Challenges facing European agriculture and possible biotechnological solutions

Agriculture faces many challenges to maximize yields while it is required to operate in an environmentally sustainable manner. In the present study, we analyze the major agricultural challenges identified by European farmers (primarily related to biotic stresses) in 13 countries, namely Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, UK and Turkey, for nine major crops (barley, beet, grapevine, maize, oilseed rape, olive, potato, sunflower and wheat). Most biotic stresses (BSs) are related to fungi or insects, but viral diseases, bacterial diseases and even parasitic plants have an important impact on yield and harvest quality. We examine how these challenges have been addressed by public and private research sectors, using either conventional breeding, marker-assisted selection, transgenesis, cisgenesis, RNAi technology or mutagenesis. Both national surveys and scientific literature analysis followed by text mining were employed to evaluate genetic engineering (GE) and non-GE approaches. This is the first report of text mining of the scientific literature on plant breeding and agricultural biotechnology research. For the nine major crops in Europe, 128 BS challenges were identified with 40% of these addressed neither in the scientific literature nor in recent European public research programs. We found evidence that the private sector was addressing only a few of these “neglected” challenges. Consequently, there are considerable gaps between farmer’s needs and current breeding and biotechnology research. We also provide evidence that the current political situation in certain European countries is an impediment to GE research in order to address these agricultural challenges in the future. This study should also contribute to the decision-making process on future pertinent international consortia to fill the identified research gaps.农业在追求产量最大化的同时，还需兼顾环境可持续性运营，其间面临诸多挑战。本研究针对欧洲13个国家（比利时、保加利亚、捷克共和国、法国、德国、匈牙利、意大利、葡萄牙、罗马尼亚、西班牙、瑞典、英国及土耳其）的9种主要作物（大麦、甜菜、葡萄、玉米、油菜（oilseed rape）、橄榄、马铃薯、向日葵、小麦），分析了欧洲农户所识别出的主要农业挑战——此类挑战多与生物胁迫（biotic stresses）相关。多数生物胁迫由真菌侵染或虫害引发，但病毒病害、细菌病害乃至寄生植物也会对作物产量与收获品质造成显著影响。本研究探讨了公共与私营研究部门如何通过常规育种、标记辅助选择（marker-assisted selection）、转基因（transgenesis）、顺式转基因（cisgenesis）、RNA干扰（RNAi）技术或诱变育种等手段应对上述挑战。研究采用全国调查与科学文献分析结合文本挖掘的方法，对基因工程（GE）及非基因工程技术路径进行评估。本研究亦是首次针对植物育种与农业生物技术研究领域的科学文献开展文本挖掘的相关报道。针对欧洲这9种主要作物，研究共识别出128项生物胁迫相关挑战，其中40%的挑战既未在科学文献中被提及，也未被纳入近期欧洲公共研究计划。研究发现，私营部门仅能应对其中少数几类“被忽视”的挑战。因此，农户的实际需求与当前育种及生物技术研究之间存在显著差距。本研究同时证实，部分欧洲国家当前的政治局势，会对未来应对此类农业挑战所需开展的基因工程研究造成阻碍。本研究亦可为未来填补已识别研究空白的相关国际联盟的决策进程提供参考。