Research project Future proof crops for the Flemish farmer

General introduction

Through variety improvements, agricultural crops can be made more resilient to drought. FUTUREADAPT aims to facilitate those adaptations to drought and salinization, due to climate change, in Flanders by building a specialized and state-of-the-art phenotyping installation for field research under drought-controlled conditions. The plant will bear the name HYDRAS. The project is also committed to modeling the impact of drought on crop yields.

Research approach

It enables ILVO to perform phenotyping not only aboveground but also underground. This makes the installation unique in Europe. HYDRAS allows understanding of plant responses to drought in a realistic growing environment and at all levels. Through the trials in the HYDRAS environment, the agricultural crops on which ILVO breeds and which benefit from drought-tolerant traits get a much richer "picture" of their above- and belowground response to (artificially administered) drought stress. The result of the data collection from HYDRAS is that candidate cultivars (hybrids) are more aptly selected for their drought tolerance. These can be classic existing crops from the Flemish rotations, or innovative crops (such as chickpea and quinoa).

Relevance/Valorization

The new infrastructure is set up as an open-innovation platform. In addition to its own breeding programs, this makes it available to various other public and private stakeholders.
Intensive knowledge sharing is taking place around HYDRAS. The know-how in (the whole of) Flanders around plant breeding is being strengthened. Good for the agricultural sector and the food supply, which becomes better armed against the negative climate impact on harvests.