Published the Decree of 19 July 2023 with which the MASAF adopted the " National Organic Seed Plan " (PNSB) aimed at increasing the availability of the seeds themselves for companies and improving their quantitative and qualitative aspect with reference to the varieties suitable for organic and biodynamic agriculture.
The PNSB is updated every three years and is aimed at promoting participatory genetic improvement, with the collaboration of farmers, technicians and researchers to select plants that meet the needs of organic farmers by adapting to different environmental and climatic contexts and different cultivation systems.
Therefore, beyond the mere quantitative increase in the availability of organic seeds (which first of all allows us to significantly reduce the number of exemptions for the use of non-organic seeds in place of organic ones), the objective of the PNSB will take the form of initiatives that favor and incentivize the identification and production of a wider qualitative range of seeds suitable for organic farming and also to follow up (always as an instrumental action to the aforementioned objective of reducing the number of exceptions) to the identification of "equivalent varieties" such as a "set of individual varieties of a species which, due to agronomic, phenotypic, productive and commercial characteristics, are replaceable with each other without causing potential damage to the farmer".
The availability of quality seeds, in relation to the objective that the organic farmer sets himself within his own production direction, constitutes one of the first strategic choices for developing valuable, sustainable agricultural production capable of contributing to providing the end user the required safety guarantees. (Source: https://www.ruminantia.it/ )
National organic seed plan