THEME – 5 Climate change and an increasing protein deficit: Why Europe needs to exploit genetic resources of protein crops now change and an increasing protein deficit: Why Europe needs to exploit genetic resources of protein crops now

www.helsinki.fi/yliopisto
Climate change and an
increasing protein deficit: Why
Europe needs to exploit genetic
resources of protein crops now
Fred Stoddard
Department of Agricultural Sciences
frederick <dot> stoddard <ät> helsinki <dot> fi
Stoddard @ Rabat 2014 1

Applied mathematics and omics technologies
for discovering biodiversity and genetic
resources for climate change mitigation and
adaptation to sustain agriculture in drylands

• In EU terms, protein crop = faba bean, pea, lupins
• and sometimes dehydrated alfalfa
• Europe has a 70% deficit in plant protein
• Growing grain legumes helps mitigate climate
change in many ways
• Grain legume breeding lags behind cereal & oilseed
breeding for several reasons
• So FIGS for GR of GLs against CC could attract
funding
3Stoddard @ Rabat 2014
My main points

• Mostly as soya cake
Europe imports 70% of its plant
protein needs
European livestock produ
imported protein – and cr
EEU soya import quantity and price
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0
10
20
30
40
50
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Price
(USD/t)
Net import
(million t)
Soya cake imports
Soya bean imports
Soya bean price
Soya cake price

Poultry and pig meat consumption is the major
driver of plant protein imports
FAOstat 2013.
Growth in poultry and pig meat consumption is the
major driver behind increased plant protein imports
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
Million t
Beef Pig meat
Poultry meat Grain legume production
Net soya import (bean equivalent) Fertiliser-N consumption
FAOstat 2013.

• Pasture grasses with >400 kg/ha of N fertilizer
• Forage maize with >300 kg/ha of N fertilizer
• If N fertilizer is synthetic, manufactured at cost of
(usually) burning natural gas
• Whether synthetic or manure, NO3
- leaches into
groundwater, and denitrification releases N2O
• Clovers and other forage legumes could be used
Meanwhile, ruminants are fed on
heavily fertilized grasses

Separation (disconnection) of
crops and livestock
• And in Norway, cropping and livestock farming have
to be on opposite sides of a valley!

• Too much meat consumption
• Too much pollution
• Too much cereal monoculture
• Disconnection between feed producers and feed
consumers
 Sustainability is questionable
So European agriculture
contributes to global change

• High fuel prices
• High soya bean prices
• Concern about food and feed security
•  Europe wants to grow its own protein
• but it has forgotten how
• Europe is (I think) more aware of global change than
the USA is
A new scenario has emerged

• and has declined from
4.6% of EU-27 arable
land in 1961 to 1.8% now
The proportion of EU cropland
used for protein crops is low
EUROSTAT 2013

Cereals have a competitive
advantage, especially in NW Europe
USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service 2013, and EUROSTAT 2013
Agronomic challenges
• Cereal crops (e.g. wheat) have a comparative advantage
• Protein crop yields are variable
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
Yield (t/ha)
USA wheat
USA soya bean
France wheat
France soya bean
European wheat has a 3-fold yield advantage
US and French soya bean and US wheat yields
are similar

• (“thanks” to Mrs Thatcher and followers)
• Removed public funding from crops associated with
public goods
• Little private breeding of minor crops
• Yield increases and stress tolerances of minor crops
like grain legumes lag behind those of cereals
• Europe is good at growing starch
• Farmers not interested in “demanding crops”
• Common Agricultural Policy CAP flip-flopped many
times on support for protein crops
Privatization of plant breeding
and other impediments

0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
Common bean
Faba bean and other legumes
Chickpea, lentil & vetches
Pea
Lupins
Soya bean
Area (million ha)
1974: price
support for
soya bean
1978: price
support for
pea, faba
bean, lupins
1992:
MacSharry
reform
2005 - 2006:
introduction of
Single Payment
Scheme
1989: area
payment for
chickpea,
lentil, vetches
The CAP (Complicated Agricultural
Policy) and legume areas

Legumes in cropping
systems
what makes them “a good thing”

