The new variety of soft wheat “Géopolis”, which will be available for the next autumn sowings, promises resistance to diseases such as septoria or brown rust.
High yield and resistance to disease: a new “multi-performing” variety of soft wheat will be available for the next autumn sowings in France, the research institute Inrae and its seed subsidiary Agri Obtentions announced on Thursday.
“Named Géopolis, this variety is characterized not only by a very high yield and an excellent protein level, but is also one of the first wheat varieties considered agroecological,” underline INRAE and its seed subsidiary in a press release. This variety of soft wheat, the bread cereal of which France is the leading European producer and exporter, “is resistant to diseases such as septoria, footrot and brown rust”, and designed to require fewer fungicides and nitrogen fertilizers.
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The most common and damaging disease for common wheat, septoria attacks the leaves, which become stained brown, and can spread to the ear, causing up to 40% loss of production. Another foliar disease of wheat, brown rust notably affects the yield of the cereal by reducing the density of the grains. Footrot, which is also a fungal disease, attacks the bottom of the stem, weakening the shoots.
“Remarkable results”
Tested in the Somme, Ille-et-Vilaine and Puy-de-Dôme, the Géopolis variety stands out on the seed market which has around thirty new varieties of winter wheat each year because it “obtained remarkable results (…) in contrasting climatic conditions: hot and dry in 2023 and cold and humid in 2024”, according to Inrae.
Good news after a catastrophic year 2024, with a campaign marked by almost incessant rains which favored the proliferation of fungi: France experienced its worst harvest in 40 years, with wheat production falling by 30% to 25 million tons.
Géopolis is the result of 10 years of classic varietal research (non-GMO) and experiments by INRAE and Agri Obtentions, which presents itself as the “market leader as an organic seed company”. This new variety is “now included in the official catalog of species and varieties of plants cultivated in France” and will be available to farmers in the large production areas of the North and the Paris Basin for sowing in autumn 2025.
This is “one of the biggest Agri Obtentions launches in recent years, with a potential cultivation area estimated at 30,000 hectares from the 2026 harvest”, according to the press release.
