Toward understanding the governance of varietal and genetic diversity

Abstract

Varietal and genetic diversity sustain modern agriculture and is provided by breeding systems. Failures in these systems may cause insufficient responses to plant diseases, which threatens food security. To avoid these failures, an understanding of the governance challenges in providing varietal and genetic diversity is required. Previous studies acknowledge the complexity of seed breeding, framing the discussion in terms of rivalry and excludability. We consider breeding systems as social-ecological systems that focus on activities that generate varietal and genetic diversity and their adaptive ability. We use an inductive approach based on qualitative methods combined with the social-ecological system framework (SESF) to depict how highly context-dependent German winter wheat breeding, multiplication, and farming activities are. Our results show that the challenges for governance lie in providing credible and symmetric information on variety performance to all actors. This is the means to steer actors into collective action by subcontracting, buying, or saving seed. Based on our application of the SESF to the German wheat breeding system, we propose to develop a more general, sectoral SESF for the sustainable governance of plant breeding by offering an adaptable template for analyses of seed systems in other contexts.

Unpacking dynamics of diverse nested resource systems through a diagnostic approach

“…We then provide a diagnostic tool that enables a standardised approach to describing and analysing SESs, both from the perspective of smaller, well-defined SESs as well as mid-large-scale NRS. We demonstrate the applicability of our diagnostic process through comparison across two diverse and distinct systems-networks of lakes in south Indian Bengaluru (Unnikrishnan et al 2016(Unnikrishnan et al , 2020 and German winter wheat breeding systems (Gerullis et al 2021).…”

“…On the other hand, we engage with German winter wheat breeding systems representing nontraditional, technologically mediated SESs (other examples include bioenergy and climate systems). Breeding systems differ from farming systems, as the underlying RU is the flow of genetic differences contained within physical material, like seed or plant parts (Gerullis et al 2021), thus simultaneously making them divisible packages on a lower level (individual varieties or genes) and continuous streams of material on higher levels (maintained resistance to pathogens over time).…”

“…We draw upon our long-term empirical research (see for example Castán Broto et al 2021;Unnikrishnan et al 2020;Unnikrishnan and Nagendra 2020;Gerullis et al 2021) conducted in these contexts. The empirical documentation of NRS landscapes presented in Appendix 2 draws on data obtained through mixed methods approaches.…”

The New Green Challenge in Urban Planning: The Right Genetics in the Right Place

“…Plant breeding is a science-driven creative process that involves the evaluation, selection and propagation of plant populations characterized by a combination of specific desirable traits [10]. Originally, conventional breeding was exclusively based on time-consuming and expensive phenotyping observations: plant selection was accomplished through massive screening of phenotypic parameters mainly related to the morphology of the plant (fruits, flowers, stem), to its tolerance to both biotic (insects, molds and viruses), and abiotic stresses (temperature, drought, salinity, heavy metals) [11].…”

The need to enhance crop, livestock and aquatic genetic diversity in food systems

“…Farmers need to be able to pick those varieties that best fit their specific biophysical conditions (climate, pest, weed pressures), their cropping system, and other preferences (Gerullis et al, 2021). Yet, if farmers are unable to make this choice because they lack market or purchasing power, the resulting food system will be less resilient, potentially resulting in more losses and a further reduced income.…”