LIVESEEDING project

Le projet LIVESEEDING

Liveseeding - transforming organic seed systems Liveseeding

2022-2026 Coordinator : scientific coordination, Mariateresa Lazzaro FiBL Switzerland and project coordination, Mariano Iossa, FiBL Europe BAGAP Contact: veronique.chable@inrae.fr BAGAP Research Area :  Participatory research on cultivated biodiversity  Website: Liveseeding Keywords: Organic seeds and varieties, organic plant breeding, seed regulations, diversity, product quality, participatory research, living labs

Recherche

Why ?

More than 90% of European farmers rely on homogeneous varieties of a limited number of species developed for and under conventional farming systems. The organic seed market in Europe is still underdeveloped for breeding locally adapted cultivars suited for organic farming conditions.
Main objective of LIVESEEDING project is to foster the transition towards more sustainable local food systems by delivering high quality organic seed of diverse cultivars adjusted to organic farming for a wide range of crops.

How ?

LIVESEEDING adopts a multi-actor approach involving partners from all the major actor groups. These actors are integrated in 17 Living Labs (LLs), where innovation is cogenerated in the real network ecosystems at local, regional, national scale involving the whole value chain, from breeding to consumers /citizens.

For wich results ?

UMR BAGAP is participating to several tasks of LIVESEEDING that will globally provide
(1) new scientific insights in organic plant breeding and in microbiome for seed quality,
(2) selection tools for organic sector, in particular for the creation of OHM (Organic heterogeneous material) and OV (Organic varieties),
(3) new cultivar testing model,
(4) business models, training, policy guidelines and marketing strategies and
(5) activities at the science-policy-society interface.
UMR BAGAP will continue the creation of new populations with broader biodiversity potential such as buckwheat populations to diversify the products (dehulled grain), and will explore new genetic resources of hemp and safflower.  Then, UMR BAGAP will lead the tasks dedicated to citizens interactions and will illustrate these activities with the Prevalaye initiatives.

BAGAP Staff Involved

Véronique Chable, Antoine Marin, Sylvie Nègre, Benoit Robert, Thomas Néau

Partners

LIVESEEDING brings together 37 partners (researcher, public institutions, breeders, associations and NGO) covering 16 European countries – 14 EU and Switzerland and the United Kingdom. UMR BAGAP is collaborating with INRAE UMR GQE Le Moulon, l’ITAB (Institut de l'agriculture et de l'alimentation biologiques) and the actors of FRAB (Fédération Régionale des Agrobiologistes de Bretagne), and of Rennes city within the Prévalaye project. For France, two living labs are considered: around FRAB in the West of France and UMR BAGAP, and around cooperative partners of the Centre of France (UBS, BIOCER and COCEBI) with the UMR GQE of Moulon

Funding and support

LIVESEEDING is a 6,6 million euros innovation project that is funded by Horizon Europe (Innovation Action), the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)