 Good day, good morning, good afternoon, wherever each person may be joining from. They are colleagues and friends. Chicken by is my name. I'm the team leader of Seats and Plant Genetic Resources in Powers Plant Production and Protection Division. If you don't mind our acronym, we refer to ourselves as NSP. We are thankful to the leadership of NSP and I see Director Chiakia and Deputy Director Remy for the opportunity to use the platform of the Power Technical Network on Sustainable Crop Production and Agroecology for today's seminar. So we refer to this technical network as FTN. Today's webinar is titled Seat Applied Technologies, a Contribution to Sustainable Agriculture. We are also immensely thankful to our friends and colleagues from the International Seat Federation, ISF, for the opportunity to co-organize this event. The leadership of both FOW and ISF will provide opening remarks in a moment. However, before they do, there are a few housekeeping issues to which I want to call your attention. The webinar is being recorded. The recording link will be communicated through the FTN email distribution list. These were those who couldn't attend, who couldn't participate in the webinar live. They'll watch it later. Please use the Q&A box to provide your questions and comments, and we invite you to provide these questions and comments because that is the only way that we can have a robust conversation as part of this event. We will make every effort to address your comments and questions during the discussion segment of today's event. Those that cannot be adequately addressed could become the subject of subsequent interactions via email and even become discussion topics on this, our technical network. For the more general comments, please use the chat box. Then let me also advise that in the interest of time, let me call your attention to the fact that all our interlocutors today are eminently qualified individuals whose repertoire of expertise are as extensive as their accomplishments and experience. We have their individual bios in the third and fourth pages of the agenda. In the interest of time, therefore, we shall not be going into elaborating productions, so we can listen to them and get to ask them questions. Those who do not have copies of the agenda with them, I request Marisol or Manu to please upload a copy of the agenda to the chat box so participants can download them and refer to the bios of our speakers today. And to get the proceedings underway, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends and colleagues, I invite Mr Yingwan Shea, the director of the Plant Production and Protection Division, to provide his opening remarks on behalf of FOWL. Director Shea, please. Can you hear me? Yes, we hear you loud and clear, Shea. Thank you very much, Chiki, and this is the moderator for today, and Honorable Mr Donaut Kahl, the president of the International Seed Federation, Honorable Mr Vishio Kailor, Secretary General of International Seed Federation, and the distinguished participants, and the panelists, dear colleagues. It is my great pleasure to make some opening remarks. As the first FEO, ASF webinar, and seed, apply, seed, apply, take a knowledge. I'm sure everybody experts here know how important of a seed it is. We cannot have good crop without good seed. Here, I just give you an example, some example how important for a seed. And I give you the data since the last 1960s until now so far, about 50 years or 60 years, I can say. In the global, globally, maize production increased by four times. However, the acreage or aerial only increased by 87% is number one for a column. And second example, weight production increased by 12.4 times. However, the aerial only increased by 6%. The third example, the rice production increased by 12.5 per time. The acreage increased only 40%. Through this three important figure, we can figure out how important of a good seed for the production. So this is also chosen today, ever, especially given the many challenges we are facing in agriculture production. Everybody knows that the global population has more than doubled even in the last 50 years from 3.2 billion to 7.8 billion. And it is, and then to protect it will be 9.7 billion in the 20, 20, in 2050. So you can see how to imagine to, you know, to fight a so big a population. You have about a 10 billion. It's a very big population. This is not only for population increase. However, we have another challenge. Everybody knows that. Very limited resource. This means limited land, limited water particularly. And at the same time, this challenge will be complicated by climate change. This is worse. So in this big three change I can see. And in that way, what is the solution? As in the best efficient solution, we need very good seed. Number one, I can see. Very good seed. We can increase the yield. Number one. Also we should increase healthy doubt. Now we need healthy doubt. And then now this, this means nutrition. And also need very good seed to mitigate or reduce carbon dioxide. So this means in the future. See it. Very good seed will play irreplaceable role in sustainable for sustainable many for a sustainable goal. So in this context, the chain of a full seed production. Quality control. Distribution. Whether regional. National. And globally in the future will be very now they also is complicated or dangerous being disrupted by COVID-19 pandemic. So this means another challenge. So this means a lot of a challenge now for our food security. Of course, we need a full security. We need a seed security first. So this maybe today everybody should be concerned. So this means in the response to all this challenge. We need to come our science and technology. This will be solution. Here at FEO, we are committed to using evidence based scientific approach. Developing tour that will enable member countries for better strategic direction. And the decision. One of the most important approach I'm very glad to make announcement that FEO is going to organize the global conference. Unseed green development of the city industry. Maybe this is as a bigger events in our city sector, city community. Whenever you know that the last meeting is a 12 years ago. Now we are now this means I remember is 2000. Anyway, I said it's about 2008. Now this means our eight online. This is a few years later. We do it again from the seed. You can see how important for this seed. Remember, this conference have three key words. Global conference, global activity. Second key words is green development. Yeah, to support sustainable development. And the third one is the seed industry. This means about research, production and marketing. Everybody will be together to discuss what the future of a seed. So this is why I think now today's meeting is very important. I'm making this announcement. And now this meeting will take place. I think four or five November. I'm sure my last time maybe combination of online meeting and offline meeting. I hope everybody to begin a better excited and same time be propelled. So this opportunity. I want emphasize something. Five area. What I'm going to say. Five green area for seed applied technology for your consideration today. So they will emphasize about the city technology and also applied technology. Right. So please consider the five green area. First one about the green production system. Now we are supporting sustainable development for all the FAO for NSP is a transition for green innovation to support better production. So in this case, I hope everybody should think over how can we support production green innovation to support better crop production. This is number one. Second one about green seed system. This means we should now establish a very good system and the seed green seed system. Inclusion be very inclusive, very efficient, innovative, resilient system and national level, regional level and also global level to make sure to support the use of quality seed and the planting material. And so this is very important for people think about green seed system. This is the third green green morality. Now that we really need to green morality. This means is a very high productivity. Also high resilience, high diversity, and also high resistance to bio factor neck temperature tolerance, high temperature tolerance or colder temperature tolerance. And also with resistance to past and the disease, we need this kinds of seed. Number four is green technology for seed treatment. There's a lot of city technology I won't emphasize about the seed treatment. Not only depends on variety grading, we cannot make everything perfect. However, externally, even