Blumen Vegetable Seeds supports the innovative scientific project on legumes INCREASE CSE ITALIA (Intelligent Collections of Food Legumes Genetic Resources for European Agrofood Systems) by supplying, for the second year, the control variety, the borlotto Meccearly, for the experiment Citizens Science.
The INCREASE project, launched in May 2020, involves 28 universities, research centers and European and international institutions, was funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 research program and is led by Roberto Papa, Professor of Agricultural Genetics at the Polytechnic University of the Marche.
The project aims to develop efficient and effective conservation tools and methods for the genetic resources of legumes, to promote agricultural biodiversity in Europe also through participatory research, inviting, with the Citizen Science Experiment, anyone who has a space available, in the countryside or in the city, to cultivate common beans varieties, monitoring their growth.
To participate in the second year of the Citizen Science Experiment, just register through the INCREASE CSA APP by March 15, 2022.
More than a thousand varieties of beans will be distributed to participating citizens. These are seeds currently stored in European germplasm banks and used in the INCREASE project by researchers, and which are returned to the hands and land of the grower. Each will receive 10 seeds of 5 randomly selected varieties, plus the control variety common to all: our borlotto bean Meccearly.
Through the INCREASE CSA App, in a very simple way and with the help of tutorials, participants will be able to share data, information and images on the phases of growth, maturation, harvesting, multiplication and on the characteristics of the beans, receiving support from the INCREASE team, throughout the growth and cultivation of plants.
“Based on the principle of open science, INCREASE gives citizens free access to the results of scientific research – says prof. Roberto Papa – promoting its dissemination and sharing“.
“Agriculture needs a new beginning – continues Papa – we must safeguard the conservation of genetic resources, but above all we must improve their use. After all, we cannot distinguish conservation from use. It is from the use of seeds that knowledge is born. The wider the audience of users, the greater the amount of information we can obtain“.
The seeds that will be distributed come from several European germplasm banks. They are local varieties well known to researchers: their genome is already sequenced, their characteristics have been evaluated in greenhouses under controlled conditions. Where they are, they are accessible only to researchers, but not to those who cultivate them; in fact they are varieties that are not found in the national and European catalogs of seeds authorized for sale.
They are varieties that mostly date back to the 1950s, handed down in family-run farms or in vegetable gardens – explains Papa – at some point, towards the end of the 1900s, this passage no longer occurred, with a drastic decline in agro-biodiversity.
Fortunately, today, the number of people asking to have access to these varieties is increasing and we researchers must ensure a less centralized management of seed conservation to promote the development of agro-biodiversity“.
Although there are some legal limitations to the exchange of seeds, for safety or hygiene reasons, the beans of the INCREASE project can, however, be exchanged freely because it is an experimental activity of modest quantities. There is no risk of piracy because all the seeds are characterized (their DNA is known), no one can appropriate them and the exchange will take place according to international treaties on genetic resources. “Everyone will be able to participate freely – Pope reassures – if the exchange is free, it is a gain for everyone”. And never mind if some seeds are lost because they have not found the right soil or if they lose their purity because they cross with other varieties. Indeed, this could represent a new beginning of an evolutionary process “.
Already more than 2,000 citizens from all over Europe joined the second round of Citizen Science, after the success of the first year, which saw the participation of over 3,000 European citizens!
