WHITE PAPER ON FUTURE RESEARCH NEEDS IN SUSTAINABLE CROP PRODUCTION

One of the 21st century's grand societal challenges is ensuring food and nutrition security (FNS) for a growing population under climate change and pressure on natural resources. To meet this challenge, the EU Member States established the ERA-NET Cofund SusCrop under Horizon 2020, which aimed to strengthen the European Research Area (ERA) in the field of Sustainable Crop Production. SusCrop brought together owners and managers of national and regional R&D&I programmes of EU Member States, EU-associated countries and Third countries with significant experience in research funding and coordination who participated in funding 38 research projects over the period 2018- 2023. Additionally, the partners of SusCrop analysed research gaps, through desk studies, exchange with stakeholders, and 2 expert/stakeholder workshops. The conclusions of this work are presented here. Work in SusCrop highlighted both research needs and a methodology for working. The initial focus concerned protein crops, primarily for food but also including feed. Here the term protein refers to proteins coming from plants (but not algae), including e.g. grasses. Further, the focus was on production (crop improvement and cultivation) but taking into account the value chain. More generally, there was a focus on “niche crops”, which have huge potential in the future, given that there is sufficient investment in research and a step-by-step approach to developing and sharing knowledge on such crops