(ISTA News Bulletin) No. 136, October 2008 - International Seed ...

Rules Development
ISTA Method Validation 2007: a historical retrospect
possible, so the postal service was used to
communicate information to the heads
of the seed testing stations and affiliated
persons.
This example by itself is sufficient to
show that seed testing methods did not
“evolve” (Rules Change Proposals 2008),
but were from the beginning the result of
inventive, purposeful, well-organized, diligent
and painstaking work by dedicated
colleagues in seed testing.
ISTA method validation since 1924
In 1921, the European Seed Testing
Association was formed in Copenhagen
and began comprehensive experimental
and theoretical activities aimed at
achieving internationally uniform seed
testing rules, the great dream of Nobbe
since 1876. Method standardization as
described above was directly transferred
from the national to the international
level. After its founding in Cambridge in
1924, ISTA, following up the activities begun
in Copenhagen, entrusted its Research
Committee for Countries with Temperate
Climate to prepare the ISTA International
Rules for Seed Testing. The Committee
had its first meeting in Copenhagen in 1925
and its second in Wageningen in 1926. A
draft set of Rules was circulated before
the Congress in Rome in 1928. There, the
draft was extensively discussed. There followed
several meetings of the Committee
and three parallel meetings of the ECOM:
1929 in Munich, spring 1930 in Budapest
and autumn 1930 in Cambridge. All activities
were accompanied by an extensive exchange
of letters. Prior to the Wageningen
Congress in 1931, a revised draft of the
ISTA Rules was circulated, prepared under
the leadership of W.J. Franck, ISTA
Vice President and Chair of the Research
Committee for Countries with Temperate
Climate. Finally, in 1931 the first ISTA
International Rules for Seed Testing were
adopted after all-inclusive discussion at the
Wageningen Congress.
In particular, these ten years of dedicated
work clearly show that the ISTA Rules
have been from their inception the result
of responsible, target-oriented and concerted
work of committees, affiliated seed
scientists and representatives of the seed
industry. One example of the commitment
involved is the contribution of colleagues
from the USA. In those days, travelling
was onerous, since there was no air traffic.
Nonetheless, E. Brown, from Washington,
D.C., attended the 1928 Rome Congress,
and M.T. Munn, President of AOSA and
ECOM and TCOM Member since 1924,
crossed the Atlantic twice to take part in
the 1930 Cambridge ECOM meeting and
the 1931 Wageningen Congress. Both
did this in order to contribute American
knowledge and experience to the first ISTA
International Rules.
Figure 3. The minutes of the first standardization meeting.
32
Figure 4. One of the standardization test plans.
Seed Testing International No. 136 October 2008