Scottish Agricultural Science Agency

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The Scottish Agricultural Science Agency (SASA) is an executive agency of the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department. The Agency has responsbility for providing scientific evidence for the implementation and enforcement of legislation and regulations in the areas of crops and environmental protection.

1 History
2 Role
3 External link
4 References

[edit] History

The Agency was first formed by the then Board of Agriculture for Scotland and was known as Agricultural Scientific Services. In 1992, the Scottish Agricultural Science Agency was formed as an executive agency taking on the role of Agricultural Scientific Services for the then Scottish Office. Following devolution in Scotland, the Agency became a part of the Environment and Rural Affairs Department.

[edit] Role

The Role of SASA is as follows:

Ensuring the quality of seeds and tubers for planting, and new crop varieties;
Keeping field and horticultural crops free of damaging diseases;
Keeping serious pests of plants out of the UK and Scotland;
Acting as the Scottish Executive's Inspectorate of genetically-modified crops;
Developing new and more sensitive diagnostic tests for pests and diseases;
Preserving and maintaining a wide range of historic, heritage and other varieties of potatoes, cereals, peas and brassicas;
Monitoring the pesticide load in our diet, and the pattern of use of pesticides in Scotland;
Protecting wildlife against deliberate or accidental poisoning
Understanding the ecology of important vertebrate species (e.g. rabbits, foxes, geese). ^[1]