Organic seed production in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The Council Regulation (EC) No. 834/2007, and the Commission Regulation (EC) No. 889/2008, lay down the law to solely use organic seeds in order to establish organic crop stands. The seed must originate from plants being grown in compliance with the organic farming rules for at least one generation. Seed reproduction is an extremely difficult process. The reproduction crop stand and seed must meet the requirements of the seed certification and authorization procedure as conventional plants and seed do, but organic farming does not allow the use of any pesticides or mineral nitrogenous fertilizers, etc. Organic farmers may use certified organic seeds or farm saved seed in order to establish the crop stand. They may also apply for an exception (derogation) and use the conventional untreated seed. Quality of certified seed is protected by the Seed law and the regulations. Certified seed guarantees basic seed quality for the farmers. But seed controll system cannot express the biological value. The differeces in seed quality are connected to propagation conditions at the farm and also level of agrotechnology applied at the seed multiplication farm. Important is also care about seed quality from seeding companies. Our manuscript is aimed on the evaluation of seed certification system in the Czech Republic. Thanks to the seeding companies (ZZN Pelhřimov and PRO-BIO s.r.o.) were obtained results from seed quality analysis. Our results brings overview about most frequent reasons for nonrecognition of organic seed, originated from organic farming. Our results also provides for the farmers recommendation how to produce high quality seed.