'Plant Breeding: Sustaining the Future' Abstracts of the XVIth EUCARPIA Congress, Edinburgh, Scotland, 10-14 September 2001 ACHIEVEMENTS OF TRADITIONAL METHODS AND BIOTECHNOLOGY IN CROP PRODUCTION AND THEIR COMBINED POTENTIAL TO DRIVE BREEDING ADVANCE C.R. TAPSELL, R.W. SUMMERS, J.P. PURCELL, T.W. HOLLINS  Monsanto UK Ltd., The Maris Centre, Hauxton Road, Trumpington, Cambridge CB2 2LQ, UK

Both breeding and biotechnology have contributed to sustainability in agriculture over the recent past. To date, separately, they have contributed to advances in yield, disease resistance and have reduced the impact of agrochemicals on the environment. In wheat, maize and other crops, unit area productivity and nitrogen use efficiency have increased; maize and cotton can now be protected from pests by the use of Bt technology and Round-Up Ready systems have reduced the use of ground water sensitive herbicides. Currently breeding and biotechnology are coming together to increase the efficiency of the breeding process through the use of molecular markers for traits of interest. Increasingly in the future we see the knowledge gained from genomics and the use of a broad range of biotechnological tools having an even greater impact on food production.