b'International Seed Federation Celebrates Centennial AnniversaryISF impact to the global seed sector is immeasurably powerful.Niels LouwaarsA CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARYurges us EDITORS NOTE: Seed Worldto look at the future of ISF. Knowing where we is incredibly grateful to Nielscome from can certainly help. So, lets have a look Louwaars for his leadership andat how ISF evolved from its double origins: FIS and his innumerable contributions toASSINSEL before we try to glimpse at the future. the global seed sector and to ourISFs history can be split into four almost equal publications. Louwaars is a Dutchphases with specific identities while ISF took on expert in policies surroundingadditional roles. seed. He has worked extensivelyPhase One(Self) Regulation and Platformin the field of plant breeding and seed systems, focusing onThe reason to get together and establish FIS issues related to intellectualin 1924 and for the first 25 years was need for property rights, access to geneticself-regulation at the global level. Seed was resources and the role of publicincreasingly traded internationally over largerA copy of a sales contract from 1924.and private sectors in seeddistances, notably forages and vegetable seeds, development and distribution.and it suffered from rogue seed in the market. He has been involved in variousSo a major first initiative was the formulation international organizationsof the International Trade Rules, indeed estab-and initiatives, contributing tolished first for forage seeds in 1929. Rules require the development of policiesenforcement, which led to an arbitration system and frameworks that supportone year later, following developments in the sustainable agriculture andLeague of Nations. The International Seed Testing food security. Currently, he isAssociation (ISTA) defined the first international leading Plantum, the Dutch seedstandards for seed testing in 1931 contributing to association. the same goal.A second association saw the light during this The International Seedsame period. Private sector plant breeders estab-Federation (ISF) was formed inlished ASSINSEL in 1938, an association specifically 2002 following the merger ofaimed at providing breeders with the necessary International Association of Plantreturns on investment. The seed traders asso-Breeders for the Protection ofciation FIS was initially not considered an ally in Plant Varieties (ASSINSEL) andthis goal, as it would be the seed producers and the Federation Internationaletraders to pay for the licenses that ASSINSEL was du Commerce des Semencesaiming at. The breeders required not self regulation (FIS), bringing together theirlike the trade rules, but governments to grant intel-respective areas of expertise:lectual property rights to them.plant breeding and seed trading.Both associations provided for a platform for seedsmen to meet and discuss joint issues which attracted quickly growing numbers to the confer-ences. Image of a catalogue from 1890.12/ SEEDWORLD.COMINTERNATIONAL EDITION 2024'