Thirty years ago there were thousands of seed companies in the world, most of which were small and family owned. To-day, the top six global seed companies control almost 50% of the commercial seed trade . Some of these companies belong to worldwide corporations that are also involved with pesticides and biotechnology. The vegetables attracting the most breeding attention vary considerably between small and huge seed companies/ corporations. In large international companies the breeding activity is more diverse, but is concentrated on the more economically important crops. In these companies, marker assisted selection has become an integral component of many commercial vegetable breeding programs . The initial aim of molecular breeding has been to supplement conventional methods with faster and more efficient breeding through MAS or marker-assisted back crossing . Molecular markers that are closely linked to the trait of inter-est may be identified and applied in gene pyramiding, facilitating introgression of desirable traits into cultivars, early selection, etc. For more complex traits conferred by multigenic traits, QTL analysis has been carried out. Markers bring additional value when they can be used to accelerate the development of new improved vegetable cultivars.
Developmental cycles of commercial hybrid cultivars range between 5 and 12 years. Besides breeding lines necessary for creating hybrid seed need to be re-fined for specific markets. All these high significant R&D investments make commercial vegetable breeding expensive. A greater desire for year-round availability of vegetables has had a significant impact on seed companies, blueberry grow pot requiring full year-round production and consequently a global presence. Unlike for instance agrochemicals ‘‘where one size fits all’’, seed cultivars need to be adapted and differentiated to suit the agronomic needs of the respective region where the vegetable is grown. Active international trade and overseas vegetable seed production by contract is common in many countries. Each multinational company vies to provide better vegetable seeds to compete with domestic seed producers. In China, whose seed market is estimated to be valued at more than US$1.4 billion, the increased recognition of new and high-yielding hybrid cultivars has encouraged the local development of a large number of vegetable seed producers and distributors. Four types of vegetable seed producers were established: public seed companies, re-search institutes, foreign seed companies, and local seed companies. Private seed companies have been expanding rapidly in recent years and there are now thousands of small firms. Some companies have started to breed their own cultivars and establish marketing networks. They play a strong role in the Chinese vegetable seed industry. About 60 foreign seed companies have opened branch companies or stations in China. Most of them not only sell their vegetable seeds but also have established breeding stations. In other southeastern Asian countries such as India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia, the percentage of hybrid vegetable cultivars is lower than in China, and so a large expansion of seed companies has not yet occurred. While there has been rapid growth in the seed markets of developing countries due to a shift away from farm saved seed, the seed markets in developed countries, particularly those of Europe and Japan are stagnant.
In Europe and the United States, the seed industry has been concentrated and is largely in the hands of large corporations and many small firms are closing . Vegetable breeding strategy and targets are dependent on market trends. Successful breeders anticipate changes in the market by developing new cultivars that are ready to be released to the growers when their demand in-creases. Therefore, it will be interesting to see how breeding companies react to changes in vegetable consumption and to evaluate the potential influence that the vegetable market and growing systems may have on breeding targets and priorities. As stated biodiversity is the basis for plant breeding. Selection is impossible without diversity and new cultivars for farmers and growers cannot be developed with-out it. This makes access to this variation essential for breeders. As referred above, about one half of the total number of vegetables cultivated in the world get commercial breeding attention by seed companies and, of those, only 17% are in large scale breeding programs, fostering a need for serious attention to maintenance of vegetable crop biodiversity. There has been a severe decline in the vegetable cultivar genetic base, as evidenced by the significant reduction, especially within the last 50 years, in the number and range of vegetable cultivars grown. During this period vegetable genetic diversity has been eroding all over the world and vegetable genetic resources are disappearing, on a global scale, at an un-precedented rate of 1.5% 2% perannum.Widespread adoption of simplified vegetable systems with low genetic diversity carries a variety of risks including food insecurity. In the short term, such systems risk potential crop failure. In the longer term, they en-courage the reduction of the broad genetic base that con-tributes to high yields, quality traits, disease and pest resistance, etc. and thus compromise the future genetic health of vegetables.
Especially prominent among the ‘‘enemies’’ of genetic diversity are the commercial markets and economic social pressures that have influenced breeding practices that promote uniformity, encouraging extensive cultiva-tion of preferred improved and hybrid vegetable cultivars with insufficient diversity. In addition, globalization has stimulated the consolidation of vegetable seed companies into huge corporations and the decline of small seed companies that serve local and regional markets. In con-sequence some vegetable breeding programs have been merged or eliminated to reduce costs. Thus, fewer and fewer companies/corporations are making critical decisions about the vegetable research agenda, and the future of vegetables worldwide. Inevitably, two things will happen. There will be fewer vegetable breeders in the future and growers will be dependent on a narrower genetic background that could contribute in the near future to food insecurity for poor growers and consumers. Also, with the advent of genetic engineering, these huge seed corporations are also assuming ownership of a vast array of living organisms and biological processes. Of equal concern are expanded uses of legal mechanisms, such as patents and plant breeder’s rights that are removing vegetable plant germplasm from general public use . Intellectual property rights for plants was in-tended as a defensive mechanism to prevent the loss of invented cultivars to competitors. However, with the more stringent enforcement of plant breeding rights, hydroponic bucket and particularly with the application of the utility patent law in the United States to protect all forms of an innovation, this has become an offensive weapon to stifle competition and inhibit the flow of germplasm and information. This can have serious implications for the future conservation of vegetable genetic resources and for world food security . Some land races and old open-pollinated cultivars of vegetables have existed for long periods outside the commercial and professional plant breeding circles be-cause they have been kept alive within communities by succeeding generations of seed savers. Unfortunately, active seed savers tend to be more and more a minority among the millions of vegetable growers. Due to the demand of commercial markets and the professionalization of the sector, many growers are no longer saving seeds. This is an additional threat to genetic diversity. So continued survival of landraces and open-pollinated cultivars of vegetables depends largely on popular interest and initiative as well as preservation in gene banks. We should be alerted and concerned about the loss of biodiversity in vegetables and about this impact on food security. Vegetable growers have an important role in conserving and using vegetable biodiversity.
