The Role of Future Crops in the Sustainable Development of Crop Production

Bedő, Zoltán – Láng, László

Keywords: zöld forradalom, agrárkutatás, növényi produktivitás, technológiai fejlesztés, növénynemesítés, Q01

Besides the necessity of maintaining the ecological equilibrium, economic and environmental protection reasons also questioned the sustainable development of crop production at the end of the last century. The increasing climate extremes reduced yield stability on the scale of increased productivity and caused greater yield fluctuation. Food safety became an important social issue. As a consequence of climate change, new pathogens and pests appeared and those that already existed became more dangerous due to the appearance of new, aggressive races. The application of fertilisers at high doses was unacceptable from the viewpoints of both environmental protection and economics. By the end of the first decade of the 21st Century, it was clear that the sustainable development of crop production and the issue of our planet’s future food needs could be solved by ensuring the rational management of natural resources in addition to increasing productivity. It became clear that the ecological equilibrium had to be maintained too. The modernisation of research and development and the breeding of new crop species and technologies are important factors in ensuring sustainable development. Knowledge transfer has to be accelerated from basic research through applied research to farmers. Interdisciplinary programmes including both life sciences and social sciences have to be prepared. It is advisable to implement two-way communication that spreads not only from research to consumers but provides feedback for research as well. A new strategy for publicly funded research has to be formulated and real, live relationships must be developed between public and private research. Concerning the new public Hungarian agricultural research, the most important functions should be defined according to the needs of the whole society.

Full article