Rosemary ( Rosmarinus officinalis L.) is a valuable medicinal and aromatic herb produced for its bioactive compounds and commercial applications. However, commonly used methods for rosemary propagation have various limitations that impose the need to create appropriate protocols for in vitro propagation of this species. This research aimed to evaluate the effects of light quality and plant growth regulators (PGRs) on rosemary micropropagation. Explants were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with varying concentrations of 6-benzylaminopurine (6-BAP), meta-Topolin (mT), 1-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA), and indole-3-butyric acid (IBA), under different light treatments: fluorescent light (FL) and blue (BL), red (RL), and red-blue (RBL) LED lights. The highest fresh mass was formed by explants grown in medium with mT at 1.0 mg/L + 0.1 mg/L NAA under BL (88.05 ± 2.94 mg), while FL with the same PGR combination resulted in the highest dry mass (12.89 ± 0.55 mg). FL, in combination with 1.0 mg/L mT + 0.1 mg/L NAA, produced the highest number of new shoots (2.07 ± 0.04), and RL, in combination with cytokinin-free MS medium, induced the longest shoots (13.16 ± 0.37 mm). The highest number of nodes (3.91 ± 0.08) was recorded under BL in the cytokinin-free medium. For in vitro rooting, BL combined with 0.1 mg/L mT + 0.5 mg/L IBA produced the highest rooting percentage (80.00 ± 5.77%), the highest number of roots (3.92 ± 0.15), and the longest roots (75.30 ± 1.76 mm). This treatment also resulted in the highest plantlet establishment rate (71.13 ± 4.43%), confirming the synergy between BL and mT + IBA in improving the efficiency of rosemary rooting and acclimatization. These results enable a more straightforward selection of the optimal light spectrum and PGR concentrations for individual stages of the rosemary micropropagation process and highlight the potential of LED lights as a more efficient alternative to traditional fluorescent lamps. What is already known about this subject? Previous research on various plant species has shown that light quality and PGRs are important factors in regulating and directing multiplication, rooting, and general development of in vitro plants. LED lights, especially those in the blue and red spectra, showed positive effects on the processes of photomorphogenesis and, in general, the growth and development of explants. However, research on the micropropagation of rosemary has usually been focused on callus formation and active compound production and rarely on developing effective protocols for producing high-quality planting material. What are the new findings? This research showed the potential of LED lighting to outperform standard fluorescent light during in vitro rosemary propagation. Also, mT was found to be more effective than 6-BAP in promoting shoot proliferation and multiplication. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to simultaneously investigate the synergistic effects of light quality and PGRs on rosemary micropropagation. What are the expected impacts on horticulture? The findings of this research provide an efficient and integrated approach to the in vitro propagation of rosemary. Energy-efficient LED lights and optimal PGR combinations allow commercial growers to produce high-quality planting material.

Food sovereignty is the human right to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and the right of people to define their own food and agriculture systems. Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. In contrast to food security, which focuses on ensuring that enough food is available, food sovereignty emphasizes control over food production and distribution by local communities. Shifting the focus from food security to food sovereignty essentially represents a reconnection between nature, food, and people. The right to seeds is at the basis of each community’s food sovereignty, what is possible to achieve only in the system of farmers’ seeds. Farmer seed systems are a critical contribution to food sovereignty and farmers’ rights. For over 10.000 years, people have freely saved, selected, exchanged, and sold seeds, using and reusing them for sowing and food production. The farmers’ seed system is defined by the long-standing continuous renewal and free distribution of seeds and knowledge among people. Seeds are gifted, shared, or traded in informal and formal markets. These seeds are more resilient to climate change, pests, and pathogens, and they also ensure a more diverse food system and a dynamic global ecosystem. Today, farmers’ rights to seeds, crucial for their survival, are seriously threatened and are in decline worldwide. These seed systems are undermined by inadequate legislation and insufficient support from governments and public research, primarily as the result of a protected seed market based fundamentally on intellectual property rights and trade agreements. Farmers’ seed systems are vital for preservation of plant genetic diversity of all agricultural crops. It is increasingly expected that global climate change, combined with other factors, will significantly alter this agricultural biodiversity. Broad efforts will be needed to help reduce the climate vulnerability of current agricultural production systems and building more resilient and adaptive agroecosystems. The farmers’ seed system and the associated traditional agricultural practices are key factors for adaptation.

Cereals, primarily wheat and corn, make up a significant part of the diet in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Cereal landraces are still an important part of the global agrobiodiversity in the country, although the maize and wheat landraces, were reduced from the sowing areas, in the second half of the 20th century, as in many other countries, because of the introduction of high-yielded cultivars into production. Considering the turbulent history, in addition to the industrialization that was carried out in the second part of the 20th century, as well as the migration of humans from the countryside to the cities, all together contributed to the loss of many local populations of local maize and wheat landraces. However, during and after the 2000s, several collection missions were carried out. Different activities started and the collected accessions were stored in gene banks. In the country, there is only one breeding institute today that deals with maize and wheat breeding and selection, which makes this country constantly dependent on imported seeds. Cereal genetic resources are bearers of good traits, such as resistance to stress conditions, but also as a material that carries some undesirable properties. These genetic resources should be seen also as a part of the common heritage and should be preserved and maintained for the use of current and future generations.

