Production and distribution of certified propagative material with special reference to Fruit Crops : the European and Mediterranean Experience

Abstract EN

Certification can be defined as a procedure whereby candidate mother plants, to be used as source of material for propagation, undergo controls to secure absence from any number of pathogens, as specified by protocols officially issued, or endorsed, by competent governmental agencies.

Although certified stocks guarantee also trueness to type, their major and qualifying trait is constituted by a well-established sanitary status.

The demand for certified material has grown steadily over the years, concomitantly with increased awareness that unrestricted domestic and international trade of sanitarily uncontrolled plant material has caused a tremendous and highly threatening worldwide distribution of infectious diseases and their agents (primarily viruses, viroids.

and intracellular prokaryotes).

Quarantine measures, even the most effective, arc not sufficient to stop the trend.

However, modern technology has developed efficient tools for producing sanitarily improved stocks, detecting infectious agents and establishing effective certification schemes.

The efforts made to this aim in Europe and the Mediterranean area are briefly illustrated and discussed.