Food, Feed, Fiber, Fuel, and Industrial Products in Future: Challenges and Opportunities

摘要

Plants - and plant crops - have always been and will continue to be of strategic relevance forrnmankind. They have served as a vital source of food, feed, raw materials, energy and pleasure. One ofrnthe main concerns has always been to improve the quality of seed.rnToday, at the beginning of the third millennium, agriculture is confronted with a wide range ofrncomplex challenges. With diminishing availability of farming land, climatic changes and the threat ofrndeclining water resources, the task is to meet the growing demand for food, feed, fiber, fuel,rnindustrial products and products based on functional plants. A future-oriented, knowledge-basedrnand added-value agriculture will have to become reality. This means dematerialization andrnredisposition of resources - in other words, “Do more with less!”rnWithin this context, the possibilities offered by efficiency developments in conventional seedrnbreeding, supported by gene technology and plant genomic research, will improve the prospects thatrnthe twenty-first century will be in a position to use our limited natural resources to best effect. Thernright use and timely development of these will ensure sustainable production of food, feed, fiber, fuelrnand industrial products in the future.