Course Description
Organic Seed Alliance is pleased to offer our Asynchronous Organic Seed Production Course!
This interactive, self-paced course will explore the biological, technical, economic, and socio-political aspects of organic seed production. As a participant in this course, you can expect to come away with new knowledge, perspectives, and connections.
This Organic Seed Production course is designed for farmers who are: 1) interested in transitioning to certified organic production or maintaining their certification, and 2) interested in including seed saving or commercial seed production in their Organic Systems Plan.
Access the course through our platform, Organic Seed Commons.
Course Offerings
- Access to 6 training modules
- Structured assignments to help you reflect on what you’ve learned and connect with other students
- Membership in a vibrant network of other learners
Self-Study Course Syllabus
| Course orientation and Welcome: Suggested Video: Crop Reproductive Biology |
| Module 1: Crop Planning Risk mitigation through careful field planning and management |
| Module 2: Variety Selection, Maintenance, and Improvement Exploring the role of and approaches to selection in seed production |
| Module 3: Plant Health for Seed Production Approaches to soil fertility and disease prevention for seed crop health |
| Module 4: Assessing Seed Maturity, Harvest and Post-harvest Handling Judging seed maturity, and exploring harvest techniques and equipment |
| Module 5: Seed Cleaning and Storage Maximizing seed quality post-harvest |
| Module 6: Seed Growers’ Livelihoods An introduction to seed farm business models |
The syllabus will be updated as new content is developed, but will not change drastically from what is listed here.
We encourage you to interact with other fellow students using the “Activity Feed” and “Topics” features of our platform.
*As this course is self-paced, you will not receive instructor feedback or support.
Learn more about Education at Organic Seed Alliance.
