EUCARPIA Congress at ETH Zurich: Plant Breeding as both Art and Science

Zurich, 29. A good 400 researchers from the future-oriented field of plant breeding will meet this week at the 20th EUCARPIA General Congress in Zurich, organised by Agroscope and ETH Zurich. Practical plant breeders as well as scientists from the emergent disciplines of molecular genetics, bioinformatics and measurement techniques summarised under the term 'phenomics' are searching for ways to breed new, improved plant varieties for a sustainable agricultural sector. 'Plant breeding plays a crucial role in ensuring sustainable, high-quality and efficient plant production' declares Beat Boller, a scientist at Agroscope and President of the European Association for Research on Plant Breeding EUCARPIA, on the occasion of the organisation's general congress at the ETH in Zurich. A growing global population's increasing demand for healthy food calls for improved plant varieties. The art of combining the appropriate genetic material for this purpose is supported by scientific findings to corroborate selection decisions. New technological tools and the rapid development of molecular genetics, bioinformatics and the measuring techniques summarised under the term 'phenomics' have lent a new dimension to the interaction of art and science in plant breeding.