Jahresbericht GZPK_2011_e_web - Getreidezüchtung Peter Kunz

Annual Report
2011
Getreidezüchtung Peter Kunz
Association for crop development
Biodynamic plant breeding
Organic food for 7 billion
people?
Finally, in November 2011 the magic
mark of 7 billion human beings living
on earth was reached: This event got
widely covered by the media, always
with an emphasis on the need for an
increase in food production through
further intensification of agriculture, i.e.
investment into more efficient agricultural
technology, chemical fertilizers,
herbicides and pesticides. Even “NZZ
am Sonntag”, one of the main Swiss
newspapers, concluded that the feeding
of 7 billion human beings won’t
work without agricultural gene technology.
It seems that “NZZ am Sonntag” is
not quite up-to-date: With the presently
produced amount of food, even 7.5
billion people could be easily nourished.
A further intensification of agriculture
will by no means solve – but on
the contrary aggravate current problems
of global food security. Taken
alone the amount of cereals that is used
as feed in animal production would
suffice to nourish half of today’s world
population! Genetically modified (GM)
crops, which are often pictured as
“magic bullets” in the complex issue of
food security do not offer sustainable
solutions to the problem, but are mere
examples of a (for some) convenient
technology: Around the world, GM
crops are now grown on millions of
hectares of agricultural land. None of
these crops were developed in order to
improve yields and thereby the amount
of food available to the human population.
They were mainly developed to
support monocultural agriculture ignoring
the important principle of crop rotation,
which in organic farming is used
to maintain soil fertility. Additionally,
patents (and the respective licenses) on
GM crops push farmers into dependencies
on multinational agro-businesses.
Millions of small-scale organic farms
show that there ARE alternatives: Organic
farming constantly evolves and
does proof that sufficient amounts of
food can be produced while at the
same time managing water resources,
biodiversity and soil fertility in a sustainable
way. Organic agriculture has
the potential to produce enough food
for all of us and – equally important –
offers a healthy and intact environment,
cultural identity and locally rooted sustainable
development of individual regions.
Contents:
Definition of OrganicBreeding 2
Financing of OrganicBreeding 3
Financing of GZPK 4
News of GZPK projects 4
Construction of new workspace 8
Getreidezüchtung Peter Kunz
Hof Breitlen 5
8634 Hombrechtikon
Switzerland
Tel: +41 55 264 17 89
www.getreidezuechtung.ch
office@gzpk.ch
Getreidezüchtung Peter Kunz is a registered non-profit association.
Donations to our projects are tax-deducible.
(Commercial Register CH-020-6.000.558-4).
CHF: 84-34345-2 (Postfinance)
€: IBAN DE47 4306 0967 4013 3967 00 / BIC GENODEM1GLS (GLS Bank
Bochum)

Sativa Rheinau AG
Organic agriculture needs complete
supply with organic seeds
and organically bred varieties.
Sativa Rheinau AG, by offering a
large and constantly growing
range of different organic seeds
contributes to that goal: The
range of products currently spans
several hundred different vegetable
varieties, herbs, flowers, but
also cover crops, fodder maize,
clover grass mixes, and cereals.
All crossings are directly on
the field. The emasculated
flowers are covered with paper
bags to protect them from
undirected fertilization with
air-born pollen.
Sowing the future! gets bigger
The initiative continues to expand:
Taken this year alone, Sowing the
future! took place on 96 fields in
11 countries to put a strong sign
against the use of agricultural
gene technology. In the following
countries Sowing the Future!
happened for the first time in
2011: Italy, Finland and Sweden.
Bioverita - Varieties originating
from OrganicBreeding
Besides breeders and marketing
businesses, also BioSuisse and
Demeter Schweiz became members
of „Bioverita”. Varieties
originating from OrganicBreeding
and products developed out of
these qualify for „Bioverita” labeling.
GZPK on Facebook
Our official Facebook page regularly
provides news in and
around the GZPK. Join us and
share our exciting experiences in
the field or OrganicBreeding!
www.facebook.com/getreidezuechtung
Seed material and OrganicBreeding - a central topic
OrganicBreeding is not a luxury activity taking place exclusively in rich countries
of the northern hemisphere. On the contrary: OrganicBreeding develops principles
and pictures with many practical experiences how decentralized seed distribution
and supply systems can function.
