Quality Seed | Quality Life
June 2024 Newsletter
Dear Members and Partners,
We’ve just returned from the APSA Executive Committee meeting which we held in Sanya, and where we will reconvene in December for the Asian Seed Congress 2024.
Our hosts from Mangrove Tree Resort made a fantastic showcase of the venue and hospitality, and I can’t wait for all of you to experience that as well during the congress.
Registrations to the Asian Seed Congress are in full swing. The trading tables, exhibition booths, and meeting spaces are getting filled up fast, so don’t wait too long.
This congress is special because it’s our 30th anniversary. This milestone allows us to honor our past achievements, as well as envision the future that we want. This year, together with the Executive Committee, we initiated a strategic review of APSA. A big part of this exercise is defining our value proposition to you, our members. In the next few months, we are inquiring into your perceptions and needs so that we may know how to support you better and where we should put our focus and resources. This will help us continue evolving as an association. I look forward to hearing from you on how we, together, can build an even stronger and more dynamic APSA.
Next month, we are holding a regional workshop in Hanoi on seed sector development. It will cover topics such as PVP, IP, plant breeding innovation and seed movement. It’s going to be an intense week of dialogue with regulators and national authorities from the four countries of Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. But this is such important work for APSA – to keep the dialogue going between public and private sectors in creating an enabling regulatory environment for the seed sector.
Earlier this month we sent out a survey to all of our members and key stakeholders to provide us feedback as part of APSA’s strategic review. A gentle reminder for those who have not completed the survey to please take 10-15 minutes and provide us your feedback by clicking here. Your responses will be confidential and invaluable to us.
Finally, I invite you to register to the Asian Solanaceous and Cucurbits Roundtable or ASCRT which will be held on September 24-26 in Bangkok. This scientific conference will gather plant breeding experts to discuss the latest developments in research and development for solanaceous and cucurbit crops, especially on resistance breeding. Check out the list of presentations and speakers on our website.
Stay tuned for more updates from the APSA team!
Ms. Francine Sayoc
APSA Executive Director
THANK YOU to our digital media sponsors
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2024 APSA Seed Technology Webinar - Session 2
APSA will be holding Session 2 of the 2024 APSA Seed Technology Webinar Series on the 11th of July 2024 from 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm (GMT+7). The main focus of this webinar will be Seed Health Testing, and will feature 2 guest speakers; Mr. Ruud Barnhoorn, Researcher vegetable seed pathology and the Chair of the ISTA Seed Health Committee, Naktuinbouw R&D Department; and Dr M. Krishna Reddy, Former Principal Scientist and Head, Division of Crop Protection, ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research.
Participation is free for all active APSA Members, but pre-registration is required. To view the webinar agenda, speaker profile & abstract and for registration, please visit the official evet webpage at https://web.apsaseed.org/events/2024-apsa-seed-technology-webinar-session-2
2024 Asian Solanaceous & Cucurbits Round Table (ASCRT 2024)
We are happy to inform everyone that the 2024 Asian Solanaceous & Cucurbits Round Table (ASCRT 2024), which will focus on "Harnessing New Breeding Technologies for climate change-resilient vegetables" has found a new host country, venue and date. The event will now be held from the 24th to the 26th of September 2024 at the Chia Tai Headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand.
We cordially invite everyone to register and join us for 3 days of insightful discussions on crucial topics, including Modern Breeding Techniques, Germplasm Diversity, Genomics & Genome Editing, AI and Digital Technology for High Throughput Phenotyping, and more. Engage in technology platform demonstrations, explore training needs, and discover the potential of public-private partnerships.
For more details on agenda, registration fees and how to register, please visit the official event page at https://web.apsaseed.org/events/apsa-ascrt-2024
2024 APSA Large Seed Vegetables & Brassicaceae Okra (LSVBO) Thank God It's Friday – Session 3
APSA will be holding Session 3 of the 2024 APSA LSVBO TGIF Webinar on Friday the 27th of September 2024 and will focus on Cauliflower. As we are currently finalizing the speaker and their topics, please stay tuned for updates. But if you wish to see more details regarding this event, please visit the official event page at https://web.apsaseed.org/events/2024-apsa-lsvbo-tgif
2024 APSA Hybrid Rice and Corn Study Tour in Viet Nam
We are happy to announce that the APSA Special Interest Group for Field Crops Committee, in collaboration with IRRI Vietnam is planning on holding a Hybrid Rice & Corn Study Tour to Vietnam. The study tour will be held from September 29 - October 5, 2024, and will visit various companies and field demonstrations in various cities throughout the country. As we are currently in the process of finalizing the study tour details, please stay tuned for more details regarding agenda and registration fee.
