Effect of variety on nitrogen use efficiency of bread-wheat: from breeding programs to farm practice

Keywords: Nitrogen Use Efficiency, NUE, bread-wheat, Apparent Fertilizer Recovery, Nitrogen Utilisation Efficiency, farm advice.

Optimising bread-wheat Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) in most Western European countries pursues three objectives: reaching a high yield, obtaining enough grain protein concentration to satisfy market requirements and preventing nitrogen losses into the environment. One of the ways in which French farmers can improve their NUE is to grow varieties with improved NUE performance – if genetic progress is sufficiently marked and if farmers have relevant NUE characterisation information on the varieties that are available. This paper describes the recent progress being made in France to characterise the NUE of different genotypes, along the continuum from breeding programs to practical information provided to farmers, including changes in the variety registration process. It will demonstrate that we have built a strong research continuum from breeding program to ‘farmer’s real life’, to better characterise the impact of bread-wheat variety on NUE. Along with other projects aimed at finding new traits and new genomic sequences related to a better NUE and building new tools to phenotype crops more rapidly, we think that the results will significantly contribute to new agricultural systems combining high production performance and rational use of inputs.

J.P. Cohan, Arvalis-Institut du végétal, Boigneville, France.

F.X. Oury, GDEC, INRA, UCA, Clermont-Ferrand, France.

A. Mailliard, GEVES, La Pouëze, France.

J. Lorgeou, Arvalis-Institut du végétal, Boigneville, France.

C. Le Souder, Arvalis-Institut du végétal, Boigneville, France.

S. Praud, BIOGEMMA, Chappes, France.

M.H. Bernicot, GEVES, La Pouëze, France.

J. Le Gouis, GDEC, INRA, UCA, Clermont-Ferrand, France.

31 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, 53 references