UK plant breeders want the Government to reverse its chronic underfunding of crop research by at least £20m a year.

Faced with major global challenges of food security, climate change and pressure on the world’s natural resources, the British Society of Plant Breeders (BSPB) has welcomed a recent resurgence of high-level interest in plant breeding.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Defra Secretary Hilary Benn and Government Chief Scientist Professor John Beddington have all singled out the importance of plant breeding in adapting crop production to meet the challenges.

It says a recent explosion in the understanding of plant genetics offers major opportunities for breeders to develop crops with higher yields, greater climate resilience and improved end-use quality.

But the BSPB has warned the investment needed to exploit this – such as through the development of new marker technologies, novel traits and breeding methods – cannot be met by commercial breeders alone.

BSPB has formed a new research and development working group to work on bridging the gap in funding between basic and applied research.

It will also promote improved collaboration between the public and private sector.

Dr Thomas Jolliffe, BSPB chairman, said Mr Benn had asked whether the Government, agriculture industry, levy bodies and food chain were investing enough to meet future priorities and to apply existing knowledge and science.

Dr Jolliffe said: “In relation to UK crop science and plant breeding, the answer is no – and this situation must be reversed as a matter of urgency.”

The modest income from seed royalties limited commercial plant breeders’ ability to invest in more speculative or long-term targets.

“Because of this, the market- based approach to financing near-market and applied R&D is not working, and opportunities to exploit major advances in our understanding of plant science are being lost,” he said.