Cooperatives a model to improve organic seed production (Liveseed Practice Abstract)

Building cooperatives sounds easier than it is. Some general recommendations are: - Build trust – an on-going process - Define clear goals – common aims, clear rules - Have a clear timeline – go step by step - Communicate clearly – among members, with customers – to maintain trust - Have the same starting point: 100% organic seed as basic requirement for all members – same values, same attitude - Gain legal advice for establishing a cooperative in your countr

State of the art of existing breeding initiatives & actions planned to strengthen collaborations

State of the art of existing breeding initiatives3Introduction In order to strengthen organic breeding, it is important to know the state of the art of existing initiatives, programs and networks of organic breeding and breeding for organic, and in what crops most organic breeding is currently conducted. Although the number of organic breeding initiatives are growing, as a whole, organic breeding is still relatively marginal compared to conventional breeding. Next to more financial support, another solution to make organic breeding more effective is by improving collaborations. Collaboration can entail, among others, improved exchange of knowledge (breeding tools and approaches) or the exchange of material. In LIVESEED, several activities have been set up to improve collaboration, such as crop‐specific breeding activities, crop‐group activities and systems‐based breeding approaches. For each of these activities, timelines have been developed to strengthen collaborations. This shall improve on one side the capacity building of existing organic plant breeding programs for respective crops and help to identify breeding gaps for those crops, where no activity could be mapped so far

M3.5 ‐ Organic plant breeding in a systems‐based approach and integration of organic plant breeding in value chain partnerships

Developing organic breeding is a key challenge for the organic sector. It is necessary to better adapt varieties to the specific needs of the organic sector (disease resistance, taste, weed suppressing ability, etc). It is also important to enable the organic sector to face the requirements of the New Organic Regulation (EU 2018/848). From 2036, exemptions to the use non‐organic seeds will not be granted any more (Article 53, Regulation 2018/848). The active participation of breeders, farmers, processors, retailers and traders is crucial to develop organic breeding. They all play a critical role and share the responsibility in upscaling organic plant breeding and ensuring future food security, food quality and climate robust agriculture as well as integrity of the value chain. Even consumers could take part in supporting organic plant breeding with informed purchases. On the 12 of February 2019, IFOAM EU, the Louis Bolk Institute (Netherlands) and FiBL Switzerland co‐organized a workshop ‘Organic plant breeding in a system‐based approach and integration of organic plant breeding in value chain partnership’ as part of the Horizon 2020 project LIVESEED. The workshop took place at the largest organic trade fair at Nürnberg Messe biofach to reach out to different actors of the organic sector. The main objective of this workshop was to gather interested stakeholders across the value chain to discuss the responsibilities and their potential concrete engagements in facilitating organic plant breeding. Organized as a world café workshop 1, the participants had the opportunity to discuss three main issues: - Why should different value chain actors support organic plant breeding? - The advantage of organic plant breeding for the value chain (farmer, processors, traders). - The advantage of organic plant breeding for consumers and society (local and global). This report describes in detail the main conclusion of the discussions held during this workshop

Gender and management of crop diversity in The Gambia

It is sometimes argued that women play a more important role in seed and diversity management than men, and that women have greater abilities in managing crop diversity. In The Gambia, men and women also have the belief that women are better in managing and identifying varieties than men. This article focuses on the role of gender in farmer management of crop diversity in two crops, rice which is cultivated by women and pearl millet which is cultivated by men. First a historical overview is given of the role of gender in farming. The management of crop diversity in rice and millet and gendered knowledge in The Gambia is described in detail. Lastly, a grouping experiment with rice panicles and millet spikes is described. The article shows that clear differences exist between the farming practices of men and women, and these are based on a complex interplay of socio-economic and agro-ecological factors. But the differences in seed selection practices of men and women are small, and those differences that exist can best be explained by a complex of agroecological factors and rice and millet characteristics. The grouping experiment showed no significant differences in the way men and women grouped rice panicles and millet spikes. Together these findings suggest that the supposedly better skills of women in crop variety management are related to their gender identity rather than to any biological differences. Instead of taking the supposedly strong skills of women in seed and variety management as a starting point for agricultural development, it is better to understand the underlying mechanism that keep women in disadvantaged positions in rural societies and to try to change these mechanisms for their benefit. Key words: The Gambia, gender, agricultural labor, crop variety managemen

LIVESEED workshop on new concepts and strategies for organic plant breeding: Internal report on the results of Workshop 1 for input from formal and informal breeders involved in breeding for organic farming systems for priority setting of research needs for organic plant breeding and selection methods

Innovations in organic breeding are urgently needed. These innovations can include methodologies, methods and tools and cover a wide range of areas. In order to understand how these methodologies, methods and tools are interconnected and what exactly their value can be for organic breeding, and organic agriculture at large, a first concept of a systems-based breeding approach was developed. At the workshop held at the University of Kassel, Witzenhausen in Germany on February 21 2018, the concept of the systems-based breeding approach (Figure 1) was presented and discussed with all participants. The aim of the workshop was to introduce and discuss a common future vision and paradigm change for a more integrated systems-based breeding concept

