New plant breeding techniques (NBTS) are not a luxury but an urgent necessity for the vitality and sustainability of the whole EU farming model, Copa-Cogeca secretary general Pekka Pesonen has said.

“NBTs have a fundamental role to play for the green growth of European agriculture and can provide solutions to the numerous challenges it is facing, such as climate change effects and fierce international competition,” Pesonen said this week at a European plant breeding innovation conference called Growing the Future Together.

The comments come as Agra Facts reports that the European Commission is expected to carry out a study into the impact a recent European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling which makes plants derived from NBTs subject to the full GMO approvals process by April 2021. It reports that the study will be delivered in the same month.

Competitive

Copa-Cogeca has said that in order to stay competitive, Europe’s plant breeders need to be able to access the latest plant breeding tools.

These tools help develop new plants for farmers that better withstand pests and diseases, but also help mitigate climate change and meet consumer demands in terms of quality and healthy diets, it said.

European Council president Jari Leppä told the conference that “new plant breeding techniques can give us plants that more quickly adapt to a changing climate” and expressed his hope that the Commission’s Green Deal programme “will also take into account the first link in the food chain as the plant breeding is”.

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