Plant Production and Protection Division - AGP

Seed and Plant Genetic Resources Service - AGPS

News and Events

OCTOBER 2005.
Third Session of the Intergovernmental Technical Working Group on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITWG-PGR)

The Third Session of the Intergovernmental Technical Working Group on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITWG-PGR) will take place in FAO headquarters, in Rome, Italy, from 26 - 28 October 2005. The Provisional Agenda can be viewed at the Documents Page of the meeting. All the Working Documents in 4 official languages will be inserted as they become available.

A one-day workshop on Monitoring the Implementation of the Global Plan of Action and Preparation of the Country Reports for the 2nd Report on the State of the World on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture will be held on 25 October 2005, at FAO, Rome, Italy.

For more information, contact:
Dr. Brad Fraleigh
FAO, Seed and Plant Genetic Resources Service, Senior Officer Seeds and PGR Policy (Email)

DECEMBER 2004.
Investments and costs for segregating GM crops

Responding to a request for technical assistance from the Government of Argentina, FAO carried out a study to quantify the investments and costs involved in segregating the chains of production, transportation and embarking for GM and non-GM soya bean and maize in conformity with Article 18.2.a) of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.
The project, which ended in August 2004, gathered a team of 19 national and international specialists in various fields and involved a detailed analysis of the production and supply chain of soya bean and maize in the country, including infrastructure and capacity, the needs for modernisation and the investments involved, as well as an evaluation of the segregation costs.
The full report plus a summary of the study are now available in Spanish only (1,1 mb). Short version, Summary and Conclusions (220 kb)

For more information, contact:
Dr. Nuria Urquia
FAO, Seed and Plant Genetic Resources Service, P.G.R. Networking Officer (Email)

FEBRUARY 14th - 18th, 2005. Kingston, Jamaica
6th ISTA/FAO Workshop on Electrophoretic Methods and PCR-Techniques for Variety Verification and GMO Detection.
This hands-on training workshop, organised by the Seeds and Plant Genetic Resources Service of FAO and the International Seed Testing Association, is for seed testing analysts from the Caribbean region. The aim is to train seed technicians in advanced methods for the verification of species, cultivars and hybrids as well as for qualitative and quantitative GMO detection.
For more information, contact:
Dr. Kakoli Ghosh
FAO, Seed and Plant Genetic Resources Service, Capacity Building (Email)

DECEMBER 18th - 22th, 2004. Agriculture Genetic Engineering Research Institute (AGERI), Giza, Egypt
Invitation to the 5th ISTA/FAO Workshop on Electrophoretic Methods and PCR-Techniques for Variety Verification and GMO Detection.
This hands-on training workshop, organised by the Seeds and Plant Genetic Resources Service of FAO and the International Seed Testing Association, is for seed testing analysts from the Near East and North Africa region. The aim is to train seed technicians in advanced methods for the verification of species, cultivars and hybrids as well as for qualitative and quantitative GMO detection. It is limited to 18 participants, who should be actual technicians, with at least a basic knowledge or experience in the field of variety verification or GMO detection. The deadline for registration is 20 November 2004. (more)
Convener: Dr. Hanaiya El-Itriby
Contact persons from ISTA and FAO:
Branislava Opra, M.Sc.
ISTA, Head of Memebrship Department (Email)
Dr. Kakoli Ghosh
FAO, Seed and Plant Genetic Resources Service, Capacity Building (Email)

JULY 10th - 14th, 2004. Agriculture Institute of Slovenia, Crop and Seed Science Department, Ljubljana, SLOVENIA
Invitation to the 4th ISTA /FAO Workshop on Electrophoretic and DNA-based Methods for Varietal Verification and GMO Detection.
This workshop is for seed testing analysts from laboratories located in the Eastern European region. The aim of the workshop is to train the seed technicians in methods for the verification of species, cultivars and hybrids as well as for qualitative and quantitative GMO detection. The workshop will be made up of lectures and practical work. (more) - (form)
Convener: Dr. Jelka Sustar-Vozlic
Contact persons from ISTA and FAO:
Dr. Bettina Kahlert
ISTA, Head of Technical Committee Administration (Email)
Dr. Kakoli Ghosh
FAO, Seed and Plant Genetic Resources Service, Capacity Building (Email)

For further information please contact Mr. Arturo J. Martinez, Service Chief.

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