Breeding for IPM on the agenda

Plant breeding and IPM were on the agenda at a C-IPM workshop held in Poland in July 2016.

Photo: Colourbox

A two and half day joint international workshop entitled “Breeding for IPM in sustainable and low-input agricultural systems” was held in Radzikow, Poland, July 4-6, 2016. The workshop was co-organized by C-IPM and the Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute in Poland. 

The workshop gathered 57 scientists, governmental officials, and breeding company representatives from 16 European countries. They discussed three main issues. 

The first was if it is necessary to adopt a different type of plant breeding for in integrated pest management (IPM) instead of the commonly used, classical plant breeding. Secondly, the workshop participants spoke about whether there already are ongoing research and development programmes regarding breeding for IPM, both at the national and European levels. Finally, the group dealt with how to promote diversification of crops and crop types by combining agronomic practices with the newly deployed breeding materials. 

Questions that the workshop participants answered included the following:  

  • How can we account for IPM when breeding disease/pest resistance?
  • How can breeding help foster adoption of other IPM strategies?
  • Which breeding strategies should be used for crop diversification?
  • What is the role of new breeding techniques?
  • How can we co-design breeding and IPM strategies and what is the impact on regulation and organization? 

Answers and comments to the questions can be found in the report from the workshop which you can download here.

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