when we make a very good treatment, we'll be okay. I can say seed with the treatment will be very important in the middle to integrate all the technology. This technology about like it's not a seed treatment. And then for pesticides control for dry land agriculture. Yeah. And anyway, we can use the seed and then also for better fertilization. So with the seed dress is possible. And also for procession seedling. So this means please emphasize more about the green technology, particularly for seed treatment. And the last one, I want to mention about green enabler for seed technology, this including policy regulation and the standard to make green development of a city industry. So this is a whole idea and for your consideration. And in this regards, I'm looking forward to learn more from you all today about what you're concerned about in the seed of quality technology, and also about regulatory stage for science and to practice to developing for green seed industry. So I would like to give the floor, the Secretary General of international seed federation. The floor is yours. And Michelle, thank you very much. Over to you. Thank you so much. Dr here. And thank you so much colleagues from the director of plant production and production division. First of all, director chair, we are very welcome your announcement of the organization later this year on this so important debate on seed. And I will make it sure because you mentioned a lot of points. We would like just to emphasize by starting the today's discussion about sustainable agriculture also to remind all of us what you had mentioned seed is important and we are saying, seed is the starting point of agricultural production and food production. And I think in a year like this year, where we have the UN food systems summit in a year like this year, where we have still the International Year of Plant Health in a year like this year where we have the International Year of fruits and vegetables. It is nothing more important that we have an open dialogue on the role of seed, but also and I would like to emphasize it also on the role on what the private sector can contribute in the whole chain of food production. Yes, we know, we need to review food systems. Yes, we know, we need to engage in sustainable agriculture. But what I would like to emphasize here, the seed sector and international seed variations since many, many years I have since 100 years, we are engaged in one thing. And this we are always saying, we are contributing in our relationship day by day with the farmers on the ground to make improved varieties accessible to the farmers around the world to do work for sustainable agriculture and food production. And when we are saying improved varieties, it is clear and direct exchange, I know your well your involvement also international year of plant health. Plant health food product is starting with healthy seed healthy seed is the starting point. And to have the right outcome to have the right harvest, we need to be able to provide healthy seed. And yes, the seed sector with its breeding grow grapes is engaged since many, many years in this day to day challenge of farmers against past and diseases. And we are continuing to deliver on this. And therefore today we think the topic is also important because seed applied technologies is an additional tool to help us to provide farmers with solutions on the ground in their fight against health. And the point is, we need to do it together. And what your call of today is extremely important and I see also this summer webinar today as a further step in exchanging ideas, and it's not always easy. We know you name the topics we have to discuss also. That's about seed systems. It's about policies. It's about regulations. But if you are unable to have this open dialogue. We cannot progress together. And therefore we see it from our side, very positive to have this debate today on seed applied technologies, which we see as an essential tool to protect seed for the farmers with regard to past and diseases, and we see also somehow as a starting point to further address these kind of challenges together, because what we are looking for is to give the full potential of genetics to the farmers and seed applied technology is a tool to help us to provide this full potential. And with this, I'm very happy again and thanks again to FAO. Thanks again, director chair for the opportunity to have this webinar today. I'm very happy to give back to chicken. Thank you very much, Shia and Michael for providing these extremely insightful perspectives, which situates the work, I mean the event of today, within the wider context of the imperative of addressing food security and malnutrition. And thank you especially, Shia, for announcing the forthcoming conference. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, let us then switch gears. The first segment for today will address seed treatments and their wide range of uses, a global perspective. And for this, we will have two eminent professionals lead the presentations. And these are Mrs. Klaus Schlunder, he is the head of seed treatment regulatory and associations of the KWS group. And he will be presenting with Mr. Rob Prunk, who is the global marketing manager for Inko Tech. Gentlemen, the floor is yours. You are muted, Klaus. Now you should hear me. Thank you very much, and it's a pleasure to present these topics to you today. The seed applied technologies and their wide range of use. What is the global perspective. And we have, we have split it in two different parts. The one is to explain why we are doing seed applied technologies. And we are fighting with these technologies against pests and diseases. And it is seed borne, it is soil borne. And then on the other side, we have the technical side, which is a drilling position, better vigor and micronutrients. And if we look into these things, we have to say what can we deliver from the seed side, from the breeding side. And we can say plant breeding normally covers resistance to diseases that affect a grown plant and a few of these ones that affect the establishment of seedlings. And the establishment of seedlings, of course, is the key issue to receive a proper yield. But on the other side, plant breeding cannot cover certain seed borne fungal attacks and cannot cover certain pests such as cabbage, beetle in all seed rape or wireworm in maize. Maybe these are not crops which are well maize, certainly, but all seed rape is maybe not a crop where you are handling in certain areas of the world. But for Europe, it's a quite important one. And we see clearly that to work against insecticides, insect is a very important part of the success of a crop. And if we continue, then we see certain seed borne and seed transmitted diseases. I've put quite a range of products of species here. But the main point, for example, in maize, where I want to concentrate on is delayed and lower germination rate due to fungal diseases, which is loss of plants due to early attack. For example, by fuzarium species or yield damage and delayed ripening of plants. So we have a lot of points where we see large, large impacts on the yield. And if we go to soil borne diseases, then we have delayed and lower germination rate due to fungal attack again in maize, loss of plants due to early dumping off like pithium, fuzarium, texilaria. And early dieback of plants. So we have, we have points where seed applied technology is very, very important, especially if we talk about the starting of the products in on the field. And if we go for the parameters for yield, we have, of course, as already mentioned by President Chia and Michael Keller, seed of high quality, high germination, good genetic potential. Seed zone with optimal density and seed spacing crop, a good crop nutrition we need acceptable climate conditions, water temperature precipitation, wind, etc. and plant products inoculants, herbicides, bio stimulants to predict the seed seedlings or plant against biotech. So, against biotech stress, and our biotech stress like heat and drought, or stimulate its development. So all these parts are a big part of what we are doing with seed applied technology. And the necessary approach for that is that we have to find different solutions to allow the genetics, its full potential. Seed applied technologies are one of those solutions being integral part of the production process, protecting plants and plant products against harmful organisms, improving agricultural production. And well, to do so, seed applied technologies are used to achieve healthy and well established crops. And I would like to hand