Let’s Liberate Diversity! News
Safeguarding Europe’s Cultivated Plant Diversity
PRM Reform – Safeguarding Europe’s Cultivated Plant Diversity The new EU Plant Reproductive Material (PRM) Regulation will influence the future of seed diversity as well as farmers’ rights, and market access for innovative and traditional varieties in...
Governance and Financing Models for Organic Plant Breeding in Europe
A two-part webinar on the topic of Governance and Financing Models for Organic Plant Breeding in Europe will be held within the Liveseeding project in March. When? 10 March 2026 | 9h30–13h00 CET 11 March 2026 | 9h30–12h30 CET What to expect? • Governance and...
Seed systems in the agroecological transition
The special meeting on Seed systems in the agroecological transition: deep dive on governance, policy and best-practices is scheduled on 19 March from 2 to 3:30 PM CET. The goals of the meeting are: to raise awareness about the place of seeds in the agroecological...
Mapping Actors in Farmers’ Managed Seed Systems Worldwide
Farmers’ seed systems are central to biodiversity, resilience, and food sovereignty. Yet, organisations and networks working in this space often face a common challenge: global and regional seed policy processes are numerous and resource-intensive, making it difficult for many actors to follow and engage consistently.
To address this, a group of organisations came together during the 2024 Let’s Liberate Diversity! Forum in Antibes and launched a new initiative: Strengthening International Farmers’ Seed Networks. The aim is to create a shared space of collaboration, where knowledge can circulate, experiences can be exchanged, and local initiatives can connect with global processes.
The initiative is co-led by the European Coordination Let’s Liberate Diversity! (EC-LLD), Oxfam Novib, IFOAM Seed Platform, Farmers’ Seed Network (China and Kenya), Seed Library Network, and Seeds4All, with contributions from SKI, AFSA, MASIPAG, and many others. Together, these actors are building an informal, inclusive process that continues to gain momentum.
Take Part in the Survey
As a first milestone, we are launching a global survey to map actors involved in farmers’ managed seed systems and cultivated biodiversity. By taking part, you will help make visible the diversity of initiatives across the world, highlight potential synergies, reduce duplication, and lay the foundation for a stronger global community of practice on farmers’ seeds.
Répondre au questionnaire en français
Responder la encuesta en español
About the Survey
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Duration: 10–15 minutes
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Languages: English, French and Spanish
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Participation: Voluntary and anonymous, with the option to stay connected
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Questions cover profiles of actors, collaboration and policy engagement, knowledge exchange needs, and priorities for collective action.
The results will be compiled and shared with all contributors before the end of 2025, providing the basis for a work plan in 2026 to strengthen international cooperation around farmers’ seed systems.
We encourage you not only to fill in the survey but also to share it widely within your networks, helping to ensure that the diversity of voices and experiences in farmers’ seed systems is captured.
Bring your seeds to the LLD Forum!
CALL FOR SEEDS! If you are joining us at the 14th European Forum ‘Let’s Liberate Diversity’ this coming September, please bring your seeds from bean, pumpkin, and corn varieties. We will use them to illustrate our political message for the liberation of...
Growing the Movement: Connecting Global Seed Networks at the LLD! Forum
Over the past year, a quiet yet powerful convergence has been unfolding in the world of farmers’ seeds. Across regions, many initiatives, networks, and platforms have been working, often in parallel, to support farmers’ seed systems and cultivated biodiversity. While these efforts vary in scope and approach, there is growing recognition that better coordination is needed. A collective effort is now emerging to connect the dots, improve alignment, strengthen exchanges, and explore ways of working more effectively together.
From Shared Conversations to Shared Purpose
This process began in 2024, when ECLLD started facilitating conversations with partners from different regions working on farmers’ seeds. These early exchanges revealed a common challenge: while many collaborations already exist, we often lack visibility on each other’s work. We don’t always know which processes are underway, what strategies are being used, or how decisions made in different spaces might affect the work we are doing with our communities.
The 13th edition of the Let’s Liberate Diversity! Forum, held in Antibes in 2024, marked a turning point. It offered a concrete opportunity to bring together regional and international actors to explore how we might improve coordination and build more connected ways of working. It was also the starting point for imagining a shared ecosystem of collaboration—one that could support mutual learning, policy engagement, and joint action.