System-based breeding approach

1. Observations and trends 2. Framework of analysis 3. Concept of systems-based breedin

Towards resilience through systems-based plant breeding. A review

How the growing world population can feed itself is a crucial, multi-dimensional problem that goes beyond sustainable development. Crop production will be affected by many changes in its climatic, agronomic, economic, and societal contexts. Therefore, breeders are challenged to produce cultivars that strengthen both ecological and societal resilience by striving for six international sustainability targets: food security, safety and quality; food and seed sovereignty; social justice; agrobiodiversity; ecosystem services; and climate robustness. Against this background, we review the state of the art in plant breeding by distinguishing four paradigmatic orientations that currently co-exist: community-based breeding, ecosystem-based breeding, trait-based breeding, and corporate-based breeding, analyzing differences among these orientations. Our main findings are: (1) all four orientations have significant value but none alone will achieve all six sustainability targets; (2) therefore, an overarching approach is needed: “systems-based breeding,” an orientation with the potential to synergize the strengths of the ways of thinking in the current paradigmatic orientations; (3) achieving that requires specific knowledge development and integration, a multitude of suitable breeding strategies and tools, and entrepreneurship, but also a change in attitude based on corporate responsibility, circular economy and true-cost accounting, and fair and green policies. We conclude that systems-based breeding can create strong interactions between all system components. While seeds are part of the common good and the basis of agrobiodiversity, a diversity in breeding approaches, based on different entrepreneurial approaches, can also be considered part of the required agrobiodiversity. To enable systems-based breeding to play a major role in creating sustainable agriculture, a shared sense of urgency is needed to realize the required changes in breeding approaches, institutions, regulations and protocols. Based on this concept of systems-based breeding, there are opportunities for breeders to play an active role in the development of an ecologically and societally resilient, sustainable agriculture

Toolkit to foster multi-actor research on agrobiodiversity

This toolkit provides building blocks to help create a multi-actor approach to participatory and collaborative plant breeding, and action-research for high quality food systems. It results from the wide range of experience acquired during the Diversifood project to boost cultivated diversity for organic and low-input agriculture and from the collective reflection of all the partners of the project. The toolkit does not simply provides recipes to apply but illustrates some common prerequisites and traits that emerge in multi-actor projects. In other words, the toolkit proposes strategic «building blocks» to support the successful implementation of the approach. The building blocks have emerged from the feedback provided by Diversifood partners, based on their experiences, as well as from the literature

Werken aan diversiteit in tarwe en groenten : voor meer variatie op het veld, in het winkelschap en op het bord

Van 2014 tot 2016 heeft het Louis Bolk Instituut onderzoek gedaan naar de mogelijkheden van een breder assortiment in gewassen voor de teler (op het veld) en voor de consument (op het bord). Aanleiding voor het onderzoek is dat het aantal rassen dat aangepast is aan biologische teeltomstandigheden (rassen die dus zonder gebruik van kunstmest en bestrijdingsmiddelen kunnen) beperkt is en blijft. Veel veredelingsbedrijven kunnen vanwege de ontwikkelingskosten geen aparte rassen ontwikkelen voor een kleine markt. Meestal worden rassen uit het bestaande (gangbare) assortiment geselecteerd voor biologische vermeerdering. Bovendien zijn biologische telers en handelaren meegegaan in de huidige eisen voor hoge opbrengst en uniforme eindproducten. Het aanbieden van zaadvaste rassen in plaats van bijvoorbeeld hybride rassen is daarmee commercieel niet meteen vanzelfsprekend. Divers en Dichtbij Van 2014 tot 2016 heeft het Louis Bolk Instituut onderzoek gedaan naar de mogelijkheden van een breder assortiment in gewassen voor de teler (op het veld) en voor de consument (op het bord). Dit onderzoek is samen met Estafette Odin BV en de biologische dynamische telers GAOS in Swifterbant, De Groenen Hof in Esbeek en de Maatschap Dames en Heren Vos in Kraggenburg uitgevoerd. Het doel van dit project Divers en Dichtbij was de diversiteit op het veld en op het bord te vergroten. Daarmee bedoelen we niet alleen meer verschillende rassen, maar vooral andere type rassen of populaties die zelf meer genetische variatie bezitten. Dat kan door te kiezen voor zaadvaste rassen bij groentegewassen en populaties bij granen. Tot nu toe is populatieveredeling alleen toegepast bij granen en nog niet of nauwelijks bij groentegewassen (zie voor definities Box 1 op pagina 7). Dit betekent ook een keuze voor andere manieren van veredelen en selecteren. Aanleiding voor het onderzoek is dat het aantal rassen dat aangepast is aan biologische teeltomstandigheden (rassen die dus zonder gebruik van kunstmest en bestrijdingsmiddelen kunnen) beperkt is en blijft. Veel veredelingsbedrijven kunnen vanwege de ontwikkelingskosten geen aparte rassen ontwikkelen voor een kleine markt. Meestal worden rassen uit het bestaande (gangbare) assortiment geselecteerd voor biologische vermeerdering. Bovendien zijn biologische telers en handelaren meegegaan in de huidige eisen voor hoge opbrengst en uniforme eindproducten. Het aanbieden van zaadvaste rassen in plaats van bijvoorbeeld hybride rassen is daarmee commercieel niet meteen vanzelfsprekend. En toch heeft ons brede speurwerk in dit project wel degelijk een aantal interessante zaadvaste rassen opgeleverd! Want gelukkig zijn er in Europa en Amerika diverse biologische veredelaars actief in het veredelen van zaadvaste rassen en populaties. De informatie in deze brochure is bedoeld voor telers en andere ketenpartijen om meer te leren over de mogelijkheden van zaadvaste rassen bij groenten en populaties bij tarwe

Toolkit to foster multi-actor research on agrobiodiversity

This toolkit results from a wide range of experience acquired during the Diversifood project to boost cultivated diversity for organic and low-input agriculture and from the collective reflection of all the partners of the project. It does not simply provide recipes to apply but illustrates some common prerequisites and traits that emerge in such projects. In other words, the toolkit proposes strategic «building blocks» to support the successful implementation of the approach