• Depends on host genotype
• Depends on symbiont genotype
• Efficiency of infection and N fixation
• Right species, right isolate, competitive ability with
existing soil population
• Depends on adaptation to growing conditions
• Salinity, pH, temperature, moisture deficit or excess
Biological Nitrogen Fixation BNF

• Well known: 16 ATP per N2 fixed
• 3-16% of net photosynthate used by nodules
• Does this reduce yield?
• NO in faba bean and soya bean: photosynthesis
increases
• YES in pea: photosynthesis cannot increase enough
• Little data on other species
16
Costs of N fixation
Stoddard @ Rabat 2014

• 40-70% is harvested in grain
• Green manure a different option
• Remainder in roots, straw and rhizodeposition
• Per tonne of faba bean grain,
‒ Calculations done for Legume Futures project
• 81 kg of N in total plant matter
• 62 kg of N is fixed
• 40 kg of N is harvested
• 41 kg of N is left in the field
‒ But this “free fertilizer” is not the most important effect
17
Figures on N fixation

• Increased cereal yield over continuous cereal,
Australia, Spain, Ethiopia, Finland…
• Increased % protein in wheat and barley
• Broken cereal disease and pest cycles
• Improvements in soil porosity:
• Deeper root growth by following crop
• Water-infiltration / water holding capacity
• Nutrient availability (particularly P)
• Changes in soil biology
18
Improvements in following crop
exceed those due to just N

• Variovorax, Flavobacterium, others
• Live near nodule surface
• Fix CO2, increase soil organic carbon content
• Compete with other (plant-pathogenic) soil bacteria
• “Hydrogen production by nitrogenase as a potential
crop rotation benefit”
19
Hydrogen bacteria

• Plant growth-promoting (rhizo-)bacteria: PGPB or
PGPR
• Pseudomonas, Azosporillum, H bacteria
• Endophytic, epiphytic or rhizospheric
• Produce ACC (1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate)
deaminase, cleaves ACC, reduces ethylene
production, so root growth continues
• Colonize niches so not available for pathogens
• Others produce auxins that enhance root growth
20
And other beneficial bacteria

www.helsinki.fi/yliopisto 21Stoddard @ Rabat 2014
Legume roots solubilize
phosphorus
H+
Carboxylates
Fe2+
Mg2+
Ca3(PO4)2
H2PO4
-

And finally, beans are also good
for
• Bumblebees
• Honeybees
• Mycorrhizal fungi
• Grey faba bean
pollen is in the
pollen basket

So, why don’t Europeans
grow legumes?

• EIP-AGRI: European Innovation Partnership for
Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability
• Launched by the European Commission “to promote
rapid modernization by stepping up innovation
efforts”
• Focus Group on protein crops set up in 2013, met
Oct 2013 & Jan 2014
• 20 members from 11 countries, including me
• Breeders, feed scientists, feed manufacturers, advisors,
farmers
Analysis of gaps

• Given current prices of protein, starch and oil, how
competitive are the crops?
Part of the task: an economic
exercise

Crop
Current
yield
(t/ha)
Desired
yield
(t/ha)
%
increase
Oil
produced
(Tg)
Starch
produced
(Tg)
Soya 2.7 3.4 30% 3.9 0.0
Rape 3.1 3.1 0% 13.8 0.0
Sunflower 2.2 2.9 31% 20.3 0.0
Lupin 1.0 4.2 334% 1.9 0.0
Pea 2.7 4.8 76% 0.0 15.5
Faba bean 2.7 4.5 69% 0.0 11.1
Alfalfa 22.9 24.8 8% 0.0 0.0
Yield increases needed to match
value of wheat

• Gaps are large but, for faba bean and alfalfa at least,
achievable: desired yields already obtained by good
farmers in many countries
• Giving incentive to food applications raises the
potential value of the grain legume crop (meat and
dairy substitutes)
• Concerted action on yield and stress resistances can
accelerate reduction of the yield gap
• And will benefit other regions if we go about it right
• So while all crops need adaptation to CC, legumes
need it more, and can help moderate it

• SFS-7b-2015: “Management and sustainable use of
genetic resources”: 5-7 M €
• Needs at least partial focus on Europe and climate
change
• Emphasis on sustainability and efficiency
• We have many successes in our FIGS network
• Third countries welcome
• Faba bean fits the remit, so does alfalfa
• Drought, waterlogging, heat stress
Opportunity next year?

