Key issues in breeding and trialling robust cereal cultivars for organic farming

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of key issues in organic crop breeding and presents objectives, activities and results of concrete organic cereal breeding projects. Organic crop breeding is a small but rapidly growing branch of organic agriculture. Its primary objective is to develop cultivars suitable for the conditions of organic farming systems, which include a limited and generally more diverse plant nutrient availability, higher pressures of weeds, diseases and pests as well as special product quality requirements. This chapter provides an insight into concrete organic crop breeding projects with a special focus on resistance breeding programmes and cultivar triallings for cereal crop diseases such as common and dwarf bunt of wheat (Tilletia caries, T. controversa), Fusarium head blight (Fusarium spp.), yellow stripe rust of wheat (Puccinia striiformis), loose smut of oats (Ustilago avenae) and barley leaf stripe (Pyrenophora graminea). The chapter also outlines future needs and strategies.