German Plant Breeders' Association

The Bundesverband Deutscher Pflanzenzüchter (BDP), or German Plant Breeders' Association, is the professional and trade association representing the interests of Germany's private plant breeding and seed trading industry. It is a voluntary association headquartered in Bonn. Its membership consists of roughly 130 mostly mid-sized seed breeding companies, including the private East German breeding operations that joined after 1990. Around 100 member companies work on breeding agricultural crops, while a further 30 horticultural breeding businesses focus mainly on vegetables and ornamental plants. Alongside many smaller firms, major seed industry corporations such as Bayer CropScience AG, DLF-Trifolium, KWS Saat, Maribo, Monsanto Agrar Deutschland GmbH, Syngenta Cereals and Syngenta Seeds GmbH are also members. The association traces its origins to the seed department of the Deutsche Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft (DLG), which represented plant breeders' interests until 1907. Although member companies compete with one another commercially, they share a consensus on fundamental issues that the BDP represents both internally and externally. Its core tasks include shaping the framework conditions for seed distribution, procedural guidelines for entry in the variety list, and especially plant variety protection for new plant breeds. Further responsibilities include opinion-forming among plant breeding companies, protection of intellectual property, promotion of new technologies in breeding, organisation of research and variety development, representation of breeders' interests through intensive contact with politics (Bundestag, federal ministries), authorities (such as the Bundessortenamt) and business (agriculture, trade, seed production companies) as well as specific interest groups, and press and public relations work. The BDP presents itself as a contact point for all questions concerning plant research, plant breeding and the trade in seeds, emphasising that plants are the basis of life and plant breeding the basis for healthy food and high quality of life. Through its website and public outreach, it invites interested parties to explore the world of plant breeding and provides information on current developments in the field.

The Bundesverband Deutscher Pflanzenzüchter (BDP) is the professional interest representation of private plant breeding companies in Germany, based in Bonn. The association emerged from the seed department of the Deutsche Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft (DLG), which represented the interests of plant breeders until 1907. Since then, the BDP has served as the organised voice of Germany's private plant breeding sector. For much of its history, the association represented West German breeding companies. Following German reunification, from 1990 the BDP also included private East German seed breeding operations, expanding its membership and its claim to speak for the entire German private breeding industry. Today the BDP represents around 130 mostly mid-sized seed breeding companies. Roughly 100 of these work on breeding agricultural crops, while about 30 are horticultural plant breeding businesses focused mainly on vegetables and ornamental plants. Membership spans both small and large players. Alongside many smaller firms, major seed industry corporations are members, including Bayer CropScience AG, DLF-Trifolium, KWS Saat, Maribo, Monsanto Agrar Deutschland GmbH, Syngenta Cereals and Syngenta Seeds GmbH. While these companies compete with one another in the market, they maintain a consensus on fundamental issues that the association represents both internally and externally. The BDP's core tasks have centred on shaping the framework conditions for seed distribution, procedural guidelines for entry in the variety list, and especially plant variety protection for new plant breeds. Additional responsibilities include opinion-forming among plant breeding companies, protection of intellectual property, promotion of new technologies in breeding, organisation of research and variety development, representation of breeders' interests through intensive contact with politics (Bundestag, federal ministries), authorities (such as the Bundessortenamt) and business (agriculture, trade, seed production companies) as well as specific interest groups, and press and public relations work. In the present day, the BDP continues to act as a contact point for all questions concerning plant research, plant breeding and the trade in seeds. It emphasises that plants are the basis of life and plant breeding the basis for healthy food and high quality of life, and it uses its website and public outreach to inform interested parties about current developments in plant breeding.

• 1990

  Private East German seed breeding operations join the BDP following German reunification.

• 1907

  The BDP emerges from the seed department of the Deutsche Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft (DLG), which had represented plant breeders' interests until 1907.

Professional interest representation and advocacy for the German private plant breeding and seed trading industry.

1. 1BDP > Homepagebdp-online.de
2. 2Bundesverband Deutscher Pflanzenzüchter – Wikipedia (German)de.wikipedia.org
3. 3Bundesverband Deutscher Pflanzenzüchter – Wikidatawikidata.org