Over a 23-year study at the University of Bonn, researchers found that barley grown organically adapted genetically to its environment, becoming more genetically diverse and robust compared to barley grown conventionally. The study emphasizes the necessity of developing crop varieties specifically for organic farming to harness these adaptive benefits. Credit: SciTechDaily.
com A long-term study at the University of Bonn has shown that plants can genetically adapt to the specific conditions of organic farming. In the study, researchers cultivated barley on two adjacent fields, employing conventional farming techniques on one and organic practices on the other. Over the course of more than 20 years, the organic barley was enriched with specific genetic material that differed from the comparative culture.
Among other things, the results demonstrate how important it is to cultivate varieties, especially for organic farming. The results have now been published in the journal Agronomy for Sustainable Development . At the end of the 1990s, Prof.
Dr. Jens Léon started an experiment at the University of Bonn that he knew would run for a long period of time. His research group wanted to investigate the effects that farming conditions have on genetic material in plants.
To this end, they carried out a complex long-term study over a period of 23 years at the Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation (INRES). “We first crossed high-yield barley with a wild form to increase g.