A total of 24 technicians from agricultural research stations across Afghanistan gathered together at the Dedadi Research Station in Balkh Province with their FAO colleagues for an intensive 2-day practical field workshop from 16 to 17 April on how to collect and analyze data from field experiments designed to assess the Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability (DUS) of wheat varieties, which are released for cultivation in the country. DUS characteristics are crucial requirements for releasing new varieties and are essential for preparing a variety catalogue. Such a catalogue would enable farmers to choose between particular varieties according to desired needs and farming conditions.

This workshop was part of a series of training programmes provided by FAO under the aegis of the European Union funded Variety and Seed Industry Development project in collaboration with specialists from the Seed Section of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). In full attendance at the workshop was Professor M. Hassan Rashiq (Director General, Agricultural Research and Extension), whose active involvement throughout the training provided great motivation for all participants present.

Following the workshop, all technicians were expected to return to their duty stations well equipped to collect and analyze data for their respective DUS experiments. For this purpose, there are 32 existing wheat varieties replicated in four trials, which have been laid out in Kabul, Nangarhar, Balkh and Herat provinces. The results from two consecutive trial seasons will form the basis of a national variety catalogue that will be prepared in English and the major Afghan languages. The catalogue will be subject to revision as and when new varieties become available and obsolete ones are withdrawn from cultivation. The establishment of a variety catalogue will not be confined to wheat alone but to other major crops in future as new varieties of such crops become available and are widely used by farmers.

One key output of the FAO seed project is putting in place a functional and effective national variety evaluation and registration system with adequate facilities and trained staff. As a component of the registration system, the variety catalogue will be an important instrument for seed industry regulation within the framework of both the National Seeds policy and Seed Law.