Meeting of the CPVO Experts on Agricultural Plants

The CPVO Agricultural Plant Experts held their annual meeting in Brussels at the end of September. GEVES was able to present several topics of current interest in France concerning the DUS of field crop species.

GEVES presented the analysis of an ongoing ring test between several European countries on spring barley varieties in order to propose new DUS characteristics and help distinguish new varieties. In March 2026, its Magneraud station will host DUS examiners from various European examination offices for a workshop on issues related to spring barley DUS.

At the request of the CPVO, GEVES also presented the French maize DUS system in place since 2025, which uses locations as independent crop cycles, potentially leading to a positive decision in just one year, compared to the usual two. This approach to conducting DUS examinations sparked a technical debate among European offices and was welcomed by associations representing breeders. Ongoing R&D projects were also discussed, providing BioGEVES with an opportunity to explain the encouraging progress made by the SNPsNAP project (project aims to improve the efficiency of DUS studies on rapeseed by reducing the size of field trials).

Finally, the DUS protocols for soya and sunflower were discussed and are well on the way to being finalised for implementation in 2026. The strong involvement of DUS examiner colleagues from GEVES, who contributed their expertise on the characteristics to be observed and the methods related to these observations, is to be congratulated.