The NatGenCrop project was presented at XXI Eucarpia in Plovdiv

An international research team from CRSBG, Dr. Eng. Alitsiya Georgieva, Dr. Avanish Rai, and Dr. Nikolay Anachkov, presented their scientific research within the NatGenCrop project during the 21st EUCARPIA meeting of the tomato working research group, which took place on June 10-12, 2025, in Plovdiv.

The event was organized by CRSBG's partners – IZK "Maritsa" and the company Geosemselect, attracting over 200 delegates from 24 countries worldwide. The conference officially began with a speech by the regional governor of Plovdiv region – Prof. Dr. Hristina Yancheva, as well as a film dedicated to Acad. Hristo Daskalov – creator of the first hybrid tomato variety in Europe.

Key highlights of the three-day event included innovative solutions and scientific approaches to addressing challenges related to abiotic stress (drought and high temperatures) in tomatoes, presented through lectures, posters, and interactive sessions to improve collaboration between science and industry.

The NatGenCrop project includes one of the large-scale studies currently being conducted at CRSBG. Its goal is to improve the nutritional properties and tolerance to abiotic and biotic stress of crops such as tomatoes and peppers. These two crops are economically important as they are among the most cultivated vegetables in the EU. Improving their stress tolerance through scientific methods is crucial, as more frequent droughts, heatwaves, and cases of soil salinization (from poor water quality or degraded soils) threaten yields worldwide.

A significant number of greenhouse and field experiments, combined with laboratory analyses, have already been conducted within the project by CRSBG researchers, and further research activities are planned until 2027, so that the project can offer significant results for sustainable cultivation of stress-tolerant crops globally.

The project is being implemented under the ERA Chairs program of Horizon Europe, funded by the European Union. The scientific work is also supported by the European Regional Development Fund, which ensures the sustainable development of CRSBG through the "Research, Innovation and Digitalization for Smart Transformation" program 2021-2027