Plant Breeding

Breeding Goals for Successful Farming

All the shareholders who have joined their forces to form the German Seed Alliance are actively and intensively breeding and selecting within their respective crop ranges. The breeding goals include adaptation of plant varieties to the climatic and to the soil conditions, yield increases and yield safety, but also development of new and improved qualities. Resistance against plant diseases and against pests is crucial for sustainable crop husbandry.

Plant breeding is still carried out along the lines drawn by the Laws of Heredity discovered by Gregor Mendel in mid-19th century. They have been systematically applied since the beginning of the 20th century: Two suitably selected parent plants of the same species will be crossed with each other. After the pollination, the genes of the parents will be recombined, and the offspring will be genetically diversified. This offspring will be selected again and again in a lengthy process of 10 years or more to find the plants that best exhibit the desired combination of properties in the natural environment and cultivation conditions, until a new plant variety has emerged.

Today, plant breeders use the latest findings of the life sciences and plant research to preserve and enhance genetic biodiversity, to allow a more targeted approach in plant breeding and to enable a quicker and more precise selection of the appropriate genotypes. The rule is: If you want to reach your breeding goal, high-tech is the key.

Plant Breeding in Russia for Russia

Plant varieties adapted to the respective environments are crucial for achieving yield increases, improved qualities and sustainable cropping systems. Russia’s mostly largeholding agricultural structure holds an important crop production potential that is eligible to play an important role in supplying the world population with high-quality food in the future. Yet, this potential will not be realized unless improved plant varieties will be used.

This is the mission of German Seed Alliance, for the benefit of its customers in Russia and in other countries. GSA is running breeding and selection programmes in Russia, i.e. developing plant varieties in Russia for Russia. This is the mission of OOO German Seed Alliance Agro.

In a central breeding site in the Lipetsk oblast and a widespread net of trial sites, a GSA team of scientists and plant breeders is developing new Russian plant varieties. They can use most recent breeding methods and premium breeding material from international breeding programmes, which thereby will be directly transposed in Russia into breeding progress. In a joint breeding project, the scientists are e.g. developing wheat and other cereal varieties that are tailor-made for the specific environments in Russia.