Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 5212 I EUROPEAN SEED I EUROPEAN-SEED.COM ith an increasing population that needs more food and more energy, and the need to produce our crops on less land with less water and fewer farmers, we’re facing numerous challenges ahead. It is generally recognized that it is up to the plant breeders on this planet to deal with those challenges and develop ever better plant varieties. However, over the past decades, young people have lost interest in studying plant breeding and related courses, and as a result support by universities into such cur- ricula has dwindled. Luckily, there are several initiatives out there that continue to provide courses in this field. One of those initiatives is the University of California, Davis Seed Biotechnology Center (SBC), which is dedicated to mobilizing the research, educational and outreach resources of UC Davis, in partnership and on behalf of the seed and biotechnology industries. For the last three years, UC Davis has been ranked as the No. 1 university in the world in research and education in areas of agriculture and forestry. SBC offers a vari- ety of training programs for professionals employed in the seed industry. Under the umbrella of UC Davis, the SBC is offering a broad range of courses and training programs for seed professionals, tailor-made to suit the needs of the plant breeding and seed sector. An important program is Seed Business 101. This is a one-week course designed to expose the participants to the five functional areas of a seed company (R&D, production, operations, sales and marketing, and admin- istration). By creating a virtual seed company and case studies for each functional area, the course content is delivered in a very interac- tive way. During each of the four case stud- ies, students assume a different functional responsibility within the company. The course gives new employees a broad understanding of the major aspects of a seed company’s operations and cross-departmen- tal knowledge of best practices for profitabil- ity. It is taught by widely respected industry executives with additional help of industry experts participating as guest speakers. A bit shorter than the above is the Breeding with Genomics course, designed for professional plant breeders who want to learn or expand their knowledge on how to incorporate molecular markers into their A program that began in the United States is seeing major success in Europe. One of its founders tells us all about it. Working to Increase the Number of Plant Breeders By: Rale Gjuric, Director, UC Davis Plant Breeding Academy