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 Green line - sept/oct 2005
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GMO
The evaluation of seed lots for determination of transgenic seeds presence involves sophisticated tests, many times expensive, and in constant innovations. In this sense, dr. Michael Mushick, executive secretary of ISTA, detailed, in the XIV Brazilian Seed Congress, that the entity uses the performed based approach system
SEED LABS
Those seed laboratories that want to issue the certificate for GMO evaluations, now have a place to go. ISTA worked out the procedures using the performed based approach. It is in the chapter 8 of the Rules for Testing Seeds. ISTA will begin to accept application, starting next February. This can be considered a strong decision of the association forward to follow science and technology.
TRADE
The president of the International Seed Federation, Mr. Selwyn Manning, is advising the seed companies to participate in the national associations, because it is in the extent of the countries that seed business happens. In the eventuality of any impediment, it is the association that will be acting to remove the obstacle. Manning also reminds that to be a member means to have the right of voice and vote and also to receive in an organized way, the information of the sector.
PIRACY
To sell seed of a protected variety without the permission from the owner is known as piracy. This in some countries, is really a big problem and the result is that it inhibits technological innovation, where new and better materials are not released. To combat this illegal seed, it seems that the best way is to have the owner going after his material using private investigators. In Brazil, many cases got solved using this procedure.
SAVED SEEDS
Farmers are allowed to save seeds of protected varieties in all countries, however in some, where the UPOV convention of 1991 is applied, there is a limit in the area that the farmer can use seeds of protected variety without the need to pay the dues royalties. Others countries, that are using the UPOV convention of 1978, there is no limit in the quantity of seed that the farmer can save. This is a problem, where large farmers exist. Bolivia worked out a law that the soybean farmer can save seeds just for 100 hectars. Above this limit royalty must be paid.
VIGOR
There are several vigor tests that can be applied to the seeds, each one analyzing a certain seed attribute. In this sense, dr. Alison Powell presented in the XIV Brazilian Seed Congress the physiologic bases of more than 10 energy tests. The knowledge of the physiologic base is essential to interpret the results of the tests, in that it is usually used more than one to evaluate the quality of a seed lot.
ABRATES
It was a success the XIV Brazilian Seed Congress, promoted by the Brazilian Seed Technology Association (Abrates), with more than 1200 participants and more than 800 technical works presented in form of posters. Those numbers denote the quality and the tradition of the event, as well as the greatness of science and technology developed at the country. With certainty, a lot of presented innovations will be used by the different links of the seed chain. It is necessary to emphasize that there was a participation of more than 100 foreigners that came to see what Brazil possesses in the area of seeds.
KNOWLEDGE
It was just published by the scientific magazine Nature that the rice genoma was totally mapped. This means that there will be much easier for research and development of new varieties. As it is known, the varieties are the key of the agricultural enterprises success. The mapping was possible due to the performance of a group of researchers with objectives very well defined, and where for each one took a charge of identifying a part. Other similar projects are already in the way, and this allows to visualize a future in that the development of varieties for resistance to diseases or other inconveniences will be much easier and faster to obtained.
ORGANIZATION
There was a happy end in the negotiation of the technological tax (TT), regarding the known event RR, among the soybean seed producers (Brazil) and the Monsanto company. Now, the following step is to establish such a program that contemplates the promotion technological innovations with the use of high quality seeds of the varieties inside of a legal system. Revising what is already happening in some countries, the best system is the one that contemplates the payment of TT on the grain, where who buys seed has a bonus in the moment of the sale and the collected resources goes to the entities involved in the business. As fast as the discussions begin, better it will be.
PATENT
In many countries the events of GMO are protected by the patent law instead of plant protection law. The patent law is much stronger because it goes up to the industrial product. The interesting thing this matter is that the protection of an event is usually done using more than one patent. So as a patent has a live period, if one finishes others may still be good. For instance, the event of soybean RR is protected by more than five patents.
BUSINESS
Brazil is about to be able to export seeds using the tools of the international trade. The certification of the seeds in agreement with the outlines of OECD, the country already possesses there are some years and now the company Matsuda (dedicated to forage seeds) is accrediting its seed laboratory to issue the ISTA orange certificated. There are movements in the ABRASEM (Brazilian Seed Growers Association) that more laboratories ask for accreditation, mainly for species such as soybeans, beans and corn.
ADVENTITIOUS SEEDS
Usually a varietal mixture is contemplated in seed laws where a tolerance is defined according to the seed class. For instance, foundation seeds may have a tolerance of 0.5% while the certified seed has 1.0%. On the other side there are the adventitious seeds (GMO seeds in conventional seed lots) usually contemplated in bio-safety laws, where there is also a need to have a tolerance level. The problem is that if there is no tolerance, one single seed in the seed lot of 20 tons will be sufficient to have the seed lot rejected or worse, destroyed. There is an urgent need to have procedure (simple, fast and at a reasonable cost) to quantify adventitious seeds, as suggested by Dr. André Abreu during the XIV Brazilian Seed Congress.
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