About
BRESOV aims to tackle the nutritional challenges of a growing world population and changing climatic conditions by enhancing productivity of different vegetable crops in an organic and sustainable farming infrastructure. BRESOV works on broccoli, snap bean and tomato as those staple vegetable crops have significant roles in meeting our global food and nutritional security goal, and under organic conditions can contribute to storing carbon and introducing nitrogen improving organic soil quality
The project
The project deals with the urgent need to provide climate-resilient cultivars addressed to organic vegetable production systems. These new cultivars will benefit organic growers, and the organic seed industry, providing much needed security both under current and future scenarios of climate change. In this project, we will exploit the genetic variation of broccoli, kohlrabi, bean and tomato for enhanced productivity, by exploiting up-to-date knowledge of genome structure and function. This work will be enhanced by the active involvement of farmers, advisory services, research institutes, breeding companies and food processors from diverse geographical/climatic contexts in Europe and Non-EU countries. The selection of pre-breeding/ breeding lines for the three species will be undertaken in organic vegetable farming systems, utilizing an annual crop rotation scheme. New cultivars will be selected for efficiency when grown under water, temperature, and nitrogen stress, for resistance to some pests and diseases, for desirable product quality traits such as taste, visual appearance, post-harvest performance. The Stakeholder Board will contribute to the expected outcomes of the project. Crop genetic diversity will be broad as we will be utilizing several landraces (LRs) and crops wild relatives (CWRs) provided by partners for the foreseen pre-breeding and breeding activities. We will adopt an innovative approach, where plant traits related to the roots-zone, and to root-growth, and architecture that enable a better interaction with organic soil and its microbiome, are sought to benefit the end-users. This approach will ensure that the available genetic resources and bred-germplasm, combined with the best on-farm management practices will enhance resource use efficiency and productivity. The germplasm from this project will act to pump-prime the production of new seed for the organic growing sector and will also serve as a model for the enhancement of other crops
BRESOV Partners at a Glance
BRESOV involves 22 partner institutions from ten European countries as well as China, Tunisia and South Korea and is characterised by a multi-actor approach placing special emphasis on the input and needs of the breeding and farming sector. BRESOV partners are located in the major farming areas in Northern, Central, Eastern and Mediterranean areas of Europe, in Asia and Africa.
