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In 1988, we were contacted by the "Societe Botanique de France" and the French section of The International Association of Plant Tissue Culture (IAPTC) to organise a symposium on "Biotechnology and its impact in Agriculture". The committee members of these two French associations had the vision to realize that this was a time to depart from the traditional themes in plant science. Moreover, since one of the major areas of our interest for the past few years has been that of "Plant biotechnology", we welcomed the idea of organizing this meeting. Another reason for the acceptance of this challenge was the location of Amiens in Picardy, and the enthusiasm of the local governing authorities. Picardy region is one of the major agricultural zones in France, and indeed of Europe. This fact and several other aspects of Picardy Agriculture suggested that this conference would be an excellent opportunity to combine the basic aspects of plant tissue culture and genetic engineering with the applications for plant improvement.