GrowTechnology and Astec Global have signed an exclusive agreement to promote and sell the Seedanalyser (SA10) worldwide through Astec Global. The Seedanalyser is developed by GrowTechnology B.V. Astec Global is pleased that it can add the Seedanalyser to the list of its commercial products. The Seedanalyser can work complementary to the by Astec Global developed Q2 machine. Both machines give different information about the seed-lot quality. It also fits in the Astec-Global philosophy to bring new developments to the seed industry worldwide.

The Seedanalyser is developed for a quick evaluation of the seed maturity in the field. It will give directly information about the most optimal moment to harvest the seeds. Astec Global is now testing the suitability of the Seedanalyser during the cleaning process of the seeds.

The measurement is based on chlorophyll fluorescence. The technique is a very sensitive, fast, non-destructive method for measuring chlorophyll in seeds. Scientifically it has been shown that chlorophyll fluorescence (CF) can be used as an effective indicator of seed ripeness: as the quantity of chlorophyll decreases during seed maturation ripe seeds contain smaller quantities of chlorophyll than immature seeds. During the measurement seeds are irradiated with a specific wavelength of the light spectrum from a laser. Chlorophyll emission corresponds with the amount of chlorophyll present in the seeds. On the screen a graph of the distribution in seed ripeness will be displayed.

Anthony Brouwers ((President Grow®) and Freek Schreurs (Director New Business WW Astec-Global) believe that the Seedanalyser can be used in the future also in other parts of the seed logistics.

Verdict Systems and Astec Global have signed an exclusive agreement to promote and sell Verdict data loggers in Asia and Africa through ASTEC-Global. The Verdict data logger systems starts to become more and more a standard quality control tool in the European vegetable seed supply chain.

Due to its small size, easy data processing  (temperature and RH %) over the internet and attractive commercial package, this product will find its way also to the seed-industry in Asia and Africa. Michel Kockelkoren (Director Orbi solutions www.verdict.eu) and Freek Schreurs (Director New Business WW Astec-global www.astec-global.com)  believe that the Verdict dataloggers within a few years also will be a standard quality control system in the Asian and African seed industry. For more information contact Freek Schreurs at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

At this moment is the product only available in English. The coming months ASTEC-employees will produce a Chinese translation. 

At the ITB conference in Morocco ASTEC has presented a paper in which 5 sugar-beet-seedlots are compared and contrasted in their germination suitability using the ASTEC Values. This test was successfully set up between the ITB the IIRB-Quality workgroup and ASTEC Global. It was particularly remarkable that strong correlations between the ASTEC values and the field emergence data were observed.

ASTEC Europe has initiated a Q2 crop focus program. During the Q2 crop focus programs. the aim is to fine tune the interaction of the Q2 technology and software with specific seed type requirements and treatments applied to the seeds. At present, a Q2 program on Solanaceous (tomatoes, peppers and egg-plants) is running.  Once this solanaceous program is finished other Q2 crop focus programs will be announced.

In  1997 was ASTEC created. Initially was the company only active in the seed-technology applied to sugar beets in the US. Over the years the direction has shifted from custom services of sugar beet seeds in the US and vegetable seeds in the Rep. of South Africa, into technology developments Worldwide. At present there are specific development programs for different seed-technology products.

 

ASTEC Africa has finished with the Bloemfontein University Marker application trials. Next step will be marker trials carried out all over Africa.

ASTEC Global has signed an agreement with the Beijing Vegetable and Research Centre.  ASTEC Global and the BVRC will concentrate on the application of various seed-technology products and projects the coming months.  

ASTEC Global has sold their standard marker to various Chinese companies . With this standard marker, Chinese companies gain experience in marker application to protect the intellectual property of their genetics. In a later stage, specific markers will be introduced.  

ASTEC Global has signed an agreement with the Zhejian Forestry University to create a Sino Dutch Seed Technology Research Center. This SDSTRC will evaluate seed-technology products for the Chinese markets. The SDSTRC will act as a central base into China. With various Chinese Seed Institutes and Regions the SDSTRC already have activated development and technology programs. In October 2.007 the new buildings will be opened and the equipment will be operational. 

ASTEC Global in Co-operation with the APSA, has held Seed technology Seminars all over China in the last few months . Those seminars were like the seminars held last year in India and Thailand and resulted in a successful interaction of knowledge and experience. Participants of the China seminars came from more than 40 countries. Africa, North and South America, Eastern Europe, Russia and Asia were represented during these seminars.