The State of Organic Seed in Europe

Summary

This booklet will present the information collected through research of the LIVESEED project in order to shed light on the actual situation of organic seed use in Europe. In particular, it will focus on the following questions:
1. How does the farmer know what varieties are available as organic seed? How do organic seed databases work in different EU countries and how could they be improved?
2. How much non-organic seed or planting material is used in EU organic farming? How many derogations are granted in different EU Member States and Switzerland?
3. Which are the factors encouraging or discouraging farmers to use organic seed? Which farm and farmer characteristics influence adoption of organic seed? How can organic plant breeding contribute to 100% organic seed use?
4. How has the organic seed market developed in the last years? According to seed suppliers` perspective, what factors hamper the further development of the organic seed sector?
To answer these questions, researchers in the LIVESEED project applied integrated research tools and methodologies: a comparative review of the different databases on organic seed in 28 EU countries; an integrated analysis of national derogation reports to measure the current use of nonorganic seed in Europe; a survey among farmers, to understand their perspective on the use of organic seed; and finally a survey among seed suppliers to evaluate trends in the offer of organic seed on the market. A quantitative model was used to estimate the potential demand for organic seed in Europe on the basis of the data collected.