The future of world food security depends not just on stored vegetable genes, but also on the people who use and maintain crop genetic diversity on a daily basis. In the long run, the conservation of plant genetic diversity depends not only on a small number of institutional plant breeders and seed banks, but also on the vast number of growers who select, improve, and use vegetable diversity, especially in marginal farming environments. That is why we should be also alerted and particularly alarmed by the current trend to use improved and hybrid vegetable cultivars exclusively. Growers do not just save seeds, they are plant breeders who are constantly adapting their vegetable crops to specific farming conditions and needs. For over 300 vegetable generations, vegetable growers have been selecting seeds and adapting their plants for local use. This genetic biodiversity is the key to maintaining and improving the world’s food security and nutrition. No plant breeder or genetic engineer starts from scratch when developing a new cultivar of tomato, pepper, cabbage or lettuce. They are building on the accumulated success of generations of growers, who have selected and improved vegetable seeds for thousands of years. If poor small-scale growers in marginal areas stop saving seeds, we will lose genetic diversity. Growers will lose the means to select and adapt vegetable crops to their unique farming conditions, which are characterized by low external inputs. Hybrid seed technology is designed to prevent growers from saving seed from their harvest, thus forcing them to return to the commercial seed market every year. Hybrid vegetable seeds alone, and used globally, can be a dead-end to biodiversity. If growers abandon completely their traditional vegetable landraces in the process of adopting only hybrids, crop genetic diversity achieved over centuries will be lost forever. Many agronomic benefits will be lost to worldwide vegetable growers and thus to consumers. The exclusive adoption of hybrid cultivars in marginal areas may restrict the vegetable producing capacity of farmers, it will destroy biodiversity, and it may contribute in the long-term to food insecurity. There is a growing awareness world-wide about the need to conserve plant germplasm for the use of future generations. Consequently, considerable media attention has been given to the creation of the Svalbard global seed vault and the related storage of seeds of many economically-important crops . However, the lower “status” of most of vegetable crops means that they are not treated with the same degree of priority and concern. Furthermore, the fact that many vegetable crops of comercial and horticultural significance are vegetatively propagated and not seed propagated restricts the options for their conservation other than through relatively ex-pensive live plant collections. There are also considerable ongoing efforts by national governments and international organizations to preserve plant vegetable germplasm in gene banks. This is a valuable but static approach, as further evolutionary changes and improvements will not occur until the seeds are planted. It is also an activity that relies heavily on continued political stability and support, including sustained governmental funding. Active and positive connections between the private breeding sector and large-scale gene banks are required to avoid possible conflict involving breeders’ rights and gene preservation.
The diversity of crop species will be promoted by the maintenance of crop gene banks by governments and non-governmental organizations, the continued use of diverse sources by plant breeders, especially in the public sector, and by the use of local cultivars and landraces by farmers. Breeders play a key role in determining what we eat, since the plant cultivars they develop begin the dietary food chain. There are considerably fewer vegetable plant breeding positions than in field crops, and vegetable breeders are often required to be knowledgeable about a more diverse group of crops. Vegetable crops include many different crops morphotypes with great diversity within. So careful consideration must be given to the type of graduate education appropriate for preparing new vegetable breeders, as well as continuing education to keep them current and productive. Since many breeders will work on different vegetable crops during a career, how can they be prepared for inevitable change, the types of which are difficult to imagine? Who would have predicted in 1990 that a mere 20 years later, many plant genomes are sequenced and DNA-based selection methods linked with phenotypic selection and electronic data handling are becoming standard practice? Few of the vegetabe plant breeders beginning their careers two decades ago had much knowledge about and experience with DNA technology, but in order to be productive and competitive today they have had to learn about and integrate new technology and methods. There is no reason to suppose that changes will be any less dramatic for future vegetable breeders. As with other courses of study, plant breeding graduate education must strike a balance between broad preparation and specialization. The number of vegetable breeders is small compared to other crops, therefore few if any graduate programs will be designated solely for vegetable. So too, limited number of university faculty working on vegetable crops will make it challenging to assemble a critical mass of faculty with research and teaching appointments and interest in a range of vegetable crop areas. Some pertinent questions for preparation of vegetable breeders should include: i) what types of new positions will be available in vegetable crop breeding; ii) what level of formal education will be appropriate; iii) how should preparation differ for global careers that may be in developed and developing countries/regions; iv) what skills will be needed for success; v) what vegetable crops should graduates be knowledgeable about; vi) are there educational knowledge, experience and skills that differ for horticultural vs. other agronomic crops; vii) what is needed to prepare vegetable breeders for career changes among different vegetable crops; and viii) what continuing education should be available for practicing breeders throughout their careers.