As we announced at the last Assembly of the Platform, we at BIOVEGEN 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). It is a European-level initiative aimed at establishing a public-private funding mechanism for R&D activities to promote sustainability and innovation in Agricultural Production.
This initiative is still in the formation phase. The goals are:
- Create a structure led by the business sector, with part of the budget committed by companies and the other part by the European Commission.
- Involve companies from different subsectors: plant breeding, plant nutrition, plant protection, precision agriculture, etc.
Some of the R&D priorities that this ICP initiative aims to address are:
- New pests and diseases
- Nutritional value and quality of food
- Abiotic stress
- Environmentally friendly cultivation practices
- Increased productivity
- Improved crop quality
- Comprehensive utilization of the plant (food, forage, biomass…)
- Utilization of biodiversity
- Sustainability of soils
- Pre and post-harvest losses
BIOVEGEN is involved in the Working Group developing 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 during a meeting that will be held in the second week of January 2015. To move the ICP forward, it is essential to show the greatest possible support and interest from the European business sector.