THE world鈥檚 first seed breeding programme aimed at producing varieties for
organic farming was announced in London this week. 鈥淲e want to take organic seed
production out of the hands of the big seed producers and put it back in the
hands of the farmers,鈥� says Lawrence Woodward, director of the Elm Farm Research
Centre near Newbury in Berkshire. Elm Farm is one of the three research
institutes coordinating the project, along with the Louis Bolk Institute in
Driebergen, the Netherlands, and Switzerland鈥檚 Research Institute of Organic
Agriculture (FiBL) in Frick, near Basle.
The scheme will help organic farmers meet impending European laws, which will
require foods described as organic to be grown from organically produced seed.
It also aims to guarantee that supplies are not accidentally contaminated with
genetically modified seeds.
The institutes aim to make hybrids of modern crops with their older,
long-discarded relatives, abandoned when intensive farming took over. These
hybrids will then be grown at sites all over Europe, to create varieties that
are well adapted to local conditions. As well as looking for good yields, the
scheme will seek out traits such as higher vitamin content, increased flavour
and better adaptation to farming without artificial fertilisers.
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