‘Thinking differently about cultivation’ Variety development and seed production for organic farming have been fully integrated into the Bejo organization from the start. This results in a cross-fertilization that helps advance both organic and traditional breeding.
Bejo has been producing organic seed since 1996. What started with a limited number of varieties of a handful of crops has grown into a broad range in the past 22 years. Bejo’s assortment of organically produced seed now includes more than 40 crops of 150 different varieties. And those numbers just keep growing. Our most important markets are in Western Europe and North America. Bejo has now extended its organic agriculture supply in the Netherlands to include lettuce crops of the Rumours (Iceberg) and Agribel (Batavia) varieties.
Selecting suitable varieties for organic farming
“Bejo made a conscious choice to integrate the organic business as a fully fledged part of the company from the beginning,” says Bram Weijland, coordinator of Organic Affairs. This has allowed the young business unit to benefit from the seed production and breeding knowledge and expertise that Bejo has built up over the decades.
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Bejo magazine
In developing a selection of varieties suitable for organic cultivation, Bejo breeders are able to draw on the large library of varieties and lines collected over the decades.
Thinking big
Bejo’s international infrastructure is also worth its weight in gold. “As part of Bejo, we can think big,” Weijland says. “For example, in all the major countries we have organic test fields where we can make selections from the many conventional hybrids for organic farming. If you select only from organic varieties, you miss out on scale. In addition to this, the promising hybrids are tested under organic conditions over several years before being finally selected for sale.” Scale also enables Bejo to develop innovative solutions, such as an alternative to seed coating. “In conventional cultivation we’re used to giving the crops a protected start by applying a coating around the seed that has fungicide in it,” Weijland says. “In organic cultivation we can’t do that. Working with the University of Twente, we’ve developed a very good alternative: we now disinfect the seeds in advance, for example using a hot water treatment.”
Cross-pollination
Bejo’s organic activities benefit from the knowledge and experience the company has built up in regular cultivation. And conventional has a lot to learn from organic too, says Bart Kuin,
Hybrid varieties for an improved and uniform product Bejo is developing modern hybrid varieties for the organic market, says Organic Affairs coordinator Bram Weijland. “With these hybrid varieties we’re targeting modern professional growers who produce for the large retailers’ market. That market has more than 90 percent of the acreage.” Hybrid varieties offer attractive benefits. Firstly, the quality and yield per hectare is better. Secondly, uniformity in the field is important for processing, especially for mechanized weed control.
area crop manager for Western Europe and business manager for organics. “The integration of ‘breeding for organic’ leads to an interesting cross-pollination. Bejo has managed production in a certain way. And artificial fertilizer and chemical pesticides play a role. You have to do without those in organic farming. That forces you to think differently about production. Diseases and pests are harder to combat; you have to try to prevent them by managing the cultivation system differently.”
Demand for robust varieties
“This is also becoming more important in conventional crops,” says Kuin. “We’re facing restrictions on the use of fertilizers and pesticides. We’re starting to once again look more closely at the soil and the vitality of the crop. And this has consequences for variety selection. The market needs robust varieties, with good disease resistance and a strong root system to make the best use of the nutrients in the soil.” In practice, the ambitions of conventional and organic are coming closer together, says Kuin. “We want to keep our leading position. We promote sustainable cultivation with a high yield and good product quality. It all starts with the best seeds of the best varieties.”
In the 1990s, Bejo was one of the first breeders to switch to making organic a fully integrated part of their activities. As a family business, Bejo believes a sustainable approach has benefits for the long term, and we want to dedicate ourselves to it fully. We believe we must handle our natural resources with care, not only for ourselves but also for future generations. Being a conventional breeder as well as organic one leads to some great cross-pollinations. On the one hand, breeding for organic provides inspiration and new ideas for conventional production. On the other hand, in our organic activities we’re able to build on the knowledge, experience and infrastructure that we’ve gained over the past century. At Bejo, breeding for organic production means we use our broad genetic basis in combination with the latest technologies. Breeding for organic production also means we can develop varieties with better resistance and a high yield, we can produce highquality seeds and spark off new innovations. With organic seed, Bejo is contributing to a sustainable production chain for healthy and tasty food, RIGHT from the START.
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