InnOBreed is a collaborative research project funded under Horizon Europe, with the aim to foster organic fruit tree breeding and improve the performance of the fruit sector, by enhancing Innovative Organic fruit Breeding and uses.
The project is a joint initiative by 21 organisations, including universities, research institutes, technological centres, and producer associations from nine (9) different EU Member States and Switzerland.
Through nine (9) work packages, InnOBreed will evaluate, implement and aggregate innovative solutions (IS) to promote the organic fruit growing sectors by the development and deployment of suitable cultivars.
The main objective of the project is to identify specific fruit cultivars that are better suited for organic production cultivars compared to the ones that are currently used, and that meet organic farming requirements, by:
▪ Evaluating local genetic resources, (pre-) breeding material and cultivars;
▪ Breeding for organic traits with optimised approaches (e.g. better robustness, better pest and disease tolerance/resistance, lower input fitness, better adaptation to climate changes, etc.); and
▪ Introducing these varieties through the organic fruit supply chain.