43 SEED TESTING INTERNATIONAL APRIL 2026 • ACCREDITATION accreditation were also being prepared. A Quality Manual and laboratory instructions for all types of testing were developed. In June 2003, a week-long course on preparing documents for laboratory accreditation with ISTA was held with Jette Nydam (Denmark), international consultant for the SIDA project ‘Supporting the development of the seed industry in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan’, and Head of the Laboratory at the Danish Plant Directorate. In November, an internal audit of the Central Laboratory of RSSI was conducted by Jette Nydam and by January 2005, an application for accreditation had been submitted to the ISTA Secretariat. On 28 July 2005, the Central Laboratory of RSSI was audited for accreditation with ISTA. The auditors were ISTA Past President Norbert Leist and the Chair of the Accreditation Committee, Martina Rosh. Between August and December, corrective actions were implemented, based on audit findings. By 27 January 2006, the Central Laboratory of RSSI had received an accreditation certificate from ISTA. The laboratory was accredited for the following crop groups: cereals, small legumes, and other agricultural crops. Accreditation was granted for the following analyses: sampling, purity and determination of other seeds by number, germination, moisture content and thousand-seed weight. Furthermore, along with accreditation, the Central Laboratory became the first in the post-Soviet space to be able to issue the Orange International Certificate for seeds. Since joining ISTA in 2003, the laboratory has made every effort to comply with all requirements of the ISTA Rules and the ISTA Accreditation Standard. This ensures high- quality testing and maximum customer satisfaction by creating and maintaining stable conditions necessary for the effective functioning of a quality assurance system. In December 2005, the Kyrgyz Republic joined the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and participates in seed testing under the OECD Seed Schemes for cereals, sugar beets, fodder beets, alfalfa and beans. At the request of this organisation, we are establishing soil-control plots for original and first-generation cereal crops grown in Kyrgyzstan, as well as soil-control plots for perennial legumes and beans. All seeds intended for sowing in the soil-control plots are tested in our laboratory. Memberships of ISTA and OECD have provided the opportunity to purchase and import high-quality breeding and seed material into the country, as well as export and participate in international seed trade, which will undoubtedly increase the country’s export potential. In 2007, Vyacheslav Rudenko, Director of RSSI was appointed a Personal Member of both ISTA and OECD. An application for re-accreditation was submitted to the ISTA Secretariat in March 2008. Intensive preparation for re-accreditation with ISTA was completed, including revision of the Quality Manual and the instructions for seed testing methods. In May of the same year, the Head of the Laboratory and the Quality Manager completed a two-week training course in Sweden on sampling and testing of seeds of agricultural crops, following the ISTA Rules. On 29 August 2008, the Central Laboratory of RSSI was audited by Jette Nydam and Joost van der Burg for international seed testing methods. In December of the same year, a training course on seed testing methods was held at the RSSI facility. Participants included representatives from the Republic of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Moldova. Trainers included Professor Dr Norbert Leist and Dr Andrea Jonitz (Germany). The Central Laboratory of RSSI received its re- accreditation certificate from ISTA on 26 January 2009. The laboratory was accredited this time for the following crop groups: cereals, small legumes, pulses, and other agricultural crops. Accreditation was granted for the following analyses: sampling, purity and determination of other seeds by number, germination, moisture content and thousand-seed weight. In August 2009, participants of the Business Forum from countries abroad, such as the Russian Federation, Ukraine, China, Japan and Tajikistan, organised by the Seed Association of Central Asia and by Kyrgyzstan, visited the Central Laboratory, where they learned about the history of the development of seed inspection, the national certification system, and the achievements of the Central Laboratory of RSSI. A training course on seed testing methods was held at RSSI in October 2009, with the participation of representatives from the Russian Federation, Belarus and Tajikistan. The trainers were Ulf Newman, Anders Christenson (Sweden), Elena Tkachenko (Russia) and specialists from the Central Laboratory. They gave practical demonstrations of sampling and division of samples, and the definition of seed quality, while lecturing on the theory. In 2011, an application was submitted to the ISTA Secretariat for re-accreditation of RSSI Central Laboratory. The application included the following crop groups: cereals, small legumes, pulses, other agricultural crops, and vegetables, spices, herbs and medicinal species. The scope of accreditation included sampling, purity and other seed determination, germination, viability, moisture content and thousand-seed weight. The Central laboratory of RSSI was audited for international seed testing methods by Mary Jane Kelly and Zita Ripka of ISTA on 2 November 2011. A certificate of re-accreditation was received by the Central Laboratory on 26 June 2012. An application was submitted to the ISTA Secretariat in 2014 and the fourth re- accreditation was completed on 21 January 2015. The system auditor was Florina Palada and the technical auditor Jette Nydam. The ISTA Secretariat issued an accreditation certificate for RSSI Central Laboratory on 15 July 2015. Gulsyinat Noruzbaeva, Head of Laboratory, became a Personal Member of ISTA in 2015. In November of the same year, two laboratory specialists attended courses on testing vegetable seeds using the ISTA Rules, in Tsukuba, National Center for Seeds and Seedlings JPDL0100 (NARO), Japan. According to the Decree of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic #677 of 14 December 2016, Training on seed testing methods for specialists of the Russian Federation, held in Bishkek, 2009: participants and staff of the Central Laboratory of RSSI
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