Background:

Breeding progress makes a significant contribution to increasing productivity and efficiency in crop production. In recent studies, we show that breeding progress in wheat and rye, especially hybrid rye, has led to a substantial reduction in the carbon footprint, which is directly beneficial to climate protection. For other crops, such an assessment is missing so far.

Objectives:

The aim of the KlimZucht project is to evaluate the contribution of breeding progress to reducing the carbon footprint of crop production for other relevant major crops in Germany, e.g. winter wheat, triticale, winter barley, spring barley and maize, and to identify and evaluate future breeding potentials and relevant plant traits with regard to climate protection.