Breeder, a vocation at the heart of the technological revolution

This is why we have asked three generations of breeders to answer our questions: Michel Baron, 60, Manager of Technological Watch; Thierry Ronsin, 48, Manager of Research into autogamous plants; and a young recruit Stefan Abel, 31, rapeseed breeder.

Three different profiles with a common denominator: immense curiosity in their work.

>>> Michel Baron, Thierry Ronsin, you have been part of the evolution in the profession. What was your job like when you arrived?

Michel Baron : I began work in Limagrain’s research department in 1973. In France, it was a time when the private seed sector was growing, encouraged by innovation and new techniques, particularly at INRA, which in 25 years had turned productivity and national agriculture around.
However, very quickly, the necessity for an international vision in breeding became apparent: to be present in the world, where genetic variability existed. This was the beginning of the internationalization of research at Limagrain.

Thierry Ronsin : When I began work in the research department at Groupe Limagrain in 1983, an enormous revolution was taking place, with new physiology techniques, quantitative genetics and the arrival of plant biotechnologies. For me, a young breeder, it meant the promise of new tools to be able to characterize our plants more successfully
and to be more efficient. Michel Baron was the first to encourage us to use these “new technologies”.
But the company had doubts about this disruption. I discovered that there were two opposing ideologies: one, Rousseauist, which idealized the past and the other, science for science's sake, which idealized future progress in science. Even among breeders and
scientists, these two trends were in opposition. Some breeders had the feeling that the heart of their work was being taken away from them!

>>> At the beginning of this new millennium, how can the work of a breeder be defined?

Michel Baron : Today, the work of a breeder is not the affair of one man working alone in the middle of his plants, but rather the work of a multi-disciplinary team.
He is the conductor of an orchestra!

Thierry Ronsin : It is in fact impossible for one person to master all the knowledge necessary for the improvement of plants. We are therefore looking to extend our recruitment profiles. The breeder has become a team leader. He assembles around him people with varied skills: agronomist, phytopathologist, biometrician, genetician, in vitro culture expert, or industrialist.
The objectives are the same. Agriculture is still producing food and feeding us, but it must also meet the needs of society, which have evolved. What has radically changed is the internationalization and industrialization of research.

>>> Stefan Abel, you were recruited less than a year ago as a breeder. How do you see your job?

Stefan Abel : It is a job that involves collaboration between teams specialized in molecular marking, bioinformatics, the production of double haploids, technological evaluation…
The team is international, consisting of five breeders, in three breeding centers in France, Great Britain and Germany. My expertise is different from that of my agronomist colleagues. I have a PhD in genetics and I did my thesis on “Fixing heterosis on allopolyploid plants” (University of Göttingen in Germany). We can share our knowledge and learn from each other. What attracted me at Limagrain was the size and the international character of the Group: also its cooperative status, and I expect to have work in the company for a long time. In addition, as research into rape is relatively new, it is very motivating.

>>> Michel Baron, Thierry Ronsin: In conclusion, how can you summarize this job?

Thierry Ronsin : The work of a breeder is a job for the future, exciting, evolving fast and at the heart of a major technological revolution.

Michel Baron : This change of scale in the world of genetics, which has been triggered by new tools for the fine and direct analysis of the genome and the possibilities for the treatment of large amounts of data, will enable us to improve efficiency in breeding and really use the potential of genetic variability, or biodiversity as it is now called! I am sure that the younger generation will be able to create these “plants of tomorrow”, which will be more successful and efficient for our environment.