Plant breeding for an EU bio-based economy: The potential of public sector and public/private partnerships

The JRC Scientific Policy Report provides the results of a study on "Plant Breeding for an EU bio-based economy 2020" which was carried out by Arcadia International in 2012. The study is based on a literature search, a workshop, interviews with experts and a survey directed at public breeding institutes. The first part of the study evaluates the breeding needs relevant for the biocenomy strategy 2020 for food, feed, biofuel and biochemical uses and to what extent they are covered by the private breeding sector. The second part of the study investigates the capacity of public breeding institutes to fulfill breeding needs where the private sector is not investing sufficiently. On the basis of the results of the study, the authors conclude that the capacity of public breeding in the EU is low and will not be able to fulfil the needs of the bioeconomy-strategy 2020 which are currently not covered by the private sector. In Member States (e.g. PL or RO) where public breeders are still relevant competitors on the market, institutes mainly focus on agronomic traits only. In the other Member States, institutes concentrate mainly on genomic and pre-breeding activities complementing the activities of the private sector in applied plant breeding.