A growing number of farmers and growers (including home gardeners) are seeking local varieties or cultivars
with a higher level of intra-varietal diversity, compared to those normally available on the market (Distinct Uniform and Stable varieties).
Solution
The 1998 EU directive 98/95 introduced a new category of plant propagation material: conservation varieties
(CV). This was done to expand the seed market and include historical varieties and increase the level genetic
diversity. In 2008 the rules for the marketing of conservation varieties were defined:
a) Directive 62/2008/CE on field crop species
b) Directive 145/2009/CE on vegetable species, divided among conservation varieties and varieties with no
intrinsic value
c) Directive 60/2010/CE on feed crops
CVs exist only for those species, for which registration on the European Common Catalogue is mandatory. It is therefore not possible to have CVs of einkorn (Triticum monococcum), as the seed of this species can be marketed without registration on a variety list. CVs are registered on a dedicated section of the National variety list.
Description
Practical recommendations
• In Italy there are: 42 CV of vegetables, 16 vegetable varieties with no intrinsic value and 80 CVs of field crop species;
• You can find CVs on seed companies’ catalogues;
• CVs are of public domain: no Plant Breeders’ Rights (PBR) apply and farmers are free to save their own seed;
• CVs can represent a resource for organic agriculture due to their agronomic traits and less homogeneous genetics.
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When you activate this function, your browser establishes a direct connection with the servers of the third-party provider. We would like to point out that data is transmitted to the third-party provider after activation, and the latter may set cookies that can also be used for analysis and marketing purposes. For more information, please refer to our privacy policy.
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