over now to my colleague, Rob Frank, to explain more in-depth the technology. So, Rob, the floor is yours. Thank you, Klaus. So, we're talking about seed applied technologies. So what are these? Well, actually, simply put, it's the application of ingredients on the outside of the seed. And the main ingredients can be several four. It can be plant protection products, insecticides, fungicides. It can be biological organisms or stimulants, bio stimulants, micronutrients, and all of that together with inert materials like clay, binders, stickers, pigments, etc. The goal of this is either to protect the seed seedling or plant or to stimulate its development or facilitate plantability. Yes. So there are various types of seed treatment. You can have a basic code, simply plant protection products or tolerance are applied, very small amounts. There are film codes where the product is a bit more complex. You've got a binder, a sticker in a very thin layer. The seed shape still is unchanged. Yeah, it could be completely covered and collared. And then Krussman, that's the next level where an inner product could be applied, which changes the shape of the seed, and mostly used to facilitate mechanical planting. Finally, you've got palating where you have a complete coverage of the naked seed, making the seed completely invisible, which allows for both for easy mechanical planting. And you have plenty of seed space, which can be applied in different layers, either closer or further away from the seed. Here we go one back please. Yep, the benefits of seed treatment. There's of course the effective use of ingredients where you can have a reduction up to 90% of use of PPPs compared to foliar or in thorough application. There are 40 environment and workers due to dust control, provided of course that the product has been applied properly and safely handled and so ability is improved. The amount of seed can be done by various ways in modern countries. Equipment that's being used can be huge, with 24 up to 48 rows of planting simultaneously, very high tech. And in developing countries, there are various ways. You see a few pictures, a person putting rice seed being sown manually by a leaf blower or using a tractor where a couple of lanes are being used. The seed treatment is being used in various continents. Talking about field crops, maize is being grown in all continents and the vast majority of all maize globally has been treated. Looking at soybean, where in the Americans, a lot of that is being grown and over 50% is treated a bit depending on the conditions during sowing. Looking at cereals, wheat, sorghum, millet in many different continents. The majority of that has been treated. Rice also a very important staple crop. It's only treated if planted in dry land. So the majority of rice actually is untreated and very important. Other crops like potato and cassava are tuber crops, of course, no seed is involved. And looking at vegetables, onion and tomato are the largest crops, and the majority of those also are being film coated and crusty or palatite. And that's the end of my speech. Back to you, Chico. Thank you so very much, Klaus and Rob, for explaining to us what seed treatment is all about, the advantages and, you know, why we need to adopt this practice. We will now watch a short clip on how seed is treated in fact in real life. Hello, my name is Jeff Daniels. I am an international seed federation, SATCOM member located in the United States. I represent the American Seed Trade Association, as well as my company, which is a major provider globally of both seed and seed treatment. This video that you will soon view was extracted from a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency seed treatment virtual training workshop that was conducted a couple of years ago, a session that was viewed to be of great value. The equipment and process that you will see represent commercial trading, not only in the U.S., but in many regions of the world. We're on the treater floor now, so we're on the second floor of our treater tower, and we're going to quickly walk you through the two types of treaters. And Jeff and Kerry have both mentioned the continuous batch and the continuous flow treaters. And so first we'll focus on the continuous batch treater, and it typically will start at the computer. I think we've seen a video earlier today where the applicator was sitting at a computer desk, and this is typically where we would start as well. And so we would input a recipe into the system, and from that point then, once the recipe is loaded, we start the actual treatment process. And so at the desk we have 12 day tanks, and this is where the different seed applied technologies or products would be introduced into the system, day tanks. And so there's an individual tank for each one of the proper technical products, and from here, these are pumped over to load cells. And so based on the recipe that was loaded into the system, each one of the products is pumped over to the load cell. And then based and lost and waved, and on the recipe, it's then pumped over to a freaking apple at the top here. And it's at this point that the static mixer at the top of the hoses come together, that the ingredients are mixed very well. And then we have the black and yellow valves. These will open and close because the different crop protection chemistries, as Jeff alluded to, can be added at slightly different times, depending on the recipe or the need, so that we have a very, very high level of control. And so from the white hopper up above, seed is passed down. It's weighed. It's introduced into the batch-treater bowl. And then from the static mixer, the mixed ingredients are then added into the spinning disk or the atomizer, very close to what you'd seen with weighed with the Heggie. The difference here is this is an entirely closed system, and we're not touching the products or the applicators, not touching the products or the seed. Depending on the recipe and how the program has been set, the seed and the products will be treated over a period of 30 to 60 seconds, and then they're discharged. While that's happening, the next batch of seeds has been weighed. Again, from the day tanks pumped over to the ground scales, the materials are passed back through the static mixer down, and the process repeats until all of the seed has been treated. So again, just to emphasize, there's 12, we have 12 day tanks here. They're more available. They're most feed into a loss and weight system where very exacting amounts of the products are then pumped over to a static mixer where they're mixed. And then we have a high-level control in the bowl-treater, continuous batch-treater. And again, this is where we want to put a very high-level product on, so very common corn, canola, and things we're putting a very high volume of treatment on. We need a high level of precision and a high level of the ability to monitor and change things, so we can get that high-level product on very effectively and efficiently. To seeds such as soybean or wheat, we would go to a continuous flow drum-treater. So typically with bees, we're putting a lower volume of treatment on, and the seeds themselves are easier to treat. So with the bees, these are similar in theory to the batch-treater, but the seed never stops flowing. And so, we'll convey seed over to the top, into the hopper, above. It will pass through a seed wheel where the movement of the seed is constantly monitored. And then it'll pass through an atomizer much similar to the batch-treater where the recipe is added. And then through the drum. And the drum was rotating throughout this, and so the seed is approximately 50% treated when it enters into the drum. And then as it rotates, it polishes and drops out. It's fully treated by the time that it falls below. Again, our continuous flow drum-treaters are also a closed system, where we have the different ingredients also added in a closed keg system. So for example, here, we have 15-gallon drums that are attached to pumps. And then based on the recipe, the weights of those lost in weight, that material flows through the tubing to a static mixer, where the ingredients are mixed. And then it flows very quickly towards the seed as it flows through. And again, closed system and the applicator is not coming in contact, either with the seeds or the seed-applied technologies. And then as it passes through, it will go through the drum down to our discharge area. Tremendous advancements have been made with the seed-treating equipment and the treating process over the last few decades. Modern day equipment can deliver