2004 OECD Administrative Change

The US OECD Seed Schemes administration transitioned from the Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies (AOSCA) to the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) in 2004. New cooperative agreements were implemented between AMS and individual seed certification agencies as part of the transition. Perry Bohn, USDA AMS, reported a smooth transition during the ASTA Seed Industry Relations Committee at Chicago’s ASTA Seed Expo and Conferences. He also noted that USDA AMS added over 411 new entries to the US list of approved varieties since the administrative transfer. The 70 percent increase was attributed mainly to companies waiting for the administrative transfer to be completed and the weak dollar increasing international sales.

The accreditation of company labs was seen as the next step in the progress gained under field inspection accreditation. Yet in what will sound like today’s headlines “A universally recognized and unified lab accreditation system for the US continues to be an elusive animal.” Mark Condon of ASTA reported that a seed testing accreditation discussion paper was under review for publication the following year (2005). As researched by an ad hoc ASTA committee, the paper aimed to discuss domestic and international lab accreditation systems. The group felt that “questions of scope, purpose, and equivalency for the various lab accreditation proposals and programs” were expected to continue in the foreseeable future.