EUROPEAN-SEED.COM I EUROPEAN SEED I 33 EUROPEAN SEED (ES): RENÉ, CAN YOU TELL ME A BIT MORE ABOUT THE CROPBOOSTER-P PROJECT? RENÉ KLEIN LANKHORST (RKL): In CropBooster-P we will create a roadmap with options and scenar- ios to develop crop plants that are better equipped to meet some of the most pressing challenges of our time: How can we feed a future global population of 10 billon? And how can we mitigate the effects of climate change? This project is our response to the Horizon 2020 project call “Future proofing our plants” of the European Commission. On paper, these questions are quite easy to answer: Calculations show that by 2050 we will have to increase global agricultural production between 70 and 100% in order to feed the world. And since we cannot increase the agricultural production area with these percentages without cutting down our rain forests and destroying the Earth’s ecosystem, we will have to grow everything on the agricultural land currently already in use. This thus translates into increasing our current agricultural yield per hectare with 70 to 100%. Regarding climate change, the obvious thing to do is to stop using fossil energy and transform our fossil society into a bio-based society. This would require an estimated additional 30% increase in global agricultural productivity as we would need massive amounts of biomass to supply, for instance, our chemical industry with alternative feedstock. So, in total, we face the challenge to increase global agricultural biomass production between 100 and 130 per cent within the coming decades but without increasing the production area. And of course, we do not want to compromise crop quality, so we also have to make sure that increasing crop quantity does not go at the expense of quality. While this is easily said on paper, in practice it will be a gargantuan task! This is why the European A FIRST LOOK AT THE NEW CROPBOOSTER-P PROJECT. BY: MARCEL BRUINS WHY IT MATTERS By 2050, global agricultural production will need to be increased by 70 to 100% in order to feed the world. Since this not possible without cutting down our rain forests and destroying the Earth’s ecosystem, we will have to grow everything on the agricultural land currently in use. Combined with a transformation from a fossil society into a bio-based society, we face the challenge to increase global agricultural biomass production between 100 and 130% within the coming decades, but without increasing the production area. The CropBooster-P project explores how this can be achieved. HOW TO DOUBLE THE EUROPEAN CROP YIELD BY 2050 René Klein Lankhorst