Table 1.

Overview of key characteristics of four breeding orientations

Orientation	Characteristic	Community-based	Ecosystem-based	Trait-based	Corporate-based
Institutional philosophy	Worldview	Holocentric	Ecocentric	Technocentric	Egocentric
	Style of thought	• Respecting cultural and ecological diversity • Focus on solidarity • Aiming at food and seed sovereignty and at social justice	• Focus on varieties that fit particular ecosystems aiming at improved predictability looking for general patterns • Utilizing functional diversity	• Focus on technical innovations and regulations • Aiming at improved efficiency in breeding • Looking for mechanisms at detailed level	• Focus on business and market development • Aiming at corporate profit, efficiency and market competitiveness • Requiring free market policies and good intellectual property protection
	Knowledge required	• Integration of natural and social sciences, transdisciplinary • Aiming at understanding relationship between society and breeding • Requiring participatory, action research methods; room for unpredicted spontaneous solutions (serendipity)	• Interdisciplinary, ecological, scientific knowledge • Aiming at traits that support ecosystem services; multi- purpose cultivars • Requiring understanding of non-linear interrelationships and trade-offs	• Specialized, technical science oriented knowledge • Aiming at efficient, (mostly molecular) selection tools to generate in-depth knowledge • Requiring complex algorithms	• Specialized, strategic and practical knowledge • Knowledge is power • Aiming at breeding by design in context of the market requiring knowledge on handling big data, modeling and statistical tools, as well as on marketing and bio-informatics
Socio-economic aspects	Organization of breeding	Local, farmer-led, collaborative, multi-actor approach	Can be centralized, regional; with generalists; can include scientist-led participatory approaches	Centralized; with specialists; top-down	Centralized; with specialists; goal driven and top down
	Type of economy	Local economy serving local community benefits and appreciation (food and seed sovereignty)	Circular economy to reduce externalities for long-term sustainability and ecological resilience	Linear economy, specialisms, ability to engineer plants, predictability driven	Linear economy based on maximizing input-output balances; economies of scale drive mergers to guarantee economic growth
Breeding technology	Breeding strategy in terms of adaptation	Adaptation to local ecology, culture and market; preferably with durable, quantitative stress resistance	Ecologically and climate robust and regionally adapted; preferably with durable, quantitative stress resistance	Wide adaptation to specific stresses, e.g., “climate-ready genes”; major genes; major QTLs, qualitative resistances	Adapted to anonymous markets; looking for small G × E; qualitative resistance
	Main selection environment	Field, on-farm, market, community	Field/agro-ecosystem	Laboratory, field	Field, laboratory, computer, market
	Cultivar type	Open-pollinated cultivars, modern landraces, heterogeneous population breeding (composite cross populations); concern for cultural and genetic diversity, and agrobiodiversity	Both F1-hybrids and open-pollinated cultivars; research strives for robust/flexible cultivars with improved below-ground traits to enhance resilience, such as strong interactions with beneficial soil microorganisms and improved root characteristics; synthetic varieties	F1-hybrids and pure lines, well-defined cultivars; F1-hybrids based on (cytoplasmic) male sterility, genetic modification, New Breeding Techniques; managing diversity in genes over time (resistance management)	F1-hybrids and pure lines, well-defined varieties; F1-hybrids based on (cytoplasmic) male sterility, genetic modification and New Breeding Techniques; no concern about possible decrease in crop or genetic diversity
Legal aspects and risk management	Intellectual property protection	Biological open-source approach, sharing; transparency; protecting farmers’ rights; respecting common pool resources; respecting seed and food sovereignty	Breeders’ rights with breeders’ exemption for open access to genetic resources to keep genetic base as broad as possible	Focus on breeders’ rights and patents; focus on good descriptions, definitions in contracts	Excluding, closed knowledge system: strong urge to protect investments with technologies and patents; reducing farmers’ rights to farm-saved seeds
	Risk management	Risk spreading and sharing by communities by partnering and by diversification in technologies (e.g., crop diversity and within-crop diversity); appreciating diversity of solutions	Reducing risks and trade-offs by enhancing ecological robustness and buffering capacity of cultivars; searching for intrinsic solutions	Reducing risks by optimizing efficiency and speed in breeding, and relying on various extrinsic solutions (e.g., clear regulations and chemical crop protectants) in case of trade-offs	Reducing risks by continuously putting new cultivars on the market in combination with use of chemical crop protectants, and avoiding any risks and claims by clear contracts in relation to royalties
	Use of crop protection	Refraining as much as possible from chemical crop protection as health of soil, plant, animal, human and planet are indivisible	Minimize chemical use to protect ecosystem resilience and search for solutions that can reduce production risks	Utilizing chemical crop protection when innovations come short to reduce risk and increase production efficiency	Including chemical crop protection to boost production; joint ventures between breeding and chemical industry