2024 Asian Seed Congress
The 2024 Asian Seed Congress will be held at the Mangrove Tree Resort Convention Center in Sanya, Hainan, China from the 2nd to the 6th of December 2024, and is co-hosted by the China National Seed Trade Association (CNSTA) with support from Sanya City Government and Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City (ZBTSC).
In just 2 months since registration has opened, we already have a total of 775 registered delegates, consisting of 285 voting representatives, 490 delegates and 12 accompanying persons. We wish to remind everyone that the Early-Bird Registration Period has just ended. And if you have yet to pay for your congress registration, please make sure payment is made before 15 July. If payment is not made before the deadline, your congress delegate registration fee will automatically be changed to the normal fee of 750 USD per delegate.
Also available at this year’s congress will be 204 trading tables (45 tables remaining), 16 semi-private meeting rooms (SOLD OUT), 4 private meeting rooms (SOLD OUT) and 62 regular exhibition booths (8 regular booths remaining) and 16 super booths (2 super booths remaining).
We highly recommend all APSA Members to register early since acquiring a visa to enter China may take some time. And if you are planning on bringing in any seeds to China to showcase during the congress, please make sure to fill out all necessary documents for Import & Quarantine.
For more information on congress agenda, official floor plan, China Visa & Import Policy, how to register and other congress related details, please visit the official event page at https://web.apsaseed.org/asc2024
Mike Kingapayom
APSA Event Manager
Standing Committees and Special Interest Groups
Starting with an update on APSA Standing Committees and Special Interest Groups. Following is a summary review of the APSA SC/SIG activities in this month:
APSA Secretariat has a full schedule to prepare for an important workshop next month; the 2024 Mekong-U.S. Partnership Regional Workshop on Seed Sector Development for Ensuring Food Security from the 15th to the 19th of July 2024 in Hanoi, Vietnam. The workshop is organized in collaboration and partnership with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service Office of Global Programs (FAS/GP), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), Department of Crop Production (CPD) - Vietnam and the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA).
This hybrid workshop will focus on enhancing food security through the development of the seed sector, with emphasis on Plant Variety Protection (PVP), intellectual property rights, plant breeding innovation, and seed movement. Key participants (onsite) are government officials from the Lower Mekong Countries and representatives from the private sector. For online participation, we welcome relevant government officials, APSA Committee members including chairs and co-chairs, seed associations, partner organizations and universities. Simultaneous interpretation will be available in English, Khmer, Lao, Thai, and Vietnamese.
This shows a great collaboration of the 3 APSA Standing Committees, SC IPR & Biodiversity, SC Plant Breeding Innovations and SC International Trade & Quarantines. Some of the committee members will be speakers in the workshop, for example Mr Fabrice Mattei (Chair of APSA SC IPR & Biodiversity), Mr Michael Leader (Chair of SC PBI) and Dr Ha Thuy Nguyen (WIC Co-Chair and SC ITQ members). We trust that the public private partnership will facilitate the trading of quality seeds globally and contributes the food security.
The workshop is invite-only. To learn more about the 2024 MUSP Regional Workshop and view official agenda, please visit the event page at https://web.apsaseed.org/events/2024-musp-regional-workshop
Let us move to an update from Standing Committee on Seed Technology:
The 2024 APSA Seed Technology Webinar Session 1 on seed extraction and post-harvest handling of seeds was successfully conducted on June 21st, with almost 150 attendees joining from private and public sectors.
For participants who are interested on seed health testing, you should not miss our upcoming APSA Seed Technology webinar session 2 to be held on July 11st at 2.00 – 4.00 pm Bangkok time. The webinar working group has carefully selected 2 prominent speakers to give you exclusive info on seed health testing. Mr Ruud Barnhoorn will talk about the essential seed health testing techniques for detecting seed-borne pathogens in vegetable and field crops, while Dr M Krishna Reddy will present on the Asian seedborne pathogens, disinfection and seed treatment in the management of vegetable crop diseases. Don’t miss the opportunity to join this webinar! Mike is updating more details about this in the event section.
Next is an update from SIG Field Crops:
After several meetings with partners both from public and private sides, the field crops study tour program in Viet Nam is going to launch next month! Get ready to register and stay turned for more details!
Moving to the Special Interest Group on Vegetables and Ornamentals
The Special Interest Group on Vegetables and Ornamentals (SIG V&O) committee had the second quarter meeting this month to update activities of its subgroups. They warmly welcomed the new WIC Chair and Co-Chair, Mr Sanjay Kumar Singh and Dr Ha Thuy Nguyen who attended SIG V&O committee meeting for the first time to update WIC activities.
The committee were happy to know that the subgroups of WIC, DRT and R&D Advisory Committee have been creating initiatives and many activities this year to benefit APSA members. Besides, they also brainstormed to find potential speakers for the December ASC Technical Sessions in Sanya.