seed treatments with a high degree of accuracy and efficiency. These treaters can minimize or eliminate manual measuring and mixing of products while doing so in a closed system. And possibly most important, greatly minimize exposure to those workers that are part of the treating and packaging process. Thank you for this opportunity to allow us to provide a more in-depth view of the commercial seed-treating process. It is quite impressive. So we have, as it were, listened to the horses mouths, the practitioners in the field. They have described to us seed treatment. And we have also watched seed treatment being carried out in an industrial setting. We'll get back to discuss all these in greater detail. But for now, ladies and gentlemen, I crave your indulgence to introduce a slight modification to the agenda. We have with us today a farmer. Because ultimately, you know, we are successful. The products get to the hands of the farmers who can then plant the seeds on their farms. And we have a farmer who is here with us today. She was going to intervene much later when we would have seen all the science and technology. But unfortunately, she needs to leave shortly. So I crave your indulgence for us to now a grand stage to Mr. Ruramiso Mashumba, a farmer from Zimbabwe. Ruramiso, please. Thank you very much for that introduction. So I'll share a bit about myself and where I farm. I farm in a small town called Maroondira in Zimbabwe, about one hour from the capital city. I am on a commercial farm, a large scale farm, about 650 hectares. 300 hectares of it is arable and the other is for our pastures. On that 300 hectares, we have 100 hectares of eucalyptus trees, which we planted in order to address the challenge of deforestation that's happening in our area. Because most farmers grow tobacco crops which need a lot of firewood for curing. We seem to have lost your audio Ruramiso. So we grow commercial maize and seed maize. Seed maize is the staple crop in Zimbabwe. So we grow a lot of maize to feed our nation, as well as for stock feed. I also grow wheat, which is very important for our country again because we import a lot of wheat and then indigenous grains. This is another topic of seed. For us as commercial farmers, or for me personally, seed is one of the most important pillars of our farming. We put it in farming into a few brackets. We say Kautiva or the genetics, the genetics of our seed that we plant is very, very important. It either gives us profit or loss and then there's other things that are very important to us, which is the condition of our soils, the climate, the fertilizers, and also the costings of our farming. So I'm talking on seed. In Zimbabwe, seed, most farmers, I would say 90% of farmers currently are growing hybrid maize seed. We have some communal farmers who grow recycled seed, but the challenge with recycled seed again is that the crop is not able to produce high yields like hybrid seeds. So farmers are continuously looking for the best seed to give us high yield. For maize, the highest yield recorded in our country has been 23 tons a hectare. For my farm, I have had 10 tons a hectare. This is under pivot, so under irrigation conditions. So we really monitor and we look at the different seed varieties that are producing and we've noticed that the way seed is bred gives you different results. And for our seed dressing, again, is very important. Why it's important is because over the years we've had increase of pests and diseases due to many factors. One of them is climate change. So one of the pests that we fight a lot is the four-army worm. The four-army worm is a total disaster in Zimbabwe. If it is not treated, you can lose 100% yield. 100% yield, imagine. That is everything you have planted. And for us, one hectare of maize costs us $1,000 to grow. So if you have 100 hectares, there's 100,000. So for us, this is not a negotiation. We really need to make sure that we are working with stakeholders who are looking at the science in developing of the seed, the science in developing of the chemicals, and of the seed dressing. Well, before I started farming, we were only buying our certified seed, dressed already. But now we're adding extra seed dressing onto the seed. When we plant, we, because when the seed emerges in the ground, before we, what the advantages we found with seed dressing is, most of the times if you wait for you to then sculpt your crops and then address the challenge of different pests and diseases. Sometimes your crop would have already been forgotten. So, and then also scouting is difficult, especially when you're on a large scale farm. It takes a long time to scout. So at least the seed dressing will protect the crop for a certain period of time. We still come in every two weeks and scout our crop. And then if we see any challenges of any pests and diseases, we are able to address. There's a tremendous knowledge out there, which is, thanks to science that is actually helping us address some of these challenges. Of course, I think there's too room for a lot of research that needs to be done. Because continuously there's new diseases that we need to tackle. And there's lots of other technologies that we'd want to be able to use as farmers in Zimbabwe, Southern Africa. Again, a lot of people don't have access to seed, which is very, very important. And really, I would say is the differentiator between live hunger and being able to sustain the economy. So it's very important. But when I look at also seeds that are available in the market, this year I planted, because I'm also, as you can see in my background, that is a field that I was bailing. I'm also improving our pastures at the farm. And I also planted sunflower, but I could not find sunflower seed, certified sunflower seed on the market. I had to buy sunflower seed from the supermarket. And I can tell you that my yield was not as I would have wanted. This is the difference between getting good quality seed and not good quality seed is the yield that you realize. There's also other grains that still have not been released on the market that we would want to be able to add the seeds that would want to be able to plant on our farm as well. So I would say again the success of us farmers to be able to to grow enough because we are facing so many things like climate change, pests and diseases and these things we do not have control of. What we do have control of is for us to get the science, get the knowledge into the hands of the farmers so that we can grow, and we can be able to produce food so that we're able to feed our country, feed our people and reduce hunger and poverty. And also the economies of scale are important because when we're able to produce high volumes on a small piece of land, we reduce the amount of land that needs to be cleared. We reduce issues of carbon emissions because we're not clearing continuous lands, not leaving land to go to soil erosion, but we're actually taking care of our soils. And again, we hope to produce it because it will hope for the future. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so, so very much Ramiso for these brilliant interventions. I'm sure that neither does our fossil fuel or ISF could have said it better. And it's interesting that we've characterized the quality seeds as the differentiator between poor yields and good yields, which of course translate also to food security and then nutrition and you are putting your, your, your mouth, basically where your money is because you're a commercial farmer, you want to make a profit so you want the very best. We will still get back to these salient points that Ramiso has raised even if she, she, she leaves now. And there are other panelists I'm sure who will be able to fill the questions as they, as they arise. Ramiso, we, we thank you so, so very much. So we move now to the, to the next segment of this webinar, which will address the regulatory and legislative situation, taking a global look. And for that, we invite Luke Dormoy, the supply chain manager for Lima Green. Look, please. