Systemic adaptation in arable agriculture: how seed breeding is engineering future resilience

It’s been just 13 months since I joined NPZ UK and in that time our industry has seen at least five major national Met Office records broken, faced two harvests severely impacted by drought and endured fertiliser price spikes of 40%. All while the political landscape shifts underneath our feet.

Today some growers up and down the country are still sitting on their hands with oilseed rape seed in shed, waiting for enough moisture to secure establishment. Hopefully, with the extremely dry conditions earlier this summer many will have chosen varieties that have the vigour for later drilling. Fortunately, rain has started falling and there is still time with plenty of potential thermal units to see crops grow and yield. It is, however, yet another example of how weather extremes and market pressures are defining crop cycles and what constitutes as a ‘success’.

Definition of success is shifting

Yields, quality and margin have and will continue to be the key performance indicators, but optimising nutrition and crop protection programmes are no longer the levers they once were. It is systemic resilience that matters and increasingly it defines “breeding quality” at NPZ UK too.

In recent years our focus on reliable yield and high vigour in oilseed rape has seen us introduce RImS gene alongside RIm7 for phoma resistance. Its most notable impact lies in its mitigation of late season stem disease which has been shown to reduce yields by up to 30%. The success is clearly shown in varieties like Maverick which topped the Recommended List and took 8% of market share this year.

Underpinning varieties like Maverick, and more recently, Karat, which features the Rlm12 gene is our combination of experience and innovation.

Global and local – a powerful dual perspective

Our parent company in Germany has both a long memory thanks to its 126-year legacy, and, having invested heavily in cutting edge technology, the innovation needed to remain at the forefront of seed breeding.

Here in the UK, the ability to run advanced breeding programmes direct from our facilities means we can see and understand the pipeline from early-stage trials through to commercial deployment.

This direct connection between research and reality allows us to build varieties that are not just genetically superior but fundamentally suited to the environment they will grow in and the supply chains they serve. The fact that they frequently top their Recommended Lists and growers consistently choose our varieties is the ultimate test, proving that this systemic approach works.

The case for pulses: reintegrating the arable system

Arguably, nowhere is a systemic view more complex than in arable rotations, particularly when considering pulses.

When there’s so much volatility, Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) options - such as legume fallow leys - are an attractive option.

Yet pulses offer fundamental systemic value both on-farm and in their supply chains. A high-quality pulse crop delivers indispensable on-farm benefits - enhanced residual soil structure and superior nitrogen fixing. They are an increasingly valuable source of homegrown protein, with a shorter supply chain, they are inherently more resilient to the geopolitical and environmental volatility outside of our borders.

However, pulses have a price challenge and that is where strategic breeding has a significant role to play. We are actively addressing the commodity price volatility head-on by refining our product offering. Having led the market with low-vicine spring beans, we’re now looking at incorporating the trait into our winter beans.

Success would solve a dual market puzzle: we maintain the consistent quality demanded by traditional export buyers while simultaneously mitigating anti-nutritional concerns for animal feed and human consumption. This new utility should increase demand, enhancing the overall value proposition of the crop, making it economically robust enough to compete against the reliable, but less enriching, guarantees offered by SFI options.

Beyond the yield metric

Ultimately, farming today requires us to shift our focus away from chasing incremental percentage points in yield. Instead, we must champion robust profitability built on low risk and high adaptability.

This is where global breeding expertise comes into sharp focus. Whether it’s stacking multiple disease resistance genes or working with novel technologies to create virus-resistant pea varieties, our objective is consistent: to manage uncertainty. We are developing crops that don't just perform well on good years; they provide reliable output when the climate throws curveballs.