Support Association for Swiss Plant Breeding Center founded

The ‘Swiss Plant Breeding Center’ SPBC – the network for Swiss stakeholders in the plant breeding and breeding research sectors – now has recourse to a support association. Together with the SPBC, the association aims to promote knowledge sharing and the use of new methods in applied plant breeding.

The SPBC project team and new executive board of the support society.

From L to R: Karl-Heinz Camp, DSP AG; Bruno Studer, ETH Zurich; Monika Messmer (President), FiBL; Roland Peter, Agroscope; Amadeus Zschunke, Sativa Rheinau AG

Meeting challenges together

The reduced use of plant-protection products and fertilisers as well as climate change and new diseases call for new varieties that are adapted to Swiss conditions. To allow these varieties to come on the market more quickly, research results and new methods must be better integrated into the breeding programmes. With this goal in mind, Agroscope, the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) Switzerland, ETH Zurich, Sativa Rheinau AG and Delley Seeds and Plants AG jointly launched the Swiss Plant Breeding Centre with the Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture FOAG. Following the entry into operation of a branch office in late 2023, the next step has been the creation of an association to lend the necessary support structure to the SPBC. Drawing its members from breeding practice, research and downstream sectors, it is expected to inject momentum into the SPBC. In this way, research results will be funnelled more quickly into applied breeding, and infrastructure, know-how and innovations will be more readily combined.

Swiss needs in focus

The ‘Trägerverein Swiss Plant Breeding Center’ [=’Swiss Plant Breeding Centre Support Association’] was founded on 11 October, and is presided over by Monika Messmer of the FiBL .Roland Peter, Head of the ‘Plant Breeding’ Research Division at Agroscope, will feature on the Board of Directors, together with representatives from Delley Seeds and Plants, Sativa Rheinau, the FiBL and ETH Zurich. Peter is convinced that the support association will improve networking among the stakeholders in the breeding sector, allowing the SPBC to be efficiently geared to the needs of the for-the-most-part- small Swiss plant breeding programmes. Planned for the medium-term, the relocation of the branch office of the SPBC to Agroscope’s Zurich-Reckenholz site will create synergies through the existing site infrastructure and the proximity to other partners in breeding research and practice.

Better varieties in the field

Roland Peter feels that the active participation of all breeders and the breeding research sector as well as the support of the downstream value chain is essential for a strong SPBC. ″This can set a positive dynamic in motion. Together with the SPBC, we’ll create short communication channels for innovations in breeding programmes, thereby bringing more breeding progress and better varieties to the farmers’ fields. For the first time, the newly established support association has created a platform where everyone can sit down at the same table.″

The SPBC has already set an impressive pace: currently it is involved in seven innovation projects submitted by Swiss breeders to the FOAG and funded by the latter.