BioSuisse - Supporting and defining OrganicBreeding
The federal council’s response to the parliamentary proposition of Maya Graf
(Grüne BL, „Förderung der Züchtung von Biosaatgut“) requesting public financing
of OrganicBreeding was the following: Without a mandatory definition of the term
“OrganicBreeding” – which was not available by then – the proposition could not
be further processed. Around the same time in autumn 2011, BioSuisse delegates
were requesting the support of OrganicBreeding by its umbrella organization.
These two requests had the effect that OranicBreeding turned into a major topic of
the federation and a work intensive time period: Within half a year, all parties involved
(organizations; research institutes, e.g. FiBL; farmers, breeders etc.) developed
a common basis and agreed on a mandatory definition of Organic Breeding.
Hence, some kind of OrganicBreeding “constitution” could be adopted which sets
out the precise definition of the term “OrganicBreeding” and clarifies its goals. FiBL
further expanded the discussion on methods suitable for OrganicBreeding and published
a summary of the results as “basic principles” of OrganicBreeding methods in
a corresponding paper. These jointly developed basic principles serve to evaluate
and categorize breeding methods with regard to their value for OrganicBreeding. It
will be much easier now to find out whether the use of a new or slightly changed
method in OrganicBreeding can be supported. With a precise definition of the term
“OrganicBreeding”, the foundations were laid to finally request also public financing
in order to promote the organic breeding of seed.
Wheat quality 2011
The MRI (Max Rubner Institut für Sicherheit und Qualität bei Getreide Detmold)
highlighted the outstanding grain quality of Scaro and Wiwa this year: These two
varieties performed better than average compared to all other organic wheat varieties
regarding protein and gluten content, protein quality, flour yield, and baking
volume (bioland 11/2011). Scaro and Wiwa enjoy great popularity not only
amongst farmers but also – for the above mentioned reasons – amongst millers,
bakers and consumers.
2

Collaboration with the Coop
Sustainability Fund
An important collaboration with Coop
has been existing for over 9 years now:
Coop processing businesses (mills and
bakeries) use grains harvested from
new GZPK varieties for the production
of flour and organic „Bioverita“ labeled
breads (www.bioverita.ch). At
the same time, the Coop Sustainability
Fund supports several research projects,
including the pre-breeding of
wheat and spelt varieties to improve
nitrogen use efficiency and seed multiplication.
Currently, a further 3 year
agreement to support GZPK is prepared.
Multiplication of basic seed
and breeder‘s seed
The demand for breeder’s seed of
GZPK varieties has continued to increase
across countries. Sativa Rheinau
AG is our most important partner regarding
seed multiplication and distribution.
The complete seed multiplication
for Switzerland and a small-scale
multiplication of pre-basic seed are organised
and taken care of by Sativa
Rheinau AG. Unfortunately, due to the
small amounts produced the provision
of pre-basic seed is still not costcovering.
In Germany, the multiplication of seed
is coordinated by Thomas Leibinger of
Bioland Handelsgesellschaft Baden-
Württemberg. In the various states,
seed production takes place at local
multiplication organisations and businesses.
Crossings in maize are technically
much easier compared
to wheat and spelt. Maize
fields, however, offer working
conditions at sometimes tropical
temperatures.
France and Belgium are supplied
with our wheat and spelt varieties by
the seed companies Lemaire Deffontaines
in Auchy-les-Orchies and Pinault
Bio SA in Pleugueneuc
Farm saved seed - an unclear
situation
Our varieties enjoy great popularity:
Their excellent spike health accounts for
a correspondingly high seed quality
and the possibility to save seed for the
next round of planting. In principle, we
support the saving of seed material by
farmers! We do not aim for a collaboration
with the Saatgut-Treuhand, which
normally takes care of seed licensing.
Seed licences paid on a voluntary basis,
however, are not an option any
longer: This way, cost coverage on our
side as well as a continuous financial
support of OrganicBreeding by the
variety users cannot be guaranteed.
