A plentiful and diverse seed supply ultimately underpins modern day agriculture: whether growing grass, wheat or turnips, it all starts with the seed. The ESGG aims to bring together seed growers from across Europe to debate and discuss areas of common interest.
The love for discussing the weather is one held Europe-wide and with harvest fast approaching, farmers’ predictions and market outlook is a key area of discussion. Last year, France experienced terrible weather meaning that many of the seed crops especially in the centre of the country were destroyed. This year things are looking better.
Given our last meeting was before the EU referendum I was interested to see the reception we would receive from our continental seed growing colleagues. It was nothing but a warm welcome and they were all clear that we must work together to protect the currently vibrant and diverse EU seed market.
Seed is currently traded back and forth between EU member states to the benefit of farmers on both sides of the channel, and other grower organisations were keen that Brexit shouldn't prevent this happening. Albeit an arguably niche area, ensuring the future regulations governing the seed market are workable will be an important piece of work and one the NFU crops team isn’t shying away from.
Interestingly, protecting and accessing innovation was a focus of the group. Regardless of our European status, farmers need access to the very best plant genetics if they are to feed the ever-growing population.
The conference was keen to explore New Breeding Techniques (NBTs) – the NBTs provide an opportunity to speed up plant breeding whilst making it more precise. This is arguably a win-win situation. However, there are questions around the regulation and the delegates agreed that if we want to protect and enhance our food security, farmers will need access to the new and exciting varieties that could be developed through the use of NBTs.