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| Hauptseite > Publikationsdatenbank > BIMOTEC - Buckwheat Improvement by Modern Technologies for the Establishment of a Dual-Use Crop |
| Hauptseite > Publikationsdatenbank > BIMOTEC - Buckwheat Improvement by Modern Technologies for the Establishment of a Dual-Use Crop |
| Conference Presentation (Invited) | FZJ-2025-04854 |
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2025
Abstract: Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is a globally grown pseudocereal, that had been a staple food in Germany until several decades ago, commonly grown due to its short growing period and low input requirements. However, due to low yields compared to cereal crops, it is nowadays hardly cultivated in Germany, and merely used as catch crop due to its beneficial effects on soil health. Consequently, breeding of buckwheat was neglected, resulting in no improvement of low and unstable yields. In recent years, buckwheat gained rising interest as nutritious gluten-free wheat-alternative, as grains are rich in proteins and contain health stimulating secondary metabolites. These phytochemicals, e.g. rutin and quercetin, are also present in high levels in leaves and hulls. In Asia, they are used for teas and the extraction of rutin for pharmaceutical purposes. With longer growing seasons in Germany due to global warming, buckwheat could be cultivated as second crop in a double cropping system, which increases agrobiodiversity and climate-resilience of agricultural food production and generates additional income for farmers. As buckwheat also thrives on marginal sites, its cultivation could also contribute to the recultivation of opencast mining areas.In BIMOTEC, we evaluate the potential of buckwheat as dual-use crop to leverage both grains for food production and residual biomass for the extraction of biobased compounds, such as valuable phytochemicals from leaves and hulls and lignocellulose from stems. Breeding of dual-use plants offers great potential to establish innovative bio-based value chains. To support buckwheat production in Germany and develop climate-resistant local buckwheat varieties, academic and industrial partners collaborate in an interdisciplinary approach. At Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Institute for Plant Sciences (IBG-2), the genotypic variation of root and shoot growth of buckwheat is characterized using high throughput plant phenotyping. Analysis of stress responses to drought and nutrient deficiency support the identification of favorable phenotypic traits and selection of resource-efficient buckwheat cultivars for breeding. Bioinformatic gene expression studies and rutin content analyses by the Institute for Bioinformatics (IBG-4) enable the selection of promising genotypes for the extraction of valuable phytochemicals and identification of marker genes for breeding of climate-resilient varieties. Fraunhofer IME performs in-depth metabolite profiling for the discovery of further valuable secondary metabolites, aiming to exploit results for industrial applications to increase the economic viability. The suitability of buckwheat residual biomass for the extraction of valuable phytochemicals is investigated by the industrial partner Phytowelt, who will scale up extraction processes for rutin from buckwheat for a subsequent biotechnological transformation into compounds of higher value, thereby giving rise to the establishment of novel value chains. University of Hohenheim performs complementary field trials and on-farm cultivation of buckwheat to validate process-oriented crop models for different conditions. Crop models will facilitate site-optimized crop management to maximize grain yield and quality and thereby support the regional buckwheat production. At IPK Gatersleben, genome editing technologies for the biotechnological improvement of buckwheat are being developed to adapt agronomically important traits, laying the foundation for future modern breeding initiatives.BIMOTEC’s interdisciplinary consortium contributes to re-establish the regional production of buckwheat and supports German plant breeders to resume their work on this neglected crop. The development of buckwheat as a dual-use crop for the production of bio-based compounds from green biomass supports the development of innovative value chains and contributes to the development of a bio-based industry in Germany.
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