THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MAINTENANCE OF SELECTION OF BULBS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF HEALTHY SEEDS OF SLOVENIAN VARIETIES OF GARLIC

(Allium sativa) AND SHALOT (Allium cepa var. Aggregatum)

Cooperative Allium, Etri Community in cooperation with Jazon institute, Vinetum institute, Trust Institute.

The project stems from the need for Slovenian seed production of garlic and shallots, which is facing exceptional contamination of seed material of Slovenian varieties and the establishment of research and development work for permanent selection and cleaning of seed material. It is planned that the first phase of cleaning will take place at the Agricultural Institute of Slovenia and the Institute of Hop Growing and Brewing of Slovenia, whereby knowledge will be transferred to Grm Novo mesto – center of biotechnology and tourism (secondary research level). The Novo mesto Grm will thus take over the work to seed certification. In order to establish sustainable maintenance of the selection, in addition to the connection of the research and development sector with seed companies and growers, the transfer of knowledge and the production of technological instructions for further production are crucial. The key effects of the project are, in addition to quality seed material and the establishment of maintenance selection, also the promotion of seed production and the use of Slovenian varieties of seed material. Thus, the project relies on a major problem of modern, including Slovenian agriculture, namely the extreme erosion of local, domestic, indigenous and especially domestic-adapted varieties of agricultural plants, popularization of production in the segment of organic production and opening new employment opportunities in rural areas. The project largely concerned, with the best experts in the field of seed production and statistics, the design of agro-technological experiments on agricultural holdings, with the aim of producing and disseminating technological instructions. The project will be meaningfully upgraded with various approaches to knowledge transfer, popularization of the project, networking of growers, public presentations at professional and scientific conferences, etc. The project thus pursues two important production goals of Slovenian seed production: obtaining and maintaining seed material of Slovenian garlic and shallot varieties of appropriate health status, and increasing productivity in the production of material of Slovenian garlic varieties.