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Present
regulations for new wheat varieties registration
The requirements for Varieties registration
in Argentina are different and independent from the Commercial Standard for
domestic and exportation markets defined in
Resolution 557/79. .
In most countries, the official
requirements for a new variety registration are in general in accordance with
the Governmental policies for the National Wheat Production, but this has not
been yet defined at the moment in our country. Only TRIGO PAN is considered,
and the Seed Companies produce varieties
and domestic industry and exportation play their respective role in the
market.
The only regulations are under the National
Seed Law (Ley 20247) that is devoted to the
seed production and protection both for the Seed companies and Farmers
as well.
Some seed companies as a commercial policy
try to satisfy the industry and/or exportation requirements beyond the farmer
profitability. Some others could prefer to satisfy only the last condition. It
is a commercial decision to go in any direction. There is not any restriction
for a seed company to produce, promote and sale a wheat variety that poorly
accomplish with the main industry’s quality standards, provided the information
submitted as a legal deposition is accomplished. It could happen that a new
variety showing an exceptionally good yield may be planted in a large acreage
being later blended with the rest of the production being the seed registered
and protected by the system (Ley 20247).
The Small Grain Crops Committee is constituted by official and private experts,
and his function must not be restrictive for the registration of new lines. The
only function is the “judgment” in aspects like yield, reaction to diseases,
commercial and industrial quality and geographical adaptation. It is necessary
to point out that this is the system used for all crops, wheat it is not an
exception.
Nevertheless, some years ago the Committee agreed that in spite of
the lack of guidelines from authorities, the information that it is presented
at the time of registration must be enough at least for a preliminary
CATEGORIZATION of the new varieties in terms of Baking Quality, and in order to
do this, 3 Groups were defined.
The Committee may recommend or not some new
variety, but the final decision is made by the CONASE.
What information about BQ is presented in
the Registration Form docket?
Every year the committee submits a list of
valid checks based on yield performance
and regional adaptation that have to be approved by the CONASE. The new line
has to be compared with 3 valid checks as a minimum Every trial where yield was recorded has to include the set of analysis run by any private or official laboratory, and one of them has to be replicated in 1 official lab. Of course if the option was to use the official lab the duplication is unnecessary. The new line and checks laboratory data are quite confident considering the trial was statistically adjusted for yield.
List
of analysis required:
Ø
Test
weight
Ø
1000
kw
Ø
Grain
Ash content
Ø
Grain
protein content
Ø
Flour
extraction
Ø
Flour
ash content
Ø
Flour
protein content
Ø
Wet
gluten content
Ø
Dry
gluten content
Ø
Flour
protein content
Ø
Alveograph
Ø
Farinograph
Ø
Bread
making
The comparison with checks already categorized allows to know to
what Group the new variety belong, reducing the environmental effects.
New information coming from the same Seed
Company or any other reliable source is taken into account and the preliminary
Categorization may be changed up or down. The most useful information is that
coming from the samples collected in the
Wheat Yield Trials (RET), a cooperative set of trial covering all the
production areas in a number of 20 locations every year using 4 different
planting dates. The inclusion of varieties in this set of trials in not
mandatory and in those cases the yearly categorization review it is more
difficult but still possible.
As a
result of this procedure adopted by the Committee, all the commercial varieties are already
categorized at present and any new line may be classified as well. If authorities in the future decide to promote
some particular type of flour quality, it may be very simple for farmers and
Grain Dealers to segregate the production, selecting varieties and regions
before blending.
Buenos
Aires, August 2002
Ing.Agr. Néstor Machado
Coordinator
of the “Comité de Cereales de Invierno”
CONASE
Created
by Nestor G Machado
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