AbstractSeeds are the foundation of farming, thus we must ensure that organic seeds are available to farmers. However, appropriate organic seeds and cultivars are lacking. The organic seed market in Europe is still underdeveloped, due to unsolved technical and socio-economic problems and to limited capacity for breeding locally adapted cultivars suited for organic farming conditions.
LiveSeeding aims to accelerate organic farming and transition towards sustainable food systems by
- boosting organic plant breeding, cultivar testing and seed production resulting in improved availability of vigorous organic seed of resilient and stable performing cultivars suited for organic production of a large range of crops and
- strengthening the organic seed sector taking into account the fast growing demand, regulatory settings, different level of development, governance models and scales of initiatives and enterprises in their local context.
Detailed DescriptionLiveSeeding is a 4-year Innovation Action focusing on technology transfer and market uptake.
The overall objective of LiveSeeding is to facilitate the delivery on the market of high-diversity cultivars for a wide range of crops, as basis for quality organic seed production to foster more sustainable food systems.
LiveSeeding will:
- Increase and optimize crop diversity to be used in organic farming systems
- Advance pre- and post-registration cultivar testing dedicated to organic farming
- Increase supply of organic Plant Reproductive Material
- Enable a transparent organic seed market
- Ensure efficient scaling out and scaling up of organic seed and breeding initiatives
- Promote organic breeding supported by market and society
- Improve skills and knowledge creation
- Promote competitiveness of the organic seed and breeding sector
LiveSeeding adopts a robust multi-actor approach involving partners from all the major actor groups. These actors will be integrated through 17 Living Labs (LLs), where innovation will be co-created, and an innovative ICT based citizen-science methodology will be applied.
LiveSeeding addresses the complexity of the current lock-ins of the organic breeding and seed sector, through a multi-faceted “PUSH-PULL-ENABLE” model aiming to
- enhance the availability and adequacy of organic seeds of cultivars appropriate to organic farming (PUSH),
- increase and stabilise the market demand for organic seeds of cultivars appropriate to organic farming (PULL),
- foster an enabling policy and regulatory environment where both demand and supply can harmoniously and productively negotiate without irrelevant constraints due to legal restrictions and/or regulatory fragmentation (ENABLE).
