Survey on the requirements in organic plant breeding

Summary

In the German speaking countries, an Internet survey was conducted on the requirements in organic plant breeding from the beginning of May until the end of June 2015. The survey was supported by main representatives from the organic branch (Bioland, Naturland, BioSuisse, Demeter, BÖLW) and aimed at gathering up the requirements of the organic industry (incl. breeding, farming, processing and trade sector) when it comes to plant breeding and prioritizing breeding goals and crops to be dealt with. In the survey, participants were not only organic breeders, researchers and representatives of the seed sector but also representatives from all levels of organic production and related sectors (farmers, advisors, processors, wholesalers, retailers, and associations, NGOs) in order to ensure that research in plant breeding will actually improve the marketability of the new varieties. Methods The preparation of the questionnaire for the survey was created with the help of the freely accessible Google-App "Forms" and the survey was also performed on the online functionality of this tool. People involved in the organic food industry or directly or indirectly involved in the organic plant breeding through their line of work such as farmers, gardeners, plant breeders, producers of seeds or vegetative propagating material, researchers, representatives of associations or dealers etc. were personally contacted. In addition, the link to the online survey was forwarded to corresponding specialized committees via farming associations, published in bioaktuell.ch and sent to the existing contacts of FiBL networks. The survey focused mainly on Germany and Switzerland.