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• Manual of Seed Health Testing Methods
• Structures and Rules Members

 

Structures and Rules

History

The International Seed Health Initiative-Vegetables (ISHI-Veg) started as an initiative of the vegetable seed industry. In 1993 Dutch and French seed companies started a non-competitive project on monitoring seed health. In 1994 on the occasion of the FIS Congress in Oostende, US seed companies joined the effort, followed by Japan and Israel. The initiative intended to represent at least 70% of the world trade in vegetable seeds for the professional market; with the five participating countries this target was met. From the beginning ISHI-Veg has sought co-operation with national inspection services, research institutes and laboratories providing testing services.

ISHI-Veg and ISF

ISHI-Veg originally had its own secretary and the Netherlands’ seed trade association handled the finances. In the year 2000 ISF took over the secretariat and financial administration. This association of ISHI-Veg with ISF increases the visibility of ISHI-Veg in the international regulatory and political arena and allows more resources to be invested in technical matters as the overhead costs associated with the initiative are absorbed by ISF.

The role of the ISF Secretariat is twofold. In addition to handling all correspondence and administrative issues such as preparing agendas and minutes for meetings for ISHI-Veg, the secretariat also represents ISHI-Veg at regional and international bodies such as EPPO, FAO and ISTA.

However, in order to remain flexible and efficient ISHI-Veg has maintained a special structure within ISF with separate funding by the participating countries. Participation in ISHI-Veg is not just linked to paying an annual contribution; rather each member country must provide sufficient technical input in the work of the initiative.

Reporting structure

The technical group of ISHI-Veg, through its chair, reports to a Policy Co-ordination Group (PCG) that consists of representatives of the participating countries and the chairperson of the technical group. The PCG can be seen as a working group in the Vegetable Section of ISF. At the annual ISF Congress, the PCG chair reports both to the Phytosanitary Committee and the Vegetable Section of ISF. Through the presentation of a draft motion and its subsequent adoption by the Vegetable Section, say on test methods and a recommendation on minimum sample sizes, a position taken by ISHI-Veg can become the position of ISF. An additional example of where the conclusions of ISHI-Veg can become the official opinion of ISF are issues related to Regulated Non-Quarantine Pests.

The PCG oversees the activities of ISHI-Veg; it decides on general issues and on points that may have an impact on the seed trade. The PCG decides on the budget of ISHI-Veg and on new member countries.

Finances

To support the work of ISHI-Veg an annual fee is charged to the member countries, France, Israel, Japan, The Netherlands, and USA. 

Conditions for membership of ISHI-Veg

Countries wishing to be members of ISHI-Veg make an annual contribution through their national seed associations to ISF. This sum is used to support the TCG (Technical Co-ordination Group). It covers the expenses of the Plan Co-ordinator, travel expenses for the chairperson of the TCG, ISF Secretariat and special research projects.

Countries can also be observers/supporting members by requesting to attend ISHI-Veg PCG meetings held annually at ISF Congress. After attending a meeting as an observer/supporter a country can become an observer/support member by paying an annual fee. Details are available by requesting ISF Circular No. 01.154

Structure of ISHI-Veg

The PCG (Policy Co-ordination Group) consists of one member each from the participating countries and the Chairperson of the TCG. The members represent the seed industry of the countries that participate in ISHI-Veg (except for the chair of the TCG who represents the TCG).

The TCG is open to representatives of the vegetable seed companies and other companies and institutes actively involved with seeds (like test labs or seed pathology research groups) from the member countries. Members of the TCG must be actively involved in seed pathology to ensure technical and scientific progress. Outsiders (for instance representatives of ISTA or research institutes) can also be invited by the ISF Secretariat or the TCG Chair to contribute to meetings.

A country representative also represents each member country in the TCG. The country representative co-ordinates national issues and is the spokesperson for the country in the TCG meeting. Specifically, the country representative takes the lead in organizing or co-ordinating the organization of TCG meetings in the country represented, and brings local/national issues of relevance to the attention of the members of the TCG and PCG. The country representative also provides the member of the PCG representing the same country with all information deemed relevant for the decisions of the PCG.

Responsibilities

The PCG takes decisions on the annual budget of ISHI-Veg and the annual contribution made by the national seed association of the member countries.

It develops policy guidelines to assist the TCG reach their goals (see website). It also takes the decision on which of the reference test methods developed by the TCG are included in the ISHI-Veg Manual on the ISF website.

The PCG also determines the recommended sample size for each test method developed by the TCG.

The TCG, through the International Technical Groups (ITG), develop standard or reference test methods for crop/pathogen combinations that are determined by the TCG to be of economic importance to the vegetable seed trade.

Structure of the TCG

The chairperson of the TCG co-ordinates activities of the TCG and chairs the TCG meetings. Also the responsibility for the activities of the plan co-ordinator resides with the TCG chair. The TCG chair represents the TCG in the PCG and is a member of the ISF Phytosanitary Committee.

The TCG is further broken down into the ITGs, each one dealing with broad categories of crops being covered at any point of time by the TCG.

A nominated representative represents each country in the ITG. The ITGs have an open meeting during the meeting of the TCG (planned to be held every 9 months), but if specific topics need to be discussed at greater length or frequency ITGs are free to organize meetings exclusively for their members.

To be flexible and efficient the ITGs can consist of more than one representative per country depending on the crop/pathogen combination. The ITG decides for itself its membership. Each ITG has a chairperson elected by its members.

The plan co-ordinator is responsible for co-ordinating and maintaining the ISHI-Veg comparative test plans developed by the ITGs. The work consists of developing and writing test plans; communication on comparative tests; collection and distribution of samples and materials; collecting and compiling test data and writing summary reports; maintenance (in co-operation with the ISHI-Veg secretary) of the ISHI-Veg Seed Health Testing Methods Manual and ISHI-Veg protocols that have been published elsewhere (ISTA Working sheets, for example); technical support for ISHI-Veg sponsored research projects; and regular updates to the chair of the TCG of status and progress.

Development of general standard methods

For a method to be accepted by ISHI as being suitable for further development as a reference method, the method must be described and available for public use or published in a peer-reviewed journal, and secondly meet the approval of the technical group within ISHI-Veg responsible for the relevant vegetable commodity.

Most methods then go through a validation process that includes extensive comparative testing of the protocol. With some exceptions methods are developed according to the “ISTA Handbook of method validation for the detection of seed-borne pathogens” (Jim Sheppard and Valerie Cockerell, International Seed Testing Association, Plant Disease Committee, May 2000).

The exceptions are:

• The design of the test plan of a multi-laboratory comparative test determines the number of labs and samples that are going to be tested in relation to the goal of the test. This can be a smaller number than 6 as stated in the current version of the Handbook for ‘Multi-laboratory Validated methods’. A test with fewer labs fits the description of ‘Peer-Validated Methods’, but is for ISHI sufficient for a category 1 classification (ISHI Reference Method).
• The assignment of the status of each method description will be done by the chair of the TCG
• Acceptance and publication of each method will be discussed by the TCG followed by the PCG.

The development of the test plan is a responsibility of the ITG. The Plan Co-ordinator facilitates the working of ITGs by monitoring the comparative tests and gathering, compiling and analysing the data of these tests.

The Technical Co-ordination Group (TCG) meets approximately every 9 to 11 months.