ISTA Congress Cologne 2010
29th Congress of the International Seed Testing Association (ISTA), Cologne 2010
On 16 June 2010 Dr. Robert Kloos, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture (BMELV), and Eckhard Uhlenberg, Agriculture Minister of the Land of North Rhine-Westphalia, together with President Dr. Katalin Ertsey and Secretary General Dr. Michael Muschick of the International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) opened the 29th ISTA Congress at the Gürzenich event centre in Cologne.
For the first time in quite a while, Germany once again hosted an ISTA congress, which was organised by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV) with the support of the Agriculture Ministry of the Land of North Rhine-Westphalia.
First of all Dr. Carl-Stephan Schäfer, Managing Director of the Federal Association of Plant Breeders, presented some facts and figures on the German seed industry.
Exhibitors and about 500 participants from the 76 ISTA member states used the opportunity to exchange thoughts and ideas on the latest international findings in seed science and technology and method development in seed testing.
On 16 June 2010 the ISTA Congress began with a three-day seed symposium on the topic of "Application and improvement of established and advanced technologies in seed testing" with diverse scientific oral presentations, and a poster session displaying about 120 abstracts. In addition, 15 exhibitors presented their products and services at the Gürzenich event centre during the seed symposium.
The meetings of the 18 ISTA Technical Committees were held from 19 to 21 June 2010. Here the committees presented current projects on method development and discussed them animatedly with the participants.
For the first time the host country had the opportunity to organise a political discussion with government representatives and international seed experts within the framework of a policy forum on "Harmonised seed testing and global seed trade" on 21 June 2010. Wolfgang Reimer, Head of the Directorate for Agriculture at the BMELV opened the policy forum. This was followed by introductory speeches and a large panel discussion in which representatives from international seed organisations in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa and representatives of the EU and the OECD discussed the necessity of a stronger harmonisation of seed testing with regard to the increasing globalisation in seed trade.
On 22 June 2010 the Ordinary Meeting of ISTA took place to conclude the congress. Here, new modifications of the International Rules for Seed Testing (ISTA Rules) were discussed and decided upon by the voting delegates designated by their respective government.
The congress was rounded off by an evening invitation from the host country to the Tanzbrunnen Köln and a reception by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture held at the wine cellar of the Gürzenich event centre.
