The project ECOBREED (Increasing the efficiency and competitiveness of organic crop breeding) is funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 funding scheme and brings together 24 partners from 14 different countries. ECOBREED aims to increase the availability of seeds and varieties for the organic and low-input sectors, to identify traits and combinations of traits suited to organic and low-input production environment including high nutrient use efficiency and weed competitiveness and to increase breeding activities for organic and low-input crop production. ECOBREED Work package 6, aims to establish an efficient system for farmer-participatory-selection of new varieties in selected countries, representing different pedoclimatic zones and/or regions that can later be adopted throughout Europe and beyond. This will be achieved via:
- Identification of region-specific traits/trait combinations desired by organic farmers.
- Development and use of a data-recording system for Farmer Participatory Trials.
- Undertaking farmer-participatory breeding in contrasting pedo-climatic zones.
- Allowing farmers/breeders to select lines from evaluation of CCP that are particularly suited to their own environment.
The above-mentioned Farmer Participatory Field Trials, which are performed under Task 6.2, aim to establish on-farm variety evaluation trials in Northern, Central and Southern European organic production systems/rotation backgrounds. In each country, which is included as a partner in the project, 4-6 farmers are included, and each participating farmer established a non-replicated trial to compare the performance of 8-12 genotypes of each species (identified from phenotyping in WP 2-5, focusing on wheat, potatoes, soybean, and buckwheat). For each country, a standard agronomic and field assessment protocol was developed and used and each farmer was able to include additional parameters/protocols in the trials performed on his/her farm.
The responsible partner for this work package is Naturland Association for Organic Agriculture (NATUR) from Germany with task leader Werner Vogt-Kaute. The partners involved in this task are the University of Newcastle (UNEW) and LC Smales & Son Limited (SMA) from the UK, Agricultural Institute of Slovenia (KIS), Slovenia, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) and Saatzucht Gleisdorf from Austria, Poslovni system Global Seed (GS) and Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops (IFVCNS) from Serbia, Crop Research Institute (CRI) and PROBIO sro from the Czech Republic, University of Tuscia (UNITUS) from Italy, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Centre for Agricultural Research (ATK) and the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences (MATE) from Hungary, National Research Institute – Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute (IHAR) from Poland, National Agricultural and Food Center (NPPC) and BIOMILA spol. sro from Slovakia, and National Agricultural Research and Development Institute (NARDI) from Romania.