Licences for farm saved seed could be
taken care of by various organic cultivation
associations, maybe even within
the existing structures of the Saatgutfonds:
By implementing, e.g. contributions
for the cultivated area of farm
land, OrganicBreeding initiatives could
supported in a targeted way. Then, one
option to considerably reduce the cost
for farmers would be to abolish the
general licences on breeder’s seed.
Right now, these possibilities are mere
suggestions in an ongoing discussion
process amongst representatives of
various associations. From the breeders`
point of view, it would be desirable
to agree on a standardized solu-
3
Financing Organic
Breeding
Currently, most OrganicBreeding
projects are based on the private
initiative of single persons who
have strong bonds with the biodynamic
movement. In addition to
their duties connected to plant
breeding directly, these people
need to take care of the funding
from year to year, a time and
energy consuming activity. OrganicBreeding
projects usually
last and have to be planned over
a time period of 10 to 15 years.
Therefore, planning reliability
cannot be guaranteed if funding
is allocated only on a short term
basis, e.g. 1-3 years. As discussed
earlier, the idea of OrganicBreeding
as a central topic
in organic farming, has become
popular: OrganicBreeding provides
for the suitable varieties
and at the same time makes a
vital contribution to biodiversity
and sustainable crop development.
OrganicBreeding serves a
public interest, and therefore deserves
financial support on broad
(and public) basis.
Fund for Crop Plant Development
The long-term oriented goals of
OrganicBreeding, putting a
strong focus on sustainability in its
various aspects, is in stark contrast
to the current mode of funding,
which is allocated on a shortterm
basis only and has to be
newly applied for each year. The
Fund for Crop Plant Development
was established in 2009 as a
non-profit initiative by Peter Kunz.
With the help of donations etc.
the Fund aims to support OrganicBreeding
projects on a longterm
basis. For more Information:
www.fondskulturpflanze.ch or Tel.
+41 55 264 17 88.
Saatgutfonds Zukunftsstifung
Landwirtschaft
For more than 11 years now, this
fund of the non-profit GLS trust
represents an important instrument
to support OrganicBreeding
initiatives. Donations of private
persons, business organisations
and trusts, which are collected on

tion across associations. A first exchange
of ideas took place at a conference
on OrganicBreeding of the
BÖLW (Bund ökologische Lebensmittelwirtschaft)
this October: OrganicBreeding
is a central topic in organic
farming. A closer collaboration
with the various organic cultivation associations
would great!
Stop to support multi-national
seed companies!
Wherever conventionally bred plant
varieties are used, multi-national seed
companies are earning their substantial
share: Per hectare wheat € 10-15, per
ton flour € 3-4, per kg bread Ct 5-10
flow back to these companies with
agendas that do not comply at all with
any aspects of sustainability. It would
be a major step already, if the majority
of organic farms and processing businesses
would use OrganicBreeding
varieties and thereby financially support
OrganicBreeding. A close cooperation
of breeders, farmers, processing
and marketing businesses would represent
our common responsibility for the
future of crop plants.
Financing of GZPK‘s OrganicBreeding
projects
2012
2011 was characterized by a drastic
financial loss due to Euro crisis.
Whereas more than half of our yearly
budget is acquired in Euro, most of the
costs have to be paid in Swiss Francs.
As in the year before, the financial loss
equates to the yearly salary of a GZPK
employee. Due to a very generous and
unexpected donation by a funding
agency which strongly supports our
ideas, we could evade massive reductions
in expenditures, i.e. cuts in the
funding of individual projects. We hope
to close the year with a more or less
balanced financial statement. For 2012,
we calculate with a total outlay of €
750‘000 to CHF 900‘0000. This increase
in expected costs relates to the
growing size and number of projects,
e.g. in maize, sunflower, grain legumes
and wheat quality analysis. The financial
returns from variety licenses are
expected to cover 9 to 10% of our total
costs. The remaining 90% have to be
covered by private donations, as well
as donations by businesses, funds and
cultivation associations, financing which
has to be newly acquired from year to
year. To date (December 2011), the
financial commitments offered so far
equate to a fifth of the calculated
budget for 2012. We strongly rely on
financial support by donations on a
continuous basis. More than 250 private
donors express their loyalty by
supporting us regularly since many
years.
