The provision of high-quality seed is essential for continued progress in plant breeding. Every year, the International Seed Testing Association-accredited laboratory of the Seed Quality Research Group tests the quality of around 5500 domestic and foreign seed samples, and issues national and international certificates for the seed trade. The (raised) Swiss VESKOF Quality Requirements (Swiss-Seed Rules) for agricultural seed are of importance in this context.
Research priorities for the refinement of seed-quality testing methodologies are developed in cooperation with partners from the seed-breeding and -production, food-safety and organic-farming sectors, such as e.g. the development of specific testing methods for native wild plants, or the efficacy testing of alternative seed-treatment methods.