The EU is currently developing new directives for the production and marketing of land races, conservation varieties and amateur varieties. There is general consensus that requirements for these categories of seeds need not be as strict as for the regular fully certified seed categories and that in certain cases alternative procedures could be followed. However, there is insufficient factual knowledge available to decide to what extent these requirements could be adapted and how procedures should be altered.

Our work is aimed at 1. identifying technological and economic key constraints in seed production and marketing in the existing European initiatives on production and marketing of land races, conservation varieties and amateur varieties; and 2. developing methodologies for seed production and marketing in a participatory innovation development approach, involving all relevant actors.

In order to achieve our goals we plan to do the following:

1. visit farms and farmers and ask about their needs for regulatory reform, if they do need new regulations, what would be the most important issues. Together we will discuss how to arrange their seed production and marketing activities so that they can meet the set requirements.
2. collect seeds from farmer’s own seed production to investigate the quality, in order to see if they can easily meet the current quality requirements, or if ont, whether this can be improved by improved seed production methods, or by lowering the standards.

Our output will consist of:

1. A document on seed quality recommendations

Describing the most relevant quality characteristics, their recommended minimum requirements, and recommendations to achieve high quality production

1. A document on seed marketing recommendations

Describing the additional non-traditional quality characteristics, their minimum requirements, and how to control them; instructions for seed handling, sampling and packaging.