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for farmers who would like to adapt populations to their own conditions
(environments and markets) and it is of great interest for organic and low
input agriculture in which chemical inputs are prohibited. Farmers' use of
their own saved seed is also related to the sustainability of farms from an
economic perspective. If farmers can make the varieties evolve according to
their own objectives and markets, they would not need to buy seeds for each
crop and each year and their autonomy would be enhanced. It is one of the
conclusions of the FSO Project that the regulation should be re-valuated in
order to create a specifi c framework for population varieties and seed saving
activities where varieties are not stable as defi ned by the current catalogue
regulation [1]. However, registration is not necessarily an issue in on-farm
breeding activity. Farmers involved in PPB have organized seed associa-
tions to manage breeding and seed exchanges [19], and those activities con-
stitute a separate seed system from the dominant commercial seed system.
12.5 CONCLUSIONS
This study showed that the populations tested have phenotypically
changed over two years of on-farm cultivation and selection. The changes
detected in such a short period of time are a sign that the observed popula-
tion varieties could be adapted to diverse conditions. It is of great interest
for organic and low input farmers who are interested in developing their
own varieties and adapting them to their particular conditions. There is a
need for further research on the evolution of farmer varieties, specifically
related to biological questions of adaptability and evolutionary capacities
of allogamous crops and how the legislative framework take into account
the biological reality of those varieties, recognizing the farmers' role in
creating and maintaining genetic diversity in cultivated species.
REFERENCES
1.
Chable, V.; Louwaars, N.; Hubbard, K.; Baker, B.; Bocci, R. Plant breeding, variety
release and seed commercialisation: Laws and policies of concern to the organic
sector. In Organic Crop Breeding; Lammerts van Bueren, E.T., Myers, J.R., Eds.;
Wiley-Blackwell: Hoboken, NJ, USA, in press.
 
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