b"ROGER FREEMANCARROT BREEDER AT BASF Roger has been breeding carrots for over 35 years and is a renowned breeder in the seed industry. He is known for his close collaboration with customers and enthusiasm for new ideas. He helped drive the develop-ment of the global cut and peel carrot snack-ing market and pioneered hybrid coloured carrot breeding. In addition to driving new segments, he has achieved notable yield increases, advances in consumer quality traits and increased foliar disease resistance in many hybrids that became industry stand-ards. A recent example is the carrot variety Highcut (2017 USA, 2019 EU & MEA). It is a hybrid with notable quality and small diam-eter uniformity, resulting in increased, and efficient, factory yield for the petite pieces.CHRISTOPHE GALBRUNPLANT BREEDER TURF GRASS IN DLF, FRANCE Already for 35 years Christophe has been active in plant breeding, and at the moment he focuses on the R&D programme of 4turf. He is the plant breeder behind one of the big innovations in turf breeding: tetraploid VLADIMIRERNOCH DR. AHMET ENGINvarieties (also called 4turf), with improved PLANT BREEDER FORAGE GRASS OPERATIONS MANAGER AT ANADOLUtolerance for diseases and drought stress. IN DLF, CZECH REPUBLICEFES MALTERY IN TURKEY Standard tetraploid forage varieties are For more than 35 years Vladimir has beenAhmet has 32 years of experience in barley,much courser, exhibiting a more open and active in plant breeding, and currently hehops, malt, cultivation and plant breeding.abundant growth than diploids. However, the is working on the complicated breeding ofHe published 32 papers and articles in var- 4turf varieties are comparable to some of combining Festuca and Lolium species andious national and international magazines,the best diploids. They're fine with very good is the breeder behind developing varietiescongresses and symposiums. In additiondensity and short growth. Thats why 4turf of festulolium. This works because the hybridto this, he has participated in the breedinghas become a valuable ingredient in turf performs better than its individual compo- and registration of 17 malting barley andmixtures for sports fields and sod producers nents. As a result, his company now holdsseven hops varieties at Anadolu Efes, whereall over Europe. Thanks to Christophes work, an exclusive portfolio of different types andhe has worked at various levels since 1988,last year DLF could introduce several new the research continues, all with the aim toand recently retired. The developed spring4turf varieties to the turf market.improve forage yield and quality under abarley varieties have advantages in terms of wide range of climates. Thus, festulolium vari- both malting quality and significant reduction eties are becoming increasingly relevant inin water and energy consumption compar-areas with more extreme climate fluctuationsatively to the other barley varieties bred in like drought or flooding. Vladimirs work hasTurkey. Ahmet has been a board member made it possible for DLF to introduce twoof the Turkish Seed Industry Association new hay and grazing type festulolium varie- (TRKTED) for five terms. At the end of 2018, ties to the European market in 2019, followedhe took part in the registration of two malting by two festuloliumstall fescue types to thebarley varieties, and in 2019, he participated European market in 2020, and his focus isin the Smart Agriculture Project, a joint now on the investigation of DNA markers forproject of Anadolu Efes and WWF (World drought tolerance. Wildlife Fund).EUROPEAN-SEED.COMIEUROPEAN SEED I 15"