The CTPS's missions
The CTPS has regulatory responsibilities:
- Management of the official French Catalogue,
- Development, proposal and implementation of technical regulations for registration in the Catalogue and certification of seeds and plants.
In accordance with Decree 2009-676 of 12 June 2009, the CTPS provides advice and technical support to the Ministry of Agriculture in the preparation and implementation of policy on varieties, seeds and plants.
Context and objectives
The objective of the “Varieties, Seeds & Plants” regulation is to guarantee users healthy, genuine and marketable seeds or plants.It was for this purpose that the first regulatory measures were introduced in France in the 1920s and 1930s (creation of the Seed Control Committee in 1922, creation of the Official Catalogue of Species and Varieties in 1932). In 1942, the creation of the Permanent Technical Committee for the Selection of Cultivated Plants (CTPS) enabled a change from the concept of “seeds” to the concept of “variety” and then “genetic progress”. Since then, each cultivated species covered by this regulation has seen its official Catalogue expanded each year with new varieties that enable it to respond to constantly changing markets. Thus, since the 1960s, plant breeding has met the successive and cumulative objectives assigned to it: improving the productivity of French agriculture, ensuring the country’s food security, developing the competitiveness of sectors in an open European and global market, and offering new species, new uses and new outlets. It is with this objective in mind that the CTPS supports and guides genetic progress by updating its technical registration regulations. These rules aim to achieve the most appropriate balance between the objectives of variety users, civil society and public authorities and the scientific and technical capabilities of breeders. They must also contribute to the fundamental objectives of productivity, regularity and quality of production, which are essential guarantees for the profitability and economic sustainability of French agriculture and its sectors. To respond to today’s new challenges in terms of the environment, health and biodiversity conservation, the CTPS continues its mission to guide genetic progress within the framework of the Ministry of Agriculture’s “Seeds & Plants for Sustainable Agriculture” (SPAD) plan, in its successive versions.
Among the measures adopted, we can mention in particular an incentive to register varieties that require few chemical inputs and are adapted to diverse conditions.
This includes all the work carried out on VSCU (Value for Sustainable Cultivation and Use) registration rules relating to the resistance of varieties to diseases and pests, the efficient use of nitrogen and water, and genotype x environment x cultivation practices interactions. It also includes all the multi-species work carried out and planned to encourage the registration of varieties suited to low-input farming, particularly those that meet organic farming standards or enable increased protein production in terms of both quantity and quality.
Responding to the challenges of maintaining intra- and inter-species genetic diversity requires stepping up the actions that have been taken for many years, such as registering old varieties with strong cultural connotations. Nearly 20 years ago, France was the first country to open a list in its official Catalogue for vegetable varieties intended for amateur gardeners. Many old fruit varieties are also listed, and the opening of the list of conservation varieties threatened by genetic erosion has also made it possible to register varieties that can be redeveloped in their region of origin. As part of the SPAD plan, a CTPS section on Plant Genetic Resources (PGR) has been created, which will enable France to meet its international commitments in this area, while recognising the work of the many and varied PGR network managers in France. This new mission of the CTPS fits perfectly into what can be called the “continuum” of genetic diversity and innovation, ranging from PGRs to commercial varieties. This concept of a continuum is also a major focus in the evaluation and promotion of data on varieties.
While the objective of the CTPS is to guide varietal innovation towards expressed needs, it also aims to promote the French Catalogue in a context of intra-European “regulatory’” competition. Any overly hasty or abrupt shift in the objectives for registration in France would be counterproductive and would lead to the French Catalogue being bypassed in favour of member state catalogues offering easier access to the EU market.
This is why promoting the fundamentals and guidelines of the French Official Catalogue at European level is an ongoing objective of the CTPS and the Ministry of Agriculture. The French Official Catalogue owes its longevity, richness and diversity to the composition and functioning of the CTPS. A unique structure within the European Union, it brings together all stakeholders involved in varieties and seeds, from PGR actors to representatives of civil society, including all actors in the agricultural, vegetable, fruit, wine, ornamental and forestry sectors, and mobilises high-quality public scientific expertise.
