Denmark’s AVENUE project is testing 200 oat varieties to develop climate-resilient, nutritious crops for sustainable organic farming. By studying yield, quality, adaptability and health traits, researchers aim to create 'super oats' that support food security, lower climate impact and future plant breeding in Denmark, the Nordic region and Scotland.
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Denmark is widely recognized as a global leader in sustainable farming. It has the second-highest organic market share in the world, is a major exporter of organic products, and has supported initiatives such as the Innovation Centre for Organic Farming.
But as climate change intensifies and global food systems become more uncertain, Denmark faces an important question: how can it stay ahead while also meeting its goal of becoming climate neutral by 2050?
One promising answer may be oats.
Agri-food systems are central to the green transition. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, they account for about one-third of global human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, the world needs to produce enough food, feed and fuel.
To address this challenge, land-based climate solutions are becoming increasingly important. These include growing the right crops in the right places, reducing inputs, building systems that can withstand climate variability, and producing foods that deliver strong benefits with a lower climate impact.
This is where oats stand out.
Oats have a low carbon footprint and require relatively few inputs. They need less nitrogen, are less vulnerable to disease, and compete well against weeds. Oats are also among the largest organically produced crops in Denmark.
Now, the AVENUE project is bringing together experts in plant genetics, agronomy and mathematics to unlock the unique potential of oats.
“Oat is particularly well suited to organic production in northern Europe because of its robustness and adaptability,” said project leader Sidsel Birkelund Schmidt, Senior Adviser at the Innovation Centre for Organic Farming.
“However, the key issue for oat producers is the lack of stability in year-to-year supply and quality, largely due to seasonal fluctuations in environmental factors. We’re therefore focusing on the need to develop resilient oat cultivars and address some of the emerging challenges of the food industry to help secure food production.”
The project will assess 200 oat varieties, including 180 sourced from the Nordic seed collection maintained by NordGen. In total, the Nordic countries’ shared genebank preserves around 1,000 oat seed samples.
“In this selection, we believe we can identify the most interesting traits in this context, which may prove significant for future research and plant breeding in Denmark, but also in other Nordic countries and in Scotland,” said Jan Svensson, NordGen’s senior scientist responsible for the cereal collection. “By collecting more knowledge about the seed samples, we facilitate the utilisation of the seed collection to create better varieties in the future.”
Using this data, AVENUE will develop new breeding material suited to different climate scenarios, helping future-proof sustainable oat production.
The project will also examine the health benefits of oats, according to a press release.
Oats are considered one of the healthiest grains. They are rich in protein, minerals, antioxidants and β-glucan fibre, which is associated with lower cholesterol levels and improved blood sugar control. AVENUE will study these nutritional traits in detail to support the production of healthier oat varieties.
“The goal is to identify a ‘super oat’ with high nutritional value and stable performance in sustainable organic farming,” said Sidsel Birkelund. “In field trials at three locations last year, we found large differences among our 200 oat varieties in agronomic traits like yield, heading date, plant height, and panicle shape. Now, we are analysing the grains for quality traits, but also repeating last year’s field trials to capture seasonal variation.”
The project’s three-part approach — developing oats that are nutritious, reliable and climate-resilient under organic conditions — aims to support sustainability goals in Denmark and beyond.
AVENUE has already taken practical steps toward this goal. The 200 oat varieties were recently sown in NordGen’s fields, with trials now underway in Sweden, Denmark and Scotland. Researchers will monitor the results over a two-year period.
Funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, AVENUE is running until 2027. Data collected through the project will be entered into the Nordic Baltic Genebanks Information System, making it publicly available to breeders and the wider oat research community.
The post Denmark’s Oat Strategy Could Transform Sustainable Agriculture appeared first on Seed World.