Organic breeders must meet many requirements when developing cultivars to satisfy demand for high yield, good quality, resource efficiency and climate robustness, cultural and ethical acceptability, and the provision of ecosystem services. Given the current and future climatic, agronomic, economic, and socio-cultural challenges, resilience can only be efficiently achieved through concerted actions. The concept of systems-based breeding integrates the strengths of different breeding orientations and provides a perspective where breeders can initiate developments toward ecologi-cally and societally resilient crop production that address six sustainability targets, including (1) food security, safety and quality; (2) food and seed sov-ereignty; (3) social justice; (4) agrobiodiversity; (5) ecosystem services; and (6) climate robustness. In this paper we present five supportive pillars for implementing the concept of systems-based breed-ing, based on experiences obtained during the European Union (EU) project LIVESEED from 2017 to 2021, and including results from prior related projects and literature on innovation sys-tems and systems change. The five supportive pil-lars we have identified are (1) increasing social awareness and reflection, (2) developing alternative financing approaches, (3) promoting the develop-ment of appropriate breeding methodologies and methods, (4) applying integrative interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary learning in education, and (5) fostering facilitation for connecting these pro-cesses. These five supportive pillars are all neces-sary for fostering sustainable transformative change in complex systems, such as organic plant breeding. Based on workshop outcomes, we find that the main impediments to a wider embrace of a more holistic perspective on organic breeding are the current strong focus on short-term profits and EU law and regulations. Increasing social awareness, alternative financing models, new breeding meth-ods, and multi-actor approaches are necessary for broadening breeding approaches.

Organic breeders must meet many requirements when developing cultivars to satisfy demand for high yield, good quality, resource efficiency and climate robustness, cultural and ethical accepta­bil­ity, and the provision of ecosystem services. Given the current and future climatic, agronomic, eco­nomic, and socio-cultural challenges, resilience can only be efficiently achieved through concerted actions. The concept of systems-based breeding integrates the strengths of different breeding orientations and provides a perspective where breeders can initiate developments toward ecologi­cally and societally resilient crop production that address six sustainability targets, including (1) food security, safety and quality; (2) food and seed sov­ereignty; (3) social justice; (4) agrobiodiversity; (5) ecosystem services; and (6) climate robustness. In this paper we present five supportive pillars for implementing the concept of systems-based breed­ing, based on experiences obtained during the European Union (EU) project LIVESEED from 2017 to 2021, and including results from prior related projects and literature on innovation sys­tems and systems change. The five supportive pil­lars we have identified are (1) increasing social awareness and reflection, (2) developing alternative financing approaches, (3) promoting the develop­ment of appropriate breeding methodologies and methods, (4) applying integrative interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary learning in education, and (5) fostering facilitation for connecting these pro­cesses. These five supportive pillars are all neces­sary for fostering sustainable transformative change in complex systems, such as organic plant breeding. Based on workshop outcomes, we find that the main impediments to a wider embrace of a more holistic perspective on organic breeding are the current strong focus on short-term profits and EU law and regulations. Increasing social awareness, alternative financing models, new breeding meth­ods, and multi-actor approaches are necessary for broadening breeding approaches.

A winter wheat composite cross population (CCP), created in the UK in 2001, has been grown in Germany, Hungary, and the UK since 2005 (F-5 generation). In 2008/09 (F-8), a cycling pattern for the populations was developed between partners to test the effects of rapidly changing environments on agronomic performance and morphological characteristics. One CCP was grown by eight partners for one year and subsequently sent to the next partner, creating "cycling CCPs" with different histories. In 2013, all eight cycling CCPs and the three non-cycling CCPs (from Germany, Hungary, and the UK) were included in a two-year experiment in Germany with three line varieties as references. Differing seed weights of the F-13 at sowing affected some agronomic parameters under drought conditions in 2014/15 but not under less stressful conditions in 2013/14. In both experimental years, the CCPs were comparable to the line varieties in terms of agronomic performance, with some CCPs yielding more than the varieties under the drought conditions of 2015. The results highlight the potential of CCPs to compete with line varieties, while the overall similarity of the CCPs based on their origin and cycling history for agronomic traits indicates a high buffering potential under highly variable environmental conditions.

Organic breeders need to meet many demands in developing cultivars, e.g. with high yield, good quality, resource-efficiency, climate-robustness, and culturally and ethically acceptable and contributing to ecosystem services. Given the current and future climatic, agronomic, economic and societal environment working towards ecological and societal resilience can only be achieved by concerted action. The concept of systems-based breeding tries to integrate the strengths of different breeding orientations and provides a perspective where breeders can be initiators of developments towards an ecologically and societally resilient crop production. In this paper we present the first steps for operationalising this concept.