An informal group began to take shape following the workshop in Antibes. Since then, it has continued to grow, involving more actors and gaining wider recognition.
Antibes 2024 – First Workshop on Strenghtening Global Seed Networks
Strengthening the Ties: A Global Web in the Making
Today, the momentum continues to build. A growing number of organisations and platforms are actively engaged, including Oxfam’s Community of Practice on Farmers’ Seed Systems, the IFOAM Seed Platform, the Seed Library Network and Open Source Seed Initiative (North America), Farmers’ Seed Networks in China and Kenya, and COASP in West Africa.
Together, these actors are creating a space for dialogue and reflection. It is a space where diverse initiatives can come together to discuss opportunities and explore potential roadmaps for improving strategic coordination in support of farmers’ seeds and cultivated biodiversity.
As we look ahead, this emerging network aims to map who is working on farmers’ seeds worldwide and to create common spaces and shared infrastructure for exchange, coordination, learning, and mobilisation.
Launching the Survey at the LLD Forum 2025
The next milestone will be the launch of a global survey, designed to identify and map the wide range of actors engaged in farmers’ seed systems and cultivated biodiversity around the world. More than just a data collection tool, the survey is a first step in building the foundations for a co-owned global map and shared infrastructure to support the long-term coordination across different movements and initiatives.
The survey will be launched at the Let’s Liberate Diversity! Forum 2025, taking place in Luxembourg from 4–6 September 2025. As part of the Forum, we will host a hybrid workshop to present the survey, refine its dissemination strategy, and explore the next steps toward shared ways of working and the co-development of an ecosystem of collaboration.
Join Us: From Dialogue to Action
This is a unique moment to help shape the future of global collaboration on farmers’ seeds. Whether you are part of a network, an organisation working on seeds, a grassroots initiative, a seed-saving community, a research institution, or a policy platform, your perspective matters. We warmly invite you to join us in Luxembourg, or online, for the LLD Forum and hybrid workshop.
More information on registration, the programme, and participation options is available at:
https://liberatediversity.org/lld-forum-luxembourg-2025/
EU Agriculture Ministers Restrict Farmers’ Rights
“The position of the agriculture ministers endangers those who keep crop diversity alive. We call for reason to foster resilience in agriculture and protect the diversity and flavour on our plates,” comments ARCHE NOAH seed law expert Magdalena Prieler. The trilogue negotiations between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on the new “Regulation on the Production and Marketing of Plant Reproductive Material” will begin in the new year.
Instead of protecting farmers and local seed producers, the Council’s position imposes the same bureaucratic requirements on small companies as on global corporations. The new record-keeping, reporting and traceability rules would hit small producers the hardest. However, small producers make an invaluable contribution to the preservation and marketing of old, open-pollinated varieties. Despite their small size, they also often offer a wider range of crops than the largest players on the market. “If these small businesses are pushed out of the market owing to new administrative burdens, our markets would lose much of their crop diversity – an outcome that harms us all” says Prieler.
The Council of Agriculture Ministers also wants to prevent the marketing of newly developed diverse cereal or oilseed varieties. The Council restricts the possibility for new varieties to deviate from strict uniformity requirements to only fruits and vegetables. “This restriction amounts to a ban on the work of diversity breeders. Regional operators that offer adaptable seed of niche crop species or develop varieties for innovative, environmentally friendly cultivation systems such as market gardening would be excluded from the market. Farmers would become completely dependent on the seed industry under this rule”, Prieler explains.
Agriculture Ministers restrict farmer seed exchange
In addition, the Council’s position forbids farmers from exchanging their seed with farmers outside their region, even in small quantities. The exchange of other types of propagating material, such as fruit-tree scions, is completely prohibited. Yet access to crops and varieties from other regions is often essential for farmers facing the climate crisis. “Seed exchange is not only a human right for peasants recognised in international law. It t enables farmers to experiment, innovate and support each other in difficult times,” Prieler explains. “By restricting these exchanges so drastically, the Council of Agriculture Ministers is hollowing out farmers’ seed rights until they are barely worth the paper they are written on.”
Some improvements made, but major issues remain
After over two years of continuous advocacy, ARCHE NOAH succeeded in securing some important improvements to the proposal ahead of today’s decision. The Council has now introduced adapted rules for the production of propagating material of old fruit varieties, instead of applying the same standards used for large-scale orchard production. Our work also contributed to the removal of several unworkable requirements for “standard seed,” such as the separation of seed and food production on small farms and the demand for expensive germination tests in external laboratories.
