ISTA held meeting at NordGen

2018.10.18

Last week the International Seed Testing Association,

ISTA

, held one of its committee meetings at NordGen's premises in Alnarp. The purpose of the organisation is to develop and provide standard methods for seed testing, thereby facilitating trading with seeds. In a wider perspective, ISTA's work is also contributing to food safety.

  "ISTA was formed in 1924 and it has member laboratories all over the world" said Steve Jones, Vice President of ISTA during his visit to NordGen. Although,

is mainly targeting seed testing laboratories, the work done by gene banks would benefit from a larger cooperation with ISTA. "Gene banks often work in a different direction than other seed testing laboratories when it comes to seed germination tests and moisture determination. These are areas where we could combine our efforts and thereby reaching a higher efficiency" said Jette Nydam Hansen, Genetic Resources Officer at NordGen.

Important International contacts

ISTA is often referred to as the International family and, indeed, the contacts in the network are important for gene banks such as NordGen, often operating in the International arena.  Steve Jones agrees. "I think there is a good opportunity to have cooperation with gene banks as they could make use of some of our standard methods, and also maybe look at issues regarding storage of and moisture in seeds", he said. ISTA is active in a wide range of fields concerning seed testing. They promote research, arrange conferences and distribute a

just to name a few. NordGen were very happy to welcome the association to Alnarp and look forward to more fruitful cooperations in the future.