LIVESEED is a Horizon 2020 project applying interdisciplinary and multi-actor approaches aiming to transform the organic seed and plant breeding sector. The main goal is to reach 100% organic seed of cultivars suited for organic agriculture in order to improve competitiveness and integrity of organic production. LIVESEED covers the five main crop categories: legumes, vegetables, fruit trees, cereals and fodder crops, considering diverse cropping systems across Europe including mixed cropping and agroforestry. LIVESEED explored legal, technical, scientific, and socio-economic aspects that impact the use of organic seed from breeding to seed availability. LIVESEED developed policy recommendations on the implementation of the rules for organic seed in the EU organic regulation and an EU wide router database for organic seed. Innovative concepts for seed health and systems-based breeding have been developed as well as several breeding and selection tools for improved resilience. Innovative governance models for assessing suitability of homogeneous and heterogeneous cultivars for organic agriculture are designed and recommendations made to ease the official release of organic bred varieties. Economic business models for the whole seed supply chain including financing of organic breeding allowing simulation of interventions are under development. Science based policy recommendation of LIVESEED can have an immediate impact on the delegated and implementing act of the new organic EU regulation promoting organic seed and plant breeding.

Agroecology calls for a global approach, integrating scientific, practical, and advocacy dimensions, to redesign agricultural systems based on ecological and socio-cultural processes and emphasizing biodiversity. This review is grounded on the results of DIVERSIFOOD, a European H2020 multi-actor research project, and explores the concept of cultivated diversity using various dimensions relevant to foster sustainable organic food systems and agro-ecological transition. From the evaluation of underutilized genetic resources and forgotten crops, DIVERSIFOOD has proposed plant breeding strategies, on-farm experimentation, and statistical tools to create new populations, landraces, and organic cultivars with intra-varietal diversity. The added value of Community Seed Banks and forms of collective seed management in Europe have been described in terms of goals and activities, and their value for improving seed regulations, treaties, and genetic resources management is discussed. In the context of the current agro-food system characterized by standardization, DIVERSIFOOD raised awareness of qualities of ‘biodiverse food systems’ in which all actors have a role to play. It highlighted the critical capacity to preserve a diversity of cultural values embodied in ‘biodiverse products’, thereby involving consumers in collective strategies for reviving diversity, and empowering all actors of organic food systems to really and efficiently implement research within their farms and networks.

European project on improving the competitiveness of organic agriculture by boosting organic seed and plant breeding across Europe (2017 – 2021)

Practical recommendations ● For a good comparison, use part of the field that has quite homogeneous soil and ensure that (partial) shading cannot affect plant growth. ● Ensure equal seed vigour of the varieties as much as possible; Seed vigour can effect differences in crop performance; Use fresh seed, and in the case of direct sown crops, make sure the plant density is the same. ● Compare the crop stand several times throughout the season; Are there differences between the varieties: in speed of growth, growth habit, disease tolerance, earliness? Are the differences due to different variety performance or because of differences in soil conditions?

This booklet addresses all the areas where intervention is needed to support innovation in production and adoption of organic seed, namely: - policy and regulation; - cultivar testing and seed multiplication; - innovative breeding strategies; - socio economic aspects related to seed production. The aim of this document is to highlight any challenges to reaching 100% use of organic cultivars and to offer advice on how to address them.

Developing organic breeding is a key challenge for the organic sector. It is necessary to better adapt varieties to the specific needs of the organic sector (disease resistance, taste, weed suppressing ability, etc). It is also important to enable the organic sector to face the requirements of the New Organic Regulation (EU 2018/848). From 2036, exemptions to the use non‐organic seeds will not be granted any more (Article 53, Regulation 2018/848). The active participation of breeders, farmers, processors, retailers and traders is crucial to develop organic breeding. They all play a critical role and share the responsibility in upscaling organic plant breeding and ensuring future food security, food quality and climate robust agriculture as well as integrity of the value chain. Even consumers could take part in supporting organic plant breeding with informed purchases. On the 12 of February 2019, IFOAM EU, the Louis Bolk Institute (Netherlands) and FiBL Switzerland co‐organized a workshop ‘Organic plant breeding in a system‐based approach and integration of organic plant breeding in value chain partnership’ as part of the Horizon 2020 project LIVESEED. The workshop took place at the largest organic trade fair at Nurnberg Messe biofach to reach out to different actors of the organic sector. The main objective of this workshop was to gather interested stakeholders across the value chain to discuss the responsibilities and their potential concrete engagements in facilitating organic plant breeding. Organized as a world cafe workshop 1, the participants had the opportunity to discuss three main issues: - Why should different value chain actors support organic plant breeding? - The advantage of organic plant breeding for the value chain (farmer, processors, traders). - The advantage of organic plant breeding for consumers and society (local and global). This report describes in detail the main conclusion of the discussions held during this workshop.

