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The British Society of Plant Breeders (BSPB) has launched a new website and corporate identity to better promote the importance of plant breeding to UK agriculture.

CEO, Samantha Brooke, made the decision following a survey that suggested the membership organisation had been misunderstood by farmers. “The research suggested farmers saw the BSPB as just a royalty collector for its members. We therefore refreshed our branding and created a new website that promotes, educates and supports UK plant breeding, and demonstrates the value of plant breeders to British agriculture,” she says.

Farm saved seed declarations are managed by the BSPB on behalf of its members. Ms Brooke garnered opinion that suggested the old payment system was time consuming for farmers and needed to be simplified. “The online portal, that is part of the new website, will speed up and make easy every farm saved seed declaration. The website will also offer farmers more information about why their payment is so important to their own crop yield and to the sustainability of British agriculture as a whole,” she says.

Recent research commissioned by Euroseeds, demonstrated the importance of plant breeding to food security worldwide. The 2021 report, by Steffen Noleppa, claimed that without advances brought about by plant breeding, European arable crop yield would have been more than 20 percent lower in 2020.

More specifically it identified an increase of 53 million tons of cereals and 8 million tons of oilseeds that have been produced because of modern plant breeding methods. “This underpins the much-deserved royalties our members are entitled and demonstrates the value of their work to agricultural productivity. BSPB will therefore continue to highlight the influence of plant breeding through our new website and by working with our members, farmers and growers,” concludes Ms Brooke.

https://www.bspb.co.uk/