Plant Improvement Bill and International Organisations 3 May 2016 BRIEFING BY THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES TO THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES

2 ACRONYMS ISTA: International Seed Testing Association OSTL: Official Seed Testing Laboratory OECD: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development OSTL: Official Seed Testing Laboratory PIA: Plant Improvement Act UPOV: International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants

International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) Mission: to develop, adopt and publish standard procedures for the sampling and testing of seed, and to promote uniform application of these procedures for evaluation of seed moving in international trade. Membership: 218 Member Laboratories, 41 Personal Members and 62 Associate Members in 80 countries/distinct economies South Africa is a member since 1955 Annual contribution: CHF (Swiss Frank) 2015 contribution: R South Africa has one Member Laboratory (OSTL) and one Personal Member (Registrar of PIA) - only Laboratory Member and Personal Member may vote 3

ISTA (2) Benefits of membership: Provides basis for ensuring the trade of quality seed by developing standard seed testing methods Provides a platform for research and cooperation between seed scientists worldwide Promotes research and provides the opportunity for publishing the technological data Guarantees worldwide harmonised, uniform seed testing through the Accreditation, Proficiency Test and Auditing Programmes Provides services and professional development programmes for furthering the education and experience of seed analysts around the world Website: 4

ISTA: benefits for South Africa  ISTA membership allows South Africa to issue Orange International Certificates (OICs) for locally produced seed to be exported - some countries only accept imported seed with OIC  PIA requires compulsory registration of seed testing laboratories  OSTL as ISTA accredited laboratory performs laboratory inspections for registration on behalf of Registrar PIA, using ISTA standards  ISTA Quality Management Standards is applied for registration of test laboratories  OSTL provides practical training for seed analysts  ISTA standardised seed testing methods is used for germination and purity by all seed testing laboratories  Laboratory Member or Personal Member attending the ISTA Annual Meeting may vote on seed testing rule changes 5

OECD Seed Schemes  Objective is to provide an international framework for certification of agricultural seed moving in international trade, promoting the use of agricultural seed of a consistently high quality  Participation in the Seed Schemes authorise use of labels and certificates for seed produced and processed for international trade according to the agreed principles  Currently 58 participating countries  South Africa is participating since 1961  Annual contribution: based on GDP of country 2015: Euro (± R )  Website: 6

OECD Seed Schemes: benefits for South Africa  South African Seed Certification Scheme is based on OECD Seed Schemes  South African certified seed is accepted and recognised internationally  South African produced certified seed may be exported under the OECD label  OECD Seed Schemes form general framework for all PIA certification schemes  OECD Seed Schemes use seed sampling methods of ISTA for sampling for seed testing to determine quality relating to germination and purity  OECD Seed Schemes use variety descriptions derived from Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability criteria of UPOV for varietal certification 7

UPOV relation with PIA  Membership of UPOV is under Plant Breeders’ Rights  PIA uses UPOV requirements for examining plant varieties for varietal listing (distinctness, uniformity, stability, variety denomination)  UPOV Test Guidelines is used for plant variety examinations for varietal listing  Requirements and guidelines for Distinctness, Uniformity, Stability, variety denominations and trial procedures are used for varietal listing 8

9 Thank you