The Organic Seed Production Research on Economics and Yield (OSPREY) project is off to a great start during our first growing season, with more than thirty-five participating locations across our replicated and participatory seed yield trials.
For more information, please enjoy the full article below.
Updates from the Field: OSPREY
The Organic Seed Production Research on Economics and Yield (OSPREY) project is off to a great start during our first growing season, with more than thirty-five participating locations across our replicated and participatory seed yield trials.
OSPREY, a multi-year project funded by the Organic Research and Extension Initiative (OREI) and spearheaded by Organic Seed Alliance (OSA), is bringing together a team of researchers, educators, and organic seed stakeholders from across the country to address critical needs in the organic seed sector, advance organic seed production practices, and expand the availability of high-quality organic seeds.
For more information about what we’ve been up to since 2024 and early 2025, please visit OSA’s press release and spring newsletter.
What We’re Currently Doing:
Multi-Location Replicated Trials
OSA and our esteemed partners, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Colorado State University, Cornell University, Oregon State University, and University of Vermont, are collectively digging into the cultivation and data collection of four core seed crops – broccoli, lettuce, summer squash, and tomato.
While some locations are still waiting to get plants in the ground due to weather, others are already harvesting tomato fruits. It’s already time to start developing our harvesting and cleaning protocols!
Multi-Location Participatory Trials
Participants can choose to grow their own seed crops to track data.
Our twenty-nine participatory trial growers are growing almost three hundred different varieties across seventeen different states or provinces and in three countries!
Additionally, participants can grow one to four of the core seed crops that are also being grown in the replicated trials.
© SeedLinked https://seedlinked.com/
To track data, participants will be using SeedLinked, a company with “an open innovation platform that connects people and crowd-sourced seed performance data to make breeding and selecting the right seeds for your environment easier for all in the seed supply chain.” Some of the replicated trial partners, including OSA, will be using SeedLinked to collaboratively track seed yield data.
Beyond the seed yield data trials, we will also be conducting historic yield interviews and surveys, as well as tracking labor and input costs associated with growing seed crops.
Altogether, the data gathered from replicated and participatory trials, labor and input tracking, and historic yield and seed cleaning surveys/interviews will be used to develop a comprehensive Organic Seed Yield Database, Enterprise Budgets, and a Seed Breakeven Toolkit with our incredible partners at Highland Economics, SeedLinked, and Seed Savers Exchange.
The database, economic toolkit, and other resources will aid organic seed growers to make informed decisions on their crops or contracts by providing variety-specific yield data, best management practices, and more! Alongside our valued external evaluator, Rhizobia, we will determine the full impact of our program and research for our stakeholders and the greater organic seed industry. We expect this to lead to greater availability of high-quality, regionally adapted organic seed for all organic producers.
What’s Next:
We’re still recruiting for our historic yield trials, as an additional data tracking deliverable from the participatory yield trial activities. You don’t need to be involved in our participatory yield trials to sign up for historic yield and seed cleaning data collection efforts! Please visit our interest survey for more information about historic yield activities and how to sign up.
Stay tuned for the announcement of upcoming events, such as field days, workshops, and regional seed summits at OSA’s locations in Washington and California, in addition to our partnering locations.
Get Involved!
For more information about the OSPREY project in general, or to participate in upcoming research and outreach activities, please visit www.seedalliance.org or contact jared@seedalliance.org and molly@seedalliance.org.
About Organic Seed Alliance
Organic Seed Alliance is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that puts the power of seed into the hands of growers. Our work ensures an abundant and diverse supply of ecologically grown seed, tended in perpetuity by skilled and diverse communities of seed stewards.
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This project was funded by the Organic Research and Extension Initiative grant, part of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Grant number 2024-51300-43056.
