Federal Office for Agriculture and Food

Resource-efficient plant production

Production of crop plants plays a key role throughout the entire value-added chain of agricultural production.

Through an efficient use of natural resources such as soil and water, efficient crops, and cultivation techniques suited to the respective location, plant production contributes to safeguarding global food security.

A continuously growing world population and simultaneous decreases in arable land pose an enormous challenge which has to be met by modern plant production in the coming decades. Efficient and commercially viable plant production safeguards domestic production and international competitiveness.

Research focuses, among other things, on new and improved breeding methods for improving performance of crop plants, preserving biological diversity, strategies for a resource-friendly application of pesticides and fertilisers, new measures to preserve soil life and soil fertility, and development of innovative techniques for precise and sustainable land management.

On behalf of the Federal Ministry for Food and Agriculture the BLE manages, technically and in terms of organization, various research, development and demonstration projects in the areas of resource-efficient plant production.