Monika Messmer, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Switzerland

Innovations in organic plant breeding with focus of vegetables and fruits Monika Messmer made her PhD in plant breeding in Hohenheim in 1993. For six years she worked as scientist in the cereal breeding of Agroscope before she joint the start up company VitaPlant AG focussing on medicinal plant breeding and cultivation. Since 2009 she is leading the plant breeding team at the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) Switzerland. FiBL is an independent, non-profit, research institute conducting cutting-edge science and participatory research involving farmers to develop innovative solutions to boost organic agriculture (www.fibl.org ). Focus of research is resistance breeding, breeding for mixed cropping systems and breeding for plant microbiome interaction. She is president of the European Consortium for Organic Plant Breeding (ECO – PB www.eco-pb.org) and board member of EUCARPIA section of organic and low input agriculture and IFOAM Seeds Platform. She is engaged in several national and European project and the scientific coordinator of the EU project LIVESEED (www.liveseed.eu).  She is involved since 2011 in decentralized participatory organic cotton breeding in India (www.greencotton.org; www.sgf-cotton.org) and since July 2021 in CROPS4HD project on farmers seed systems for Consumption of Resilient Orphan Crops & Products for Healthier Diets in Africa and Asia.