Dr. Zoltán KOVÁTS
Developing new plant cultivars instead of plant breeding
Lecture of PhD Zoltán KOVÁTS, plant breeder

(Summary)

In his introduction, Zoltán KOVÁTS, an internationally acknowledge plant breeder, proudly talked about the results achieved in the development of new plant cultivars in Debrecen, and about the research and educational work that supports this. In the past few years, exhibitions of reputable foreign plant breeders became very popular in our country. These exhibitions give us the opportunities to get to know new and valuable plant varieties; however most of them are not easily adaptable in our continental climate. Plant varieties, bred in different, ocean climates, are expensive to maintain and bloom for a much shorter period than our home varieties.

These facts are well known for the professional plants man. In his lecture –amongst other interesting topics– he talked about the history of our agricultural training in Debrecen, the origin of the European and the Hungarian plant breeding, the traits of plant trading in the XIX and XX century, the most pressing questions of new plant cultivar development and the present situation of the Hungarian plant breeding. “Because of lack of funding scientist can only count on the rich gen pools of plants –Mr. KOVÁTS sais– but for this very reason we have excellent chances for good results in selecting high stress-tolerant plants”.