News OrganicBreeding
projects
Pre-breeding - Generating,
refining and maintaining
biodiversity
The breeding of new plant varieties
strongly relies on plant biodiversity.
OrganicBreeding often aims for different
plant characteristics than conventional
plant breeding; hence, the active
re-generation, refinement and maintenance
of biodiversity plays an important
role. The first 6-8 years of the
breeding process are exclusively devoted
to the re-generation of diversity,
and refinement by selection and genetic
fixation of desired traits. In parallel,
evaluation of the newly developed lines
starts. New lines can be either used in
further crossings and/or are included
into the variety test trial set. Important
criteria for new lines are: Disease resistance
and drought tolerance, certain
yield and quality characteristics, and a
strong ability to adopt to changing cultivation
and climate conditions; the latter
represents a big challenge to our
crops and breeders!
Quality Wheat Breeding
Due to its excellent baking quality
characteristics, our wheat variety Wiwa
has become the quality standard for
new candidate varieties. The original
crossing, which lead to the generation
of Wiwa, was done 21 years ago in
1990 by Peter Kunz. It is difficult to
beat Wiwa in its quality, however, we
strive for improvements regarding yield,
and resistance to lodging (under more
intensive cultivation) as well as rust:
Rust occurrence, in particular on early
ripening sites, seems to have increased
over the last couple of years. This year,
two new wheat varieties, A7T.9 and
APW.1110 were included into the official
variety trials in Switzerland. Both,
A7T.9 and APW.1110 are candidates in
the Top quality class. APW.1110
4
a yearly basis, are used to support
crop, vegetable and fruit
breeding initiatives located in
more then 20 different locations
throughout Europe. This fund allowed
for the expansion of OrganicBreeding
initiatives during
the last couple of years, initiatives
w h i c h n e e d t o b e f u r t h e r
strengthened and intensified. For
more information:
www.saatgutfonds.de
showed an additional increase in yield
level over the 3 year test trial period.
Early ripening, hardy
spring wheat varieties
Whenever winter wheat follows
maize or sugar beet in the crop rotation
cycle, the time point for planting is
shifted towards the end of the year. At
the same time, fast growing, early ripening
spring wheat varieties for areas
with dry summers are demanded. For
some years now, a very small spring
wheat project has been running in parallel
to the winter wheat projects: This
year we finally could select around 10
very promising lines, which will be included
into next year’s test trial set.
Pigment wheat varieties
Anthocyanes and carotenoides (Carotin,
Pro-Vitamin A precursors) are
natural pigments and secondary plant
metabolites. Due to their function in
plants and human nutrition they are
suggested to have positive effects on
human health: Anthocyanes, for example,
are reducing free radicals in the
body and therefore play an important
role in cancer prevention. Improved
amino acid patterns in pigment wheat
varieties additionally account for a high
nutritional value. In the breeding nursery
of GZPK, a whole range of wheat
lines were selected due to their red and
yellow grain colour. We expect them to
contain elevated anthocyane and carotin
levels, respectively. The most
promising of these were included into
our test trial set and will be evaluated
regarding agronomic as well as quality
characteristics. Ideally, the best lines
will be registered as niche varieties or
even be included into official variety
tests.

Quality wheat varieties for
extensive and dry sites
The availability of drought tolerant
wheat varieties will continue to gain
weight with predicted changes in climate
conditions. A shortage in water
supply during the phase of grain filling
and ripening has a negative impact on
yield as well as processing quality. Our
project exploits the fact that wheat in
Rheinau has to be irrigated under normal
conditions. Lines selected during
the pre-breeding phase are grown in
Rheinau without irrigation and are
evaluated regarding yield, quality and
disease resistance under dry conditions.
These results are compared to their
performance under „normal” (i.e. sufficient
water supply) conditions. The experimental
system is very simple in design
and therefore cost-efficient. It’s
informative value, however, depends
on the yearly weather conditions and
fluctuations in precipitation.
