Very few seed and breeding business initiatives tackle the six-fold organic seed production increase that is needed by 2030. Lack of market data and successful business models hamper the urgently needed upscaling of the organic seed sector.

The expected growth in the organic farming (targeting 25% land area) will require big efforts to boost the organic seed and breeding sector in short time. To achieve a sustainable broad based growth LIVESEEDING will tackle both (i) the horizontal proliferation aiming for more initiatives (scaling out) and (ii) the linear growth (scaling up) following economy of scales to support local seed supply as well as rural development in Europe. The key assumption is that the plurality of needs of the organic sector, namely the imperative of crop adaptation to local environments and management, can only be fulfilled by large number of actors of different scale incl. conventional seed companies. Training in entrepreneurship and support in developing business models and plans for start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will be key. Outreach will be made to the potential beneficiaries of the seed and breeding sector (farmers, processors, traders, consumers) in order to engage them in the development.

LIVESEEDING will create business models and plans for SMEs, to develop successful initiatives related to organic breeding, cultivar evaluation and seeds production.