Report of Breakout Group 2. How Will We Provide Improved Varieties of Specialty Minor and Subsistence Crops in the Future?

Abstract

university, state and federal funding systems. Not only is the continued breeding of these crops critical to the well being of millions of people, but specialty crop breeders are playing an increasingly important role in university training, as the breeding of the major agronomic crops is shifted to private industry. Federal grant programs should be established that support graduate fellowships to work on specialty crops. More licensing of varieties by universities could generate additional funding to support specialty plant breeding programs, if the funds are allowed to fl ow back to the breeding program. The establishment of endowments, preferably matched dollar to dollar by funds from public institutions, is another option worth exploring. State and federal funding agencies also must be encouraged to develop new initiatives to provide funding for specialty crop breeding research. Support is needed to directly stimulate research collaborations among specialty crop breeders. Research support can be linked to other crop funding efforts by supporting whole families of agronomically important crops and by supporting research on pathogens and pests that attack a broad range of related and unrelated crops. Examples of these are the USDA–National Research Initiative (NRI) program on the genomics of Rosaceous crops which included the specialty crops tart cherry and strawberry, and the recent federal initiative on fusarium head blight or scab that is based primarily on bread wheat but also supports work on the specialty crop durum wheat. Another example is the National Sclerotinia Initiative, which provides funding for a broad range of specialty crops including canola, dry bean, lentil, and sunfl ower. NEED TO RAISE AWARENESS