The cultivated apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) is an economically important fruit crop in countries worldwide, including Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH).The gene bank activities in BIH were initiated in the 1930s and continued until the war in the 1990s, when much of the documentation was lost. Since then, uncoordinated efforts were made to establish apple collections in different regions, but a comprehensive analysis of genetic resources was lacking. This prompted the current study where we present the first thorough overview of the national genetic resources of BIH apples. Thus, we analyzed 165 accessions in the apple gene bank at the Institute for Genetic Resources (IGR) established at Banja Luka using the 20 K apple Infinium® single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array. We combined the results with previously published data on the germplasm collections at Srebrenik and Goražde, genotyped using the Axiom® Apple 480 K SNP array. In total, 234 accessions were included in the study of which 220 were presumed to be local cultivars and 14 were known international reference cultivars. We identified numerous genotypic duplicates within and between collections and suggested preferred names to be used in the future. We found the BIH germplasm to have relatively few parent-offspring relationships, particularly among local cultivars, which might reflect the country’s history and patterns of apple cultivar introduction. A number of cultivars unique to BIH and a weakly defined genetic group were identified via STRUCTURE analysis, representing interesting targets for future research and preservation efforts.

Vines in Bosnia and Herzegovina are traditionally grown in the Herzegovina region, where, in addition to many international varieties, indigenous and domesticated varieties are also successfully grown. The most important varieties are Žilavka and Blatina, while others are found in a much smaller area. One of these is the Radovača variety, which is preserved in only one micro-locality in Herzegovina region. The paper presents the results of a two-year analysis (2017 - 2018) of the qualitative characteristics of grapes and wines of the Radovača variety. The average cluster weight ranged from 195,50 to 308,97g, and the weight of 10 berries ranged from 23,67g to 29,79g. A favorable proportion of the weight of berries in the cluster weight (96,63 - 97,86 g/100 gcluster) compared to the proportion of petioles (2,14 - 3,37 g/100 g cluster) was observed. The year had a significant impact on the observed characteristics, considering that the analyzed parameters had a slightly higher value during 2017. Oscillations in the value of TSS consequently caused oscillations in the alcohol content of the wine (13,88 - 8,19 %v/v). The values ​​of TTA in grape juice and TA of wine in the years of research were quite uniform, which may also indicate the genetic specificity of this variety in this respect. The content of phenolic compounds in grapes was also significant, especially in seeds (428,74 - 977,27 mg/kg). Regardless of the fluctuations in the years of research, the Radovača variety has a certain oenological potential, which is especially important considering that it is an indigenous grape variety.

The main objective of the research is to analyze the possibility of introducing the agro-ecological concept through appropriate agro-ecological measures in agricultural policy of Bosnia and Hercegovina. For this purpose, theoretical and empirical studies have been conducted. Theoretical research included analysis of the strategic and regulatory framework in the European Union and Bosnia and Hercegovina and analysis of the development of the concept of agro ecology. Empirical research has included surveying holders of agricultural holdings of subjects according to the Eco Stack project methodology. The survey results confirm that farmers are generally not familiar with the concept of agro ecology, but do apply some of the agro-environmental measures. On the basis of the research results, steps have been proposed to introduce a new model of support for the application of the agro-environmental concept and measures in the framework of agricultural policy of Bosnia and Hercegovina.

Sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) is a temperate fruit species whose production might be highly impacted by climate change in the near future. Diversity of plant material could be an option to mitigate these climate risks by enabling producers to have new cultivars well adapted to new environmental conditions. In this study, subsets of sweet cherry collections of 19 European countries were genotyped using 14 SSR. The objectives of this study were (i) to assess genetic diversity parameters, (ii) to estimate the levels of population structure, and (iii) to identify germplasm redundancies. A total of 314 accessions, including landraces, early selections, and modern cultivars, were monitored, and 220 unique SSR genotypes were identified. All 14 loci were confirmed to be polymorphic, and a total of 137 alleles were detected with a mean of 9.8 alleles per locus. The average number of alleles (N = 9.8), PIC value (0.658), observed heterozygosity (Ho = 0.71), and expected heterozygosity (He = 0.70) were higher in this study compared to values reported so far. Four ancestral populations were detected using STRUCTURE software and confirmed by Principal Coordinate Analysis (PCoA), and two of them (K1 and K4) could be attributed to the geographical origin of the accessions. A N-J tree grouped the 220 sweet cherry accessions within three main clusters and six subgroups. Accessions belonging to the four STRUCTURE populations roughly clustered together. Clustering confirmed known genealogical data for several accessions. The large genetic diversity of the collection was demonstrated, in particular within the landrace pool, justifying the efforts made over decades for their conservation. New sources of diversity will allow producers to face challenges, such as climate change and the need to develop more sustainable production systems.