b'Tschoep says there are regional differences, especially inTschoep says there are a broad range of pests and diseases regions where higher pressure of plant pests and drought, yieldare becoming more and more important: Cercospora beticola, increases are lower than in other areas. beet cyst nematodes and strong Rhizomania are important When it comes to regional differences, Friehe says you havetargets in their breeding programs, alongside Rhizoctonia, the chance to offer a resistant variety to a specific pest or dis- Aphonomyces, Fusarium. With the recent ban of NNI, pests ease, which was not available before. become more of a problem, especially aphids transmitting dis-eases such as virus yellows became an integral part of our breed-BREEDING FOR THE ABOVEGROUND MATERIALing work.Stange says that in the past, sugar beet leaves were used forAfter the ban of the neonics, Friehe says Yellow Virus animal feed. During the last years, this is no longer the case. Webreeding is one of the hot spots, but also Rhizomania (+AYPR), dont breed especially for this use. Friehe agrees and is also notnematodes, Cercospora, Rhizoctonia, Aphanomyces, breeding for this purpose. Macrophomina, Stemphylium betae. In addition, insects Tschoep says that they have looked extensively into this sub- also become more and more of importance like beet moth or ject and see that variation within example protein and fiber con- diseases transmitted by leaf hoppers like Syndrome basse tent exists in their germplasm which they will certainly exploit. Richesse (SBR).Stange states their main focus is on Rhizomania, MUST-HAVE RESISTANCES Heterodera schachtii, Cercospora leaf spot and Virus Yellows, Loock mentions that resistance breeding is a key area of thewith Verlaine focussing on Cercospora beticola, beet cyst nem-sugar beet breeding activities at his company. Our com- atodes, Rhizoctonia, and root knot nematodes.pany works on the economically most relevant diseases like Rhizomania, Cercospora, Rhizoctonia, Nematodes and Aphanomyces/Fusarium plus several more. Next to the ini-tial resistance development, it becomes more and more relevant to secure the sustainability of resistances. As the example of Rhizomania has shown, pathogens change and adapt over time and are able to overcome existing resistances (AYPR strain). HeIf you would like to read more about new diseases says one way to overcome such situation is to broaden the geneticin sugar beet, the impact of less pesticides and the resistance base as it was done with RZ 2.0, a KWS technologyinnovation pipeline, please see the full version of this which combines two Rhizomania resistance sources.article on our website www.european-seed.com Source: KWSEUROPEAN-SEED.COMIEUROPEAN SEED I 9'