News & Events

novel concepts and tools to predict seed vigor and plant robustness

Novel concepts and tools proposed for seed vigor prediction linked to plant holobiont robustness – LIVESEED partners contributed

An international team of young and senior scientists proposed novel concepts and tools to predict seed vigor and plant robustness. Scientific concepts are based on the crucial role of alternative respiration for plant holobiont stress responses. This study was coordinated by Birgit Arnholdt-Schmitt (University of Évora) including results of the LIVESEED project and the international network FunCROP from India, Brazil, Ecuador and Portugal. It also illustrates a rapid way from advanced fundamental research to successful validation in the field. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2019.01134/full

Common Bunt

Webpage on Common Bunt Management released by ITAB Institute

LIVESEED project partner ITAB Institute just released a brand new webpage on common bunt management. Previously available in French only, thanks to the commitment of ITAB’s Stéphanie Klaedtke, this very useful piece of information has now been translated into English and thus made available to a much broader public. The webpage, hosted by ITAB’s website, covers a comprehensive range of questions on the matter of common bunt: What is it? What are the symptoms and how to detect them? How to treat infected seedlots?  What are the levers of bunt management? Once more, a heartfelt thank you to our partner

Cover report political bottlenecks liveseed

New LIVESEED reports published. We need defined minimum standards for derogation reports & harmonized data collection

The LIVESEED project published new reports and results from its research and activities. Political obstacles to the implementation of the rules on organic seed We analysed political obstacles to the implementation of the Rules on Organic Seed. The Report on Political Obstacles and Bottlenecks on the Implementation of the Rules for Organic Seed in the Organic Regulation calls for the definition of minimum standards for derogation reports across the EU and also highlights the need for an ongoing and harmonized data collection on the use and production of organic seed as well as on organic production area. Read the report

Stakeholders at the national level agree on concrete actions to stimulate the availability and use of organic seed in Greece and Bulgaria

On 2 and 4 October, LIVESEED national workshops took place in Bulgaria and Greece. The workshops focused on the regulation and policy framework regarding production, use and transparency on the availability of organic seed. The LIVESEED partners, including Bionext, the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL Germany) and IFOAM EU organised the workshop in Sofia (Bulgaria) and Athens (Greece), together with national partners Bioselena and Aegilops. Competent authorities involved in seed issues, farmers, researchers, certifiers, breeders and relevant stakeholders from the organic seed sector and value chain discussed how to improve: The national organic seed databases, The production & use

AEGILOPS’ open field day on modern trends in organic farming and breeding

AEGILOPS –  The Greek Network for Biodiversity and Ecology in Agriculture, partner of the LIVESEED project, organised an open field day on 9 June 2019 to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of its activities. The event, held at LOTUS – Organic Research Farm in the village of Ano Lehonia, near Volos, was dedicated to “Modern trends in organic farming and breeding”. Experimental fields were shown to collaborating professional organic growers and agronomists and included landraces, organic varieties, heterogeneous material and intercropping systems mainly of cereals (wheat, barley) and legumes (chickpeas, lentils) but also of vegetables (tomato, potato, beans) and fruit trees

LIVESEED at the 2nd European Agroecology Forum

The 2nd European Agroecology Forum was held in Iraklion, Greece, on 26-28 September 2019 and LIVESEED took the chance to be there and showcase its activities. Besides the display of a poster on the apple task “Perspectives on European apple breeding and propagation under the frame of  LIVESEED project”, a workshop on “Genetic Biodiversity in the Mediterranean area” was also organized. During the workshop Dr. Christina Vakali presented activities of AEGILOPS – Greek Network for Biodiversity and Ecology in Agriculture, a partner of LIVESEED working in organic breeding, participatory conservation and seed production. The outputs of the workshop were the

Production of Organic Seeds: A Business Case – LIVESEED cross-visit to the Netherlands

The 3rd LIVESEED cross-visit was hosted by the Louis Bolk Institute in cooperation with Bionext, and focused on organic seed production of vegetable crops and potatoes. From 30 September to 3 October 2019, a multi-actor expert team, consisting of farmers, breeders, seed producers, researchers, and trainers participated from across Europe, especially from countries where organic seed production is less developed and/or has particular needs. The colourful programme led the team to various stations along the value chain of organic seeds. As a starting point served the Centre for Genetic Resources at Wageningen University, where participants got an insight into latest research on how to optimise seed

gatzert liveseed workshop soil seed lithuania

Soil management, organic seed and organic EU-regulation workshop in Lithuania

On 1 August 2019, a workshop focusing on soil management, organic seed, organic EU-regulation, especially regarding the mandatory database, took place in Lithuania, Ukmergė district. Xenia Gatzert from FiBL participated in the event, on behalf of LIVESEED. She introduced the project, talked about the issues of organic seed production in Europe, the current state of databases for organic seeds in the EU and about the vision of a common EU-wide router database on organic seeds, providing an interface to national databases. This aims to improve transparency and availability of organic seeds across Europe and thus increase the use of organic seeds.

liveseed, breeding, initiatives, organic, survey, field, wheat, poppies

Survey to foster collaboration between organic breeding initiatives

In the framework of our project, we have just started a survey on collaboration opportunities between organic breeding initiatives, to assess interest for cooperation in some of the project’s activities. This survey is part of Work Package 03, which focuses on the development of new breeding techniques for organic agriculture. It consists of 12 short questions and takes about 5-7 minutes to fill. Access the survey this link https://bit.ly/30tOQXU and feel free to share it widely! Deadline for participation is 15 September 2019. LIVESEED’s purpose is to boost production and use of organic seeds and plant breeding for organic agriculture

A unique opportunity provided by the LIVESEED project: Cross-visit in Italy

20.06.2019 Cereal breeders from several EU Member States where organic seed production and use is relatively underdeveloped were given a rare opportunity to learn from Italian experiences and initiatives. Rete Semirurali, one of the Italian partners of the LIVESEED project organised a colourful program. Participants of the cross-visit checked out the Italian Ministry of Agriculture’s Research Agency’s comparative field trials. These trials cover all Italian and German registered bread wheat CCP for evaluation by the expert group of the Directorate General for Health and Food Safety of the European Commission (DG SANTE). This evaluation is part of the implementation of

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