Success stories on organic seed production & breeding

This booklet is meant to inspire farmers, breeders and seed producers to devote resources to producing organic seed. It illustrates eight success stories from five European countries. Case studies cover the whole spectrum of farming from vegetable to fruit, cereal to potato and represent various stages of seed breeding, production and multiplication as well as a range of business set-ups: from individual farms to private seed companies, through non-profit organisations and cooperatives

Securing Commitments from Stakeholders in 10 EU Member States - The Organic Seed Declaration to Foster Stakeholder Involvement

The new European organic regulation 2018/848 aims to phase out the use of non-organic seeds in organic farming by 2036. At present, achieving this goal in countries with a poorly developed organic seed sector is difficult, and therefore there is a great need to increase organic seed supply by promoting the development of the organic seed sector in Europe. This paper presents a conceptual framework to secure voluntary stakeholder involvement in the process of a gradual increase in the supply of organic seeds for organic farming. Stakeholders showed a high motivation to commit to concrete action points for moving forward. In addition, further actors were involved in the fulfillment of the commitments, a sign of a positive network effect in favor of organic seed production and use. The study indicates application potential and can complement mandatory policy instruments. Further progress monitoring is necessary to ensure that established structures maintain their function, and to keep the shared sense of responsibility alive

European project on improving the competitiveness of organic agriculture by boosting organic seed and plant breeding across Europe (2017 – 2021)

European project on improving the competitiveness of organic agriculture by boosting organic seed and plant breeding across Europe (2017 – 2021

Report on the Final Stakeholder Event of the LIVESEED project

LIVESEED organised a final stakeholder event on 24th November 2020, with the main aim to share the project’s results with stakeholders and policymakers, and to receive feedback from them to feed the project’s recommendations. The event was connected to the annual Organic Innovation Days of The European Technology Platform for Organic Food and Farming (TP Organics), to broaden the audience. The event was also co-organised with a European Workshop on Organic Seed Production and Use (25th November 2020), which focused on results, best practices and solutions applicable at the national level for policymakers and different stakeholders. Due to the pandemic, the event then was turned into an online event, using the SpotMe Conferencing Tool which provided a unique opportunity to network with EU stakeholders and decision-makers, as well as to discuss and exchange with the LIVESEED project partners. The LIVESEED final conference brought together more than 250 stakeholders and policymakers from 36 countries

National Report for Romania: How to improve the production and the use of organic seeds? National recommendations for Romania

This document presents the results of a national workshop, held on 19th of June 2019 in Fundulea, Romania, as part of the Horizon 2020 funded project LIVESEED1. It aims at presenting specific policy recommendations for Romania, on how to improve the production and the use of organic seeds in the country. At the event, around 30 different stakeholders, representatives of authorities in charge of organic agriculture, certifiers, seeds companies, researchers and organic farmers and breeders gathered to discuss their views on the subject

Boosting organic seed and plant breeding efforts across Europe – Highlights and Main achievements of LIVESEED

Boosting organic seed and plant breeding efforts across Europe – Highlights and Main achievements of LIVESEE

Report on the Cross Visits on Organic Seed Production

In the framework of the LIVESEED project, four cross visits were organised to demonstrate smart practices and to promote the exchange of knowledge among stakeholders, with the aim to increase productivity and quality in organic seed production. The four cross visits were organised in France (2018), Italy (2019), Netherlands (2019) and a virtual visit due to the COVID-19 outbreak in Germany and Switzerland (2020) primarily for agricultural trainers, farmers advisors, and key stakeholders from countries where the organic seed production is less advanced in Europe

Legal framework and temporary experiment on organic varieties

Legal framework and temporary experiment on organic varietie

National Report for Hungary: How to improve the production and the use of organic seeds? National recommendations for Hungary

This document presents the results of the workshop, held on 12th of March 2019 in Budapest, funded by LIVESEED1 Horizon 2020 project. During the event, we presented and later discussed with the participants the country report, which was assembled during the project in 2017 through interviews (Annex IV). Additionally, good practices from Austria and the Czech Republic were presente