LITERATURE

Literature, books and journal articles of interest to readers are presented here. Please send list of seed publications on policy, regulation and technology to the Editor for inclusion in Seed Info.

Newly Released ISTA Publications

International Rules for Seed Testing, Edition 2004
The International Rules for Seed Testing is approved and amended at ISTA Ordinary and Extraordinary Meetings on the basis of advice of the ISTA Technical Committees. The 2004 edition includes the latest changes approved by the ISTA Extraordinary Meeting in 2003. The Edition 2004 (valid from 1 January 2004) is available in a binder and includes the Annex to Chapter 7 (Price: CHF 365).



Don, R (ed.). 2003. ISTA Handbook for Seedling Evaluation. The handbook is a valuable guide with detailed instructions and illustrations, and is vital if the principles of seedling evaluation are to be applied uniformly. The 3rd edition includes many tropical, subtropical, flower and tree species (Price: CHF 250; 232 pp.)

Leist, N. and S. Kramer (eds.). 2003. ISTA Working Sheets on Tetrazolium Testing, first Edition: Volume I-Agricultural, Vegetable and Horticultural Species (Price: CHF 250; 176 pp.); and Volume II- Tree and Shrub Species. (Price: CHF 250; 153 pp). The Tetrazloium Working Sheets volume I and II include detailed and standardized description to conduct and evaluate tetrazolium tests for determination of viability from agricultural, horticultural and forest seed. All ISTA publications are available from ISTA Secretariat on-line at: website: http://www.seedtest.org

WANA Secretariat. 2004. WANA Catalogue of Crop Varieties
The WANA Catalogue of crop Varieties, published under the umbrella of the WANA Seed Network, compiles the list of varieties released in member countries and their synonyms. For hard copy please contact: WANA Seed Network Secretariat, Seed Unit, ICARDA, Aleppo, Syria; Fax: ++963-21-2213490; E-mail: z.bishaw@CGIAR.ORG




Training Handbook on Property Rights. The Institute of International Agriculture, Michigan State University, has launched a new online training handbook on intellectual property rights. The objective of the book is to provide basic information regarding the management of intellectual properties concerning the types of agreements used in transferring intellectual properties from one organization to another or one researcher to another. It is also intended to provide awareness of the important sections of agreements and provide a base for organizations in various countries to develop standard intellectual property transfer agreements that are in accordance with the respective country's laws and the organization's policies.

The book can be downloaded from the website http://www.iia.msu.edu/iprworkbook.htm.

Emerging Seed Testing Technology
Maxx Automation AB has developed the Seedscanner 2003 using the latest technology to reduce the manual work involved in the number determination of other seeds in cereal species by 90%. The scanner improves the efficiency and working environment and minimizes the large amount of routine manual work, reducing the quantity of seeds to be inspected. The species include wheat, barley, rye, oats and triticale.

The Seedscanner 2003, analyses seed samples and divides them into two fractions. The larger fraction contains the most uniform and typical seeds, and the smaller fraction contains non-typical seeds. The larger fraction is considered to be free from contaminants and is not analysed by visual inspection. Any seed kernels from other species that may be present in the sample will be found in the smaller fraction, and only this fraction will be further analysed. Therefore, only about 5-10% of the seeds in the original sample need manual examination. A robot handles the samples and the samples in containers in the machine are treated gently, avoiding any change in the nature of the original samples. The machine has a self-cleaning function and a low noise level, and has been designed to meet quality assurance requirements. Windows 2000 is used as the operating system. The decision algorithm is based on linear discriminant analysis and the classification is based on the statistical analysis of 22 morphological, color and textural features extracted from seed kernel images. The image analysis system can be used for statistics and for sorting by length, width, area and color.

The Seedscanner 2003 is operating as a tool for the determination of other seeds by number in cereal species at the Seeds Department of Norwegian Agricultural Inspection Service, the Swedish Seed Testing and Certification Institute and Analycen Nordic AB, Sweden. In Sweden the Seedscanner 2003 is used for testing seed lots prior to cleaning which is useful for large cereal seed companies with own certification laboratories. The Seedscanner is used to work both with: (i) cleaned seed samples for final certification purpose, and (ii) unprocessed seed samples for testing the quality of seed lots prior to cleaning in seed plants.

If the quality of the unprocessed seed sample is known seed lots with difficult problems will be rejected quickly for seed purpose. In some countries (e.g. Sweden), the unprocessed seed samples can be analyzed in the laboratory to determine the percentage of cleaned seed, germination and admixtures with difficult other crop/weed seeds to calculate payment to contract growers. Tests for detecting admixtures in the seed samples has to be done accurately and very fast particularly during the peak season. Seedscanner 2003 will provide better solutions for accuracy and flexibility. For more information contact: Jaan Luup, Maxx Automation AB, Alsikegatan 4, 753 23 Uppsala, Sweden; Tel: ++46-18-155560; Fax ++46-702-244126; E-mail: jlp@elektronik.st; Website: http://www.maxx.se.