Strube as a Partner in the BeetAdapt Research Project

Agriculture in Germany and Europe is facing major challenges: climate change, varying field conditions, and increasing demands for sustainability call for innovative solutions. To remain competitive in the future, new technologies are needed that enable faster development of climate-adapted crop varieties.

Sugar beet plays a key role in this process. However, breeding this crop is particularly demanding due to long generation times and complex selection processes. Together with strong partners, Strube has therefore initiated the interdisciplinary project BeetAdapt. The aim is to combine and further develop modern plant breeding methods in order to make climate-resilient sugar beet varieties available more quickly.

The project applies innovative genome editing techniques, a modern laser-based DNA-free transformation method, as well as drone-based imaging and AI-driven data analysis. These approaches make it possible to introduce important traits such as disease resistance, heat tolerance, and yield stability into breeding programs more precisely and efficiently.

BeetAdapt is thus creating a new toolkit that lays the foundation for future breeding programs. In the long term, the project will not only strengthen the competitiveness of the German breeding sector, but also the stability of agricultural supply chains.

Project Partners

•  Strube D&S GmbH
• Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME)
• Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU)
• University of Hohenheim (UHOH)
• Institute of Sugar Beet Research (IfZ)