State of the art of existing breeding initiatives3Introduction In order to strengthen organic breeding, it is important to know the state of the art of existing initiatives, programs and networks of organic breeding and breeding for organic, and in what crops most organic breeding is currently conducted. Although the number of organic breeding initiatives are growing, as a whole, organic breeding is still relatively marginal compared to conventional breeding. Next to more financial support, another solution to make organic breeding more effective is by improving collaborations. Collaboration can entail, among others, improved exchange of knowledge (breeding tools and approaches) or the exchange of material. In LIVESEED, several activities have been set up to improve collaboration, such as crop‐specific breeding activities, crop‐group activities and systems‐based breeding approaches. For each of these activities, timelines have been developed to strengthen collaborations. This shall improve on one side the capacity building of existing organic plant breeding programs for respective crops and help to identify breeding gaps for those crops, where no activity could be mapped so far.

How the growing world population can feed itself is a crucial, multi-dimensional problem that goes beyond sustainable development. Crop production will be affected by many changes in its climatic, agronomic, economic, and societal contexts. Therefore, breeders are challenged to produce cultivars that strengthen both ecological and societal resilience by striving for six international sustainability targets: food security, safety and quality; food and seed sovereignty; social justice; agrobiodiversity; ecosystem services; and climate robustness. Against this background, we review the state of the art in plant breeding by distinguishing four paradigmatic orientations that currently co-exist: community-based breeding, ecosystem-based breeding, trait-based breeding, and corporate-based breeding, analyzing differences among these orientations. Our main findings are: (1) all four orientations have significant value but none alone will achieve all six sustainability targets; (2) therefore, an overarching approach is needed: "systems-based breeding," an orientation with the potential to synergize the strengths of the ways of thinking in the current paradigmatic orientations; (3) achieving that requires specific knowledge development and integration, a multitude of suitable breeding strategies and tools, and entrepreneurship, but also a change in attitude based on corporate responsibility, circular economy and true-cost accounting, and fair and green policies. We conclude that systems-based breeding can create strong interactions between all system components. While seeds are part of the common good and the basis of agrobiodiversity, a diversity in breeding approaches, based on different entrepreneurial approaches, can also be considered part of the required agrobiodiversity. To enable systems-based breeding to play a major role in creating sustainable agriculture, a shared sense of urgency is needed to realize the required changes in breeding approaches, institutions, regulations and protocols. Based on this concept of systems-based breeding, there are opportunities for breeders to play an active role in the development of an ecologically and societally resilient, sustainable agriculture.

This toolkit provides building blocks to help create a multi-actor approach to participatory and collaborative plant breeding, and action-research for high quality food systems. It results from the wide range of experience acquired during the Diversifood project to boost cultivated diversity for organic and low-input agriculture and from the collective reflection of all the partners of the project. The toolkit does not simply provides recipes to apply but illustrates some common prerequisites and traits that emerge in multi-actor projects. In other words, the toolkit proposes strategic «building blocks» to support the successful implementation of the approach. The building blocks have emerged from the feedback provided by Diversifood partners, based on their experiences, as well as from the literature.

Organic agriculture only allows a few ‘natural’ compounds for managing pests and diseases such as copper which is applied as fungicide in apple, grape, potato, and tomato production. But as a heavy metal, copper is under debate in the organic sector. One key strategy to replace copper use is the market introduction of resistant varieties. In this article, key obstacles and opportunities for the introduction of new apple and potato varieties are identified and described. A comparative analysis integrating agricultural, economic, cultural, and social perspectives is conducted based on literature review, information on internet, and interviews with key experts, mainly from the organic sector. As a framework for analysis, the concepts of brokerage and the multilevel perspective have been used. The following solution pathways are described: (a) make use of added value of varieties, (b) create demand (pull effects), (c) well-coordinated marketing concepts, (d) new marketing concepts such as the Flavour Group Concept, (e) gradual introduction through shorter chain (when limited funding), and (f) match varieties to food chain styles. Key lessons are the following: (i) there must be an urgent need that develops into a pull factor; (ii) for creating pull factors, it is important to involve others; (iii) a shared language and a common culture between involved stakeholders needs to be developed; (iv) without push factor, no new steps will be realised; (v) new concepts need to fit in existing chain structures; (vi) patience is often important, and (vii) some luck is often crucial.

