IMPROBUCK

Buckwheat has long been an important part of many diets around the world. However, buckwheat cultivation is declining globally and has practically disappeared in Switzerland. The main objective is to characterize the variability of the crop’s agronomic and quality traits to identify those that could make buckwheat more viable for producers and appealing to consumers.

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is a dicotyledonous pseudocereal crop from central Asia and an important component of several food preparations around the world. Despite its high nutritional quality, buckwheat cultivation has declined globally and is practically not existent any more in Switzerland. Factors such as asynchronous seed production and its self-incompatibility constitute important obstacles in terms of agronomic management and development of stable breeding lines, limiting potential refinements in terms of quality. The high dependence of buckwheat traits on environmental conditions, the lack of stable breeding lines and the not-well-understood variability within accessions limit development of a generation of improved cultivars with stable yield, compound composition and agronomical traits. The research focus of this proposal is on the collection, description and selection of accessions with contrasting agronomic and quality traits that could be of interest for a breeding program and on the characterization of the genetic basis of those contrasting traits. Field and greenhouse studies are proposed in a timeframe of two years complementing basic aspects of plant phenotype, genetics, agronomic management and nutritional quality. By establishing a solid basis to initiate a buckwheat breeding program, the proposal has the potential to contribute to a long-term increase of the use of buckwheat, therefore increasing diversity in current food systems.