Crop Improvement

Crop improvement is one of the most urgent tasks in current plant breeding, as an enormous increase in demand for plant-derived products will rise in the near future due to the growing human population and the depletion of fossil resources. In addition, environmental and aerial pollution has a negative impact on soil, water, and climate, and thereby creates increasing stress for growing crops. Therefore, harnessing crops against stress factors is a second essential task for plant breeding. A third challenge is exploiting novel types of crops for producing raw materials, bio-chemicals, bio-fuels, or novel types of food and feed.