Regulated organic seed supply chains for wheat evolutionary populations: an important asset for organic agriculture – Breed4Bio
Recently the European Union (EU) has set a temporary experiment that allows the marketing of seeds from populations of wheat, barley, oats and corn (Implementing Decisions 2014/150 and 2018/1519). These introduce an absolute novelty in the seed sector, opening up to the marketing of heterogeneous material that does not comply with the requirements of distinctiveness, uniformity and stability (DUS) (Directive 66/402 / EEC). Meanwhile, the EU Council has adopted the new organic regulation with effects starting from 2022 (EU Reg. 2018/848), which indicates, among the seeds suitable for organic farming, those deriving from heterogeneous material.
The objective of the project is to build a sustainable organic seed supply chain model for heterogeneous material (wheat populations) able to guarantee the traceability and quality of the seed The specific objectives are to:
- develop services to support the supply chain (agronomic support, management and traceability, also through a dedicated mobile application);
- guarantee the quality (specific phytosanitary purity) of the seed by identifying the operations to be carried out in the critical phases without impoverishing the intrinsic biodiversity of the populations;
- evaluate the socio-economic sustainability of the supply chain;
- disseminating knowledge and sensitivity on agro-ecological approaches.
The populations tested in the plan will be: Toscana tenero PA1, Toscana tenero 1 and ICARDA/Solibam Floriddia.
Actions
The project includes training activities for farms according to Measure 1 of the Rural Development Programme of the Emilia-Romagna Region.
Breed4Bio is a project financed by the Emilia-Romagna Region in the framework of the 2014-2020 Rural Development Programme, measure 16.1.01, Focus Area 3A. The Operational Group of the two-years project Breed4Bio si composed by Open Fields (coordination), CREA-DC CENTRO DIFESA E CERTIFICAZIONE (scientific management), Cà di Bartoletto farm, Terrasanta farm, Arianna farm, Pransani Stefano, Arcoiris, Cooperativa Agricola Cesenate (CAC), Azienda Agraria Sperimentale Stuard, Rete Semi Rurali, Centoform and Associazione Italiana per l’Agricoltura Biologica – Emilia Romagna (AIAB).
WEBSITE: www.gobreedforbio.it
ROLE: Coordinator
TIMING: 03/2021 – 03/2023
FUNDING: € 228.011,58
CALL: Rural Development Programme of Emilia-Romagna, measure 16.1.01 – Focus Area 3A
Website European Commission – FEASR: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=LEGISSUM%3Al60032