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman, for giving me the opportunity to talk about the current regulatory and legislative situation for seed applied technology. Sorry. Some words about the context first of the seed activity to understand the after the regulatory situation. For seed, for seed industry, it's important to underline that we have a lot of movement of seeds in the world for different activities for, from breeding to seed production and to marketing of the seeds and including testing of the different varieties and seeds in different parts of the world. This means a global movement of seeds in the world. And I just would like to highlight that for seed applied technologies, processing facilities are key as you have seen before. In order to receive the seed from the production location and to do some technical operation in order to prepare and to move the seeds in the world. This location, these facilities are located in some regions in the world due to the fact that they need expert knowledge, specialized equipment and a strong logistic and infrastructure facilities. The processing of the seeds need several operation, often cleaning of the seeds, sorting of the seed, sizing, priming, bagging, conditioning, some operation in order to have a good quality at the end, supporting by a strong quality control and analysis for following the process. And when the seed processing is completed, seeds are ready to be exported or re-exported in different global markets, so in our testing area. Regarding the regulation of seed applied technologies, there are different approaches in the world. Today we have to say that it's globally an unharmonized approach and definition in the world. I will detail or come back after. And we are facing some confusions regarding the different steps during the life of the seed applied technologies and their interaction with seeds. And then we have to face to unharmonize the approach or regulatory approach in the world with a confusion of the steps. This leads to limit the access of this technology to farmers with an impact on the movement of seeds for supplying the different market or testing area. An unharmonized approach and definition, what does it mean? In fact, there are several regulatory approaches in the world. Some of them are based on function. This means as presented before the function of the product applied on seeds, either pesticides, stimulants or fertilizers. Some other regulations are based on the product nature of the product applied on seeds, either, for instance, biological, chemical or natural extract. And some regulations are based on the mix of both. Other point taking into account in the regulatory framework, we have to face to some quality standards which are not harmonized at global level, regarding mainly the condition of use of a product, for instance, the quantity of product to be applied on the seeds or by spaces. So the scope of the use is different, could be different between countries. And sometimes we have to face to technical requirements. We are different according to countries, and which in fact limit the use and the movement, the use of the seed applied technologies and the movement of the seeds. Treated by these technologies. Other limiting factors or unharmonized approach in regulatory point of view, this is the labeling approach of the treated seeds. There are mainly two points on the labeling, the safety labeling, which could be applied on the treated seeds and the condition of use of the treated seeds. ISF has developed a position paper for supporting the standardized approach of the labeling, because it's a key point too. With this global environment, unharmonized global environment, we have to say that this multiple condition of the same seed applied technologies in different countries are often a barrier to treated seed movement across international borders. The complexity of the regulation dealing with seed treatment product is often linked with the confusion of four main steps when we are talking about the seed treatment product or seed applied technologies. The first point and the first step is indeed the movement of the seed treatment product itself to feed the facilities for application, but the first step, this is the movement of the seed treatment product. The second step is the application of this product on the seeds in seed processing facilities that you have seen before, but it's the second step and it's different that the movement of the treated seed after this is the first step. And the last step is indeed the release of the NSTP in the environment by sowing treated seed. And in fact, often we are facing a complexity of the regulation because these four steps are not well addressed and they are confusion between these four steps. Look, can you go to the proper show mode because the letters are too small. Okay, sorry. Thank you, Klaus. Is it better like this? Not yet. It has to switch. Now it's better. Thank you. So some ways of improvement here are more questions than answers but it's to share with you and to highlight some points that how to reach international guidelines or base on framework, addressing definition, addressing these different steps of use and life cycles of seed applied technologies. For making the distinction between the control application of seed treatment product to seed in processing facilities and the release of the seed treatment product in the environment during the sowing of treated seeds. Question for accessing seed treatment product in seed processing facilities. As a processing facilities are not located in a limited number of countries in the world, the question is how to feed this facilities with a product. Can we imagine or promote something like mutual recognition system for supporting the use and the movement of seed applied technologies and to go to move for standard labeling requirement for treated seed which would help the movement and the access to these technologies. So, for my side, it's okay. Thank you all. Okay. Thank you so, so very much. Look for these insightful observations and comments. I find it instructive that you ended with a set of questions, which I think provide a very rich substrate for subsequent conversation, but I think it also sets the stage for the next speaker who will talk to us about the upcoming innovations. So, what can we expect to see next and for that I invite Mr. Palle Pedersen, who is the global head seed care product management of Singenta. Palle please. Thank you so much. And good morning, good afternoon everybody. You can all hear me well. Yes, we do. It's my pleasure to talk to you about innovation and what you can expect from from the industry in the future. So I'm presenting this, of course I work for Singenta but I'm presenting this on in general from the industry what's happening to get you an idea about where we are and where we're going to go. So first of all, we have talked a lot about this already over the last hour or so that the benefits of sea treatments that are many of them and and and still a lot of people that don't understand the value of the sea treatment. When the sea treatment first came into the market back in, I was saying commercial industrial agriculture, many of them look at them as an insurance. It's just to be sure that you protected your stand, but not everybody looked into it will be a technology that will give you an additional yield and protect that genetic yield potential and that have changed. So the economic benefits that have been many studies have been done by universities throughout the world that have shown that the benefit of protecting the seed, but also be able to do the, the optimum economic practices to maximize that yield potential you have. So that have been really research and and and it's been understood much better over the past 25 to 30 years. On top of that the target protection. So we apply chemicals on the seed and only in a small amount only for where it is really needed. So, when you're looking about, for example, integrated pest management. So you're not targeting beneficial insects that are in the field because with over top spray. A lot of times you may not have the the luxury to use a selective crop protection product. So in this case, you know you may you may harm some beneficials, but using seed treatments, you only putting the treatment exactly on the seed where it is. And that of course it's cost effective because you're using much less product versus if you if you treat it the whole acreage or if you use what we call an infrared application. The environmental impact because you're using smaller quantities of course is not is not something we should we should forget. And then last of course it's user friendly so it's safe to handle for the farmers. For the people that are treating. We saw the nice video that Jeff Daniels was talking about where in closed system and close treaters. It's very easy to control this today with modern technology and really can minimize the exposure and the impact on the farmers. The problem we have is on on on on all these technologies, what do we really need. So, many studies have been done and I will use soybean and corn and maybe we should talk