In the actual context of climate change an actual question is how we could assure the food resources by preserving in the same time the natural ecosystems?

The development of a sustainable agriculture in susceptible ecological systems it is a challenge in the next years. To satisfy the basic needs and improve the sustainability of crop production systems it will be needed more agricultural and forestry products, feed for animals, fibers and biofuels obtained from the same land use or even smaller, by using less chemical inputs and water and with an increasing distribution of pests and diseases.

Conventional agriculture in developed countries is very industrialised and relaied on high quantity of inputs like fertilizers and pesticides. In spite of critical need for agricultural yield and improving the management practices, actual sistems are not yet environmentally friendly, due to the fact that could cause many problems to ecosystems and human communities. Inacceptable levels of environment degradation and economical problems are cited as key problems of intensive agriculture. Specific problems of industrial agriculture should to be improved: soil erosion and degradation, water quality effects, limited recicle of nutrints, excess use of ferilizers and pesticides, decrease of biodiversity in the agroecosystems (for cultivated species and coexistence of them).

Plant breeding and crop technology improvement could lead to improvement of yield on existing cultivated lands. Therefore, it is possible to assure an important contribution to foster biodiversity by developing new productive genotypes - drought, diseases and pests tolerant for overcoming the impact of global warming to agroecosystems but also by suitable agricultural technologies that preserves the water and soil resources.

This Conference was organized by National Agricultural Research and Development Institute Fundulea in colaboration with Romanian Academy through National Institute for Economic Research “Costin C. Kirițescu”, Center for Study and Research for Agroforestry Biodiversity “Acad. David Davidescu” and Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences “Gheorghe Ionescu-Şișești”.

By organizing this conference, we hope that scientists will present a more clear and versatile vision regarding the targeting of suitable plant varieties/hybrids, agricultural technologies and practices for developing a sustainable agriculture, capable to assure and maintain the equilibrium of environment componets.        

 Dr. Ing. Petcu Elena

Scientific Director, NARDI Fundulea