Mexico Promotes Plant Breeding in Agriculture

During the seminar "The  Role of Plant Breeding and Plant Variety Protection to Enable Agriculture to Mitigate and Adapt to Climate Change," in Geneva, Switzerland, Sol Ortíz, General Director of Policies, Prospecting and Climate Change, Mexico’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER), discussed the importance of generating and sharing knowledge to face future challenges regarding food security.

Plant breeding is the process of improving the genetic potential of plants. Plants can be improved for food, feed, fiber, fuel, shelter, landscaping, ecosystem services and a variety of other human activities.

At the event, Ortíz pointed out that Mexico applies different breeding treatments, depending on the production modalities of irrigation or seasonal agriculture. "For seasonal agriculture, native seeds are used or improved according to the levels of rain. Experts select attributes to increase the phenotypic plasticity of different crops to respond to climate variability,” she explained. 

She stressed the importance of plant breeding resources for agriculture, food security, nutrition, adaptation and mitigation, ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, pollination, pest and disease control as well as the provision of food and fibers. Moreover, she highlighted the importance of linking all small-scale producers and Indigenous farmers to the processes of seed improvement.

At a national level, the National Institute of Forestry, Agricultural and Livestock Research (INIFAP) is the public organism with the highest number of records of improved plant and seed varieties. Additionally, she said that the National Seed Inspection and Certification Service (SNICS) has developed programs to strengthen germplasm banks for agricultural varieties, as well as create and maintain community seed banks. "SNICS conserves more than 64,000 varieties of more than 1,300 species," she pointed out. 

Ortíz underscored that Mexico has 5,409 registered varieties of 139 crops, of which 1,900 are under the breeder’s rights scheme, 1,100 in the National Catalog of Plant Varieties and 2,300 are registered on both schemes. In the specific case of corn, INIFAP is working on shorter-cycle varieties. So far, the institute has developed 48 breeding programs. Furthermore, it also works with garlic, onion, chili, tomato, potato and green tomato, reaching 81 varieties. 

Ortíz said that in addition to plant breeding, it is important to complement agricultural production with sustainable management practices such as crop rotation and association, silvopasture systems, cover crops and an appropriate application of fertilizers, among others. “These practices should adapt to each region in order to optimize the use of available resources and increase the resilience of the productive system. To achieve successful results, private and public organisms as well as academic institutions and local producers need to work together,” Ortíz concluded.