Biotech Updates

Challenges and Opportunities for Crop Protection

March 30, 2007

In the recent Bayer CropScience Fungicide Symposium, experts from the Research and Development sector and the European agriculture discussed the challenges and opportunities involved in fungicide use. Global warming and its repercussions for all areas of the agricultural sector was the recurrent theme in the presentations. Global warming is changing the face of agriculture, and how plant pathogens spread disease.

According to John Lucas from Rothamsted Research Institute, United Kingdom, scientists are not the only ones who must adapt to the spread of diseases into new regions and their much greater potential for expansion. Plants, which are greatly affected by global warming, should be made adaptable as well. Lucas sees opportunities in genetic engineering. Tomato or potato plants, for example, could be equipped with properties to make them resistant against fungi.

Other major topics in the symposium include the displacement of today’s agricultural regions in Europe, the higher infection rate of cereal crops because of the warmer climate, and changes in agricultural economies, with focus on bioenergy crops and sustainable raw materials.

Read the news article at http://www.bayercropscience.com/bayer/cropscience/cscms.nsf/id/EN_2007-NST-008?open&ccm=400.