Società Produttori Sementi S.p.A.

Società Produttori Sementi Spa (PSB), based in Argelato (BO), has been carrying out seed business for over 100 years and, in this area, is engaged in research, development, experimentation, multiplication and marketing in Italy and abroad. After 8 years of Syngenta management, in 2022 Produttori Sementi Bologna has been taken over by the Italian seed company Agroservice Spa, also owner of the R&D company ISEA LTD. Following a merger operation, the three entities have been reunited in a single company under the name of Società Produttori Sementi SPA. The company now has two headquarters in Italy, one in Argelato (BO) and one in San Severino Marche (MC), two seed processing plants, and numerous facilities for research and breeding, such as growth chambers, greenhouses, quality laboratories and experimental fields. The company considers the development of agriculture to be of primary importance for the economy, the well-being of the community, the environment and the territory, and for this reason the quality and sustainability of the product are the starting point of the research activities upstream of the production. Furthermore, the close relationship with farmers is seen as an indispensable element for improving product performance, and for this reason skills and innovation are constantly made available to customers. The range of proposed varieties is continuously expanded and updated to offer new opportunities to farmers, bringing originality to the market resulting from the application of specific research, so that the proposed solutions are always in line with market demands. The enlarged R&D teamwork is centred on different groups of plant species, in particular cereals (bread and durum wheat, barley, triticale, oat, spelts), legumes (faba bean, lupin, chickpea, lentil, protein pea) and oily crops (sunflower, safflower). In all the investigated species, the aim is to develop and register new, original varieties, with improved productivity, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, and qualitative traits (technological and nutritional ones). PSB research is equipped with state-of-the-art instruments (greenhouses, growth chambers, laboratories for qualitative analysis) and organized to test the lines in multiple locations throughout the national territory.

Role within INCREASE

As a seed company which also carries out its own breeding activities, the main task of PSB in the project will be carrying out field trials with the available genetic materials. During this trials, as much data as possible will be collected, in order to achieve the phenotype characterization of the lines. This will include the collaboration of PSB in high throughput and molecular phenotyping, as well as in the study of nutritional and technological traits. PSB will participate also in the definition of phenotypic traits for inclusive rating scales, using ontologies and controlled vocabularies.

Main contacts

Sofia Ghitarrini PhD

Responsible for R&D activities on leguminous species