We’re looking forward to this chance to converse freely about ways to improve this year’s trialing experience and how to shape the next 5 years of the Canadian Organic Vegetable Improvement Project (CANOVI)

Growers who are currently, have been in the past, or those interested in becoming involved in CANOVI variety trials or breeding work in the future, are invited to bring their questions and topics of interest.

The Canadian Organic Vegetable Improvement Project (CANOVI) has been a 5-year program (2018-2023) to build a collaborative network of farmers, researchers, and industry stakeholders to:

• Test varieties for (1) adaptation to agro-ecological practices, (2) nutrition and flavour, and (3) local seed production;
• Teach farmers the principles and practice of trialing and breeding;
• Implement on-farm participatory plant breeding projects to create, improve or adapt vegetable crops.

The discussion will be framed around the following topics:

1)The last year of CANOVI trials (carrots, radicchio, rutabaga, and more)

• What quantitative and qualitative data matters to you?
• How can we build a stronger community of practice around CANOVI?

2) The next 5-year Organic Science Cluster Funding (2023-2028)

• What crops are you interested in and why?
• What on-farm plant breeding projects are you excited about?
• Would you be interested in being part of an advisory committee to inform our future work?

This conversation will also be an opportunity for the research team to present three concepts that is orienting its future work:

• Participatory and collective approaches;
• Genomics and genome-environment association;
• Functional traits and adaptive strategies.

* Please note that this is a bilingual event and that simulatenous translation will be available