Rose Souza Richards joined ISF in March 2020 as the Seed Health Manager. Rose is the key point person for the international seed industry with the International Plant Protection Convention, and responsible for the coordination of an industry-wide response to WTO notifications on proposed changes to national phytosanitary regulations.
She also manages, develops, and promotes existing ISF activities such as the Systems Approach, the Regulated Pest List Initiative, and the International Seed Health Initiative.
Rose has spent the last five and a half years working at the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) in New Zealand. Rose has a BSc in Agronomic Engineering from the State University of Bahia, Brazil, an MSc in Plant Pathology from the Federal University of Viçosa, Brazil, a second MSc in Plant Diversity from the University of Reading, UK and a PhD in Plant Molecular Virology from the University of Nottingham, UK.
AbstractThe seed business is global, and import/export of seed is essential for global food production. There is a need for simplification and harmonization of the current system to ship seed internationally. The seed industry proposes a system in which seeds produced in a NPPO-approved supply chain can be imported and (re-)exported with a phytosanitary certificate, without the specification of individual pests (systems approach).
Together with this alternative phytosanitary certification, for plant and plant products global trading operations rely on steady communication and transparency in phytosanitary requirements the increasing on digitalization of certain procedures in the plant products supply chain (e.g. ePhyto) is a proactive step forward for policymakers to support more resilient systems. The International Seed Federation will present on these two advocacy pieces and the benefits for the global seed sector.
