ResPEAct

Soil-borne diseases severely impede grain legume cultivation worldwide, limiting protein production. The overall goal of this project is to improve the resistance of pea varieties against soil-borne diseases to allow higher frequencies of grain legumes in organic and sustainable production systems.

The proposed project will tackle one of the most severe problems in protein production. Soil-borne diseases in legumes, especially in pea, cause severe damage and can lead up to total yield loss. The lack of adequate resistance in current pea varieties against a complex of different soil-borne diseases impede pea cultivation worldwide. Sustainable solutions are needed, particularly for organic farmers who rely on this ecologically important nitrogen fixator. The proposed project will identify cultivars resistant to pathogen complexes under on-farm conditions using 200 SNP-genotyped pea accessions from international origin and 100 promising pea breeding lines from the Swiss organic breeder Peter Kunz. With an inter- and transdisciplinary approach, we will combine genome-wide association mapping, quantitative real-time PCR and HPTLC technology to unravel the mechanisms involved in disease resistance at the plant-soil interface considering pathogenic as well as beneficial soil microorganisms. Further, a soil-based screening tool will be developed in close collaboration with breeders and farmers that will be transferable to other regions that also suffer from soil fatigue. An online survey will be conducted to identify incentives needed for farmers to increase cultivation of grain legumes. Project outcomes will be disseminated to current and future stakeholders via multiple channels including teaching, relevant scientific and praxis journals and magazines, the WFSC outreach and dissemination activities and direct communication to breeders, farmers and consultants, e.g. via a field day. Eventually, the proposed project will considerably contribute to global food security and address main focus areas as identified by the World Food System Centre: Improving resource use efficiency and resilience against system disturbances, increasing genetic and system diversity, harnessing new technological opportunities for sustainable protein production and promote ecosystem services by increasing the rotation frequencies of legumes.