Unlocking Genetic Resources of Buckwheat to Diversify Swiss Agricultural and Food Systems
Fellowship Duration: May 2021 – Jan 2025
PhD Student: Fabian Hess
Principal Investigator: Prof. Bruno Studer, Department of Environmental Systems Science, Institute of agricultural Sciences, Molecular Plant Breeding, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Project Partner: Philipp Holzherr, ProSpecieRara, Basel, Switzerland
Research Fields: Plant Breeding, Orphan Crops, Buckwheat, Genomics
Project Description
The excellent nutritional quality of buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) as well as its high ecological value makes it an extremely valuable crop for the future of agriculture. However, the lack of efforts to genetically improve buckwheat – combined with the tremendous progress achieved in breeding programs of other staple crops – led to the nearly complete disappearance of buckwheat cultivation in Switzerland. Consequently, most of the domestic genetic resources of buckwheat were lost over the last decades.
This project aims at reviving a large and diverse buckwheat collection consisting of 170 accessions of worldwide origin. The material was multiplied to produce the seeds needed for conducting the planned trials and analyses. These field trials are conducted over multiple locations and years to accurately describe the phenotypic diversity of the accessions and to identify agronomically and nutritionally interesting traits. In addition, the genetic diversity within and between the accessions is characterized by means of genome-wide allele frequency fingerprints derived from genotyping by sequencing. Combining the phenotypic and genotypic information in genome-wide association studies will allow to link plant traits to genomic markers that promise to speed up breeding efforts in the future.
To ensure that the buckwheat varieties meet the consumers’ taste and find their way into farmer’s fields, this project is carried out in collaboration with ProSpecieRara – a Swiss Foundation dedicated to the conservation and utilization of cultivated plants and farm animals. In the setting of this collaboration stakeholder workshops were organized to identify the needs of different actors in the buckwheat value chain and to actively involve them in the selection of suitable accessions as well as establish partnerships for processing and marking of buckwheat.
With this project we anticipate identifying buckwheat varieties adapted to Swiss production conditions and to the market’s needs. Furthermore, we aim to prepare the ground for buckwheat improvement through breeding by establishing genomic tools which will facilitate the process of combining beneficial traits of multiple accessions. The buckwheat varieties are made available through the Swiss National Gene Bank (PGREL/RPGAA) and the outcomes of the project will be shared through stakeholder meetings and scientific publications.
This fellowship is hosted by the Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center and the World Food System Center.
Activities and Publications
Doctoral thesis (ongoing)
PSC-Blog article (2024) on Buchweizen als wertvolle Pflanze auf dem Feld – SRF Radiosendung
PSC-Blog article (2023) on Fachtag Buchweizen – Ein Rückblick
PSC-Blog article (2022) on Unlock valuable protein sources in the pseudocereal buckwheat
Conference poster at 3rd European Buckwheat Symposium (Online, Sep 2021)
Radio Station podcast (SRF 1, 2024) on Buchweizen als wertvolle Pflanze auf dem Feld
Newspaper Article (BauernZeitung, 2023) on Buchweizen: Das Nüsschen aus dem Blühstreifen hat das Zeug zur Haupt- und Zweitkultur
Secondment
During his secondment at the premises of ProSpecieRara, Fabian played a key role in organizing and executing the stakeholder workshop “Fachtag Buchweizen”. This event brought together relevant stakeholder including among others farmers, millers, academics and policy makers. Fabian worked on defining the workshop’s goals and objectives in consultation with stakeholders, developing discussion formats, and finalizing the event’s schedule. In addition to logistical coordination, such as sending invitations, promoting the workshop, and arranging accommodations, Fabian designed field maps and a phenotyping exercise to make scientific field research tangible for the workshop participants. Through this process, the student gained valuable experience in stakeholder engagement, event planning, and collaborative problem-solving, while deepening his understanding of effective workshop organization and communication strategies to reach an audience with highly diverse backgrounds.
Duration: Jan 2023 – Mar 2023
Stakeholder Workshop
The stakeholder workshop was framed as “Fachtag Buchweizen” which took place in August 2023. Details about the workshop have been summarized in a blog article and the partners webpage.
As the “Fachtag Buchweizen” in 2023 attracted a lot of attention from stakeholders and participants expressed the wish for a second event the decision was made to organize a second stakeholder workshop in August 2024 focusing on processing, product innovation and marketing.