The European project LIVESEED (www.liveseed.eu) is based on the concept that cultivars adapted to organic systems are key for realizing the full potential of organic agriculture in Europe. LIVESEED will help to establish a level playing field in the organic seed market across Europe, improve the competitiveness of the organic seed and breeding sector, and encourage greater use of organic seeds by farmers. LIVESEED will improve guidelines for cultivar testing and strategies for ensuring seed health. It will develop innovative breeding approaches suited to organic farming. Finally, it will investigate socio-economic aspects relating to the use and production of organic seed and their interaction with relevant (EU) regulations. The LIVESEED project (2017 – 2021) is coordinated by IFOAM EU with FiBL for scientific coordination and consists of 35 partners and 14 third linked parties from 18 European countries. LIVESEED received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 727230 and by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) under contract number 17.00090. By connecting several networks LIVESEED will combine co construction and exchange of knowledge integrating biological, technical, legal, organisational, financial and political aspects as well as market development to facilitate fast upscaling and outreach of various tailor made socio-technical, evidence based, innovation tracks. LIVESEED will generate (i) a tool box of measures and interventions to match production and demand of organic seed, (ii) validated options for competent authorities to reduce the number of derogation for untreated conventional seed, (iii) develop technical solutions for national databases of organic seed including an interface to a European wide router database to increase the transparency on the availability of organic seed, (iv) analyse in depth formal and informal seed chains, (v) explore various business models including checklists for setting up new multiplication and breeding initiatives, (vi) produce technical factsheet on the best practice guidelines for seed production for major crops including vegetative plant propagation material, and (vii) an develop organic seed quality strategy including quality control of farm saved seeds and efficiency of seed exchange networks. With respect to organic plant breeding LIVESEED will provide new concepts for designing and implementing decentralized breeding initiatives for organic and low-input agriculture through (i) establishing networks across Europe (e.g. for apple, brassica vegetables) and fostering public-private partnerships, (ii) combining farmer, value chain or community based system breeding with functional trait-based and molecular breeding approaches, (iii) identifying trade-offs between resilience traits and sensory and nutritional quality, (iv) developing breeding schemes for heterogeneous cultivars and species mixtures, and (v) elaborating different financing models. Considering the plant as a mega organism, including the above and below ground associated microorganism, has the potential to evoke a paradigm shift in plant breeding, and will be elucidated in case studies.

Organic agriculture requires robust variety such as composite crossed population (CCP) is one of strategy that suitable under low input and organic conditions to buffer against fluctuation environments due to their genetic diversity.The objective of the study was to evaluate the performance of eight composite crossed population of wheat along with check for grain yield, agronomic traits and resistance to yellow rust disease under organic condition in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Result of analysis variance showed no significant difference among wheat genotypes for grain yield (p= 0.45), whereas a highly significant (p=0.002) difference for TKW. CCP of HU-13-YQMS showed the highest TKW (43.23 g) and the lowest recorded for the check (37.43 g). The genetic potential of all wheat composite crossed population showed low yield performance under organic farming, this might be due to slow released of nutrient under organic condition. A highly significant difference (P<0.001) was observed among wheat genotypes for the yellow rust incidence and severity across growth stages. The highest yellow rust severity (6.01) and incidence (92.27 %) was recorded on the check (pure line) and followed by the population HU-08-UK comp and HU-08-YQMS at milk stage. CCP of HU-13-YQMS showed comparable grain yield, very low disease incidence and severity, indicating that genetic diversity within CCP increased the resilience of the population to limit the spread of disease expansion across growth stages than check under organic condition.Furthermore, exploitation of additional source of genetic diversity of wheat will be required and beneficial traits may be combined to develop stable and resiliencecultivar to buffer against fluctuating of environments under low input and organic conditions in their ecological farming system.

In this paper, we describe the development of a set of guiding principles for the evaluation of breeding techniques by the organic sector over time. The worldwide standards of organic agriculture (OA) do not allow genetic engineering (GE) or any products derived from genetic engineering. The standards in OA are an expression of the underlying principles of health, ecology, fairness and care. The derived norms are process and not product oriented. As breeding is considered part of the process in agriculture, GE is not a neutral tool for the organic sector. The incompatibility between OA and GE is analyzed, including the “novel breeding techniques”. Instead, alternative breeding approaches are pursued based on the norms and values of organic agriculture not only on the technical level but also on the social and organizational level by including other value chain players and consumers. The status and future perspectives of the alternative directions for organic breeding are described and discussed.