Challenges facing European agriculture and possible biotechnological solutions

Abstract

Agriculture faces many challenges to maximize yields while it is required to operate in an environmentally sustainable manner. In the present study, we analyze the major agricultural challenges identified by European farmers (primarily related to biotic stresses) in 13 countries, namely Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, UK and Turkey, for nine major crops (barley, beet, grapevine, maize, oilseed rape, olive, potato, sunflower and wheat). Most biotic stresses (BSs) are related to fungi or insects, but viral diseases, bacterial diseases and even parasitic plants have an important impact on yield and harvest quality. We examine how these challenges have been addressed by public and private research sectors, using either conventional breeding, marker-assisted selection, transgenesis, cisgenesis, RNAi technology or mutagenesis. Both national surveys and scientific literature analysis followed by text mining were employed to evaluate genetic engineering (GE) and non-GE approaches. This is the first report of text mining of the scientific literature on plant breeding and agricultural biotechnology research. For the nine major crops in Europe, 128 BS challenges were identified with 40% of these addressed neither in the scientific literature nor in recent European public research programs. We found evidence that the private sector was addressing only a few of these “neglected” challenges. Consequently, there are considerable gaps between farmer’s needs and current breeding and biotechnology research. We also provide evidence that the current political situation in certain European countries is an impediment to GE research in order to address these agricultural challenges in the future. This study should also contribute to the decision-making process on future pertinent international consortia to fill the identified research gaps.

• Automated literature analysis
• biotic stress
• breeding
• cisgenesis
• marker-assisted selection
• oligonucleotide directed mutagenesis
• patent
• text mining
• transgenesis

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the help provided by the following people and organizations. Piet van der Meer (University of Ghent and Free University of Brussels) for suggesting the matrix approach that was used in this article and Fabio Niespolo (Agrifutura) for advice. In the Czech Republic, Oxana Skokova Habustova (Biology Centre CAS) for gathering and processing data about key challenges from agronomist.

Frantisek Sehnal (Biology Centre CAS) for his constructive recommendations. Ministry of Environment, State Phytosanitary Administration and Regional Agrarian Chamber of the South Bohemian Region for providing information. In Bulgaria, Farmer’s organizations – Bulgarian Association of Agricultural Producers (BAAP) and Association of Grain Producers (AGP). In France, Arvalis (J.B. Thibord, P. Taupin, J. Mathieu). Centre Technique Interprofessionnel des Oléagineux Métropolitains (CETIOM, C. Robert, A. Pouzet, A. Penaud). Institut technique français de la betterave industrielle (ITB, M. Richard-Molard, E. Quilliot). Montpellier SupAgro (J.-L. Regnard). The scientists at centers of INRA in Bordeaux, Clermont-Ferrand, Colmar, Montpellier, Moulon, Orléans, Rennes, Toulouse, Versailles and INRA-CNRS Centre national de la recherche scientifique in Castanet Tolosan and Grenoble. C. Bianchi, D. Famin, T. Guilbert, C. Piotrowski, M. Raymond and Q. Wang (AgroParisTech) for gathering data on French research programs, patents and trials in EU. M. Andro, S. Aubin, O. Hologne, G. Jacquin and C. Mader (INRA) for the text mining. Jean-Louis Bernard (Académie d’Agriculture de France) for advice. In Germany, Representative farmers and offices of farmer organizations. Stefan Rauschen. In Hungary, Gábor V. Horváth (Biological Research Center, Szeged), Katalin Csordás (MOSZ, Budapest), Annamária Mészáros and Róbert Oláh (Corvinus University, Budapest), József Pájtli (Tamási), János Pauk (Cereal Nonprofit Research Ltd., Szeged) and Zsolt Polgár (Pannon University, Keszthely). In Italy, T. Maggiore, A. Scienza, D. Frisio and D. Bassi (Università di Milano), M. Stanca, E. Mazzucotelli and G. Valè (CRA Fiorenzuola d’Arda), F. Salamini (Fondazione Mach, S. Michele all’Adige), P. Abbruscato (PTP, Lodi), P. Marchesini (Pioneer-Dupont), S. Tartarini (Dekalb), G. Minotta (Università di Torino), E. Francia (Università di Modena-Reggio Emilia), A. Gennaro, Carla Ceoloni (Università della Tuscia) and Prof. Rosa Rao (University of Naples). In Portugal, Gerardo Torralba, ASAJA (Asociación Agraria de Jovenes Agricultores) de Huesca. In Romania, Mr. Marcel Cucu, member of the League of the Romanian Agricultural Producer Association for mobilizing his network in collecting the data and Dr. Horia Halmajan of the Agricultural University of Bucharest for his constructive recommendations. In Spain, Gerardo Torralba Jordán from ASAJA (Asociación Agraria de Jovenes Agricultores) de Huesca. Pedro Gallardo, ASAJA de Cadiz. Lucía Roda Ghisleri. Dirección General de Calidad y Evaluación Ambiental. Ministerio de Medio Ambiente, y Medio Rural y Marino. ANOVE (Asociación Nacional de Obtentores Vegetales). In Sweden, Anders Nilsson at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. In Turkey, Professor Rüstü Hatipoglu from Faculty of Agriculture in Cukurova University and representatives of Adana Farmers Union for their contribution in compiling farmers’ challenges in respective crops. In UK, Andrea Graham and Helen Ferrier at National Farmer Union (NFU) and Sian Davies at NFU (in Brussels).

Declaration of interest

The authors declare no competing financial interests. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article. A.R. and A.B. acknowledge Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), France, for providing financial support of text mining.

Supplementary material available online