Common bunt resistance
breeding
The establishment of a broad range of
resistances against common bunt („Steinbrand”
or „Stinkbrand”, T. caries) –
an ancient fungal grain disease – is a
very important task for OrganicBreeding.
Unfortunately, resistance breeding
is a very time consuming and complex
process. Apart from the introgression of
bunt resistances into wheat, we also try
to find resistant spelt varieties. 2011
exemplified that not only common bunt,
but also dwarf bunt („Zwergsteinbrand”,
T.controversa) resistances are
urgently needed: Dwarf bunt infested
large areas, even at low altitudes. In
practice this would mean a doubling of
the already high work load. Right now,
the financial means as well as sufficient
manpower and know-how are missing
in order to implement an additional
dwarf bunt resistance breeding scheme.
Adequate technical equipment would
be available, however.
Spelt variety breeding
New spelt varieties do not enjoy the
same acceptance by processing and
marketing agencies as new wheat varieties.
One reason for this could be the
very specific expectations towards
spelt’s nutritional qualities. Most of our
ancient spelt varieties will not survive
the changes predicted for the next 20-
30 years in climate and cultivation
techniques – if not even the most serious
deficiencies are corrected by OrganicBreeding:
Missing spelt biodiversity
causes high susceptibility for certain
diseases and the high lodging incidence
has negative impacts on grain quality.
For the farmer, spelt cultivation is connected
to financial risk. Besides our
breeding efforts to improve certain
agronomic traits, it is of utmost importance
that spelt keeps its special nutritional
quality: Spelt is sometimes better
tolerated than wheat. In all spelt varieties
newly developed over the last 25
years at GZPK, this characteristic has
been maintained. Especially in France
and Belgium our spelt varieties enjoy
great popularity!
New spelt variety: Zürcher
Oberländer Rotkorn
Our new spelt variety „Zürcher
Oberländer Rotkorn” (ZOR) was approved
in the official variety trials; from
now on, ZOR seeds can be distributed
throughout Europe. This early ripening
variety (4 days faster than conventional
spelt varieties) brings about great improvements
regarding lodging incidence,
plant health and yield potential
(117%). Not only farmers, but also
bakers will be pleased by ZOR`s processing
qualities: The flour can take up
more than 6% water without resulting
in a sticky dough, as it is the case for
conventional spelt varieties. Thereby,
spelt bread remains significantly longer
fresh.
Spring spelt varieties
This year, for the first time, 250
spring spelt gene bank accessions
originating from around 30 different
countries were planted in Darmstadt.
The diversity in forms is huge, at the
same time however, the accessions are
simply not adapted to nowadays` cultivation
conditions: The whole experiment
was flattened to ground by heavy
rains. Many crossings were realized in
spring spelt this year, on the one hand
to mix our breeding material and on
the other hand to generate the future
basis for the selection of a spelt variety
which can be planted as winter as well
as spring type.
Tolerance of wheat and
spelt
5
Spelt is closely related to wheat. Interestingly,
spelt is ascribed a better tolerance,
from a nutritional point of view,
than wheat. It is rather unclear, what
causes this difference, since certain
proteins responsible for allergies and
celiac disease are present to the same
extent in both, spelt and wheat. There
are, however, intolerances which cannot
be explained by known immune
reactions. This issue is discussed very
controversially and topic of the work of
several research teams: Intestinal inflammatory
processes caused by a-
amylase/trypsin inhibitors are currently
suggested to play an important role in
wheat intolerance. It is important to
carefully discriminate between the inflammatory
processes described above
and celiac disease. In our opinion,
wheat tolerance depends to a great
extent on the variety – there are wheat
varieties which can be attributed a very
high tolerance – and cultivation conditions.
A pilot project to further clarify
the connection between variety choice
and tolerance was launched recently.
Triticale varieties
Our triticale candidate varieties are
characterized by a very vital growth.
This year again, they achieved very
good results in the test trials, which will
continue next year with an increased
plot size. Due to the difficult harvesting
conditions of July 2011, the seed quality
was not high enough for including
the most promising candidates into the
official variety testing.
