Climate change at the heart of rapeseed and sunflower selection decisions

Climate change was the focus of the rapeseed and sunflower selection conferences held in Rennes on 15 and 16 January and in Toulouse on 9 and 10 February. To introduce this topic, several insights were provided, including the presentation of the findings of the CTPS Scientific Committee on “Adaptation to climate change and varietal evaluation” by Julie Gombert of GEVES. This presentation was supplemented by a species focus provided by the technical secretaries of the relevant sections: Patrick Bagot for rapeseed and Christine Fintz for sunflower.

A series of workshops then explored the question: “What role do selection and varietal leverage play in responding to climate change?”, with each group working on a specific type of stress. The results of these workshops were presented during the meeting and now constitute valuable material to feed into the discussions of the CTPS sections.