President of EUCARPIA
Message of the President Year 2007 has been of an intense activity for EUCARPIA. In this respect, seven scientific meetings were organized. Among these, there were five section meetings (Genetic Resources, Fodder Crops and Amenity Grasses, Fruit, Oil and Protein Crops, and Organic and Low-Input Agriculture) and two working group meetings (Leafy Vegetables, and Capsicum and Eggplant). I could attend three of the section and one of the working group meetings and I also received first hand reports from the others. As in the last years, I have been able to notice how these EUCARPIA events contributed to the development of the science of plant breeding and the increased interest and number of attendants to these meetings. I wish to thank the organizers of EUCARPIA meetings for all the time and effort devoted to the tremendous burden involving the organization of these events. During year 2007, I have also been very pleased to see how the Oil and Protein Crops section has organized an outstanding meeting in Budapest (Hungary), nine years after the last meeting in Pontevedra (Spain). As I told in my speech during this meeting, this section has been like the “Phoenix bird” which resurrected from its ashes and is now flying again with renewed energy. I have to give my particular thanks to the organizer of the meeting Prof. Dr. Férenc Viranyi, and to the past-president of EUCARPIA, Prof. Dr. Peter Ruckenbauer for the efforts they made for reviving this section. I was also pleased to see that several offers were made to organize the next meeting of this section, which will take place next year in Rauschholzhausen (Germany) and will be organized by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Friedt, and I hope that this next meeting will also be a success. This last year has also seen the creation of a new section of EUCARPIA, the Organic and Low-Input Agriculture section, which took place in Wageningen (Netherlands) during the celebration of the first meeting of this section. This is rare event, as no new EUCARPIA sections had been created since 1978. The constitution of this section is the follow-up of the creation of a working group on “Organic Breeding” in 2004 during the 17th EUCARPIA General Congress of Tülln (Austria) and reflects the adaptation and commitment of EUCARPIA to the new challenges for plant breeders. This first meeting, organized by Prof. Dr. Edith Lammerts van Bueren, who was also elected as new chairwoman of the section, was a complete success. Last year was also the third in a row of record number of new members. While in 2005 and 2006, 135 and 160 new members incorporated, respectively, to EUCARPIA, in 2007 we have had 206 new members! This shows that EUCARPIA and its activities are having a great appeal among the breeders community of Europe and also of the rest of the World (many new members are from outside geographical Europe), and also that the active policies of the Secretariat for attracting new members is working efficiently. During 2007 the booklet “Fifty Years of EUCARPIA (1956-2006)” was published and sent to all members. This EUCARPIA publication reviews the history of our Association and shows the many contributions that EUCARPIA has made to plant breeding since its constitution. The activities of 2008 will be dominated by the celebration of the 18th EUCARPIA General Congress, which will take place from the 9th to 12th of September of 2008 in Valencia, under the general subject “Modern Variety Breeding for Present and Future Needs”. The first and second announcements of the Congress were already send during last year and at the time of writing this message we already have more than 350 pre-registrations at hand. We hope that this General Congress, of which you can get more information in this Bulletin and in the web page of EUCARPIA will attract many breeders from the public and private sectors and will have a high scientific level, as many relevant breeders will present and discuss on the state of the art, challenges, opportunities, and new trends in the broad field of plant breeding. I hope that you can attend it! My last words are to send you a warm salute and to remind that myself, as well as the other members of the Executive Committee, are open to your proposals and suggestions for the improvement of EUCARPIA and its functioning. You can easily contact with me through my e-mail address:(jprohens@btc.upv.es).
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