Saatzucht Bauer visits EkoNiva
19 October 2021 News from the Company
Employees of Saatzucht Bauer, one of the oldest seed companies in Germany, visited EkoNiva-Semena, the plant breeding and seed company of Ekosem-Agrar Group in Zashchitnoye (Kursk region). During the trip, prospects for closer cooperation in the field of breeding and seed production of cereals and pulses were discussed.
Ekosem-Agrar and Saatzucht Bauer have been cooperating in commercial seed breeding for nine years, providing Russian farmers with the best European cereal and legume varieties. In 2016, the partners agreed to expand cooperation on breeding programs and related breeding technologies.
This includes incorporating the genetic potential of German varieties into EkoNiva-Semena's breeding program for winter wheat. The company's specialists are currently in the process of selecting the resulting generations and testing them under different ecological and geographical conditions.
"The main goal of our project is to combine Russian winter resistance with high baking quality and productivity of European varieties in the genome of new wheat varieties. The sorts selected for further research during variety trials are 8-20% above the regional standard," says Yury Vasyukov, the head of the seed production plant in Zashchitnoye.
During the business trip, the partners discussed several working issues, including the use of modern breeding methods such as marker-assisted selection, the application of double haploid technology, and the use of modern artificial growing chambers (phytotrons), which can accelerate the breeding process.
The guests of Saatzucht Bauer also visited the experimental field and seed breeding center of EkoNiva-Semena.
As a result of the meeting, the partners agreed to conduct an ecological-geographical evaluation of new promising lines and varieties developed by the seed breeding center of EkoNiva-Semena for future registration in the European Union.