Report on the relative importance of different factors encouraging farmers to use/ not use organic seed in organic supply chains

The report will provide better understanding of the values and preferences associated with organic seed use and bottlenecks in the organic seed market and breeding. It will be fed with the following: A mapping of normative values in the literature and in private and governmental standards in the EU and other parts of the world will be carried out by ORC. The value-map will cover both the requirement for use of organic seed as well as the specific organic breeding initiatives. The views of project partners and the status quo analysis in WP1 will also be considered. This mapping exercise will form the basis for consultation, using up to 60 expert interviews (including seed producers, seed traders, breeders, organic organisations and regulators) in BE, BU, DE, DK, ES, FR, GR, HU, IT, LV, NL, PL, UK and CH. The consultation will establish the importance of specific values of organic seed to various stakeholders and their preference regarding the use of organic seed as well as bottlenecks in the organic seed markets. The selection of experts will be developed in collaboration with T4.2 with input from project partners, based on guidance provided. Partners of the respective countries will carry out face-to face or phone interviews and report back on the results, using an interview guide developed by ORC. Small workshops for example at existing organic events (such as European and national organic congresses) might also be used. The consultation will be carried out in close collaboration with WP1.1 and WP6.2 (Stakeholder Platform) and analysis will consider farmers’ view gathered in T1.1.3.