Why is it so hard for the seed industry to stop faking?

Grain security sustains the world, and seeds cast the cornerstone. Seeds are an irreplaceable means of agricultural production and an important vehicle for advances in agricultural science and technology.

Yet with spring plowing approaching, the Ministry of Agriculture has announced multiple seed counterfeiting cases, drawing public attention. Among them, the case of Hubei Lvmeng Agricultural Trade Co., Ltd. selling counterfeit “Hongyingzi” sorghum seeds caused farmers to lose 650,000 yuan; in Siping City, Jilin Province, Yu Zhihong and others manufactured and sold fake and inferior corn seeds, with a complete seed processing, storage and packaging production line, and about 350 tons of bulk corn seeds and more than 6,800 bags of finished seeds were seized on site; in Xinle City, Hebei Province, Niu Hui and Niu Xueli sold fake corn seeds to 92 farming households, causing 482.9 mu of corn to suffer severe yield reductions and losses of about 330,000 yuan.

Soon afterward, the Ministry of Agriculture launched a special regional campaign in Xiangyang City, Hubei Province, across 11 provinces to crack down on the production and sale of counterfeit seeds, hitting hard at infringements of variety rights and the production and sale of fake and inferior seeds.

Reporters learned during interviews that the order of China's seed market has noticeably improved, but in some areas along provincial borders, problems such as promoting seeds before approval and label-swapping infringement are prominent, harming not only farmers' interests and the lawful rights and interests of variety rights holders, but also bringing risks to agricultural production safety.

Chaos in regional seed markets cannot be ignored

One seed, ten thousand loads of grain. The authenticity and quality of seeds are closely tied to agricultural increases in output and farmers' income growth.

The case of Mudanjiang Xiudejin Agricultural Materials Co., Ltd. and others in Heilongjiang Province selling fake corn seeds is one example. In April 2014, the Mudanjiang City Seed Management Office in Heilongjiang Province, acting on a reported clue, investigated Mudanjiang Xiudejin Agricultural Materials Co., Ltd. and others for selling “Jingdan 28” corn seeds suspected of being fake corn seeds. Investigation showed that the batch of fake “Jingdan 28” corn seeds was produced by the Harbin Branch of Shandong Zhouyuan Seed Industry Co., Ltd., involving 13,050 kilograms of seeds and 233,950 yuan in illegal gains.

In June 2014, after investigation by public security organs, the criminal suspect Wang Long (pseudonym), who processed and packaged the fake seeds, was arrested.

Relevant personnel from the Seed Management Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture told this newspaper's reporter that, in order to focus on solving the problem of chaos in regional seed markets, safeguard farmers' interests and the rights and interests of variety rights holders, and ensure the safety of seeds used in agricultural production, the Ministry of Agriculture decided to carry out a special regional campaign against the production and sale of counterfeit seeds in 11 provinces including Hebei, Shanxi, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong, Henan, Hubei and Shaanxi.

According to relevant statistics, domestic seed output had reached 16.7 million tons in 2013. With the expansion of the domestic seed market scale, rising market demand, and policy drivers, the number of seed production enterprises will gradually increase in the coming years, and output will show a trend of steady growth.

At the same time, as the commercialization rate of various segmented products in the domestic seed industry continues to rise, China's seed demand will also continue to grow, and it is expected that by 2019 China's seed demand will reach 19.95 million tons.

“Overall, the quality of the seed market has noticeably improved in recent years.” Wang Haichao, deputy director of the Hanzhong City Seed Management Station in Shaanxi Province, told a reporter from China Science Daily.

In fact, after the new measures for the administration of crop seed production and operation licenses were issued, seed enterprises gradually decreased and the number of crop varieties also decreased, and the phenomenon of too many, chaotic and mixed varieties improved somewhat. “But seed infringement still occurs from time to time in China; one seed has many different names, which makes it impossible for farmers to distinguish them.” pointed out Guo Yangdong, a professor at the College of Agronomy and Biotechnology at China Agricultural University.

Guo Yangdong told a reporter from China Science Daily that the problems more often arise with some seed propagation units. Seed propagation is often entrusted to professional propagation companies, and in the process such a company resells the seed parents to other companies; or lets other companies also participate in propagation, and the propagated seeds may be sold under this name or under a different name, while farmers are unable to tell the difference.

“The Seed Law stipulates that major crop varieties can only be promoted after approval. Many seed enterprises play the trick of ‘old bottles filled with new wine.’ Their company originally had a variety that had already passed approval and could be legally promoted, and now it has a new variety, but it has not been approved and cannot yet be promoted, so it may use the original name to promote the new variety. This is in fact also an act of producing and selling counterfeit goods.” Wang Haichao said.

“As the number of seed enterprises and varieties decreases, seed producers are more concentrated in advantageous seed production areas, while problems arise in the places where seeds are sold, and handling them is relatively difficult.” Wang Haichao said that, for example, sampling inspections by the Ministry of Agriculture in Hanzhong City found that certain varieties were fake seeds, but the seed producers were from outside the province, making handling relatively difficult.

Industry experts also said that if these regional seed market problems are not fundamentally solved, they will not only seriously constrain independent innovation in the seed industry, but also affect the development of agricultural modernization.

Seed testing has much to offer

China is in a new historical stage of transition from traditional to modern seed industry and from a large seed country to a strong seed industry country. The development opportunities facing seed testing are unprecedented, and so are the challenges. Experts say the overall situation is still that opportunities outweigh challenges.

“A relatively complete seed approval and testing system has already been established in China. Taking Beijing as an example, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Agriculture has a seed management station, which is specifically responsible for the management and supervision of crop seeds in Beijing.” Guo Yangdong said.

It is understood that seed testing uses scientific, advanced and standard methods to test, analyze and appraise the quality of seed samples in order to judge their quality, mainly including variety authenticity testing, variety purity identification and testing of other indicators.

For example, the Ministry of Agriculture stipulates that for seed samples spot-checked by the Ministry of Agriculture, variety authenticity testing shall be uniformly arranged by the National Crop Seed Quality Supervision, Inspection and Testing Center and undertaken by qualified testing institutions. For variety authenticity testing of samples spot-checked at the provincial level, those with testing capacity may test on their own, and those without testing capacity may choose other qualified testing institutions for testing.