LIVESEED at BIOFACH e-Special edition

Even in this time of pandemics, the LIVESEED project will actively attend this year’s e-Special edition of BIOFACH. More specifically, it will be there with two sessions.

New Plant breeding Techniques and Organic Farming

On 17 February 2021, from 12:00 to 13:00 CET, the LIVESEED project will present its session on “New Plant breeding Techniques and Organic Farming: scientific, regulatory and consumer issues”.

Moderated by Dr. Susanne Padel (researcher at Thünen Institut), Dr. Monika Messmer (Group Leading Plant Breeding at FiBL Schweiz), the session will see Martin Sommer (Policy Coordinator on GMOs, Patent and Seeds at IFOAM Organics Europe) and Prof. Raffaele Zanoli (Professor at Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy) present & discuss the scientific controversies and the regulatory issues related to New Plant Breeding Techniques (NPBTs) as well as the results of a European survey on consumers attitudes and preferences on NPBTs in organic farming.

Innovations on organic seed and plant breeding and presentation of new European organic seed router database

On 19 February 2021, from 14:00 to 14:45 CET, the H2020 projects LIVESEED, BRESOV and ECOBREED will present their strategies on boosting organic seed and plant breeding across Europe. Project partners from FiBL will also showcase the new EU organic seed router database. This new tool will increase transparency and reduce administrative burdens for the sector. Moreover, seed suppliers will be able to manage their seed offers to all EU member states with one single login. National authorities can also revise seed offers and update their national databases.

The session will be moderated by Msc. Xenia Gatzert (Business Unit Manager at FiBL Germany) and Dr. Monika Messmer (Head of Plant Breeding Group at FiBL Schweiz). Featured speakers will be Prof. Dr. Branca Ferdinando (Associate Professor of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops at University of Catania, Italy) and Dr. Meglič Vladimir (Head of the Crop and Seed Science Department at Agricultural Institute of Slovenia).

Find more information on the congress programme of BIOFACH e-Special by visiting the official website.