Donal Coleman

Donal Coleman is head of the newly integrated Crops Evaluation and Certification Division in the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. His work centres on the further development of the crops testing programme in the Department to ensure that the latest and most relevant varieties , emerging from international and national crop breeding programmes are available to Irish farmers at the earliest possible time.

Donal is also in charge of the seed certification programme in the Department. Certifed seed offers a competitive advantage to farmers in terms of vigor and purity. The evaluation and certification of new varieties is now streamlined to optimise DAFFs service to farmers.

In addition to these roles, Donal is also the national Controller of Plant Breeders Rights, this work involves the granting of rights to breeders of new varieties of plant species and also administering the regulations governing intellectual property in the sphere of plant species and also plant genetic resources for food and agriculture.