Strategy and examples quality standards
Strategy for development of a seed inspection service
Aspects of scale, costs, management, and logistics indicate that in many cases it is not feasible to aim for a situation in which all seed potatoes planted in the country will be inspected by one independent inspection service.
Priorities
A strategy for certification, based on priorities could be as follows:
- certification of pre-basic and basic seed
- certification of seed that will be transported to other districts in order to prevent the
spreading of quarantine diseases
- certification of seed for the export market
Supervision and guidance
Rather than to execute all inspection activities itself, it is more efficient if the independent seed inspection service (SIS) restricts itself to the supervision and guidance of internal quality control units of seed producing organizations (SPO).
With such an approach the inspection cost (1-2% of the seed production costs) is lower than when the SIS executes all inspection activities itself (inspection cost in the Netherlands 4-5% of the total production costs).
Examples
Certification standards have to be adapted to the practical situation in the region or country where the regulations have to be introduced and applied. Existing regulations and standards can be used and may serve as guidelines for developing standards and tolerances.
COMPARISON OF FIELD TOLERANCES
NETHERLANDS
BRASIL
SOUTH AFRICA
MINNESOTA