Maize population varieties
(OPM = open pollinating
maize varieties)
In order to satisfy the demand for trial
seed of our population variety OPM10,
Sativa Rheinau AG took over seed multiplication;
GZPK continued to take care
of the elite seed multiplication. In spring
2011, OPM10 was handed over to the
Federal Office of Plant varieties (Bundessortenamt
BSA) in Hannover for
variety registration. We are looking
forward to receive the results of the
performance tests. The feedback of the
BSA so far suggests that the criteria
normally used to describe a variety
have to be adapted in order to register
a population variety: The broad variation
of single traits (e.g. colour of anthers,
coulour of silk etc.) within a
population – which definitely is the
case for OPM10 – poses a challenge
to the testing authorities: For nearly 60
years, only fully homogeneous hybrid
varieties had to be evaluated. Although
old landraces represent population
varieties, they are often degenerated

y inbreeding and are genetically
rather homogeneous. For our population
variety OPM10, the strong heterogeneity
also provides the basis for a
robust performance. Every constraint in
heterogeneity to obtain distinct – and
homogeneous – variety characteristics
would also mean a reduction in performance
for OPM10. Irrespective of
whether OPM10 is officially registered
as a variety or not, we will continue to
work on the improvement of our population
variety.
We also continued to work on the
newly launched projects of 2009
„Maize population varieties” and „Central
European Maize Biodiversity Pool”.
In Feldbach, around 180 plots representing
the offspring of last years crossings
were planted and used for directed
crossings again. The challenging
weather conditions during the whole
crossing period resulted in creative solutions
to accomplish the planned crossings
– and a very tired but happy
team. Harvesting the crossing cobs at
perfect autumn weather was in the end
the reward for an energy consuming
crossing period! The offspring of this
year’s crossings (ca. 25 crossing cobs /
crossing) will be planted next spring as
an open pollinated population for the
first time; Directed crossings and negative
selection will take place additionally.
It shall be possible to independently
save seed of GZPK population
varieties without a major loss in performance,
as it is the case for hybrid
varieties.
Biology of maize flowering
Precious sunflower seeds in
the breeding nursery are a
real gift for the birds!
Under the title of “Blühbiologische
Untersuchungen zur Optimierung der
Entwicklung offen abblühender Maissorten
für den ökologischen Landbau
an Mais” (a research project which is
embedded into the bigger initiative
financed by the Bundesanstalt für
Landwirtschaft und Ernährung (BLE)/
BÖLN “Entwicklung von Maissorten für
den ökologischen Landbau”) a dissertation
project under the supervision of
Prof. Dr. Heiko Becker is carried out in
collaboration with GZPK. This year`s
work focused on the determination of
flowering intervals (between female
and male flowering time points) of 54
maize hybrid varieties. The results
showed significant differences between
the various hybrids and enabled the
selection of two different groups, one
consisting of 8 hybrids characterized
by a very long, the other consisting of
8 hybrids characterized by a very short
flowering interval. These hybrids will be
used for the generation of two populations
this winter on La Palma, which will
be tested in exact trials to clarify the
influence of the flowering interval
(long/short) on performance. If flowering
interval impacts on performance it
could be used as an additional trait to
select variety parents. The results of the
whole project will directly be incorporated
into breeding practice at GZPK
and will also enable other small and
regional breeding initiatives to develop
well performing maize population varieties.
HQ maize varieties
Currently, maize breeding focuses on
improving biomass / energy yield. Per
year, a breeding progress of 1% yield
6
improvement is expected. In parallel, a
worldwide protein shortage exists, protein
being imported by many countries
in the form of soy, which is by and
large produced in a very unsustainable
manner. Maize varieties with an elevated
protein content and an improved
amino acid composition – so to say
„high quality” or HQ maize – could be
of great value as animal feed, e.g.
poultry. In collaboration with the Michael
Fields Agricultural Institute,
where Walter Goldstein some years
ago initiated this work, we develop
such corn maize varieties. By introgression
of late ripening American HQ into
locally adapted material, we managed
to increase the protein content of early
ripening offspring from normally 8-9%
up to 11-14%. We speed up the breeding
process by making use of our winter
breeding nursery on La Palma.
