Soybean Demonstration Platforms: The Bond Between Breeding, Technology and Farming in Central and Eastern Europe

Europe's annual soy and soy derivates consumption is rather high – around 40 million tons grain equivalent – and the European soybeans field production is very low – up to 0.5% of worldwide production.In Europe, particularly in the European Union, soybean crop was neglected and forgotten; neglected by the policy makers and forgotten by farmers. Neglected and forgotten from both economic and agronomic perspectives.Over the years, this situation deepened and deepened, today Europe is facing an enormous trade deficit in terms of soy grains, soya-meal and soya oil.In the past three years we may observe the beginning of a changing paradigm for soybean cultivation. The soybean acreage is increasing, the farmers are reassessing more and more the soybeans in the field crops rotation and the governments started to introduce additional incentives to stimulate the development of soybean crop. This trend is noticeable particularly in Central and Eastern Europe/Danube Region, the most favorable area for soybeans in Europe.Under these circumstances, the farmers’ need for information and know-how transfer become a critical factor for success.One of the powerful tools for farmer information is the demonstration platform. The demo platform is the place where farmers can visit and discuss about various soybeans technological plots and different soybeans varieties and where the breeders can display their newly and old but improved genotypes. Definitively, the demo platform is the bond between breeding, technology and farming.