Officially Approved Grain Seeds Snubbed, "Running Points and Delivering Envelopes" Hides a Corruption Chain
In this year's No. 1 Central Document, food security remains the top priority, and food security is inseparable from the promotion of improved seeds. However, when Ban Yue Tan reporters conducted research in the border areas of Hubei-Henan and Hebei-Henan, they found that unauthorized gray seeds could be seen everywhere on the seed market.
In this year's No. 1 Central Document, food security remains the top priority, and food security is inseparable from the promotion of improved seeds. However, when Ban Yue Tan reporters conducted research in the border areas of Hubei-Henan and Hebei-Henan, they found that unauthorized “gray seeds” and counterfeit, mislabeled “black seeds” could be seen everywhere on the seed market, while legal and compliant “official seeds” were nowhere to be found. The chaos in grain seeds not only brings risks to farmers, but also triggered the reporters' deep concern——mislabeled “black seeds” remain impossible to eliminate despite repeated crackdowns, and “gray seeds” not recognized by the competent authorities are widely sought after. Is this caused by weak law enforcement and supervision by government departments, or has our seed industry management mechanism reached a point where it must be reformed and marketized? For grain seeds that concern farmers' income growth and national food security, is there really no way to ensure they are delivered to grain growers with guaranteed authenticity and quality?
Officially Approved Varieties Snubbed
At the seed market opposite the bus station on Xiangyang Road in Zaoyang City, Hubei, in Ma Renyong's unremarkable seed shop, the "Announcement of Major Crop Leading Varieties for Autumn Sowing in 2014 by the Hubei Provincial Department of Agriculture" was conspicuously posted. The wheat varieties stipulated in the announcement include Xiangmai 25, Emai 596, Xiangmai 55, and Zhengmai 9023. Among them, Zhengmai 9023 is a nationally approved wheat variety, while the other three are wheat varieties approved by Hubei Province.
However, including Old Ma's shop, reporters visited more than 20 seed shops in the market, and almost every one was selling wheat seeds from neighboring Henan Province. Old Ma admitted frankly: “99.5% of the market is Henan wheat seeds, and I have always sold Henan seeds too.” At agricultural supply stores in grassroots townships, similar phenomena are widespread.
On the one hand, legally approved varieties are nowhere to be found on the market; on the other hand, “gray seeds” that exceed the approved regions are widely sought after.
Reporters learned from the Zaoyang City Seed Administration Bureau that at present there are mainly three major wheat varieties sown year-round locally, namely Zhengmai 9023, Hengguan 35, and Xinong 979. But according to the official announcement scope, apart from Zhengmai 9023, the rest are “gray seeds” that have not passed local official approval.
In the seed markets of the Hebei-Henan border area, similar situations also exist in large numbers. Years of surveys by local professionals show that among the wheat varieties planted in Handan City, Hebei, the officially approved and promoted Hengguan 35 for the province is nowhere to be found; instead, some varieties from Henan are popular, with Zhoumai 16, bred by the Zhoukou City Academy of Agricultural Sciences, being especially popular. However, according to the local approval announcement, the suitable region for this variety does not include Hebei Province.
Why are “official seeds” snubbed while “gray seeds” are popular? Cheng Zhaoyang, deputy director of the Zaoyang City Seed Administration Bureau, revealed the secret in one sentence: “The officially approved varieties in Hubei such as Emai and Xiangmai perform poorly, and Zaoyang farmers basically do not plant them. Take Emai 18, which is prone to lodging, as an example; because the planting area is small, annual yield sampling is difficult to carry out. By contrast, Hengguan 35 is popular for its high yield. When it first came out, it was not sold on the Hubei market, so some farmers went to neighboring Tanghe County in Henan to buy it.”
Shuanggang Town in Xiangzhou District is a major grain town at the border of Hubei and Henan provinces. Local farmer Old Wang, who was choosing seeds in an agricultural supply store, told reporters that he had farmed all his life and indeed did not quite understand terms like variety approval. “From an old farmer's point of view, no matter what kind of seed it is, as long as it produces more grain, it is a good seed!”
Farmers voting with their feet has spawned a huge underground seed trading chain. Cheng Zhaoyang told reporters that Zaoyang's 1.6 million mu of cultivated land needs about 50 million jin of wheat seed each year. Apart from what farmers keep for themselves, the remaining half needs to be supplied by the market. Yet for the “official seed” Zhengmai 9023 within the scope of the provincial Department of Agriculture announcement, the whole city can supply only 4 million jin, and the large shortfall ultimately relies on “gray seeds” without legal status and counterfeit, mislabeled “black seeds.”
