Projects / Programmes
Preservation and suitability of use, establishment of maintenance selection and production of seed material of maize landraces and important field crops in sustainable agriculture
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 4.03.01 |
Biotechnical sciences |
Plant production |
Agricultural plants |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| B006 |
Biomedical sciences |
Agronomics |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 4.01 |
Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences |
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries |
Landraces, field crops, maintainance selection, seed production, sustainable agriculture
Researchers (35)
Organisations (5)
Abstract
Many scientists associated with biodiversity believe that biodiversity plays a key role in maintaining a healthy and sustainable ecosystem. Such ecosystem is essential for the continuous growth of the human population and is one of the preconditions for a successful genetic adaptation and evolution because only genetically variable species can adapt to sudden environmental changes. The increasing genetic erosion is reducing chances of adaptation and leads to a disappearance of certain species, varieties, genotypes and consequently genes. Therefore, the conservation of biological diversity (genetic diversity) within genera and species is one of the key factors of the sustainable use of agricultural land and soil. The presence of genetically different varieties enables much more efficient adaptation to different biotic and abiotic factors and stress that exist in a particular environment.
Unfortunately, the intensive use of modern cultivars in agricultural production leads to the increasing loss of many traditional, highly valuable domestic varieties which are, especially in certain areas, unreplaceable. The most problematic are probably allogamous species. According to data from the literature, some local populations of maize are already intercrossed (genetically recombined) with newer hybrids but the owners of these populations are not aware of this process.
The conservation of landraces and other Slovenian local populations of maize was already important to prof. Mikuž. He and his team at the Biotechnical Faculty started collecting domestic Slovenian maize populations in early 1950s. The main purpose was to protect and conserve local maize germplasm due to the increased cultivation of the imported American hybrids. The biggest problem were high yielding but low quality dent hybrids which began to spread rapidly across Slovenia. Most of this collected material is still maintained and stored in the maize gene bank at the Department of Agronomy of the Biotechnical Faculty. The responsible officer for the maintenance of the Slovenian maize germplasm is the leader of this proposed project. The gene pool of the maize gene bank includes about 600 different genotypes, particularly domestic maize, and is one of the oldest and largest gene banks in Slovenia. The gene bank at the Department of Agronomy of the Biotechnical Faculty also includes buckwheat, wheat and other cereals such as rye, barley, oats, proso millet and flax. In recent years, there is a growing demand for large quantities of seeds, including landraces and local populations which are kept in gene banks. However, the financial resources of the gene bank of the Biotechnical Faculty that come from the National Program 'Slovenian Plant Gene Bank' are sufficient only for the maintenance and preservation of already existing material in the gene bank. Therefore, the production of large quantities of seed of the maintained accessions from the gene bank is impossible.
Regarding the conservation of genetic resources, the European Commission adopted the Regulation (EC) No. 1698/2005 in order to on support the rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD ). Based on the Article 29 - Proposal for the regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on support for rural development by the EAFRD for 2014-2020, a member states within the agri-environmental and agro climatic payments also provide a support for the conservation of plant genetic resources in agriculture related to indigenous and traditional crop varieties in cultivation. On the basis of this regulation, and in order to maintain domestic varieties of crops, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment prepared a list of indigenous and traditional varieties of crops under the SAEP which has been practiced since 2007. It is stated that the competent institutions of the European Community and the Republic of Slovenia MKO in recent years, with the respect to the conservation
Significance for science
Tema predlaganega projekta je v direktni povezavi med znanostjo in stroko, saj vključuje pomen genske erozije, ki se kaže v zmanjšanju genske variabilnosti kmetijskih rastlin oz. direktno v izgubi določenih genotipov v praksi. S pravilno, v praksi vsaj osnovno vzdrževalno selekcijo še razširjenih domačih sort, lahko znatno zmanjšamo upadanje genske variabilnosti, saj vzdržujemo originalne domače sorte. Principi in metode pravilne vzdrževalne selekcije bodo kmetijskim pridelovalcem neposredno prikazani in jo bodo lahko potem sami izvajali.
S hranjenjem domačih sort v genskih bakah in po potrebi uvajanje le-teh v širšo pridelavo se genetska variabilnost ne le zmanjšuje, ampak celo poveča.
Significance for the country
V projektu je predviden tudi vpis novih sort na seznam AOhr sort. Ves semenski material, ki se trži, mora biti v skladu s semenarsko zakonodajo. Čeprav je Biotehniška fakulteta registrirana za pridelavo in trženje semenskega blaga, gredo večje količine semena, vsaj pri koruzi v prodajo posredno preko trgovskih organizacij, kot sta Agrosaat d.o.o. in Semenarna Ljubljana d.d. V zadnjih letih smo uspešno tržili oba hibrida koruze, ki sta na seznamu AOhr sort, manjše količine direktno pridelovalcem, večje pa preko omenjenih trgovskih organizacij, kar ima neposredni pomen za gospodarstvo.
Ker so v projekt zajete vse najpomembnejše poljščine v Sloveniji, bo v programu KOP rešen problem kolobarja za pridelovalce sort, ki so na seznamu AOhr sort, kar bi vplivalo tudi na gospodarstvo teh kmetij.
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2015,
final report
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Annual report
2015,
final report
