Breeding
Development of plants with a higher yield, better quality, improved resistance against pests, diseases and abiotic stress factors as well as a more efficient use of water and resources. Without our expertise and infrastructure, we help you with the breeding of any plant species.
Expertise
You can call on our expertise on these and other themes:
- Breeding of feed crops and ornamentals for the sector
- An on-site production unit for the delivery of basic seed. An overview of all ILVO varieties can be found here
- Variety research for feed crops and green cover crops; the Belgian national variety list is found here
- Seed technology
- Drone technology
- Molecular markers to support breeding programs
- In vitro breeding techniques such as embryo rescue, breaking through crossing barriers and polyploidization
- Flow cytometry
- Cytogenetics
- New breeding techniques such as protoplast fusion and Crispr/Cas
Infrastructure
Our modern infrastructure is at your disposal:
- > 200 ha trial fields, including +/- ha organically managed
- 50 ha organic trial fields within an agroecological trial platform
- Trial fields with rain-out shelters for research on drought tolerance in plants
- > 15,000 m2 experimental greenhouses with separate sections especially for experiments with quarantine organisms
- Seed Pilot for post-harvest seed processing including a food-grade line
- Drones for plant monitoring in the field
- Molecular and in vitro labs
- A horizontal Genomics Platform for the study of genes and genomes
Analyses
- For ploidy measurements, ILVO has a flow cytometry analysis platform. We have experience in ploidy determination in a wide range of plant species.
Comparative variety trials: new varieties of Italian ryegrass give higher yields than before
All breeding companies can come to us to get their new varieties tested in comparative variety trials. As an independent and neutral research institute, we guarantee the objectivity of our trial results. We conduct variety trials with all feed crops such as grasses, fodder beets and maize. Do you want to know what we have learned from our variety trials with Italian ryegrass? Click here.
Partnering with us
Do you have a question, an idea or interest in working with the Plant & Soil Living Lab? Contact us right away. We guarantee the confidentiality of all your questions.