From Mislabeled Market Entry to Borrowing a Shell to “Return to Life”
Moreover, multiple industry insiders told reporters that although domestic crop seed market supervision in recent years has been unprecedented in intensity, the problem of chaotic market order remains quite prominent. The above-mentioned situation in interprovincial border areas, where “official seeds” are unwelcome, is only one of various strange phenomena, but the resulting problem of local variety approval systems “losing shape” cannot be ignored.
It is understood that from initial experimental breeding to entry into field promotion, domestic crop varieties actually need to go through several rounds of screening and elimination, and the seed variety approval system in various places is the most critical “threshold.” According to the Seed Law, all major crop varieties entering the market must pass review and approval by the national or provincial variety approval committee, and may not be promoted at will without approval.
Tong Pingya, a seed industry expert at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, pointed out that each variety has a relatively suitable ecological region, and border areas between neighboring provinces are often the same ecological region. “But in the actual operation of variety approval, some provinces often simply use administrative boundaries as the red line, rather than defining suitable sowing areas based on geographical location, climatic conditions, and variety characteristics. Such an approach inevitably creates differences from the actual ecological regions of crops, so in border areas of two or several provinces, it is very easy for ‘official seeds’ to lose out to ‘gray seeds.’”
In addition to market distortions caused by artificially drawing boundaries, mislabeling and counterfeiting triggered by the lowering of the variety approval “threshold” are also relatively serious, leading to the flooding of “black seeds.” The National Crop Variety Regional Trial Work Conference previously held in Luoyang, Henan disclosed that from 2001 to 2012, China approved a total of 15,000 varieties of 7 major crops including rice, wheat, corn (0, -2510.00, -100.00%), cotton (13310, -15.00, -0.11%), and soybean (4367, -10.00, -0.23%), averaging more than 1,200 approvals per year. After approval in batches, scarce good varieties inevitably end up being mislabeled by some ordinary varieties.
Chang Wenchang, an anti-counterfeiting rights protection consultant for a seed enterprise in Henan, said that in recent years crackdowns on mislabeled seeds have almost become routine company practice. “Take Zhumadian, a major grain-producing city, as an example. In just one of its counties, more than 100 wheat varieties have been filed. The seeds on the market look diverse, but what is actually sold bag after bag is just those few good varieties, and most of them are mislabeled ‘black seeds.’”
Wang Dongdong, a business manager at a seed company in northern Henan, said that because too many varieties have passed approval, an excess and overabundance has also given rise to a “new variant” of counterfeit production and sales locally: an enterprise spends a little money to buy the use rights to a variety that is about to be delisted and attracts no attention, and then uses this legal “shell” to push seeds purchased in violation from seed production bases or self-propagated seeds onto the market.
“Running Points and Delivering Envelopes” Hides a Corruption Chain
Faced with the market distortions brought by the variety approval system, agricultural departments in some regions are also adjusting policies. Liu Mingjing, head of the Tanghe County Seed Management Station, told reporters that wheat varieties such as Hengguan 35 and Xinong 979 were eventually approved by the Henan Provincial Department of Agriculture for introduction in Nanyang, Xinyang, and Zhumadian. At this point, these “gray seeds” that local farmers had already privately planted for seven or eight years have now obtained legal status.
However, this kind of temporary request for instructions or application is not a fundamental solution. Liu Fenghua, head of the quality inspection section of the Zaoyang City Seed Administration Bureau, believes that, as things now stand, the variety approval system has evolved into rigid administrative approval with too strong a flavor of administrative directives, lagging far behind the reality of seed industry development. In fact, behind the various chaotic phenomena surrounding a tiny seed, besides the surface cause of weak government supervision, there is also the deeper background of power rent-seeking. Tong Pingya said bluntly that the current domestic seed industry is “a planned-economy head and market-economy legs.” Because the power of the variety approval committee is too concentrated and lacks supervision, the implementation of the system often “loses shape,” and the corruption caused by power rent-seeking urgently needs attention.
“In some places, whether a variety is good or not is decided by just a few people. Once it passes approval, the relevant variety immediately doubles in value, so falsifying experimental data and courting connections during approval have become unspoken industry rules.” Tong Pingya said, “During regional trials, ‘running points and delivering envelopes’ is very popular. One ‘envelope’ ranges from several thousand yuan to more than ten thousand yuan. Usually a provincial-level regional trial costs 300,000 to 400,000 yuan, and a national regional trial costs 500,000 to 600,000 yuan.”
