About changes in the operations of the National Seed Control Laboratory of the Estonian Agricultural Academy

Taking into account the questions of members of the Farmers' Parliament regarding changes in the operations of the National Seed Control Laboratory of the State Plant Protection Service, we have asked the State Plant Protection Service to provide an explanation about the work of the service's seed laboratories.

Recently, the whole world has been changing very rapidly, the intensity of agriculture is increasing, plant protection methods are developing, and the treatment of seed material with modern and effective plant protection products plays a very important role.

In recent years, the amount of seeds treated with PPPs has significantly increased in the seed certification process. In turn, the performance of seed analyses is associated with close contact of employees with these treated seeds, which, if occupational safety requirements are not observed, can have a negative impact on human health. In order to ensure the safest possible working environment for employees, as well as to responsibly treat the safety of the surrounding environment and air quality, significant capital investments must be made in laboratory equipment and room layout, for example, by installing high-quality air extraction and filtration systems. The service can only carry out such reconstructions and capital investments in buildings owned by it.

Currently, the service carries out seed quality assessment in four locations – the National Seed Control Laboratory (hereinafter – NSKL) in Riga and three regional seed testing points in Saldus, Bauska and Valmiera. Work at individual regional seed testing points is cyclically seasonal – during the summer period there is a very small number of samples.

By evaluating the flow of samples for several years on a weekly basis, as well as taking into account the necessary capital investments for the establishment of occupational safety systems and investments in the replacement of human resources after the retirement age of existing employees, the service is optimizing the flow of seed samples internally:

• all seed samples treated with PPPs are analyzed at the NSKL, as this laboratory is located on property owned by the service, where an air exchange system with local air (dust) extraction equipment is installed in workplaces for working with seeds treated with PPPs;
• from 01.07.2021. seed testing will no longer be carried out in Saldus;
• all seed samples from the Kurzeme region will be analyzed by the NSKL (so far, pre-base and base category and grass seed samples were sent and analyzed from the Kurzeme region to the NSKL).

The courier service of the Latvian Post is used to deliver samples to the National Seed Testing Center, and it performs its work with high quality, speed, and responsibility. The courier service has proven itself for many years, serving regions that have not had seed testing points for more than 15 years.

Regarding the organization of work of NSKL, we would like to point out that in the last year the service provision process has been reoriented from services to foreign clients to local seed analyses. This situation had developed during a period when seed certification in Latvia had significantly decreased, and in order not to lose specialists, cooperation agreements were concluded with Danish companies for the performance of seed quality analyses. DLF Trifolium and Wiki Seed. Currently, in order to free up capacity for the provision of local seed analysis services, cooperation agreements are not being extended. The increase in the volume of work is regularly monitored. After evaluating internal resources, the announced job competition has been closed, and the new employees have begun specific training to acquire the qualification of a seed expert.

Regarding the timing of winter crop seed sample analysis, we would like to point out that each year is different, for example, in 2020 the harvest season was 1-2 weeks later and therefore faster, more intense. As a result, a very large amount of seed samples arrived at all seed testing sites simultaneously within two weeks. In previous years, the same amount of samples began to arrive in laboratories earlier, and the flow was evenly distributed over four weeks.

Taking into account the unpredictability of the winter crop harvesting and seed preparation season, VAAD asks to take advantage of the opportunity to conduct repeated quality analyses for the winter crop seed transition fund in a timely manner. VAAD calls for this process to be scheduled immediately after the end of spring crop sowing – in June, July, in order to maximally free up laboratory capacity for seed analyses of the new winter crop harvest in the 32nd–36th week of the year (August and early September).

During the state of emergency declared in the country, the service is making every effort to ensure the continuity of the seed testing service. Currently, in such an important period in agriculture, when the foundations for this year's harvest are being laid, preparing seed material for sowing spring crops, epidemiological safety measures have been introduced in seed laboratories so that seed testing would not be interrupted for two weeks in the event of an employee becoming infected. Employees work in two separate streams with shared equipment, which, of course, slightly reduces the total capacity of the laboratories.

Taking into account the above, VAAD asks for your understanding if the deadlines for receiving test results are extended by a few days.

If you have any further questions, concerns or suggestions regarding changes to the operations of the National Seed Control Laboratory of the State Plant Protection Service, please contact Mārtiņš Tronas.