France
September 12, 2024
.jpeg)
On 16 July, at the Cavaillon GEVES station, various players involved in the maintenance and distribution of old vegetable varieties and representatives of SEMAE and GEVES discussed the regulatory, technical and financial components involved in maintaining or registering these old varieties, which sometimes have a very high heritage value, in the Official Catalogue. Organised every 3 years, the July 2024 meeting was the 3rd to be held on this subject, with discussions in the meeting room and in GEVES trials to illustrate the problems encountered in maintaining this varietal diversity.
With almost 500 old vegetable varieties registered in the French Official Catalogue (lists a, b, c and d) out of a total of almost 2,900 vegetable varieties, gardeners and market gardeners have at their disposal a significant number of varieties that are regularly monitored via GEVES trials, varieties that they are used to growing and to which they may be attached in view of the often strong heritage value of these varieties. A heritage variety is well-known in an area and representative of French agriculture or horticulture. It is also often emblematic of a region.
Most of these varieties were included in lists a and b when the French Official Catalogue was opened in 1952, and the creation of the French register of old varieties for amateurs in 1997, with some 250 varieties, enabled the number of old varieties to be increased with a minimum of official controls. Transferred in 2012 to list d, which was then created by a Community directive, the 300 or so varieties in the former annexed register are now included in list d, the main user of which is the amateur gardener. It should be noted, however, that while most of the varieties on list d are old varieties whose creation dates range from the end of the 19th century to the early 1980s, list d also includes recently created varieties. Lastly, there is a list c, also created in 2012: it contains only old vegetable varieties threatened with erosion and their distribution is not limited to amateurs.
In addition to the exchanges between the various operators involved in the maintenance and registration of old vegetable varieties, the 3rd GEVES-SEMAE day on the maintenance of old vegetable varieties, held on 16/07/2024, provided an opportunity to present and discuss the regulatory procedures implemented for the registration and official controls carried out as part of the maintenance of these old varieties. To illustrate the official control procedures in practice and the difficulties encountered in validating a seed lot when applying for registration or when a new seed establishment applies to be recognised as a compliant maintainer, the participants were able to visit the tomato maintenance control trials, which include more than 40 old varieties, and the squash control trial. In addition to the rich exchanges between participants on the characterisation of varieties, it was recalled that the seeds distributed must produce plants and fruit (for fruit vegetables!) that conform to their historical identity as described in reference works.
As for the financial arrangements for registration and maintenance support, this is a significant issue for such varieties, whose market size can fluctuate significantly depending on the variety. In this context, participants were reminded of the financial support provided by the Ministry of Agriculture for varieties applying for inclusion on list c and by SEMAE for varieties on list d. At the same time, SEMAE explained the terms and conditions of the fund dedicated to the maintenance of old varieties, which will be set up for the first time in 2020. It covers both varieties in the process of being registered and varieties already registered, but which are subject to market constraints or are part of a conservation breeding program requiring more extensive work from time to time. Since its creation, 77 varieties have been supported.
During the day, the Central Genetic Resources Union (URGC) had the opportunity to give feedback on its conservation and market garden experimentation activities, enabling it to identify a development avenue for each variety. The work in progress to save Sucrine du Berry, piloted by the URGC and financed by the Biodiversity Endowment Fund, provided an opportunity to exchange and share working methods.
Lastly, the work of the National Coordination for the Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources (PGR) in identifying heritage varieties that have been written off and are still present in the GEVES DUS collections was presented. The aim of this work is to identify whether these varieties are conserved somewhere (PGR conservation structures such as the Biological Resource Centres that exist for several species). If this is not the case, suitable conservation schemes will have to be set up for species where there are no PGR conservation bodies, considering the number of interested parties and their involvement, the number of varieties to be conserved and the technical resources required to ensure long-term conservation (coordination, stock management, storage banks, availability, etc.).
Topics
Species
