BELIS WEBINAR SERIES
“LEGUME VARIETY TESTING AND RECOMMENDATIONS: THE UK APPROACH AND EUROPEAN COMPARISONS”
On 4th December 2026, the Horizon Europe BELIS Project (Breeding European Legumes for Increased Sustainability) will be organising a Webinar on “Legume Variety Testing and Recommendation: The UK Approach and European Comparisons”..
Background
Variety recommendation in Europe is fragmented across multiple actors and focuses on major species within conventional systems. This situation neglects minor species and alternative practices, thereby hampering the identification of new markets and contributing to the lock-in of a European agricultural system in which legume cropping and legume diversity is low.
The BELIS project aims to enable farmers to select legume species and varieties suited to their soil and climatic conditions and market requirements, by gathering and disseminating available information on varieties already listed in European catalogues.
Webinar objectives
The objectives of the webinar will be to:
• Disseminate the activities carried out in the BELIS project concerning the collection of data on legume variety recommendationsin various European countries;
• Share experiences with variety recommendation strategies developed in a selection of European countries;
• Stimulate discussion on the results in BELIS and the experiences shared in different countries, to improve legume variety recommendations in Europe.
Both grain legumes and forage legumes will be covered in the webinar.
It will also introduce the European project BELIS – Breeding European Legumes for Increased Sustainability, focusing on 14 legume species, including 7 forage legumes (red clover, white clover, annual clover, alfalfa, sainfoin, bird’s-foot trefoil, and vetches) and 7 grain legumes (pea, faba bean, soybean, white lupin, lentil, chickpea, and common bean).
The main objectives of BELIS are:
• Developing cost-effective breeding tools.
• Improving the economic and regulatory environment for legume breedin
• Ensuring effective innovation transfer through a network of stakeholders, including breeders and seed industry, researchers, registration offices, extension services, feed and food industry, farmers..
The webinar will also introduce the stakeholder network being established within the BELIS project, including its goals, activities, benefits of joining, and the steps to become a member.
Target Audience
This webinar is specifically tailored for plant breeders, agricultural researchers, extension services, seed industry professionals, and variety registration policymakers across Europe. It is particularly valuable for agronomists and forward-thinking farmers aiming to move beyond Europe's fragmented testing systems and incorporate minor or alternative grain and forage legumes into their cropping plans. Participants will examine the UK’s variety recommendation approach alongside other national strategies, engaging in targeted discussions on BELIS project data to improve variety selection tailored to specific soil, climatic, and market demands.
You can check the draft programme here.