Why faba bean?

• Only faba bean and pea can be grown in all 4 major
climatic zones of Europe (Mediterranean, Oceanic,
Continental and Boreal)
• and is also well adapted to the dry areas
• Faba bean > pea:
• biomass
• protein content
• nitrogen fixation
• And we have the demonstrated successes in FIGS
on faba bean

31
Oceanic zone:
autumn sowing,
very long season;
spring sowing,
medium season
Mediterranean zone:
autumn sowing,
medium season
Boreal zone:
spring sowing,
very short season
Continental zone:
spring sowing,
medium season
Metzger et al 2007

• Proposals should implement comprehensive actions to improve the
status and use of (in particular European) ex-situ and in-situ genetic
collections.
• More specifically, they should support acquisition, conservation,
characterization/evaluation and especially the use of specific genetic
resources in breeding, farming and forestry activities.
• Proposals should undertake broader dissemination and awareness
raising activities. They should closely liaise with relevant initiatives
seeking to harmonize, rationalize and improve management of
existing collections and databases[1].
• Proposals are encouraged to include participants established in third
countries[2]. This action allows for the provision of financial support
to third parties in line with conditions set out in Part K of the General
Annexes.
• Proposals should address crop, forest and/or livestock genetic
resources.
Key paragraph of the call

• improved in-situ/on-farm management and evaluation of genetic resources by the farming sector
• productivity and economic gains in specialized farming systems
• promotion of traditional and/or under-utilized crops
• increased availability of diverse, high quality products, e.g. with enhanced health benefits
• economic benefits for farmers, other types of SMEs and regional economies through the
expansion or creation of new products and markets
• broader adaption of crops to limiting or changing agro-climatic conditions, e.g. by the use of
adaptive traits from landraces
• enhanced quality and scope of European ex-situ and in-situ collections
• enhanced methodologies for management, conservation, characterization and evaluation of
genetic resources
• increased transfer of genetic material into breeding programmes
• increased awareness of the value of genetic resources, engagement of end-users and
contribution to implementation of international commitments in the area
• more extensive use of genetic resources in agriculture
• overall contribution to food security by supporting innovations in breeding and farming
Desired impacts include
FIGS
Faba
FIGS
FIGS
Faba
Faba
FIGS

• to fix major problems of a key crop,
• to adapt it to current and future (CC) stresses
• and increase yield and yield stability,
• we can mitigate climate change,
• reduce the protein deficit,
• improve feed and food security,
• make better use of genetic resources,
• provide farmers with a desirable crop,
• and consumers with desirable food options.
• A win – win – win situation!
Our message: By using FIGS to
mine genetic resources

• Germplasm managers (ICARDA and …)
• Mathematicians and statisticians (Concordia,
Helsinki, Oulu and …)
• Genomicists, geneticists and breeders (Helsinki and
…)
• Plant scientists
People we need

• Continue the maths & stats & GIS to get more out of
the GR system
• Test the outputs by focusing on some traits of some
crops
• e.g., need to do roots of the faba wet set & dry set
• waterlogging, heat, acid soil tolerance
• what other crops/traits? Not too many because of cost,
but enough to be attractive; need at least one biotic
stress
Tasks

• The EU needs FIGS for GR of GLs to mitigate and
adapt to CC
• Shall we seek EU money to optimize FIGS?
Conclusion

THEME – 5 Climate change and an increasing protein deficit: Why Europe needs to exploit genetic resources of protein crops now change and an increasing protein deficit: Why Europe needs to exploit genetic resources of protein crops now

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THEME – 5 Climate change and an increasing protein deficit: Why Europe needs to exploit genetic resources of protein crops now change and an increasing protein deficit: Why Europe needs to exploit genetic resources of protein crops now