As Trilogue negotiations on the Plant Reproductive Material (PRM) Regulation intensify, the European Consortium for Organic Plant Breeding (ECO-PB), Biodynamic Federation Demeter International, and IFOAM Organics Europe have written to EU Ministers of Agriculture calling for a final text that does not place unnecessary restrictions on conservation and local varieties.
“The restrictive Council’s position on conservation and local varieties would have serious consequences on the many organic farmers, breeders and seed companies that currently rely on them” said Eric Gall, Deputy Director of IFOAM Organics Europe. “In particular, restricting the production of these cultivars to their region of origin, and limiting newly bred varieties to only fruits and vegetables would significantly impact the activities of networks, breeders and seed companies that are developing and selling them”, he continued.
The organisations listed several concrete examples to illustrate the consequences of these restrictions, and the need for an intermediate category between heterogeneous Organic Heterogeneous Material (OHM) and uniform DUS varieties. In Italy, Rete Semi Rurali, together with an organic farmer in Veneto, attempted to notify a wheat OHM, which was rejected by competent authorities on the grounds of insufficient heterogeneity — precisely the kind of situation an intermediate category would resolve. In Denmark, Landsorten distributes landraces of arable crops which would fall under the local variety category and whose characteristics are of particular interest to organic farmers, because of their resistance to diseases and strong weed competitiveness.
On geographical restrictions, the organisations note “the value of these cultivars lies precisely in their ability to adapt to specific local and climatic conditions” and that, for certain crops, propagation and cultivation outside the region of origin is not a choice but a necessity. Fruit trees such as apple, pear, plum and cherry, for instance, are frequently propagated in organic nurseries in other countries when local nursery capacity is insufficient.
“Such varieties are often developed by small-scale breeders, networks and breeding companies. Protecting this category is therefore not only an agronomic question — it is also a matter of supporting a diverse and resilient seed market, necessary to maintain diversity, which is not dominated solely by large commercial operators.” said Edwin Nuijten, chair of ECO-PB.
Finally, IFOAM Organics Europe, ECO-PB and Demeter call for an explicit ban on genetic engineering (GMOs and New Genomic Techniques (NGT)) material within the conservation and local variety framework, alongside a clear exclusion of intellectual property rights such as patents. “Conservation varieties are an important genetic pool for organic breeders. Explicitly excluding genetic engineering and patents would allow organic breeders to confidently use them,” said Edwin Nuijten, chair of ECO-PB.
“We call on policymakers to follow the European Parliament’s position, which keeps the framework simple, without unnecessary burden and ultimately truly enables organic farmers, breeders and seed companies to continue working with these cultivars.” concluded Clara Behr, Head of Policies and Public Relations of the Biodynamic Federation Demeter International.
With Trilogue negotiations advancing rapidly and conservation and local varieties expected to come to the table shortly, the organisations stress that the decisions taken in the coming weeks will have lasting consequences for agrobiodiversity, organic breeding, and the resilience of European farming systems in the face of climate change.
- For more information visit www.organicseurope.bio
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