Seed Production per OECD Category
The object of the OECD Forest Seed and Plant Scheme is to “encourage the production and use of seeds, parts of plants and plants that have been collected, processed and marketed in a manner that ensures their trueness to name” (www.oecd.org/agriculture/forest). Reproductive material can be certified under four categories as in table 1:
Top photo: Spruce seed, Dan Aamlid/NIBIO.
Category | Definition |
Source-identified | This is the minimum standard permitted in which the location and altitude of the place(s) from which reproductive material is collected must be recorded; little or no phenotypic selection has taken place. |
Selected | The basic material must be phenotypically selected at the population level. |
Qualified | The components of the basic material have been selected at the individual level; however, evaluation may not have been undertaken or completed. |
Tested | The superiority of the reproductive material must have been demonstrated by comparative testing or an estimate of its superiority calculated from the genetic evaluation of the components of the basic material. |