EUROPEAN-SEED.COM I EUROPEAN SEED I 15 newly bred, improved and locally adapted varieties. THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF PLANT BREEDING TO WORLD HUNGER Plant breeding is the art and science of changing the genetic make-up of plants in order to produce desired characteristics to the benefit for mankind, and nowhere else would this advancement be felt more than in hunger stricken countries. Plant breeders reassemble existing diversity, and create new diversity, all with the help of special techniques and technologies. Plant breeders have been chang- ing various plant characteristics such as yield, resistance to pests and dis- eases, tolerance to abiotic stress, such as drought, taste, size, quality and many more. And by changing these character- istics, they have increased food security, and alleviated hunger. By adding resist- ances to plant varieties, there was a lower need for crop protection products to be used and at the same time decreasing drastically the amount of fossil fuel that is needed to disperse the products over the field. Also, the increase in yield has tremendously decreased deforestation, leading to a conservation of biodiver- sity. But it is easy to imagine that such advancements need investments, which are high, upfront and long-term. And in order to stimulate the creative minds on this planet, mankind has invented the concept of intellectual property (IP), to guarantee a certain return on the (research) investment. “At this point I usually show on screen the golden circle of innovation, starting with R&D leading to Innovation, which is then protected by intellectual property which guarantees return on investment and this ROI can then be re-invested in R&D,” Bruins states. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Strong and effective IP is a prerequisite to encourage further research efforts and can be considered as the ‘engine of inno- vation’. But let’s not forget that the return on investment is only a small portion of the benefits. Studies have shown that the farmers are reaping 75 per cent of the total benefits of plant breeding. More specifically to the EU, an HFFA report was issued in 2016 by author Noleppa, investigating the economic, social and environmental value of plant breeding in the European Union. The study found that in the agricultural sector alone, genetic crop improvements had generated an additional social welfare gain of 9 billion € and that it had added over 14 billion € to the EU GDP. Plant breeding had secured more employment and had lead to an increase of income: on average a 7000 € increase, which is about 30 per cent of the annual income of an EU arable farmer, all induced by plant breeding. And thanks to plant breeding, 70,000 jobs has been created in arable sector PLANT BREEDER’S TOOLBOX Plant breeders have many technologies in their toolbox, from cross-, selection- and mutation-breeding, to tissue culture, genetic engineering and since lately pre- cision breeding. Although the earliest of these tools have been developed and first applied to plant breeding programs in the 1990s, the more recent ones are from the last decade, with the Crispr-Cas technology leading the pack. Other meth- ods that have been added to the toolbox are reverse breeding, synthetic genom- ics, cisgenesis and intragenesis, grafting, RNA-dependent DNA methylation, oligo- nucleotide directed mutagenesis, agro-in- filtration, and gene or genome editing. In the plant breeding innovation pipeline, there are a few things in the works that look promising: •  Gene Editing: Powdery mildew resist- ant wheat, longer shelf-life tomatoes, changed pod-shattering in brassica, altered grain dormancy in barley, non-brewing mushrooms, and drought resistant corn. •  Cisgenics/Intragenics: Apple scab resistance, potato late blight resist- ance, drought/cold tolerant maize, fungal resistant papaya, improved forage ryegrass, and a variety of vege- table crops. •  Grafting: Citrus trees with transgenic rootstock. Although the above sounds prom- ising, countries around the world are struggling with the question whether they should regulate the products of this plant breeding innovation in a similar manner as transgenics or not. PRINCIPLES AND CRITERIA To help governments take a decision on how to regulate the products of plant breeding innovation, the seed sector has spent several years discussing this and came up with the underlying principle that plant varieties developed through the latest breeding methods should NOT be subject to additional regulations if they could have been produced through ear- lier breeding methods, or might also have been obtained from natural processes without human intervention. To further specify this, the sector developed criteria to be used by govern- ments. The resulting product would NOT fall under the current scope of GMO reg- ulation if: •  it does not contain a novel combination of genetic material; or •  the final plant product solely contains the stable insertion of inherited genetic material from sexually compatible plant species; or • any form of mutagenesis is involved. INTEGRATED APPROACH But the seed sector cannot do this alone, and any approach towards reducing global hunger has to be fully integrated. Therefore, we will need innovative solu- tions for shortage of water, smart fertiliz- ers & crop protection, green light for R&D, safeguarding natural resources, smarter animal feed and more. We have seen too often that regulatory divergence has lead to severe trade disruptions, and through that, endangering food security. Also, no country alone can solve this problem; this has to be a global effort. There are massive global challenges ahead with regards to ensuring food secu- rity and reducing global hunger. Countries would make a good start by further stim- ulating the plant breeding and the seed sector at a local and at global level, keep- ing in mind not to block innovation and ensuring an aligned regulatory approach. Reducing hunger is certainly not Utopia. Editors Note: This article has been condensed for print. Please go to European-Seed.com to read the full version. “Reducing hunger is certainly not Utopia.”