Ministry of Agriculture Launches Certification of National-Level Hybrid Seed Production Bases
The Ministry of Agriculture recently issued a notice deciding to carry out the certification of national-level hybrid rice and hybrid corn seed production bases. According to the relevant person in charge of the Seed Management Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture, this move aims to implement the spirit of the 2013 No. 1 Central Document and the National Plan for the Development of the Modern Crop Seed Industry (2012-2020), strengthen the construction, management and protection of crop seed production bases, raise the level of scale, mechanization, standardization and intensification of seed production, and enhance the guarantee capacity for crop seed supply.
The notice points out that production bases meeting the following conditions will be given priority consideration: the natural environment for hybrid rice and hybrid corn seed production is superior, the seed production infrastructure is relatively complete, and there are no quarantine pests within the area; for counties (cities, districts) and prefectures (cities) that are national-level hybrid rice seed production bases, the seed production area in the past 3 years has reached more than 30,000 mu and 150,000 mu respectively. For counties (cities, districts) and prefectures (cities) that are national-level hybrid corn seed production bases, the seed production area in the past 3 years has reached more than 50,000 mu and 350,000 mu respectively; the seed management institutions in the prefectures (cities) and counties (districts, cities) where the bases are located are sound, seed production technology and quality management work is standardized, and no major accidents of responsibility in seed production have occurred in the past 3 years; the local government has a plan to support the development of the seed production industry, has formulated policies and measures to support the construction of seed production bases and maintain production order at the bases, and production order at the bases is good; the production bases have large and medium-sized seed enterprises conducting seed production year-round and have formed large-scale bases through land transfer and other means. Any county (city, district) or prefecture (city)-level agricultural administrative department that meets the conditions, and the county (city, district) and prefecture (city) may both apply at the same time.
The notice emphasizes that national-level crop seed production bases are subject to dynamic management. The validity period of base certification is 5 years, and after the validity period expires, they shall be recertified according to the base certification application procedures. The Ministry of Agriculture conducts irregular spot checks and assessments of certified bases during the validity period and conducts one mid-term evaluation. For those that fail the spot check assessment and mid-term evaluation, they shall be ordered to rectify within a time limit, and those that still fail after rectification shall have their certification revoked. If any certified national-level crop seed production base is found to have committed any of the following circumstances: falsification in the application, no longer meeting seed production conditions or failing the mid-term evaluation, occurrence of quarantine pests and serious seed incidents, occurrence at the base of unlicensed production, passing off seeds under another's brand, unauthorized retention and resale of parental lines (original seed) and the seeds produced, thereby seriously disrupting market order, or failure to file production records as required, its qualification as a national-level crop seed production base shall be revoked, and it may not apply for national-level crop seed production base status within 5 years.