Buckwheat is a globally grown pseudocereal. Until several decades ago, buckwheat was a staple food in Germany, commonly grown due to its short rotation time and low requirements for soil preparation, fertilization, and pesticides treatments caused by good weed suppression and absence of relevant biotic stressors. However, breeding of buckwheat was neglected, resulting in no improvement of low and unstable yield, which in turn led to declined buckwheat cultivation for food production. Nowadays, it is merely grown as catch crop due to its beneficial effects on soil health. Buckwheat produces many bioactive, health stimulating secondary metabolites like rutin and quercetin, which are found in the grains, and also in leaves and hulls. Only recently, buckwheat grains gained rising interest as nutritious gluten-free wheat-alternative. Predominantly in Asia, leaves and hulls are used, too, for teas and for the extraction of rutin for pharmaceutical purposes. BIMOTEC contributes to re-establish and strengthen buckwheat cultivation in Germany by breeding of local cultivars for food production and the extraction of valuable phytochemicals in a dual-use approach. This will enable a sustainable, safe food production on the one hand and additionally reduce the utilisation of resources for the regional production of biomass for phytochemicals. Buckwheat is an ideal candidate to establish such a dual-use of a food crop, as wild accessions and most cultivars show indeterminate growth, i.e. grains are formed while vegetative growth continues, and non-senescent green leaf biomass is present at harvest.

Contacts:

Dr. Anika Wiese-Klinkenberg, IBG-4

Dr. Laura Junker-Frohn (Coordinator) /Dr. Kerstin Nagel, IBG-2