Fifty years of breeding in field crops, at the National Agricultural Research and Development Institute Fundulea, Romania

The National Agricultural Research and Development Institute (NARDI) undulea celebrates, in 2007, fifty years of research on field crops at Fundulea. The paper is a short presentation of the main results obtained in field crops breeding during this period. It summarizes the contribution of the institute to the genetic improvement of important crops, such as wheat, maize, sunflower, forrage crops etc. The Fundulea Institute had pioneering activity in breeding hybrid sunflower, releasing the first commercially grown hybrids in 1971. Many hybrids bred at Fundulea were registered and have been cultivated in countries like Italy, France, Spain, China etc. Semidwarf winter wheat varieties bred at Fundulea have been grown on half to two-thirds of Romania's wheat acreage for the last 30 years, and some of them are registered in Hungary, Canada, Turkey etc. Genetic progress in breeding triticale made this new crop a reality in Romanian agriculture. In maize Fundulea Institute contributed to the rapid replacement of local populations and open-pollinated varieties by introduced double hybrids, and then to replacing those with better adapted single hybrids, obtained with adapted inbred lines. During 50 years of maize breeding, 82 hybrids with large diversity of traits were released. Semidwarf winter durum cultivars with suitable winter-hardiness for Romania were released. Nineteen cultivars of six-row and two-row winter barley and eight early maturing rice varieties were released. As result of over 40 year of breeding at Fundulea, 36 varieties of soybeans, beans and peas with improved adaptation were registered. In fodder crops, breeding work resulted in the release of 60 varieties, including 20 alfalfa cultivars, 2 sainfoin, 2 field peas, 1 vetch and 35 grasses varieties (8 orchard grass, 6 Italian ryegrass, 4 hybrid ryegrass, 2 perennial ryegrass, 3 tall fescue, 1 smooth brome, 5 Sudan grass and 6 millet). In total 316 cultivars have been released by the institute, representing an important contribution to higher and more stable yields in field crops.