future, machinery has already help to improve some requirements like reducing the harvest or the storage losses. However plant breeding may also increase some typical requirements connected with mechanization like the homogeneity of the mature state and the resistance for long conservation.

Everybody points out the acquisition of specific resistance against fungi, nematodes, viruses, etc. but this concerns only one face of the benefits concealed to the plants by breeding. Many other kinds of resistance can still improve the basic production of cereals, industrial crops, ornamental species, energetic vegetals, etc.

The succession of cultural seasons and the heterogeneity of the soil conditions are sources of disturbances in the yearly productions. Plant breeding can succeed in offering more stability facing these sources of disorganisation and will contribute to a better economic planning.

Technical needs will more and more define the exact composition necessary and diet will do the same for human nutrition. The growth of plants must then compete the synthesis of essential principles and will do so due to some of their particularities in the natural cell elaboration. For some industrial crops the improvement in quality lies essentially in minimising unwanted constituents that interfere in the processing techniques or in the human diet. In some cases, plant breeding has significantly help the production of typical phenotypes like ornamental plants with high or even very high added value.

The questions about yield and profit have oriented the breeders. Now the aspects of product quality and content of the plants have more and more the upper hand. The breeders must keep an eye on it. In parallel with such trend the practical requirements for cultivation must reach a new level too.

Precision in the placement of the seeds and plants, appropriate depth of planting, micro-environmental conditions for the roots, etc. are some of the improvements the tools and equipments will have to complete. Operation conditions will be more strictly pointed out.

To succeed in the desirable approach and to conclude with positive recommendations for the harmonisation plant breeding and mechanization, the seminar is divided in four sessions that overview successive aspects of plant breeding and discuss the state of the art in machine or tool improvement.

Plant breeding must look ahead for fifteen to twenty years perhaps even more. New plant varieties are marketed every year. The hope remains that the equipment industry will be able to absorb all the biological demands within a short period of adaptation. Plant breeding will then become a driving factor for the renewal of mechanical principles.

February 1994