One of the important goals of the LiveSeeding project is to improve the quality and availability of organic propagating material and to do this, it is essential to share the knowledge needed to produce and market seeds. In April, a training course was organized by Wageningen University and ITAB, where participants aimed to transfer the valuable information they had acquired through pilot training. This has recently taken place on two occasions.

Two events on trainers training

At the beginning of September, ITAB (France) had also integrated seed drying and conservation aspects in a training module based on the LiveSeeding trainers’ training in Wageningen. The aim of the French training module was to train technicians willing to develop local seed networks with vegetable farmers in French Polynesia and Mayotte. Participants appreciated learning about seed quality aspects right from the start, with hands-on tips and tricks.

An internal seed training was held in Hungary for the staff of the ÖMKi and the members of the Magház (community seed network) on 10 October. The one-day event was attended by 28 participants, where, in addition to the presentations, valuable exchanges of experience took place between the participating experts. We covered many important practical topics during the training, from seed biology (seed development, maturation) to harvesting, drying, and storage. In the afternoon, we had a comprehensive presentation on the Hungarian and EU legislation on organic propagating material.

Organic farming strives for circular processes, such as self-sufficiency in propagating material. This requires considering the biology of the plants and, of course, the regulations. It is also an EU target that organic farmers should use only organic propagating material on their farms by 2036, so knowledge needs to be shared and expanded.

The knowledge transfer process starts with training the trainers!