Seed Security: Organic Vegetable Seed Production
Learn the science and business of organic vegetable seed production. The Canadian market is hungry for more quality seed products. With this course, you can be part of the solution.
What you will learn
You learn how to produce organic seeds. You learn about the Canadian certification, regulation and policy in Canada and BC. You’ll also explore seed sovereignty and Canada’s supply chain. And you look at seed-related business models.
After completing this course, you will be able to:
- Understand the current state of the global seed industry, trends in modern plant breeding and the importance of growing organic, open-pollinated vegetable seed.
- Understand the science of pollination and fertilization and apply this knowledge to the selection and growing of high-quality vegetable seed crops.
- Assess the factors that impact the overall quality of seed crops.
- Assess the requirements for harvesting various seed crops and choose those most appropriate to the crop, the farm, and the available resources.
- Assess the key components of a business approach to selling seed crops and choose those most appropriate to the crop, the farm, and the available resources.
- Assess the effects of climate change and weather on all phases of seed production and develop approaches to build resilience into seed crop production.
- Describe the key elements of organic, on-farm, open-pollinated plant breeding and variety trialing.
- Describe the historical development of the vegetable seed sector in British Columbia and explain key innovations and capacity-building initiatives
What you will do in this course
You will prepare a seed crop production plan using the concepts, principles, and
practices from the course. And you’ll finish the course empowered to continue to work on seed production.
This course is part of a refresh of the existing Organic Vegetable Seed Production course and was developed in collaboration with Canadian Organic Growers (COG) and SeedChange
Course details
Dates:
Online Classes: February 14 to April 18, 2026
Final Assignment Due: April 25, 2026
Course fee: $665 + GST
This micro-credential development is funded by an Innovation Grant from the Continuing Education and Training Association of BC (CETA BC).
Deepen your learning with the Farming Fundamentals suite
This course is part of a suite of three micro-credentials on sustainable farming. All three courses are eligible for StrongerBC future skills grant funding.