Problems and progress for organic seed production.

In the mid-1990s the organic agriculture movement started a drive for only organically grown seed to be used in organic agriculture due to its growing commercialisation, the advent of transgenetic crops and to ensure authenticity. „Organic seed‟ is a multi-level concept. At its most simple, it just refers to „certified‟ planting seed produced according to organic standards, then as a proxy for organic cultivars and breeding approaches, and finishing with political and philosophical issues such as food sovereignty. The International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements (IFOAM) finally adopted a formal position on organic seed in 2011. The drive for organic planting seed in the developed world has mostly been fulfilled through the use of progressive implementation systems whereby the amount of non-organic seed that is permitted is slowly reduced. However, these systems have had some perverse outcomes, at least initially, and the management of their implementation is somewhat hampered by only collecting data on approvals to use non-organic seed, and not collecting data on how much organic seed is used. The drive for certified organic planting seed has also often had the undesirable effect of reducing the range of cultivars available to producers, which is contrary to organic objectives. This has complicated the drive for 100% organic seeds. However, this has also spurred breeding of cultivars optimised for organic systems, both in centralised institutional settings and decentralised farmer and grower undertakings. The production of organic planting seed, especially for crops such as vegetables, is probably the most difficult of all farming activities. However, there continue to be significant technological and intellectual production improvements that are not only making organic farming and growing easier, but also helping mainstream production systems address their challenges as well.