agronomy Article Marketing Farmers’ Varieties in Europe: Encouraging Pathways with Missing Links for the Recognition and Support of Farmer Seed Systems Fulya Batur 1, *, Riccardo Bocci 2 and Béla Bartha 3   Citation: Batur, F.; Bocci, R.; Bartha, B. Marketing Farmers’ Varieties in Europe: Encouraging Pathways with Missing Links for the Recognition and Support of Farmer Seed Systems. Agronomy 2021, 11, 2159. https:// doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11112159 Academic Editors: Niels P. Louwaars and Bram de Jonge Received: 15 September 2021 Accepted: 25 October 2021 Published: 27 October 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Kybele Consultancy, 10, av. des Constellations, 1200 Brussels, Belgium 2 Rete Semi Rurali, 25 Via Di Casignagno, 50018 Scandicci, Italy; riccardo.bocci@semirurali.net 3 Pro Specie Rara, 6, Unter Brüglingen, 4052 Basel, Switzerland; bela.bartha@prospecierara.ch * Correspondence: fulya.batur@kybelesrl.com Abstract: Farmer seed systems come in many shades: Conserving, producing, and using diverse plant material for different motives and purposes, whether the conservation or selection of locally adapted plant varieties and populations, or the safeguard of social bonds to secure economic stability and integration into rural communities. In Europe, strict seed marketing rules, by viewing any exchange of seeds as commercial exploitation, have first outlawed these farmer seed systems and the varieties conserved and developed in these systems, before carving out limited space for them as derogations to the main regime that remains based on mandatory variety registration and certified seed production. Examining these spaces in the legislation of the European Union (‘EU’) and Switzerland, along with their practical implications on the ground, the article shows the conceptual shortcomings of the EU legislation to fully address all the characteristics of farmer seed systems, especially to recognize farmers’ innovation. It exposes the need to carefully define, assess and adjust the underlying objectives of the future EU legislative effort to register farmers’ varieties or allow for their exchange, to fully represent and address the complex socio-economic values and diversity of farmer seed systems. The success of these endeavors will lie in the truthful representation, but also the engagement of farmers and social actors that not only conserve, but also dynamically manage agrobiodiversity. Keywords: agrobiodiversity conservation; sustainable use; seed systems; farmer innovation; seed marketing laws 1. Introduction While all seeds used in production were saved and developed by farmers in the dawn of agriculture, they have gradually been replaced by seeds derived from public plant breeding, and then by the private sector, especially in industrial regions such as Europe [1]. This shift is attributed to rising public expenditure in breeding, but also to policies supporting private investment, such as intellectual property rights, or those ensuring the marketing of high-quality seed of uniform plant varieties, viewed as a pre- requisite to achieve maximum outputs and good returns for farmers [2], food security and market transparency, palliating the informational asymmetry in the seed market [3]. While boosting agricultural productivity and setting the foundations of a strong seed industry, these policies have nonetheless neglected and outlawed farmers’ varieties [4]. These varieties, understood as encompassing both the novel products of farmer-led breeding (such as evolutionary populations), and the traditional or heirloom varieties conserved by farmers and gardeners, have slowly been integrated into European seed marketing legislation as derogatory regimes from the end of the 1990 ′ s, and even more prominently since 2008 [5]. However, the success of this integration has been limited in practice, with Agronomy 2021, 11, 2159. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11112159 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/agronomy