80 / SEEDWORLD.COM FEBRUARY 2018 STATUS BRAZIL Over almost two decades, Asian rust has infiltrated soybean fields across Brazil. The pathogen has become so resistant to chemicals meant to kill it that many farmers spray several times during their growing seasons, and still endure losses. The chemicals were ineffective almost half the time. “Resistance [development] has been faster than research” into preventive measures, said Claudia Godoy, Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa). There is mounting concern that fungicide used on soybeans may have reached a limit, at least until new chemicals are developed. Fungicides have switched active ingredients at least twice as rust adapted. Most of the products in Brazil use carboxa- mide, but increased resistance to that [has emerged], said Godoy. “If fungus resistance to carboxamide spreads, soy- beans may lose as much as 30 percent of output.” There is no substitute for carboxamide, and the next chemicals prob- ably won’t arrive for [some] years. [There are also] delays on approvals of chemicals. There are also signs that weather and wind make it difficult to con- trol the spread. “Soybeans are in South American fields 12 months per year, making crops more sus- ceptible to fungus,” said Ricardo Balardin, Federal University of Santa Maria. “If we had 6 months with no soybeans, the situation would be quite different.” world STATUS A look at seed industry developments around the globe. Canada’s Seed Synergy website is now live. R&D agreement signed in Israel. STATUS BRITAIN A revolution in agricultural productivity will be needed – and fast – if producers are to capitalise on Brexit, continue to feed ourselves as a nation and protect the environment. The warning comes in a bold new paper from the leading food and farming knowledge house, the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, published ahead of the agenda-setting Oxford Farming Conference 2018. Currently, Britain is falling significantly behind major competitor countries in the rate of growth in productivity – with pace-setters like the USA and the Netherlands growing productivity three times faster than we are domestically. A yawning productivity gap – worth over £4.3bn in lost GDP between 2000 and 2013 alone – has opened up, as a result of the country failing to keep pace. The report – Driving pro- ductivity growth together – calls for industry to seize the opportunity of the Government’s new industrial strategy and forge a new part- nership to drive what AHDB calls ‘a dramatic acceleration’ in productivity growth. STATUS CANADA The official website for the Seed Synergy Collaboration Project is now live. Over the past year senior leaders from the six major seed sector industry organizations have been working together on the project, designed to forge a next-generation seed system for the country. The Seed Synergy Collaboration Project con- sists of six major national seed industry organiza- tions: the Canadian Seed Growers’ Association (CSGA), the Canadian Seed Trade Association (CSTA), the Canadian Seed Institute (CSI), the Commercial Seed Analysts Association of Canada (CSAAC), the Canadian Plant Technology Agency (CPTA) and CropLife Canada. The new website contains detailed information on the project and the recently- issued green paper outlining its proposed vision. Go to www.seedsynergy.net STATUS EU The Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) and the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) for- malized their cooperation on capacity building by signing an Administrative Arrangement (hereinafter the “AA”) in Geneva on Dec. 15, 2017. The major cooperation activi- ties to be performed under the AA would contribute to support ARIPO’s capacity building and technical coop- eration on issues relevant in in the area of plant varieties protection. Another area of cooperation identified under the AA is the organization of joint awareness and sensibi- lization programmes on the development of a legal and