H2020 LIVESEED Project: Improving the performance of organic farming by boosting organic seed and plant breeding efforts across Europe.

Seeds of Change: A Systems Approach to Plant Breeding The LIVESEED project investigated how crop breeders and seed producers can combine best practices from across the industry to increase the availability and quality of organic seeds. The results will contribute to meeting the EU's ambitious targets for organic farming. As part of the Farm to Fork strategy, the European Commission has set a goal of at least 25% of EU agricultural land being used for organic farming by 2030. This is an important element of the European Green Deal. Achieving this target will require the development and dissemination of new organic cultivars, and the EU-funded LIVESEED (Improve performance of organic agriculture by boosting organic seed and plant breeding efforts across Europe) project sought to support this goal by addressing the issue of organic seed availability and quality from various angles, from market to regulatory aspects. Launched in 2017, the project brought together 48 organizations from 18 European countries, including plant researchers, crop breeders, seed producers, organic associations, and retailers.

New Approaches One of the researchers involved is Edwin Nuijten, a plant scientist at De Beersche Hoeve in the Netherlands, who led a section of the work plan that focused on how different breeding approaches can support and strengthen each other. "Breeding is not just about producing the best plant for the best field; it's also a process; social aspects must be taken into account," he says. The goal of LIVESEED was to combine the best elements of different plant breeding approaches.

The consortium identified four specific approaches, termed ecosystem-based, community-based, trait-based, and enterprise-based. Ecosystem-based approaches examine how a crop interacts with and can contribute to the surrounding environment. Community-based approaches have a strong connection between the breeder and producers, seeking to maximize social value for them. Trait-based approaches pursue broader societal benefits by improving specific traits, such as increasing the concentration of essential vitamins in crops, while enterprise-based approaches seek to maximize profits and minimize costs. "They are all value-driven, but their values are different," adds Nuijten. "This is not to say that some values are better than others, but rather to ask how we can connect them so that they strengthen each other and improve ecological and social resilience."

Knowledge Platform: The consortium compiled information on breeding techniques and published a series of research papers. More than 800 organic farmers were consulted on various aspects related to plant breeding and seed markets, and LIVESEED contributed to the expansion of the Organic Farm Knowledge Platform with a section dedicated to these topics. The LIVESEED project also developed an EU-wide router database that allows seed suppliers to enter offers into other national databases with a single entry. The team is now working on implementing its findings, drafting guidelines for implementing a cross-breeding approach. The situation is dire, as the development of new crop varieties is a slow process, and breeders must act now to prepare for future agricultural challenges, such as stricter restrictions on pesticide use and a changing climate.

Furthermore, Nuijten points out, farmers and consumers are threatened by dysfunction in the market for plant breeding and seeds. "When you look at conventional breeding, two or three companies dominate the market for each fruit and vegetable. If one company ends its breeding program, farmers are completely dependent on the other. Even for conventional agriculture, the situation is not sustainable," she explains. "Genetic improvement of organic seeds and plants can provide an opportunity to think about more sustainable breeding approaches. We need to develop many more new alternatives so that this resource is useful for all farmers," says Nuijten. "It's often said that organic food is too expensive, but you could say that conventional food is too cheap: if you consider the hidden costs, a different picture emerges."