Plant breeders play a vital role in the promotion of food security, says Toinette van Rooyen, a plant breeder at Starke Ayres and president of the Southern African Plant Breeders’ Association (SAPBA).
She joins us on today’s episode of Farmer’s Inside Track to discuss the crucial role of plant breeding in the South African agricultural sector.
Van Rooyen explains that plant breeding is the practice of crossing, selecting and improving plants or crops for traits that are valuable to humans and animals. “By using ancient and modern techniques, plant breeding is necessary to develop resistance to pests, droughts and environmental stress conditions. Plant breeders [thus] help to secure and promote food security and a sustainable future.”
SAPBA recently launched a new campaign, calling for nominations of the most influential African plan varieties. Van Rooyen says that the campaign is a way of creating awareness of the vital role played by plant breeders in our everyday lives.
“This campaign [is] a great initiative to make people aware of the role that plant breeders are playing in their daily lives, by putting a spotlight on items that we all use and buy without realising that the plant breeder is or was involved in the development of that specific product.”
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The campaign is open to anyone who wishes to nominate an influential plant variety, and there are no limitations on the type of plant variety that can be nominated. Van Rooyen provided a number of examples, including “blueberries, peppadews, butternuts that are easier to peel, lemons without pips, tomatoes that stay fresh for longer, silage maize used by the dairy farmers, rooibos tea that we all enjoy, grape varieties used for wine, ornamental flowers that we either plant in our gardens or display in our houses, or even trees that are used for the paper that we use to print on.”
To nominate your favourite plant variety, go to www.sapba.co.za and follow the instructions or email toinette.vanrooyen@starkeayers.com.
Listen to the rest of our talk with Van Rooyen
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