Ministry of Agriculture Issues Urgent Notice on Further Strengthening Seed Management Work

Nongmingzi [2010] No. 45

To the agriculture (farming and animal husbandry, agricultural economics, agriculture and forestry) departments (bureaus, commissions) of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, and the Agriculture Bureau of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps:

Recently, a serious incident occurred in Queshan County, Zhumadian City, Henan Province, in which counterfeit and inferior upland rice seeds caused severe yield reductions, and because the local seed management agency handled the matter poorly, affected farmers hanged themselves. All localities must earnestly draw lessons from this, examine their own work, identify acts of weak law enforcement concepts, unfair enforcement, and non-standard enforcement in their work, and, in conjunction with this year's Seed Law Enforcement Year work, comprehensively strengthen seed management, intensify seed law enforcement, effectively safeguard farmers' interests, and ensure the safety of agricultural production. The relevant requirements are hereby notified as follows:

1. Effectively enhance the sense of responsibility in seed management

Strengthening seed management and maintaining the normal order of the seed market is an important duty of agricultural administrative departments at all levels and their seed management agencies, and is the foundation for ensuring agricultural production safety and increasing farmers' incomes. At present, problems such as excessive and disorderly varieties, promotion without approval, false advertising, seed labeling infringement, and the production and sale of counterfeit and inferior seeds remain prominent. The existence of these problems is directly related to the weak law enforcement awareness of agricultural departments and seed management agencies at all levels, lax gatekeeping in administrative licensing, inadequate supervision, and non-standard law enforcement. In this regard, all localities must effectively enhance their sense of responsibility, further strengthen leadership, implement responsibilities, adopt effective measures, and earnestly strengthen seed management work.

2. Comprehensively implement all work of the Seed Law Enforcement Year

All localities must, in accordance with the Ministry's deployment and requirements for the Seed Law Enforcement Year, effectively strengthen the cleanup of unqualified seed enterprises, market supervision and inspection, and variety management, and consciously ensure that law enforcement standards are not lowered out of personal considerations, that unfair enforcement is not caused by local protectionism, and that formalism and going through the motions are avoided. Through the Seed Law Enforcement Year activities, a batch of licenses of unqualified seed enterprises must be resolutely revoked, a batch of cases involving the production and sale of counterfeit and inferior seeds must be resolutely investigated and handled, and a batch of varieties unsuitable for production must be resolutely withdrawn. Major and important seed cases uncovered must be severely cracked down upon and investigated to the end, effectively purifying the seed market and safeguarding farmers' interests.

3. Effectively standardize seed law enforcement conduct

Agricultural administrative departments and seed management agencies at all levels must earnestly learn from the Queshan County counterfeit and inferior seed case, examine their own work to identify shortcomings, and standardize law enforcement conduct. They must earnestly handle cases of farmers' petitions or reports, properly carry out registration, verification, investigation, and appraisal of petition or report cases, promptly investigate and handle illegal acts, and provide feedback on the results of handling to the petitioning farmers or reporters. For counterfeit and inferior seed cases with a case value exceeding 50,000 yuan, they must, in accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Law, promptly transfer them to judicial authorities for handling. A responsibility accountability system must be established, and acts such as dereliction of duty, unfair law enforcement, buck-passing, and soliciting bribes must be resolutely investigated and handled, with the administrative responsibility of relevant personnel pursued and reported in notices.

4. Establish a system for reporting and supervising major cases

For cases in which counterfeit and inferior seeds cause serious losses to agricultural production and have significant impact, lower-level agricultural administrative departments and seed management agencies must promptly report them level by level and report handling progress at any time. Higher-level competent departments must establish a supervision system for major cases, and for units that handle cases poorly or with low efficiency, promptly adopt accountability measures. For major cases that may easily cause mass incidents, preventive measures must be taken to prevent the situation from escalating, and they must be promptly reported to public security departments and local governments for proper handling.

All localities must conduct a comprehensive review of the investigation and handling of seed cases that have occurred over the past year, and cases that have not yet been investigated and handled must be dealt with promptly. All provinces (regions, municipalities) are requested to report the relevant review situation to the Ministry's Department of Crop Production Management by April 20.

General Office of the Ministry of Agriculture

April 3, 2010