• HORIZON-CL6-2026-01-BIODIV-06: Boosting agrobiodiversity for food security and sustainable competitiveness

Regarding the call HORIZON-CL6-2026-01-BIODIV-06: Boosting agrobiodiversity for food security and sustainable competitiveness:

The CRA-W could contribute its growing expertise and experimental platform in reducing dependence of external inputs in organic vegetable farming. The CRA-W could be part of a breeding network focused on local adaptation of organic vegetable crops using genetically diversified cultivars such as open pollinated varieties or heterogeneous organic material (OHM). The diversity of these cultivars is better suited for short value chains and can contribute to locally anchored agricultural and food businesses. The CRA-W could host variety evaluations of diversified cultivars to assess the agronomic, nutritional and economic performance as well as the local adaptability of said cultivars. This evaluation of crops could be over multiple years and be within the established farming systems addressing the sectors challenges. The potential results of this evaluation can contribute to farmers and agri-businesses knowledge about agrobiodiversity and promote breeding of locally adapted cultivars.