Scientists at Bayer CropScience are combining conventional plant breeding with modern biotechnology: Dr. Jan van den Berg (left) and Paul Degreef check a new variety of tomato in the green house, where the plants are trained up white strings.
Modern agriculture is facing the biggest challenge in its history: while each year some 80 million more people populate the earth, the proportion of arable land remains at best the same. Climate change is also threatening plants and eating into global harvest yields. Food and animal feed, fibers and alternative fuels will have to be produced in greater quantities and under difficult conditions in the future.
Tomorrow’s world needs modified plants with improved characteristics. Scientists at Bayer CropScience are already combining conventional plant breeding with modern biotechnology today, complementing molecular methods and genetic engineering with plant breeders’ years of experience in cross-breeding and selection. This allows them to develop plants with new traits more quickly. Bayer CropScience’s multidisciplinary research teams in Ghent, Belgium, are working together with seed specialists at Nunhems to get crops such as rice, cotton, oilseed rape, cucumbers, tomatoes and melons into shape for the future.