Industry figures suggest that the future development of the variety management system should take advantage of the revision of the Seed Law, adhere to the direction of marketization and de-administrativization, gradually abolish the variety approval system, and ultimately realize a variety registration and filing system. At the same time, it should expand the coverage of agricultural insurance, strengthen the primary responsibility of seed enterprises, and the government should do a good job in market supervision and intellectual property protection. (Ban Yue Tan reporters Zhang Xingjun, Huang Yan)
Officially Approved Varieties Snubbed
At the seed market opposite the bus station on Xiangyang Road in Zaoyang City, Hubei, in Ma Renyong's unremarkable seed shop, the "Announcement of Major Crop Leading Varieties for Autumn Sowing in 2014 by the Hubei Provincial Department of Agriculture" was conspicuously posted. The wheat varieties stipulated in the announcement include Xiangmai 25, Emai 596, Xiangmai 55, and Zhengmai 9023. Among them, Zhengmai 9023 is a nationally approved wheat variety, while the other three are wheat varieties approved by Hubei Province.
However, including Old Ma's shop, reporters visited more than 20 seed shops in the market, and almost every one was selling wheat seeds from neighboring Henan Province. Old Ma admitted frankly: “99.5% of the market is Henan wheat seeds, and I have always sold Henan seeds too.” At agricultural supply stores in grassroots townships, similar phenomena are widespread.
On the one hand, legally approved varieties are nowhere to be found on the market; on the other hand, “gray seeds” that exceed the approved regions are widely sought after.
Reporters learned from the Zaoyang City Seed Administration Bureau that at present there are mainly three major wheat varieties sown year-round locally, namely Zhengmai 9023, Hengguan 35, and Xinong 979. But according to the official announcement scope, apart from Zhengmai 9023, the rest are “gray seeds” that have not passed local official approval.
In the seed markets of the Hebei-Henan border area, similar situations also exist in large numbers. Years of surveys by local professionals show that among the wheat varieties planted in Handan City, Hebei, the officially approved and promoted Hengguan 35 for the province is nowhere to be found; instead, some varieties from Henan are popular, with Zhoumai 16, bred by the Zhoukou City Academy of Agricultural Sciences, being especially popular. However, according to the local approval announcement, the suitable region for this variety does not include Hebei Province.
Why are “official seeds” snubbed while “gray seeds” are popular? Cheng Zhaoyang, deputy director of the Zaoyang City Seed Administration Bureau, revealed the secret in one sentence: “The officially approved varieties in Hubei such as Emai and Xiangmai perform poorly, and Zaoyang farmers basically do not plant them. Take Emai 18, which is prone to lodging, as an example; because the planting area is small, annual yield sampling is difficult to carry out. By contrast, Hengguan 35 is popular for its high yield. When it first came out, it was not sold on the Hubei market, so some farmers went to neighboring Tanghe County in Henan to buy it.”
Shuanggang Town in Xiangzhou District is a major grain town at the border of Hubei and Henan provinces. Local farmer Old Wang, who was choosing seeds in an agricultural supply store, told reporters that he had farmed all his life and indeed did not quite understand terms like variety approval. “From an old farmer's point of view, no matter what kind of seed it is, as long as it produces more grain, it is a good seed!”
Farmers voting with their feet has spawned a huge underground seed trading chain. Cheng Zhaoyang told reporters that Zaoyang's 1.6 million mu of cultivated land needs about 50 million jin of wheat seed each year. Apart from what farmers keep for themselves, the remaining half needs to be supplied by the market. Yet for the “official seed” Zhengmai 9023 within the scope of the provincial Department of Agriculture announcement, the whole city can supply only 4 million jin, and the large shortfall ultimately relies on “gray seeds” without legal status and counterfeit, mislabeled “black seeds.”
From Mislabeled Market Entry to Borrowing a Shell to “Return to Life”
Moreover, multiple industry insiders told reporters that although domestic crop seed market supervision in recent years has been unprecedented in intensity, the problem of chaotic market order remains quite prominent. The above-mentioned situation in interprovincial border areas, where “official seeds” are unwelcome, is only one of various strange phenomena, but the resulting problem of local variety approval systems “losing shape” cannot be ignored.
