AGRISAFE - Climate Change: Challenge for Training Applied Plant Scientists

Climate variability has a fundamental influence on agro-ecosystems. For a substantial part of Europe, climate change scenarios forecast significant decreases of up to 20% in plant productivity, coupled with a general decline in the stability of agricultural ecosystems. This is particularly true of the Carpathian Basin. Agriculture and food safety are extremely sensitive to climate changes, so adaptability to stress is likely to gain priority over the quantitative aspects of yield. This will demand new approaches both to plant breeding and crop production, and in research strategy. <P>

The Agricultural Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (ARI of HAS) is one of the leading centres for crop research and breeding in Central and Eastern Europe, in Central Transdanubian convergence region with a profile involving complex, interdependent, basic, methodological and applied research projects culminating in practical applications. The institute maintains close contacts with farmers and processors.