Shaping the future of organic breeding & farming

BRESOV 1st Annual Progress Meeting held in Ancona

From 18th-20th June 2019 the BRESOV consortium gathered for its 1st Annual Progress Meeting in Ancona (Italy). The meeting was hosted by the BRESOV partner Prof. Roberto Papa of the Polytechnic University of Marche (UNIVPM) who not only arranged for a smooth and successful meeting but also made great efforts to make the project partners from across Europe, Asia and Africa feel welcome in Ancona by introducing them to the culinary specialties of the area.

The first meeting day was dedicated to presentations and discussions of the work progress and achieved results since the start of BRESOV in May 2018. Following the official welcome by Rector of the Polytechnic University of Marche, the local host and the project coordinator, Prof. Ferdinando Branca, all project partners outlined their work which they accomplished so far and discussed the progress, status quo and outlook in the scientific work packages and respective crop groups. The presented results showed a good progress and demonstrated the sound cooperation between the 22 international consortium partners. In this context, Prof. Ferdinando Branca stated after the meeting: “The results meet completely my expectations and I would highlight the tight connection we were able to do between partners.”

As BRESOV works on three of the most economically important vegetable crop families (Brassicaceae, Fabaceae, Solanaceae species), the second meeting day was dedicated to individual discussions in the three crop groups with the main aim to discuss the upcoming activities in the second year of the project. Part of the meeting also focused on the discussion of management issues which was presented by partner Eurice as well as project communication and dissemination activities.

As BRESOV aims to improve the competitiveness of Bean, Brassica and Tomato when grown in an organic production system the involvement of farmers is key. Therefore, the consortium partners met on 20th June with local farmers and agronomists from the Marche region to discuss breeding and management strategies to provide climate-resilient cultivars addressed to organic vegetable production systems. These new cultivars will benefit organic growers and the organic seed industry, providing much needed security both under current and future scenarios of climate change. The meeting was rounded off by a visit to the site of local BRESOV partner CREA (Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l’analisi dell’economia agrarian) in Monsampolo del Tronto where parts of the BRESOV tomato field trails are implemented.

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