The Working Group of Integrated Vegetable Seed Companies or WIC
The activities under the initiative of WIC were reported in the APSA Executive Committee meeting in mid-June, namely the University Connect Program where there was a brainstorming session between WIC members to develop an action plan and guidelines for the University Connect Program, focusing on short-term initiatives as well as to create a framework for working with universities and seed associations. Stay tuned!
The R&D Advisory Group
The APSA R&D Advisory Committee has another successful event of the 2024 APSA Large Seed Vegetables & Brassicaceae Okra (LSVBO) Thank God It's Friday (TGIF) Session 2 on Okra held on June 28. Dr. Pitchaimuthu M. and Dr. V. Venkataravanappa of the ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR) presented very interesting sessions on breeding okra for yield and virus resistance and the challenges of begomovirus in okra. Stay tuned for the third session on cauliflower in September.
This month the organizing committee of APSA Asian Solanaceous and Cucurbit Roundtable together with APSA Secretariat are working on the speakers’ recommendations and confirmations. Mike is telling you more on the ASCRT registration in the event section and in this link.
Last but not least, it is the last chance to register for a 3-year collaborative project title “Breeding for Chilli Leaf Curl Disease (ChiLVD) and South East Asian Thrips (Thrips parvispinus) resistance in Chilli” with ICAR- Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bangalore. The registration opens until July 15, 2024. For more info, visit https://web.apsaseed.org/events/apsa-iihr-project
The Disease Resistance Terminology Working Group or DRT,
The bitter gourd powdery mildew subgroup still connects to each other via email communications. This month APSA Secretariat also submitted an extension of research timeline to the National Biodiversity Authority of India.
The watermelon fusarium wilt subgroup had an adhoc meeting this month to agree on the number of seeds to be exported to members outside Thailand.
This is all for now for the short SC/SIG updates. Thank you very much and stay tuned for more updates next month.
APSA-WorldVeg Vegetable Breeding Consortium
The special project entitled “Developing Host Resistance to Thrips in Chilli, a Multilateral Pre-Breeding Approach” is launched under the APSA-WorldVeg Vegetable Breeding Consortium in February 2024 and we are pleased to inform you that the registration period is extended to 30 June 2024 and the project fees are reduced. For the updated project activities, timeline and deliverables, please visit the event page for details, CLICK HERE.
A special project entitled “Rapid Access to Successful Tomato Hybrids” is newly launched under the 2024 APSA-WorldVeg Vegetable Breeding Consortium. Interested companies can get seeds of selected hybrids of their choice for testing at their locations and obtain information and seeds of the parental lines of the selected hybrids. Registration will be closed by end of August. For more details, please click the link HERE.
Kunaporn Phuntunil
APSA Technical Coordination Manager
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As part of APSA’s sustained digitalization and digitization efforts, in 2023 we’re offering active members even more ways to directly reach Asia-Pacific seed industry decision makers -- in their inbox, on their desktop PCs, laptops, smartphone, tablets, and phablets alike, through our exciting new affiliate, sponsorship, marketing, communication, advertising and publicity opportunities.
We are pleased to announce our 2023 Digital Media Sponsorship Rates and Media Kit:
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Email: (komsak@apsaseed.org) or Mike (mike@apsaseed.org)
Asian Seed magazine Vol. 30 No.2 (Quarter 2, April - June 2024)
In this second issue of Volume 30 of Asian Seed & Planting Material, we bring you the latest news and updates from the Asia and Pacific Seed Alliance (APSA), as well as the greater APAC and global seed sectors. The issue opens with an address from APSA President Dr. Manish Patel, who reflects on various APSA initiatives over the past quarter and shares his experiences at the ISF World Seed Congress.
APSA Executive Director Francine Sayoc summarizes the association's most timely priorities after returning from Sanya, China, where the executive committee recently met to review progress and preparations for this year’s Asian Seed Congress in December. This issue also includes a wrap-up of the recent APSA-WorldVeg vegetable breeding annual workshop, and summaries from three important meetings that took place in Bangkok in April: the annual midterm meeting of the Working Group for Integrated Vegetable Seed Companies (WIC); the second annual in-person APAC Seed Associations meeting; and APSA's inaugural Regional Workshop on Genetic Resources, Plant Variety Protection, and Biodiversity.
Moreover, we bring you the latest from APSA Technical Affairs and committee activities, along with an exclusive feature on Sanya, China's transformation from a tourist haven to a significant global agricultural hub. Finally, we present a seed trade report with an analysis of import and export receipts for HS 1209 last year, covering all countries and territories in the Asia and Oceanic regions. The magazine concludes with four special tributes in celebration of APSA's 30th Anniversary.
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