The Organic Standards require organic producers to use organic seed. However, a derogation can be obtained from certification bodies to allow the use of non organic seed where appropriate organic material is not available in the UK. An official database of organic seed availability, ‘Organicxseeds’, has been developed and is used as the basis for derogation decisions. However, there is a lack of information and a great deal of uncertainty in the minds of growers, about the performance of many varieties available in organic seed. This means that growers could potentially have to make variety choices on the basis little or no information. For the last 4 years, Organic Centre Wales, with support from Farming Connect, has coordinated a survey to help... |