It is understood that from initial experimental breeding to entry into field promotion, domestic crop varieties actually need to go through several rounds of screening and elimination, and the seed variety approval system in various places is the most critical “threshold.” According to the Seed Law, all major crop varieties entering the market must pass review and approval by the national or provincial variety approval committee, and may not be promoted at will without approval.
Tong Pingya, a seed industry expert at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, pointed out that each variety has a relatively suitable ecological region, and border areas between neighboring provinces are often the same ecological region. “But in the actual operation of variety approval, some provinces often simply use administrative boundaries as the red line, rather than defining suitable sowing areas based on geographical location, climatic conditions, and variety characteristics. Such an approach inevitably creates differences from the actual ecological regions of crops, so in border areas of two or several provinces, it is very easy for ‘official seeds’ to lose out to ‘gray seeds.’”
In addition to market distortions caused by artificially drawing boundaries, mislabeling and counterfeiting triggered by the lowering of the variety approval “threshold” are also relatively serious, leading to the flooding of “black seeds.” The National Crop Variety Regional Trial Work Conference previously held in Luoyang, Henan disclosed that from 2001 to 2012, China approved a total of 15,000 varieties of 7 major crops including rice, wheat, corn (0, -2510.00, -100.00%), cotton (13310, -15.00, -0.11%), and soybean (4367, -10.00, -0.23%), averaging more than 1,200 approvals per year. After approval in batches, scarce good varieties inevitably end up being mislabeled by some ordinary varieties.
Chang Wenchang, an anti-counterfeiting rights protection consultant for a seed enterprise in Henan, said that in recent years crackdowns on mislabeled seeds have almost become routine company practice. “Take Zhumadian, a major grain-producing city, as an example. In just one of its counties, more than 100 wheat varieties have been filed. The seeds on the market look diverse, but what is actually sold bag after bag is just those few good varieties, and most of them are mislabeled ‘black seeds.’”
Wang Dongdong, a business manager at a seed company in northern Henan, said that because too many varieties have passed approval, an excess and overabundance has also given rise to a “new variant” of counterfeit production and sales locally: an enterprise spends a little money to buy the use rights to a variety that is about to be delisted and attracts no attention, and then uses this legal “shell” to push seeds purchased in violation from seed production bases or self-propagated seeds onto the market.
“Running Points and Delivering Envelopes” Hides a Corruption Chain
Faced with the market distortions brought by the variety approval system, agricultural departments in some regions are also adjusting policies. Liu Mingjing, head of the Tanghe County Seed Management Station, told reporters that wheat varieties such as Hengguan 35 and Xinong 979 were eventually approved by the Henan Provincial Department of Agriculture for introduction in Nanyang, Xinyang, and Zhumadian. At this point, these “gray seeds” that local farmers had already privately planted for seven or eight years have now obtained legal status.
However, this kind of temporary request for instructions or application is not a fundamental solution. Liu Fenghua, head of the quality inspection section of the Zaoyang City Seed Administration Bureau, believes that, as things now stand, the variety approval system has evolved into rigid administrative approval with too strong a flavor of administrative directives, lagging far behind the reality of seed industry development. In fact, behind the various chaotic phenomena surrounding a tiny seed, besides the surface cause of weak government supervision, there is also the deeper background of power rent-seeking. Tong Pingya said bluntly that the current domestic seed industry is “a planned-economy head and market-economy legs.” Because the power of the variety approval committee is too concentrated and lacks supervision, the implementation of the system often “loses shape,” and the corruption caused by power rent-seeking urgently needs attention.
“In some places, whether a variety is good or not is decided by just a few people. Once it passes approval, the relevant variety immediately doubles in value, so falsifying experimental data and courting connections during approval have become unspoken industry rules.” Tong Pingya said, “During regional trials, ‘running points and delivering envelopes’ is very popular. One ‘envelope’ ranges from several thousand yuan to more than ten thousand yuan. Usually a provincial-level regional trial costs 300,000 to 400,000 yuan, and a national regional trial costs 500,000 to 600,000 yuan.”
Industry figures suggest that the future development of the variety management system should take advantage of the revision of the Seed Law, adhere to the direction of marketization and de-administrativization, gradually abolish the variety approval system, and ultimately realize a variety registration and filing system. At the same time, it should expand the coverage of agricultural insurance, strengthen the primary responsibility of seed enterprises, and the government should do a good job in market supervision and intellectual property protection. (Ban Yue Tan reporters Zhang Xingjun, Huang Yan)