HighOleic sunflower varieties
Due to its oleic acid content of more
than 80%, HighOleic sunflower oil is
very stable, even when heated to high
temperatures. The demand for oils of
such quality is steadily increasing. The
only HighOleic sunflower varieties
available, however, are hybrid varieties
and are distributed by multinational
seed companies such as Syngenta
or Pioneer Hi-Bred. This dependency
on potentially even patented hybrid
varieties represents a major (image)
problem - not only to organic
farmers but also processing parties
(e.g. producers of bakery products,
convenience products, cosmetics…).
GZPK is developing HighOleic sunflower
population varieties, which ideally
perform similar to hybrid varieties
and which – if desired – can be used
for independent saving of seed. This
project builds upon know-how regarding
population varieties gathered in
our maize projects. In order to speed
up the breeding process, single seeds
selected due to their oleic acid content
of above 80% are multiplied in our
winter breeding nursery on La Palma.
For next summer, the first exact trials
regarding performance are planned.
Grain legumes - the protein
shortage problem
Grain legumes are an important protein
and nitrogen source in organic
agriculture. Unfortunately, the area

cultivated with grain legumes constantly
decreased over the last decades while
at the same time, the import of soy
(mainly from the American continent)
as animal feed drastically increased.
Reasons for that dilemma are found in
the low yield stability of grain legumes
and a lack of breeding progress and
improvements regarding cultivation
techniques. Our project primarily focuses
on summer pea varieties.
Pea cultivation techniques
Short intervals between the repeated
planting easily result in pea foot diseases.
Only a healthy crop, however,
can fulfill its duty in the crop rotation
cycle to fix nitrogen, maintain and even
improve soil fertility and at the same
time produce good yields. In particular
organic farms lacking farm fertilizer
and compost often struggle with diseased
grain legumes. Resistance to foot
diseases is therefore an important element
for organic pea cultivation. We
plan to evaluate various older and
newer pea varieties (broad basis of
breeding material) regarding their resistance
to anthracnose and foot diseases
in a “perpetual” pea cultivation
experiment. Thereby we hope to generate
robust starting material to initiate
the breeding of organic pea varieties. It
is quite likely that an increase in robustness
can be only achieved by recurrent
selection, which unfortunately
also implicates a rather long time period
for variety development.
Intercropping experiments: The
weather conditions of summer 2011 put
a terrible strain on our pea cultures. At
the beginning of the season, plant
growth was taking place in an unusually
fast manner due to a very warm
April and May – this also meant, however,
that the peas were quickly “overrun”
by the their intercropping partners:
Soon, it was hard to find the peas
amongst the oat! This exemplifies, how
sensitive peas (in particular the modern,
short varieties) are reacting to climate
conditions and competing intercropping
partners. Later in the season,
severe thunderstorms flattened the
whole experiment and continuous rainy
weather conditions around the harvest
period made it impossible to harvest
the test plots.
Last year’s cultivation technique experiment
(work by Peter Suter, SHL)
was continued this summer: Bedsides
oat as main intercropping partner, additional
crops were tested in order to
explore their effect on pea. The rationale
behind this project is improve nitrogen
fixation as well as soil fertility. The
following crops were tested as pea
intercropping partners: Cock’s Foot,
English Ryegrass, Landsberger Mix,
black cumin, coriander, ribwort, parsnip,
flax, gold-of-pleasure, cress, buckwheat,
carrots, various chicory varieties,
fodder beet, and oil radish. Particularly
interesting were the slowly
growing and late ripening Cock’s Foot
and English Ryegrass. In the Landsberger
Mix, the vetch quickly became
the dominating species. Carrot, parsnip
and ribwort were quite weak in development
at the beginning of the season,
after the pea harvest, however, they
quickly covered the soil and suggested
usage as green manure or cover crop.
The chicory varieties were characterized
by a faster development and
strong rooting, and were exhibiting
good cover crop qualities after the pea
harvest too. Depending on variety
type, the emphasis was put on either
root or shoot development and the culture
in general did strongly profit from
pea as intercropping partner. Gold-ofpleasure
and the combination of goldof-pleasure
& cress were particularly
suitable pea intercropping partners.
