BIOVEGEN collaborates in the creation of the European initiative «Integrated Crop Production»

As we announced at the last Platform Assembly, at BIOVEGEN we are involved in the creation of a European initiative called Public-Private Partnership in Integrated Crop Production (PPP ICP, Public-Private Collaboration in Integrated Crop Production). This is a European-level initiative that aims to establish a public-private mechanism for financing R&D&I activities to promote sustainability and innovation in Agricultural Production.

This initiative is still in the formation phase. The intention is to:

• Create a structure led by the business sector, in which part of the budget is committed by companies and another part by the European Commission.
• Involve companies from different subsectors: plant improvement, plant nutrition, plant protection, precision agriculture, etc.

Some of the R&D priorities that we intend to respond to through this ICP initiative are:

• New pests and diseases
• Nutritional value and quality of food
• Abiotic stress
• Environmentally friendly growing practices
• Productivity increase
• Higher crop quality
• Comprehensive use of the plant (feed, forage, biomass...)
• Exploitation of biodiversity
• Soil sustainability
• Pre and post harvest losses

BIOVEGEN is involved in the Working Group that develops this initiative, led by the European Platform Plants for the Future (P4F). This Working Group is working on a vision document to present the initiative to the European Commission, in a meeting that will be held during the second week of January 2015. For the ICP to move forward, it is essential to show the greatest possible support and interest by the European business sector.