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 help meet the EU’s ambitious targets for organic agriculture.

Under the Farm to Fork strategy, the European Commission has set a target for at least 25 % of agricultural land in the EU to be under organic farming by 2030. This is an important element of the European Green Deal. Achieving this goal 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 by tackling the issue of organic seed availability and quality from a variety of angles, from market aspects through to regulation. Launched in 2017, the project brought together 48 organisations from 18 European countries, including plant researchers, crop breeders, seed producers, organic associations and retailers.