At the World Seed Congress in May, the Irish Farmers Journal chatted to Lieselot Bertho of Bayer Crop Science.

Lieselot deals with policy and regulations in relation to seed and genetic traits.

At the time of speaking, the EU had not yet passed the new regulations surrounding gene-editing, but it was outlined as something that can help with disease resistance traits and improving yields to name but a few.

“The breeding process is very complex. It takes more than a decade to bring a new variety or hybrid to the market, so we’re hopeful that with using genome editing, because the tool is so targeted, this can increase the efficiency of a breeding programme and we can bring better varieties and hybrids to growers around the world in a more efficient way,” Lieselot explained.

She noted that gene-editing is in place for more than 10 years in some countries, outlining Argentina as the first to allow the technology. There is a framework in place in the US, many African and Asian countries have adopted the technology and are trialling it. These are probably among the countries hit most by climate change.

Pragmatic

Lieselot explained a lot of countries in Africa and Asia have regulations in place for this technology, describing them as pragmatic and science-based.

However, as some countries have not adopted gene-editing yet she noted, the global landscape on gene-editing is not fully developed.

One speaker at the congress noted that his company which produces gene-edited crops focuses on local crops such as fruit and vegetables as some regions or countries will not allow gene-edited crops yet, so they have to produce crops varieties for those specific regions.

The adoption of new regulations surrounding gene-editing in Europe should help to bring more varieties to the EU and tackle challenges that affect farmers. It should also help with trade flows and increase research and development in the area.

You can listen to Lieselot Bertho on this week’s Tillage Podcast, along with plant breeders from the UK who we met at the Cereals event in June.