A Long Tradition

Throughout the ages, plants have been selected and have thereby been developed into agricultural crops. Some 12,000 years ago, man has started to utilize wild plants systematically in the Middle East. They selected the most resilient plants with highest yields for sowing them in the next season and thus applied the technique of selection breeding even though the scientific background had not yet been understood. Over the centuries, this so-called bulk or mass selection resulted in higher yields, improved quality and plant health. Land races had evolved.

Systematic plant breeding based on science has only originated some 150 years ago. It had its onset with the Industrial Revolution, when more and better food was required. The targeted combination of the breeding results and of sophisticated cultivation techniques have been a motor for systematic breeding efforts.