Triodos Foundation Spain in collaboration with the Network of Municipalities for Agroecology, has launched the matchfunding call We Sow Diversity to support and promote small initiatives that work on the production of organic seeds and breeding.
According to data from the LiveSeeding project, less than 50% of organic production in Europe uses organic seeds, and the countries of southern and eastern Europe have an even lower percentage. The European regulation on organic production, Regulation (EU) 848/2018, establishes that for an agricultural production to obtain the “organic” certification, the seeds used must also be organic.
It is a great challenge in which both the sector and the European authorities will have to make a great effort to generate sufficient frameworks and resources to achieve 100% organic seeds in 2036.
The call has a support fund of €10,000, contributed by Triodos Bank, the Association for Biodynamic Agriculture in Spain and the AgroConRespeto. This fund will be used to double the individual donations received by the selected projects through active crowdfunding campaigns on the crowdfunding.fundaciontriodos.es platform.
Find more information on the webpage https://www.fundaciontriodos.es/matchfunding/sembramos-biodiversidad
Five Agroecological Initiatives Selected for the Crowdfunding Phase of ‘Sowing Biodiversity’
The Network of Municipalities for Agroecology and the Triodos Foundation, in collaboration with the European project LiveSeeding, are pleased to announce the successful conclusion of the first stage of the “We Sow Biodiversity” matchfunding call.
Five initiatives have been selected to advance to the next phase of collective financing. The ‘We Sow Biodiversity’ call has concluded its first stage with the selection of five projects that represent innovation and commitment to sustainability in organic agriculture. These initiatives are:
- Banc Alacantí de Llavors (Alicante). Focused on the recovery, conservation, and promotion of traditional agricultural varieties.
- Associació L’Era, Espai de Recursos Agroecològics (Manresa). Its main goals are to promote organic agricultural production and agroecology.
- Associació de Varietats Locals (Mallorca). Concentrated on the recovery and marketing of traditional varieties.
- Red de Semillas de Euskadi/Euskadiko Hazien Sarea (Vitoria-Gasteiz). Works in the conservation, research, and dissemination of agrobiodiversity, and the recovery of local varieties.
- Red de Semillas de Aragón (Zaragoza). Promotes the conservation and field multiplication of traditional varieties in Aragon.
These initiatives reflect a collective effort to strengthen the production, marketing, and exchange of seeds of cultivated biodiversity, essential for the creation of more resilient and sustainable agricultural systems.
Next stages and events
The collective financing phase for these projects will begin on May 20th on the Triodos Foundation’s crowdfunding platform and will continue until June 28th. This period is an opportunity for the general public to directly participate in promoting sustainable agricultural practices and conserving biodiversity.
Furthermore, a special event will be organized in June to introduce the selected projects from Manresa, Alicante, Zaragoza, Vitoria Gasteiz, and Mallorca. They will also be presented during the Assembly of the Network of Municipalities for Agroecology, which will be held in Córdoba on October 3-5.
The “We Sow Biodiversity” call emerges as an initiative to underscore the urgency of adopting more sustainable agricultural practices, as well as to support the projects of entities and networks that wish to work in this direction.
Useful links
#WeSowBiodiversity
