'Plant Breeding: Sustaining the Future' Abstracts of the XVIth EUCARPIA Congress, Edinburgh, Scotland, 10-14 September 2001 VEGETABLE BREEDING FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE IN BELARUS A. KILCHEVSKY, L. KHOTYLYOVA, O. BABAK, A. SCHOOR, A. KURK Belarussian Agricultural Academy, Gorky, Mogilev Region 213410

These aspects of vegetable breeding for sustainability were studied: breeding for stable productivity; breeding of energy effective varieties, especially in fertiliser application; breeding of varieties with low content of pollutants (nitrate, heavy metals, radionuclids). Relative independence of productivity and stability and possibility to combine these characteristics in one genotype was revealed. Optimisation of different stages of vegetable breeding for minimisation of genotype-environment interaction are discussed. Breeding of varieties with low content of pollutants is a cheaper and a more effective method for growing of eco-friendly produce of vegetables. Three conceptual variety models for three levels of input are distinguished: variety for biological agriculture (low input variety), semi-intensive (input efficient) variety, intensive (input responsive) variety.