Iranian Seed Certification Scheme Samad Mobasser Seed & Plant Certification & Registration Institute Third ECOSA Meeting November 2011, Istanbul
About Iran Total area is about 165 million ha 20 million ha is under cultivation 12.5 million ha is under annual cultivation Major crops are: cereal; forages; oil seed crop; vegetable including potato Iran has 10 th rank in world for horticultural products
Land use, “000” hectares FAOSTAT data Country area Land area Agricultural Area Arable land & Permanent crops Arable land Permanent crops Permanent meadows and Pastures
Agricultural facts Total population is about 74 million Roughly 17% is directly involve in agriculture 20% of domestic gross products is belong to agriculture sector Sector produce about 80% of national food requirement
Agricultural crops, total production 000 tonnes FAOSTAT data 2010 and MOA Wheat Barley Chick peas Beans, dry Lentils Maize Potatoes Rice, paddy Seed cotton Soybeans Sugar beet Sugar Cane Sunflower seed
National Seed System The Islamic Republic of Iran has implemented a certification scheme for cereals for many years (since 1949) After 1957 Seed Control & Certification Dept.(SCCD) was sole organization within country for seed certification SCCD was responsible for controling of localy produced seeds, seed import & export SCCD hadn’t any responsibility about vegetative planting material cert. & variety registration
Current situation A remarkable progress has been made in the seed policy and regulatory environment of the Islamic Republic of Iran. On 30th July 2003, the Government passed an Act of Plant Variety Right (PVR), Control and Certification of Seed and Planting Material (Seed Law 33709,). For implementation of the provisions of this act an institute so called “Seed and Plant Certification and Registration Institute (SPCRI) was established.
National Seed Policy Targets Eliminating direct role of state in seed production Decreasing subsidies New participators involvement in the National Seed System Facilitating seed movement Increasing farmer’s choice right (cultivar, quality and price)
SPCRI Main Tasks Registration of New Varieties of Plants Introduction of Crop Varieties Seed Certification Certification of Vegetative Planting Materials Research
Regulatory Pyramid of Iranian Seed System Seed and Plant Policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran Act of Registration of Plant Varieties and Control and Certification of Seed and Seedlings Main By Law (seed and Plant Certification) By law of Variety Introduction By law of Variety registration Field Inspection Guidelines Seed Sampling Procedures DUS Guidelines VCU Testing Guidelines
Formal and Informal Seed Production and Distribution Crop Productio n area (000 ha) Recommended seed rate (Kg) Seed require ment (ton) Formal seed (ton) Formal Seed % % informal seed Seed impo rtati on (ton) Wheat Barley Maize ≈ 500 Canola Soybean Paddy Potato Alfalfa
National List of Varieties are Eligible for Certification For first time, were published early 2011 including 712 varieties as: 335 crop varieties 225 vegetable varieties 153 fruit trees varieties
Amount of seed produced and distributed (T)
Quantity of major imported seed (Kg) CROP Onion Radish Grass Spinach Sugar beet Melon Cucumber Squash Tomato Watermelon Carrot Potato Canola Cabbages Sweet Pepper
Amount of seed imported
SPCRI has 3 National and reference laboratory National Seed Testing lab. (for purity, germination and moisture content tests) with annual tests National Seed Health lab. (on true seeds and potato with total amount of 8400 samples) Molecular Tools lab. (for genetic purity and variety registration proposes)
International and Regional Organization ISTA member since 1975 Member of OECD Seed Scheme (sugar beet) Observer member of UPOV ISF (8 private companies) ECOSA
DUS Guidelines During past 3 years, 46 guidelines were published 9 new guidelines are under press
4 New DUS Guidelines were Developed by SPCRI Pistachio Date Palm Pomegranate Saffron SPCRI is trying to approve and publish globally by UPOV