Webinar: Climate resilient plant breeding

This was the second webinar in a thematic series organized under the COP Agriculture Community of Practice (CoP), led by Catalonia. The session brought together regional partners from Catalonia, Kyoto Prefecture, Ljubljana/Slovenia, Île-de-France, and Val-de-Oise to share research, innovations, and strategies related to smart and climate-resilient agriculture, with a particular emphasis on climate resilient plant breeding.

Professor Anna Maria Gras Moreu, Director of Agrotech-UPC (Catalonia) , in her key-note speech, stressed climate change is making Mediterranean farming hotter, drier, and less predictable (e.g., Catalonia?s 2021?2024 drought). She urged a combined approach?better agronomy/irrigation, agrivoltaics, interoperable data tools, and breeding for stable yields?since no single solution is enough.

Pep Bantula Panella, Institute of Reseaerch Technology Agriculture (Catalonia), highlighted the XreliTech network and projects spanning genomics, reclaimed water, AI/satellite disease management, and soil restoration, plus a long-running partnership that produced heat-adapted red apple and pear cultivars (e.g., Tiller and Tutti).

Kyoto Prefecture’s Mutsumi Yamazaki (Dr.), Director General, Biotechnology Research Department and her colleagues described how climate change, labor shortages, and demand creation are shaping R&D, including new rice and sake varieties, smart agriculture, and microbiome-based biocontrol innovations.

Bo?tjan Petelinc Head of the Department for Climate Policy in Agriculture, at the Ministry of Agriculture (Slovenia) showed the country has advanced national climate policy and agricultural monitoring laws, supported by EU CAP funding and projects, with collaboration interests spanning irrigation, greenhouses, advanced field tech, and geothermal energy. Nata?a ?tajner (Prof. Dr.), of the University of Ljubljana and Head of Study of Biotechnology / Academic Research highlighted genomics and biotechnology work on stress responses and plant breeding (including late-flowering apples, virus/viroid research in grapevines and hops, and CRISPR-enabled breeding approaches),

Île-de-France’s Elea Walters introduced how the region is investing in agricultural robotics and climate-adapted breeding, including a program that delivered new sugar beet varieties tolerant to yellows virus. There was also Val d?Oise?s presentation of interdisciplinary work from Olivier Gallet (Prof. PhD) from CY Cergy Paris University. Prof Gallet presented his work on protein-derived sound sequences to influence plant stress responses, with reported lab results and large-scale vineyard field studies suggesting reduced ESCA-related vine mortality.