Breeding of pea varieties
38 different pea varieties were planted
in this years variety test trial: The oat
variety Typhon was used as intercropping
partner. 120 lines originating from
6 different crossings of 2010 were
planted. Selection regarding strong
growth, type of growth and yield potential
(number of pods) was performed.
The harvest of single plants
took place at the end of June, luckily
before the long-lasting rainy period
started. Selection of individual kernels
needs to be finished over the winter
months.
For the breeding of new pea varieties,
further intercropping experiments are
of utmost importance: Intercropping
partners, which are getting too dominant
during the vegetative growth
phase, have a negative impact on the
pea yield and therefore limit the
amount of breeding material. In 2012
we plan to test additional crops as pea
intercropping partners. Winter rye and
triticale, as well as late ripening fodder
grass could be promising intercropping
partners.
Of this year’s planned 26 crossings,
only 13 could be accomplished on the
field due to adverse weather conditions
during the short flowering period; 8 of
these were successful. Crossing kernels
are now sent for multiplication to our
winter breeding nursery on La Palma.
In order to improve the crossing efficiency,
we will grow the parents – at
least partly – in pots and under a foil
tunnel.
7
Outlook 2012:
Swiss Organic Farm
Day at Strickhof
The Organic Farming Day will
take place 14 th June 2012 at
Strickhof in Lindau ZH. Main topics
will be: Cereals (variety test
trials, breeding), fodder plants,
maize, oilseeds and agricultural
technology..
Visit of the variety test
trials and seed multiplication
plots in Rheinau
A visit of GZPK varieties` test
trials (wheat, spelt, triticale,
maize, sunflower) and the respective
seed multiplication plots will
take place 30 th June 2012 10:00
to 12:00. Meeting point is Gut
Rheinau, at the silo.
Open day - Breeding
nursery
We invite you to visit the GZPK
breeding nursery in Feldbach ZH
on 1 st July 2012 from 10:00 to
17:00, where you can get an impression
of how OrganicBreeding
is organized and practically done
in various cultures, such as wheat,
spelt, triticale, maize, sunflower
and grain legumes. We are looking
forward to spending this day
with you! Guided tours are offered
at 11:00, 13:00 and 15:00;
Food and drinks will be available.
Correspondence
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adapted accordingly.

Construction of new workspace in Feldbach
As reported elsewhere already, our workspace in Hombrechtikon
remains very limited - although some parts have
been transferred from Hombrechtikon to Feldbach over the
last couple of years. The rooms in Hombrechtikon at Hof
Breitlen were planned 15 years ago for 3-4 co-workers.
These days, more than 10 people are working at the GZPK
during peak periods. This number is expected to further
increase with the growing number & size of projects. Together
with the owners of the property in Feldbach we currently
try to find ways to adapt the already rented rooms in
a way that allows us to use them year round as laboratory
and general work space.
In the future, most activities are planned to concentrate
around our breeding nursery location, Feldbach, and the
time spent for transportation between the harvest itself, post
harvest activities, analyses in the laboratory, preparation of
the new plantings and the planting itself is expected be reduced
significantly.
The construction of new workspace will be organized in
several stages: First of all, we plan to build the necessary
infrastructure for post harvest processing activities, laboratory
analyses and seed storage facilities. Subsequently, the
general workspace and a conference room, which will play
an important role in the training of interns, will be set up. It
is too early for detailed plans, we hope, however, that in
spring 2012 we can provide you with detailed information
regarding the project.
We are searching for private donors, funds or businesses
that want to support our investments. At least two
thirds of the total cost have to be covered by donations and
testates, the rest will be financed via loans, free of interest.
A long-term agreement with the property owners will ensure
the protection of the investment.
GETREIDEZÜCHTUNG PETER KUNZ
VEREIN FÜR KULTURPFLANZENENTWICKLUNG
HOF BREITLEN 5
8634 HOMBRECHTIKON
SCHWEIZ
WWW.GETREIDEZUECHTUNG.CH
OFFICE@GZPK.CH