Notes that the most effective way to maintain genetic diversity in agriculture is by using it in vivo; notes that of the three DUS criteria (distinctiveness, uniformity and stability) applied to official EU seed catalogues, uniformity and stability are not natural characteristics in genetically diverse plants; notes that adaptation to climate change is dependent upon high genetic variation; notes the increasingly concentrated seed markets and decreased variation per variety; encourages the role played by farm seed systems and exchanges in empowering farmers, and recognises participative breeding as a long tradition of innovation in r ...[+++]ural communities.

We can see, for example in the case of Triffid flax, that the flax industry went right to the seed first and worked with the seed suppliers and the University of Saskatchewan to ensure clean breeder seed, and then worked with farmers to strongly encourage a movement to the use of new, clean, certified seed.

7. Calls on the Commission to propose a framework for rural development measures which introduce improved, decentralised facilities for the production of animal feed, based on local and regional crop varieties, the storage of those varieties and seed selection and development;

It's easy to underestimate the cost when you can't see exactly what you're missing. There have been some suggestions by a report that it's somewhere in the neighbourhood of $200 million a year.

The Treaty facilitates access (for research and breeding) to seeds of the most important agricultural plant species.

Both parties are involved in the business of breeding and producing seed varieties. The joint venture will bring together the parties' breeding, bioscience and commercial production resources and combine their positions in key agricultural crop seeds, such as sugar beet, maize, oilseeds, grasses, cereals and vegetables.