75 years of agricultural plant breeding

»Breeding and selection for northern crop
margins» is the theme for this special issue of
the Journal of Agricultural Science in Finland,
issued on the occasion of the 75th year of ac-
tivity of The Hankkija Plant Breeding Insti-
tute. The choice of topic indicates the work
of this Institute, i.e. to promote the reliabili-
ty of crop production in the world’s northern-
most region of agriculture.

In addition to our own research staff, the
authors include plant breeders and scientists
from various domestic and foreign institutes.
Each writer works on the northern frontier of
his crop species, and is seeking solutions for
breeding plants with high adaptibility to the
extremity of the growing environment. The ar-
ticles deal with a wide range of cultivated
plants, from perennial grasses and overwin-

tering rye to annual field crops, small fruits
and decorative rhododendrons.

The Hankkija Agricultural Cooperative was
established by Finnish farmers in 1905. Its
plant breeding activity started in 1913, the aim
being to serve the development of Finnish
agricultural production by providing highly
adapted varieties originating from target-
oriented breeding programmes. In the begin-
ning of this century, a few foreign-bred culti-
vars were known only in the south of Finland,
whereas the non-bred local varieties, even of
cereals, were dominant.

Almost all Finland lies north of the 60th
parallel (Fig. 1). This fact determines the main
goals of all plant breeding done in the coun-
try. The varieties which can be cultivated in
our fields must be well adapted to the short

Fig. I. The agricultural production of Finland is performed north of the 60th parallel, influenced varying by
the Atlantic and the eastern continental climate.

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and relatively cool growing seasons with ex-
treme photoperiodic conditions. The cold
winters with a long-lasting snow cover heavi-
ly stress the genotypes of all biannual and
perennial field crops.

Domestic plant breeding has played a deci-
sive role in agricultural development. The
result has been full self-sufficiency as regards
the main field crops. The maintenance of this
self-sufficiency is also the goal of future
agricultural policy.

Altogether 109 varieties of 19 crop species
have been released from the Hankkija Plant
Breeding Institute. The variety list of the Na-
tional Board of Agriculture for 1987 includes
26 varieties from our Institute. In 1985, 33 %
of the cereal acreage was sown with Hankki-
ja varieties. In addition to cereals spring
and winter wheats, winter rye, spring barley
and oats the present breeding objects in-
cluded in our breeding programme are her-

bage crops (timothy, meadow fescue, tall fes-
cue and red clover), lawn species (meadow
grass, red fescue and bent), oil crops (spring
turnip rape and spring rape) and seed legumes
(pea and faba bean).

Cultivars bred and selected for the extreme-
ly northern conditions are seldom competitive
in more southerly fields. However, a few of
our varieties have been widely cultivated
abroad: the Olli barley (released in 1927) in
Canada, the barley varieties Tammi (1938),
Pirkka (1952) and Otra (1959) in the USSR,
and Sisu oats (1948) in Sweden. Internation-
al attention has now been paid to Hankkija’s
semileafless protein peas. Of them, the varie-
ty Helka (1987) is being cultivated or is un-
dergoing official trials in several European
countries.

E.I. Kivi
Director of the Institute

SELOSTUS

75 vuotta lajikkeenjalostusta Hankkijan
kasvinjalostuslaitoksella

Tämä Maataloustieteellisen Aikakauskirjan numero on la». Jokainen kirjoittaja työskentelee lajin tai kasviryh-
toimitettu vuonna 1913 perustetun Hankkijan kasvinja- män viljelyn pohjoisella raja-alueella ja käsittelee sen aset-
lostuslaitoksen 75-juhlavuoden merkeissä. Artikkelien yh- tamia ongelmia kohteensa jalostamisessa tai jalostustut-
teisteemana on »Jalostus ja valinta viljelyn pohjoisrajal- kimuksessa.

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