Green biotechnologies: a strategic issue for the future of the French seed industry

Since man has domesticated plants and improved them, he has used every means at his disposal to do so. During the last 60 years, with the progress of knowledge in biology, especially in genetics, new tools, called "green biotechnologies", have appeared and are increasingly used. A working group of the French Academy of Agriculture has evaluated the use of green biotechnologies and identified their development potential by 2030 to meet the triple challenge of agriculture: coping with food security, respecting the environment and adapting to climate change. This report presents original information from a 2016 survey of 79 French plant breeding centres including 23 private companies and three public research centres of INRA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique; French National Institute for Agricultural Research), who were asked about the use of these tools.