DUS testing for plant variety protection

For the registration of a new variety or protection of a variety, it has to comply with the requirements of distinctness, uniformity and stability (DUS). Special field trials are conducted to verify whether a variety differs distinctly from other varieties of the same species, whether it is uniform and stable enough. Testing of DUS assures that this is a new variety distinct from other already existing varieties and that the users will grow a variety with uniform properties, which will keep them unchanged in the propagation generations that will follow. Since in all the countries the same methods of DUS testing are used in accordance with recommendations of Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), the results are compatible. If DUS testing is successful, a detailed morphological description of variety is made. DUS testing tells very little or nothing about the cultivation value of a variety. Technical DUS testing usually takes two growing cycles. A growing cycle is the time the test takes to observe all the characteristics which are required for the DUS test. The final report usually follows after the second growing cycle. Test fees will be charged for each growing cycle. The design of the growing trial or other tests, with regard to aspects such as the number of growing cycles, layout of the trial, number of plants to be examined and method of observation, is largely determined by the nature of the variety to be examined.