Look ahead to the trilogue negotiations in 2026
ARCHE NOAH demands that the transfer of plant reproductive material for the purpose of preserving agrobiodiversity remains exempt from seed legislation, as is currently the case in several member states including Austria. Farmers’ freedom to exchange seed among themselves must be guaranteed, and the administrative burden for very small farms must remain proportionate. All of these points are missing from the Council’s position.
The trilogue negotiations between the Council, the Parliament, and the Commission on the final legal text will begin in the new year. ARCHE NOAH — together with numerous seed initiatives from across Europe — will continue to work to ensure that the new seed legislation strengthens crop diversity and farmers’ seed rights, rather than restricting these principles even further. “The Council’s position is unacceptable. Agriculture Minister Norbert Totschnig and his colleagues must finally take decisive action so that the important work of conservation initiatives and small seed enterprises can continue in the future—to save the diversity in our fields and on our plates and to strengthen the resilience of our agriculture in times of climate crisis”, Prieler demands.
For enquiries:
ARCHE NOAH, Association for the Conservation and Development of Cultivated Plant Diversity
Axel Grunt
Head of Communications
+43 680 2379245
Image Service:
Downloads under www.arche-noah.at/presse-medien/pressefotos
Requests to presse@arche-noah.at
New paper on consequences of deregulation on the seed sector
New IG Saatgut position paper on the deregulation of NGTs in the EU
A summary of our IG Saatgut’s new position paper with “Non-GM seed production at risk: Practical consequences of a deregulation of NGTs for the seed sector” is now available. The summary is available both in English and German. The translation of the whole document into English will come later, as it is still being translated.
The paper is structured in such a way that, in addition to a brief assessment of the current situation at the beginning, the middle section describes the vulnerability of seed production and the consequences of
deregulating NGT plants for this. You will also find a diagram showing possible contamination pathways. The paper concludes with IG Saatgut’s demands, which are based on the contexts described.
Please feel free to share it widely!
IG Saatgut are also available for explanatory presentations or in-depth assessments of the topic, so please do not hesitate to contact them.
IG Saatgut – Summary (DT) IG Saatgut – Summary (ENG)
Read the latest LiveSeeding Policy Brief
LiveSeeding has published a policy brief on the definition of organic plant breeding for registration of organic varieties suitable for organic production.
The organic sector needs to access a broad genetic base to develop high-quality cultivars, varieties and populations. Varieties can be develop through different breeding strategies, but the definitions and details of these strategies are not always clear.
Read here: LS Policy Brief September 2025
Key Policy Recommendations
- Organic farmers need access to a large portfolio of cultivar types that are well-adapted and suitable for organic conditions and diverse local contexts. Suitable varieties for the organic sector can be developed through different breeding strategies, such as “conventional plant breeding”, “breeding for organic”
and “organic plant breeding”. - “Organic Varieties suitable for organic production” (OV), as defined in the Organic Regulation (EU) 2018/848, may have higher phenotypic or genetic diversity than common varieties. The current adapted protocols for variety registration created by Implementing Directives (EU) 2022/1647 & 2022/1648 [1st July 2023 – 31st Dec 2030] must be perpetuated and expanded to all species to facilitate OV registration and integrated in the new EU Plant Reproductive Material (PRM) Regulation.
- The possibility to notify Organic Heterogeneous Material (OHM), which by definition does not qualify as a plant variety, must be ensured for all species across EU Member States.
- Adopting a clear, consistent definition of organic plant breeding is essential to distinguish it from other breeding strategies. This will help ensure the unambiguous implementation of Implementing directives (EU) 2022/1647 and 2022/1648, which concerns the registration of “Organic Varieties suitable for organic production” (OV) derived from organic breeding activities (EU 2018/848, Annex II 1.8.4).
- The definition shall recognise organic plant breeding as an approach conducted exclusively under organic farming conditions, producing cultivars well-suited for organic farming systems. By respecting natural crossing barriers and fostering manifold interactions between plants and living soil, this approach is fully in line with the general organic principles and makes a substantial contribution to expanding the organic sector and facilitating the broader transition towards sustainable food systems.
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