Berlin – The Federal Ministry of Education and Research wants to promote new techniques for breeding climate-adapted crops. It has now published a funding guideline for this purpose. The ministry is providing 50 million euros over four years.
Germany wants to promote the breeding of crops that are better adapted to the climate and their location. To this end, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research(BMBF) has now published the funding guideline “Modern breeding research for climate- and location-adapted crops of tomorrow”, according to a press release. These also explicitly provide for new breeding techniques such as genome editing. Over the next four years, the Ministry is providing 50 million euros for the promotion of breeding research.
The German funding guideline anticipates an EU regulation. On July 5, the EU Commission published a similar draft regulation to promote genomic processes. According to the EU draft, plants that have been bred using the new techniques are to be treated in the same way as conventionally bred plants under certain conditions. The BMBF supports the EU Commission in this approach.
“New breeding techniques are a huge opportunity to breed plants efficiently, purposefully and safely,” Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger is quoted as saying in the press release. “As the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, we want to take advantage of the opportunities offered by new breeding techniques and not sign off from the future like others.” ce/stk
