The Research Centre for Cultivar Testing (COBORU) in Słupia Wielka, has developed and adapted variety testing and assessment to a market-oriented economy and the EU norms and standards. Within these activities COBORU has developed a new nation-wide variety testing system, called post-registration variety testing (PDO). Program PDO was officially accepted (Seed Act, 2000) and is presently implemented in all administrative units (Voivodeships) in Poland under the guidance and co-ordination of COBORU.

PDO is the variety testing system operating on the regional level to help Polish farmers to select the most adapted varieties for different agricultural conditions and for the processing industry.

In this open and flexible system, the cooperation of all parties interested in varietal selection and usage (e.g. Agricultural Chambers, Advisory Services, Breeding Companies, Seed Producers, Unions of Producers, Processing Industry and other interested institutions) is a norm.

In the growing season 2011/2012 near 1000 different PDO field trials with major crops were carried out, and about 60% of the trials are financed from non-budgetary sources.

Benefits of PDO:

• more effective use of genetical progress in agriculture
• regular collection of reliable data about newest commercial varieties and their performance under different growing conditions; this information is used for recommendation of varieties in each voivodeship
• facilitation for farmers to make an accurate choice of the most suitable varieties for their farming conditions
• in the longer term will assist in the evaluation of the flow of varieties from the EU Common Catalogue into Polish agriculture