We could contribute to the call with one or more research topics on the organic breeding of peas:

Topic 1: The broader question concerns the further development of multi-parent populations or CCPs of winter peas as protein peas for animal feed or human consumption. These winter peas are cultivated in mixture with triticale. First question: Are these self-pollinating populations better than the parent varieties and lines that were developed in parallel from the crosses? The second question concerns the further development of the population based on the usual parameters for feed peas or human nutrition. Does selection reduce the performance of the populations? Third question: Which parameters are required for human nutrition and are these stable in the populations? Fourth question: How can the populations be differentiated and described?

Topic 2: Development of an organic breeding programme for summer protein peas, also as a multi-parent population or CCP.

Topic 3: Another area is the breeding of sugar peas (mangetout) as a vegetable: the first new lines have been developed under organic conditions. However, the propagation factor is very low, which hinders the establishment of lines for further trials and slows down breeding progress. Until now, propagation has been carried out in mixture with barley. However, barley appears to be too competitive, especially during the increasingly frequent dry periods. Therefore, the project aims to test other mixture partners, such as oats, camelina or others.

Saatzucht Projekt Kassel is a private organisation that works in the non-profit seed sector in the field of organic breeding research and organic breeding. The aim is to develop new varieties and populations of winter and summer peas and Phaseolus beans (dwarf bush beans) under organic conditions. To this end, breeding research issues are addressed, but practical problems are also tackled, such as the propagation of legumes under organic conditions. New varieties are registered without plant variety protection through the non-profit association Kultursaat e.V. Research and breeding take place exclusively under certified organic conditions. An organically certified site in central Germany can be contributed to the project, and organically certified breeding material can be made available. The aim of participating in a consortium would be to finance exclusively organic breeding research at our own site and to gain knowledge from other organically certified sites. Preliminary work has been done on multi-parent populations and composite crosses of winter peas, as well as sugar peas and Phaseolus beans for threshing.