about corn, since we just heard about it from the farmer. Previously, but we know that to maximize genetic yield potential and maximize yield you have to plant early. So when you're planting early, a lot of times you don't know what you're going to deal with out there. It can be cool and what condition it can be hot and dry can be hot and when it can be. It can, it can be so many different parameters that will impact. And on top of that, you have four different. We will call classes of of pests that you dealing with so first you have the climate changes, the soil conditions, and then you have nematodes, which could be into parasitic or into parasitic the living in the soils. Only are active parasitic is the move in and out of the root system. You got the insects you can have sucking insects which most of the time are above ground like a fits, you can have soil pest that could be like wireworm and grubs, and then you can have tuned pest which could be like fall army or live adopter us that are chewing above ground seedling diseases you can have pithium phytophthora risotonia fusarium. They're all different pathogens that are all belonging to different families, and they all require different conditions. Some of them will kill the plant and the seedling. Some of them will just be nip allers and feed on the roots. And then on top of that, we got what we call seat bone diseases. So if we're not using certified seed, but we're using some of our own seed, or maybe the quality of the certified seed may not be where it should be. You can bring diseases into the field as well. And that can causing some, some challenges as well. So, so these, all these categories are causing this to be very complex. The seed treatment is not just about one active ingredients. Based on this, I think you can understand that this is very complex. And a lot of time that's why we're creating solutions for you, that you can be able to to to maximize that. We also have what we call biological. So we saw previously about the diseases insects and nematodes. So of course we're using the matter side and sex aside and fun decides, but we also have something we call biologicals. And biologicals we want to put into really three categories we have the bio control, which is products where they have a biological origin that where you can claim on the label it has activity on a specific pathogen or insects or disease. It's similar and then they help the plants to get out of the ground very quickly and uniformity, and then we have what we call bio fertilizer or inoculants that are used within our legumes for nitrogen fixation. The reality is today that as you can see below, biologicals are quite commonly used, but it approximately 40 to 60% of the cases, you know they are used in combination with chemicals. And then what we call biologicals today that can replace chemicals at the level where we are, and we don't see it going to come in the short term future. So because of that, a lot of people are talking about we need to use more biological organism in our field, we agree on it but it will not be able to to replace what we're currently using today. So this is the key thing that that these biologicals, they are complementary to what we're doing now, but we are not in a situation where we feel that they can replace and give them, give them this scenario. And the example is here in this diagram where you can see it. And if you see at the red line here that is going from the bottom left to the top right. This is the incidence of for example diseases and insects and you can see your x axis this is the growing days so over time up to 30 days. And then on the y axis you have what we call efficacy or, you know, stability within the product. So over time your insects and your diseases will build up in the field I think that's natural, your chemical seed treatment so what we're using today is what is the big blue line that's going from the top left corner, and and and declining a little bit so that it is declining over time, we apply very little to the seed, and it will break down naturally by either UV radiation or by a moisture or oxygen CO2 it will break down the compound over time, and at a point you will lose efficacy and benefits And because of that, you often hear that seed treatments are what we call early season protection products so they will give you a chance to get the crops established, but it's not like it will give you completely controlled throughout the growing season so many products today will give you up to four weeks which is very common. And then at the bottom left corner you can see that's two different lines and this is just to give an example that the biologicals we see in the market today or the biologicals that potentially will come in the future. They will have activity, but we don't see they will have the same level of activity of the ones we see from the chemistry today so where you maybe will get 90 or 95% efficacy on a chemical today. You may only get 40 to 50% and then the declining much faster over time because you're bringing in a natural organism into the field, which will be impacted is performance will be impacted on the environment condition or temperatures, or even soil types and organic matter. So the reality is, they bring activities, but it's not to the same level as, as where the chemical lab today, all of us in industry are working on this to try and figure out how can we make them more efficacious and make them more efficient. But as I say in a short term, we are not there. And this is just the way it is. So to finalize this and just to wrap this up to the expectations biological markets will continue to grow we see a lot of activities in the field. All the big international agriculture crop protection companies are working in this area, try to understand how we can utilize our knowledge on fermentation and manufacturing of natural organism and bring that into agriculture. So it will continue to grow, but we don't see it's going to replace the chemistry's. The reason for that is what I mentioned before, efficacy, stability and duration so it doesn't last as long because it's impacted by the environment condition. Many of these products also if they are by control product they only work on one organism. So if you can remember I talked about seedling diseases insects nematodes and seatbone diseases. And we use a lot different kind of biological organism to be able to get that complete protection. So, also what we know is that we have not recognized how to get them systemic to be able to take up by the plan. So anything above ground so above ground insects coming in early after establishment, or what we call seatbone diseases where it is inside the end to sperm. We haven't seen any biological stat that will work on that. So, these are some areas that we still need to use chemicals for fermentation process that each fermentation process dependent each organism so manufacturing and supply change going to be very, very difficult. And then of course that's the regulatory challenge, the good bio control products. A lot of them also have what we call metabolites so they need to be registered as well, and need to go through what we call a traditional regulatory process. And then the final thing that our countries that don't allow natural organism to be shipped into the countries. So moving of biological organism from one country to another country is not as chemical as as registered chemistry and move that throughout the world. So the chemistry is right, where are we going in the future. I think the chemistry is that will be used for sitium and be a much more narrow spectrum and I'm obviously today. And a lot of that is simply related to the regulatory challenges and demands. So, because of that, when they're narrow spectrum that means we need to put more active ingredients on the sea to get the same complete control as we have today. And because of that, it will require much more complex application and support from from the chemistry companies to support the farmers. So by that, I will I will thank you all for listening to this and I look forward for the q amp a discussion later. Okay, thank you very much. I really like how you have a concept to allies days that going into the future will be will have to be, you know, trying to get the balancing act between the biologicals and the and the chemistries and trying to find some level of harmonization. And then adding the policies across countries. And I think that's also suggest neatly into the next intervention so we have had about the big science we have heard about what we, what will be happening in the future. But going forward, you know, what can we expect in practical terms, based on what's happening in the field by the farmers and also how is a capacity being strengthened in order to adopt these technologies and in that regard will listen to Mr. Ralph Glaubis, who is head of global asset management at seed growth. Ralph, please. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, I hope you can hear me well and can see my, my screen. Excellent. Yes, yes. So, so what I would like to give, and I would try to be brief to allow some time for discussion as well. I would like to be appreciated. I would like to give you a brief overview of what we mean with, with stewardship as the seed treatment companies, and then I would like to also give you some specific examples of training initiatives or technology developments, which are developed by specific companies, but of course they are representative I would say for all or nearly all players and providers of seed treatment technologies. So just as an as an opening. So stewardship. Fundamentally, we look at this is important to avoid negative impact on fundamentally two sides on the human health, as well as on the environment. So we need to just differentiate and distinguish between that the human health effect which can be one on the operator side. So the ones who are handling and doing the physical treatments. And the, and the farmers on the other side and I think we have seen examples in the last 60 minutes already of several of them. And then the second area will be the environment where we also need to reduce or avoid negative impacts. So the first one actually when we talk about stewardship activities. It's pretty much about dust emission and reducing this and this can be done by best practice or by technical innovations. I will come to some examples later on. The other one in terms of how can we avoid the impact on the human being is just issues on can only be done by information trainings, and that needs to be done repetitive in order to avoid, avoid negative impacts. So we as of course C treatment product providers we we are aware of our responsibility. And as you can see here we do not stop after selling our products so we are aware that there is after there's a life after selling our products which means on the right hand side to the stewardship measurements. And actually this is being part on integral part of our business practice decision making as part of our company behaviors. And, as I said earlier minimizing environmental impacts is one of them. And the other one is respected on the human being but I would like to give you now two specific examples in the in the next two slides. And this more you know we are, we are serving millions of customers with thousands of products. Big customers, small customers, high tech low tech, small farms, big farms, they all dealing with similar problems, but the approach needs to be different. I mean we have seen who are me so with some of her examples how she is dealing on her farm. But on the other hand, we have also customers, you have large scale farms when you think about maybe Europe or, or in the America's. So all of them needs to be somewhat taken care, taken care of and the two examples here for professional users we I would like to differentiate in the upper one is minimizing dust emissions so this is technologies. There's a technology which is put on the sore, which helps to avoid or reduce the dust emission of the chemical or biological product to evaporate in the air. So you see here so this is this is somehow in field stewardship you could you could say. And this is somewhat the deflector technology, and only with, or with this technology, with or let's say with basic tech deflector technology, you can already reduce 9090% of dust emission, which is, which is a great great advancement of this technology. The lower example finding it's called finding the exact seed treatment endpoint. That's done in order to help with the appropriate recipe. So the combination of technologies in earth solvents in order to identify the via technology via digital technology to identify the right amount when the treatment on the seat is done or is finished or is the best one, the best one in two sides in order to allow the best efficacy of the seat. I think we have heard this multiple times, it starts with seat and high quality seat in terms of efficacy, germination and a couple of other things. And the other one is of course stewardship measures, so that we have a kind of boy. The right moisture point from our seat treatment products on the seat. If it's too wet. It's bad because it's sticky. It does not flow through the store. If it's too dry. Maybe there's too much of the dust to be potentially evaporated in the air. I would like to continue with the, with a specific examples for, for small mollus fall army one. I mean intentionally you have heard already fall army one by who Rami so earlier that this is a big big problem on her farm in Zimbabwe but this is pretty much, this is pretty much a topic, which is more and more over the entire African continent you could say. So what we see here is I don't want to go through all the individual steps, but this is season long or year long support and training measures for our farmers as well as operators, which start prior to the season with somehow off season advanced training sessions. It's a three day example but again similar examples from other companies as well, and it continues over the entire season and helps them from from applying the product in season application assistance with their label stickers with PPE so personal protective equipment and also later on in order to how can they dispose the way the respective ways of management programs for the PPE or the other technologies. So, I would like to, as I said, I would like to be brief here in order to allow some time for discussion but these are just two specific examples there are there are way more. And I think the entire industry is aware of their responsibility when it comes to stewardship, which is pretty much training and information of all our customers as well as the respective operators. And I would stop here and hand it back to you, Chike. Okay. Thank you very much, Ralph. You've presented a very encompassing a narrative of the subject matter for today. And it's been it mirrors the excellent presentation that we have also had from other colleagues and participants have also been quite active with their questions, but I'm mindful that we have just five minutes left. We need to have the closing remarks by the two organizations, but let me just have a run through of some of the questions that have come up. Shema asks really about access to these technologies, especially for third world countries. How can we get these technologies to third world countries? What steps are being taken and I'll make both to just answer that the process of getting the technologies to the third world countries include what we are doing today. We are in the process of establishing the evidence in order to develop the work program, have a robust advocacy and use such examples as Roura Missou has already given. Fawo is moving aggressively as Director Shah has said to leverage science and technologies to achieve green production. But one, a couple of technical questions for which I will ask the panelists to intervene. However, briefly, one was from Dr. Rameg Gouda who asked, can we apply C treatment chemicals or micronutrients in nano form? If so, what are the biosafety issues? And then this question aligns with that of Mr. Steven Walsh who asks, what aspects of C treatment procedures, practices can be managed at the firm level? And in that case, Klaus and Rob, I don't know whether you can just provide a sentence each or two to address these technical aspects of the question. Klaus first. Thank you, Chike. Moving C treatment on the farm itself is always a very difficult situation because in the end we don't know the equipment which is available there. We have still possibilities which are rather difficult using a concrete mixer or something like that and apply the product without proper application rate, which is always either a too low or too high C treatment which is affecting either the efficacy of the chemistry you're applying or you're risking to spoil the seed themselves by too high toxicity of the seed itself. The farm C treatment is a very tricky thing unless the farm itself has a proper seed treating equipment, which is necessary to really apply it in the proper sense and in a safe way for the applicant as well as for environment. Thank you very much. Rob, do you have a sentence to add to that? If I'm fortunate enough to answer the nano question, I can understand why Klaus left that to me because it's a difficult question. I'm not even sure what it means. Maybe people think that it's very small equipment that can be used. That's not what it is. Of course, nano materials are a specific technology where chemicals are being put in a very specific mode. And there are different products on the market, but I wouldn't go as far as to make any specific recommendation about that. I see, look, you raised your hand. Are you able to help me here? Yes, sure. It's important to underline that when we're applying something on the seed, it's important to assess the impact that this product, whatever the product could have on the seeds and on the quality of the seed. Therefore, there are always assessments for assessing the relation between the product of the seed and the seed itself and the quality of the seeds to be sure that we are maintaining a high level of the quality at the end. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very, very much. Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, I will crave your indulgence. We will need to close in the next five minutes thereabout. But look, I was just wondering if you could, in the same breath, respond to a question by S.T. Puri Utami who asks, if we added microbes into the seed, will there be the blooming of microbes in the soil? For example, if we use the trichoderma or the microbes in seed coating. We can try to address that. Okay, okay. So a lot of time, these biologicals, they need, many of them, you know, they need a food source to reproduce on, so it's, it's, it's, they don't stick to organic matter and deal with rainfall over time. If you use it, you need to come back and use it the next year, so it's not like you can just apply it once and then it will build up naturally in the soils and you're going to have a solution for the rest of your time. That's not the case. And you use trichoderma. Trichoderma is very, we have known about this for probably 100 years that it has an activity, but it doesn't build up in the soil because of that. So it has also natural enemies they're dealing with out there. So, so no, the answer is no, you will still need to do a yearly protection when you're treating your seed and when you're planting your seed, that it, it's not something one time application and then you got, you got a solution for the rest of your career. Okay. Thank you very much. And rough. There is a question here that relates to kind of what happens on the ground. Patricia grant asks, seed priming is not improved germination, speed and uniformity. Mostly resourcing. I'm wondering how much of an effort companies put into improving seed priming methods based on your experience. Is this something you're driving? I think, I think every company has research activities towards that area. But I just want to mention again, you know, the interaction between the seed, the soil and the plant is very, very difficult from a scientific perspective to grass, let me take it like this. So that makes it also very difficult to find proper solutions who can address this. I see Paula nodding. You know that that is really something which is, we would love, we would love to find solutions that can be, that we can offer, let's say like this. Okay. Thank you very much, Ralph. And then friends colleagues, the other questions will probably address them. We have the email of every participant. You will be receiving the links, you know, the link to the YouTube video of this event. We will also try to get the participants to address some of the other nitty gritty questions. One that I take full responsibility for is the criticism about the lack of gender, gender diversity in the panel. I take responsibility for this. I don't know that it helps, but we tried as much as we can to achieve as much a parity as we could. This is the best that we could do. It's not an excuse, it's not a justification, just stating it the way that it is. And having said that I apologize again for having for the overrun, and I invite the deputy director of the plant production and protection division here at Fawle, Remy, Nono Womding to provide some closing remarks. Thank you, Chike. Mr. President of the International Sea Federation, Donald Horst, Director Shah, and Mr. Sokoto Itorale of ISF, Mr. Michael Keller, distinguished panelists, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, thank you very much for contributing so comprehensively to this webinar. It is inspiring to connect with you all. As highlighted by previous speakers, seed is a basic and vital input for sustained growth in agricultural productivity and production. Optimizing agricultural production begins with selecting the best genetics and protected seeds and seedlings from pests and diseases. This requires precision in the seed treatment process and attention to the safety of operators and farmers. That's why the safety and regulatory aspects are so important for a professional high precision treatment system as we have seen in today's presentations. The seed industry and chemical companies have worked together to regulate the formulation of commercial products for seed treatment, reducing the volatility, increasing the idealist to seed, and applying colors to the formulation. Progressive work has been done in some countries to specify and standardize the safety requirements of seed treatment plants, as well as the information provided on the label or back. Seed treatment applies crop protection products exactly where they are needed at the contact point between seed and soil, avoiding the spread of chemicals in the whole field. This allows a much lower rate of chemical use per hectare and optimized efficiencies of chemicals input. This is of vital importance for our ongoing quest to feed a green population while minimizing damage to the environment. It was a great pleasure to listen to today's presentation about the latest developments in seeding industry. Thank you very much for your attention. And thank you very much. Okay. Thank you so, so very much, Remy. Let's pass the mic now to Mr. Donald calls the president of the International Seed Federation for his closing remarks. Thank you. Honorable Dr. Zia, Honorable Remy Nomewambin, guests, ladies and gentlemen. Almost all life on Earth relies on seed for survival. And as what we've heard tonight is in the face of climate change, the status quo is simply not enough. And we've heard tonight also that there are four ways to support sustainable food production. The first of course is good agronomic practices. The second is a safe application of crop protection products. And the third, as you've heard in great detail tonight is seed applied technologies. But I want to also draw your attention to the fourth, which has also been mentioned in part. And that is quality seed and plant breeding. Of course, quality seed means sustainable seed that is of sufficient quality to not carry diseases and the plant breeding effort we call our plant breeding innovation. All these elements I call food protection practices. It is essential that we work together to support the continued sustainable food production by using all of these protection to food protection practices. It is my great honor to lead the International Seed Federation and our 700 7500 seed organizations around the world, and over 65 direct country members. It is an even greater pleasure to work with the FAO and the various UN agencies to further the vital global effort to improve sustainable food supplies. The entire seed industry sector is committed to safe, scientific and evidence based product products and practices in line with FAO principles as espoused. I wish you all a safe and sustainable future. And thank you so much for attending. Thank you very much, Donald. On my part, if I could summarize today's events in one word, it would be inspiring. So this has been an inspiring engagement. We feel encouraged and emboldened to do even more along these lines. And the only other thing that is left for me to do is to thank you all wonderful panelists to thank our participants who have been actively engaged. And also to thank those who work behind the scenes to make this possible. Francine from the International Seed Federation and from our end here at FAO, Manur and Marisol. We thank you also very much. And I wish you all a very enjoyable rest of the day and ask that you remain tuned because we will be revisiting this subject matter going forward. Thank you also very much. Thank you. Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.