SASA (formerly the Scottish Agricultural Science Agency) is a division of the Scottish Government Agriculture and Rural Delivery Directorate. It provides scientific advice and support on a range of agricultural and environmental topics to the Scottish Government. SASA is based at Roddinglaw on the Western edge of the City of

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, where its premises contain a laboratory, a glasshouse and an experimental farm facility. Over 100 scientists and other staff members work at SASA, all of whom are civil servants.

History

From 1925 to 2006 the Agency and its precursors were based at East Craigs in Edinburgh. The Agency was first formed by the then

Board of Agriculture for Scotland The Scottish Office was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom from 1885 until 1999, exercising a wide range of government functions in relation to Scotland under the control of the Secretary of State for Scotland. Following the e ...

. The origins of SASA can be traced back to the opening of a full-time seed testing station in 1914 at 21 Duke Street, Edinburgh. Following the introduction of the Testing of Seeds Order 1917, the unit moved to larger premises at 7 Albany Street in 1918. In May 1925 the Seed Testing Station moved to new purpose built laboratories at East Craigs along with the Plant registration Station. The Board of Agriculture changed its name to the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAFS) in 1960, and in 1961 the operations at East Craigs were renamed Agricultural Scientific Services of DAFS. In 1992, the Scottish Agricultural Science Agency (SASA) was formed as an executive agency taking on the role of Agricultural Scientific Services for the then

Scottish Office The Scottish Office was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom from 1885 until 1999, exercising a wide range of government functions in relation to Scotland under the control of the Secretary of State for Scotland. Following the e ...

. Following

devolution Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization. Devolved territories h ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, the Agency became a part of the Environment and Rural Affairs Department. In 2000 SASA began developing plans to relocate from East Craigs due to the age of the facilities and the demands put upon them by new technologies, a suitable site was eventually identified on the Agency's own farm at Roddinglaw. SASA finally relocated to purpose built facilities at Roddinglaw in 2006. In April 2008 the agency became a division within the Agriculture Food and Rural Communities Directorate of the Scottish Government. It was known as Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture until March 2019, when it was decided that the name should be changed to the commonly used acronym SASA. The work conducted by the organisation and its facilities remained the same.

Role

The role of SASA is as follows: *Ensuring the quality of

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

s and

tuber Tubers are a type of enlarged structure used as storage organs for nutrients in some plants. They are used for the plant's perennation (survival of the winter or dry months), to provide energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growing ...

s for planting, and new crop varieties; *Keeping field and

horticultural Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

crops free of damaging diseases; *Keeping serious pests of plants out of Scotland; *Acting as the Scottish Government's Inspectorate of

genetically modified crops Genetically modified crops (GM crops) are plants used in agriculture, the DNA of which has been modified using genetic engineering methods. Plant genomes can be engineered by physical methods or by use of ''Agrobacterium'' for the delivery of ...

; *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 The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern United ...

cereals A cereal is any grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran. Cereal grain crops are grown in greater quantities and provide more food en ...

peas The pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the flowering plant species ''Pisum sativum''. Each pod contains several peas, which can be green or yellow. Botanically, pea pods are fruit, since they contain seeds and d ...

and

brassica ''Brassica'' () is a genus of plants in the cabbage and mustard family (Brassicaceae). The members of the genus are informally known as cruciferous vegetables, cabbages, or mustard plants. Crops from this genus are sometimes called ''cole cr ...

s; *Monitoring the

pesticide Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests. This includes herbicide, insecticide, nematicide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, microbicide, fungicide, and lampri ...

load in the

national diet The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (Japan), House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (Japan), House of Councillors (, ...

, and the pattern of use of pesticides in Scotland; *Protecting

wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animal species (biology), species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous ...

against deliberate or accidental poisoning; *Understanding the

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

of vertebrate species that conflict with agriculture (e.g.

rabbit Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit speci ...

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

es,

geese A goose (plural, : geese) is a bird of any of several waterfowl species in the family (biology), family Anatidae. This group comprises the genera ''Anser (bird), Anser'' (the grey geese and white geese) and ''Branta'' (the black geese). Some o ...

References

External links

* {{coord, 55.9237, -3.3428, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Agriculture in Scotland Defunct bodies of the Scottish government Science and technology in Scotland 1925 establishments in Scotland Organizations established in 1925 Agronomy Organisations based in Edinburgh 2008 disestablishments in Scotland