About the project

Northern periphery areas (NPA) represent the final frontier where cereal cultivation can still be expanded in Northern Europe. The current growing conditions within the NPA are however also challenging to cereal production for several reasons. The project’s objective is to increase possibilities for oat cultivation within the NPA region. Oat is selected because it has positive health effects and its consumption for food is increasing. Oat is also a resilient crop well-suited for organic farming showcasing the compliance with the EU’s Green Deal and Farm to Fork strategies for sustainable agricultural practices.

The project will gather and test a set of 400 diversity lines of oats with new and unique genetic diversity from four separate sources including modern oat cultivars, landraces and crosses with wild oats – Avena sterilis.

Work packages:

• WP1: Fueling local breeding programs with unique diversity
• WP2: Oat trials - assessment of the potential of germplasm diversity to contribute to climate adaptation
• WP3: Outreach – introduction of oat cultivars and cultivation to NPA

Project leader and project owner:
Juho Hautsalo, Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE)

• Background

  • Northern Scandinavia, Iceland and Western Ireland are scarcely populated. The communities are mostly dependent on the exploitation of natural resources like mining or fishing while agricultural land is mostly used for grazing and feed production for on-farm use. Cereal production is either forgotten or uneconomical due to lack of suitable plant material and local infrastructure. The cereal producers in these regions struggle with extreme weather conditions. Simultaneously, climate change also brings opportunities, as elevated summer temperatures are beneficial for crop production in these areas while other areas in Europe lose their productivity.
  • Increased grain production would benefit farmers, local communities, and industries. Our project is a joint effort of three competing private Nordic oat breeding companies, four universities and three research institutes that have special knowledge about oats and local needs. The genetic variation between European oats is low, and it is necessary to increase this diversity by introducing novel genetic material in order to develop new oat varieties with improved traits. Selected and genotyped oat varieties and lines with diverse genetic background will be tested in all partner countries under variable heat sum, precipitation, daylength and stress factors. This action provides an understanding of the genetics behind adaptation, a set of promising lines and cultivars for future use in farming and breeding and a great introduction to oat cultivation through local stakeholder events and shared information.
• Objectives

  • Our aim is to promote oat production in Northern Scandinavia, Iceland and Western Ireland. The project aims to pilot uniquely diverse pre-breeding material in order to establish pipelines to develop oat cultivars resilient enough to provide high quality products in present and future climates within the NPA.
  • Fueling local breeding programs with unique diversity The objective is to use modern genetics to evaluate uniquely diverse plant material, understand how different environments and breeding impact oats, and to pick material and methods for future actions needed to provide oat cultivars for NPA.
  • Oat trials: assessment of the potential of germplasm diversity to contribute to climate adaptation The objective is to conduct field-based agronomic oat research and farm trials for selecting cultivars best adapted to the climatic conditions within the NPA territory. The field trials will provide necessary phenotypic data for facilitating genetic analyses and help to demonstrate oat cultivation to farmers within the NPA.
  • Outreach – introduction of oat cultivars and cultivation to NPA The objective is to draw from other project activities and the results of these activities, to reach stakeholders connected to cereal production in the NPA region, as well as for the project partners to co-create relevant knowledge and outputs with the stakeholders.
• Participants

  External paticipants

  Project owner: Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE)

  Project partners:
  Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU)
  Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO)
  Agricultural University of Iceland
  Graminor Ltd. Lantmannen
  Teagasc – Agriculture and Food Development Authority
  University College Dublin
  Boreal Plant Breeding Ltd.
  Lund university