Mr. W van Pletsen was re-elected as chairman and Mr. D Olivier of Deltapine as vice-chairman for a further year of the Certification Standing Committee. This is the biggest standing committee in SANSOR, with the aim to have at least one representative per crop on the committee. Not only does this committee have to look at the financial side of seed certification, but also to ensure that the S.A.

Seed Certification Scheme stays relevant and in line with changes and new trends nationally and internationally.

The more important issues concerning certification and seed quality were as follows:

Authorization of SANSOR inspectors for phytosanitary purposes: As both the theoretical training manual and practical evaluation were in place, the first seven candidates took their examination during November 2002 at the SANSOR offices.

OECD experiment on seed sampling (including fastening and labelling) and seed analysis: After consensus was reached with the Official Seed Testing Station, it was approved for SANSOR to inform OECD that South Africa would start participating in this experiment as from 1 May 2002 (see also report on OECD issues for more detail).

Amendment of the S.A. Seed Certification Scheme: This was given through during January 2002 for approval and publication. It consisted of changes in annexures, new annexures and the option to certify pre-basic seed. It was not possible to replace the Scheme as a whole, owing to high costs (R 880-36 per page), but the changes were approved as amendments and published during December 2002.

Karnal bunt seed survey: SANSOR once again assisted the Directorate of Plant Health & Quality, through the SANSOR authorized inspectors, in a survey and 427 field samples were submitted for tests. On short notice a further 250 uncleaned seed samples from the different seed cleaning plants were also submitted. All of these samples tested negative in assessments.

Technicon Pretoria training: The Committee again discussed this training in-depth.

The possibility of a refresher course by SANSOR for Technicon students, an additional course to be introduced at the University of Cape Town, as well as evaluation of candidates by the Secretariat itself, were considered as possible options. It was decided, however, that:

• The present training was still relevant and complied with requirements set for authorized inspectors.
• The curriculum should be revised as soon as possible for the incorporation of the necessary requirements and subsequent acknowledgement through the Sector Education & Training Authority for Secondary Agriculture (SETASA).
• It also became compulsory for departmental samplers to attend the relevant SANSOR modules in future.

SANSOR database network: The certification database was rewritten in total. The new program would make provision to electronically receive and process applications for registration of units, inspection reports and temporary certificates via e-mail. This would not only minimize errors, but should decrease the workload. Introducing these forms directly into the database through Internet would be another option in future, but the cost for the development and maintenance were restrictive at this time.

This new program would be freely available to SANSOR members. Changes to the individual programs of companies to communicate with the different SANSOR templates would, however, be for their own accounts.

Seed probes for the trade: During the evaluation for re-accreditation of the Official Seed Testing Station by the International Seed Testing Association (ISTA), it was found that the probes used in South Africa for seed sampling did not comply with ISTA specification. A survey was conducted in the industry, as only probes to the ISTA specifications may be used for sampling of certified seed. An order for 211 probes of the different sizes was subsequently placed through SANSOR, resulting in a discount of more than 10%.

Department of Agriculture of the Limpopo Province: An application was received from the Limpopo Province to do certification of open pollinated maize varieties produced by small scale farmers.

Authorization of extension officers and SANSOR membership of Madzivhandila Agricultural College (the body responsible for the project) was required by SANSOR. Five extension officers participated in the Technicon Pretoria course; while practical training and inspection of two registered units were conducted by SANSOR technical staff.

Once the extension officers were authorized as inspectors by SANSOR, they would be contracted by the responsible company for certification and would be regarded as employees of the company, while performing tasks for certification. During the period under review, two of the extension officers completed and passed the theoretical part of all modules as prescribed.

Open pollinated maize varieties: An application was received for the listing of various open pollinated varieties on Table 8 of the Plant Improvement Act. As Table 8 is used for maintaining the genetic purity of any specific crop, the viability of this certification was discussed with the Grain Crops Institute of the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), breeders and other maize experts. As the certification of open pollinated maize varieties could become very complex, it was decided by the Certification Standing Committee to recommend to the Agronomy Division for the introduction of the following additional requirements:

It was felt that these requirements would be relevant to assure the future genetic integrity of the S.A. Seed Certification Scheme.

Export of groundnuts: Additional requirements for the export of certified groundnut seed would be submitted to the Certification Standing Committee during the forthcoming period to be reviewed. It was reiterated that problems occurred where export requirements stipulated groundnuts to be rebagged in smaller/other containers. However, additional requirements, if any, would be circularized widely to all relevant persons/companies for inputs before a final decision could be reached.

Problems were still being experienced with certain functions of the new database program, especially certification statistics. The programmers, however, provided the assurance that this information would be accessible in due course. The general feeling, however, was that crop registrations in the agronomy and forage crop sections still represented an incremental trend.