Special Issue "Breeding and Seed Sector Innovations for Organic Food Systems"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Food".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2022.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Monika Messmer
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Department of Crop Science, Head of Plant Breeding Group, Ackerstrasse 113, CH-5070 Frick, Switzerland
2. Scientific coordinator of Horizon2020 project LIVESEED – Boosting organic seed and plant breeding across Europe
Interests: organic plant breeding, participatory breeding, lupin, pea, soybean, cotton, breeding for species mixtures, plant – microbe interactions, marker assisted selection, resilient seed systems, on farm cultivar testing networks
Dr. Vladimir Meglič
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Agricultural Institute of Slovenia, Crop Science Department, Kmetijski inštitut, Slovenije/Agricultural Institute of Slovenia, Hacquetova ulica 17, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
2. Coordinator of Horizon2020 project ECOBREED - Increasing the efficiency and competitiveness of organic crop breeding
Interests: plant breeding and enhancement, grain legumes, wheat, buckwheat, forage crops, diversity studies, developing tools for genetic diversity assessment, field evaluation, germplasm -agricultural crops and their wild relatives- acquisition and mapping, genetic studies on biotic and abiotic stress plant response
Dr. Ferdinando Branca
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Dipartimento di Agricoltura, Alimentazione e Ambiente (Di3A), University of Catania, Via Valdisavoia 5, 95123 Catania, Italy
2. Coordinator of Horizon2020 project BRESOV - Breeding for Resilient, Efficient and Sustainable Organic Vegetable production
Interests: vegetable, aromatic, and medicinal plant diversity; crop domestication and evolution; agronomic, organoleptic, nutraceutical, and technological traits; miRNAs; healthy and super foods
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will focus on publications related to a broad range of plant breeding and seed sector innovations for organic food systems presented during the respective international conference co-organized  by EUCARPIA Section Organic and Low Input agriculture and the three Horizon 2020 projects LIVESEED, BRESOV, and ECOBREED, the Latvian project FLPP, and the European Consortium for Organic Plant Breeding (ECO-PB) in March 2021 https://www.eucarpialiveseedconference2021.lv/ and innovative research in the field of organic seed and plant breeding that will arise after the conference. The Special Issue will embrace papers with special focus on the fast-growing organic sector, which cover topics such as exploring plant genetic resources, breeding for diversity, breeding for culinary and nutritional quality, soil–plant interactions, organic seed production, organic seed health, seed treatments, socio-economic analysis of organic seed systems, systems-based breeding, market and consumer aspects, as well as regulatory and policy recommendations related to organic seed and plant breeding and transition toward sustainable food production. This Special Issue will be the first comprehensive collection of upfront research focusing on breeding and seed innovations for organic food systems.

The organic food sector is one of the fastest growing worldwide and has received special attention within the European Green Deal Strategy, which aims for 25% organic managed land to achieve fast transition toward more sustainable food systems by 2030. This needs a fast increase in the production of high-quality and healthy organic seed of adjusted cultivars. To exploit the full potential of organic food production, novel cultivars and types of cultivars are needed that meet the demand of farmers, processors, traders, and consumers for diverse and delicious food and at the same time combat the challenges of climate change. As organic production is based on the principles of health, ecology, fairness, and care, the organic breeding and seed sector and its relation to food systems needs to be understood in a holistic way. Therefore, agronomic, biological, technical, social, economic, regulatory, and political issues as well as ethical, societal, and cultural norms and values need to be considered to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals as pointed out in the review paper on systems-based breeding (Lammerts  et al. Sustainability 2017, 9(1), 18; https://doi.org/10.3390/su9010018).

This Special Issue aims to publish high-quality research papers on the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary field of organic seed, plant breeding, and cultivar testing innovations to improve performance and sustainability of organic food systems. With this Special Issue, we want to highlight cutting-edge research and innovations of the organic seed and breeding sector beyond genetic engineering. Following a holistic approach to achieve transition toward more sustainable agriculture and food production, we welcome research papers considering a broader perspective on seed and breeding innovations that foster upscaling organic and foods systems in Europe and on a global scale.

Dr. Monika Messmer
Dr. Vladimir Meglič
Dr. Ferdinando Branca
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • organic seed
  • organic plant breeding
  • genetic resources
  • genetic diversity
  • breeding tools
  • detection tools
  • organic varieties, organic heterogeneous material
  • participatory approaches
  • systems-based breeding
  • nutritional quality
  • seed health
  • seed treatments
  • seed systems
  • on-farm cultivar testing
  • seed regulation
  • organic regulation
  • organic seed market
  • farm-saved seed
  • organic seed database
  • socioeconomic analysis
  • financing models for organic plant breeding
  • consumer and market studies
  • culinary quality
  • cultural value
  • organic agriculture
  • organic food systems
  • sustainability

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Breeding Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) in Mixture with Grasses
Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 8929; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13168929 - 10 Aug 2021
Viewed by 264
Abstract
Cultivation of forage mixtures offers several advantages over monocultures, but forage legumes like alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) are mostly bred in pure stands. Our goal was to assess the extent of accession-by-cultivation system interaction when alfalfa plants are grown in pure stands [...] Read more.
Cultivation of forage mixtures offers several advantages over monocultures, but forage legumes like alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) are mostly bred in pure stands. Our goal was to assess the extent of accession-by-cultivation system interaction when alfalfa plants are grown in pure stands or in an easily adaptable nursery system together with their companion grasses, thereby determining the system most suitable for selection in mixture. Spaced plants of 50 alfalfa accessions were grown on bare soil as control treatment (CONV), in a sown sward of short growing lawn cultivars of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) and red fescue (F. rubra L.) (LAWN), and in a sown sward of taller forage cultivars of the same species (FORA). Accession-by-cultivation system interaction variances were large for growth habit but small for vigor. Phenotypic correlation coefficients (rp) among the cultivation systems were high for vigor, whereby LAWN was somewhat more predictive for FORA (rp, FORALAWN = 0.83) than CONV (rp, FORACONV = 0.77). Observed accession-by-genotype interactions can be used pro or contra necessity for selection in mixture. However, the LAWN cultivation system might be a good compromise for practical breeding, allowing to account for given competition effects among species and to easily assess traits in the nursery. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Breeding and Seed Sector Innovations for Organic Food Systems)
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