2014 Seed Industry New Policies Take Root, Industry Development Holds Promise for the Future
The year 2014, now drawing to a close, has been called the “inaugural year of comprehensively deepening reform.” Focusing on the agricultural sector, the reform of the crop seed industry reflects the meaning of “comprehensive deepening” with particular clarity. Judging from the development trends of 2014, the seed industry has already begun to enter a new stage. Taking as a new starting point the State Council General Office's “Opinions on Deepening the Reform of the Seed Industry System and Improving Innovation Capacity,” which began to be implemented at the end of last year, over the past year the seed industry's new policies have progressed from innovative design to taking root, and the policy framework has gradually become more detailed; seed industry reform has entered the depths of the industry, with the focus of reform fixed on the key points of the scientific research system and on the fine details of innovative development, steadily advancing in a direction that better respects market laws, better stimulates the vitality of market entities, and better promotes scientific management.
Respecting market laws means firmly adhering to the market-oriented direction and building a commercial breeding system.
Respecting market laws means firmly adhering to the market-oriented direction and building a commercial breeding system. From the very beginning of the seed industry's new policies three years ago, the concept of commercial breeding has already taken root in people's minds. Looking back over this year, the dominant position of seed enterprises has been further strengthened, and a modern commercial breeding system marked by “factory-style” operations is being built at an accelerated pace, with product innovation, brand innovation, industrial organization innovation, and business model innovation advancing across the board; represented by events such as Longping High-Tech and Quanyin High-Tech respectively bringing in strategic investments from CITIC Group and Zhongxin Rongchuang, Agricultural Development Seed Industry acquiring Shanxi Luyu and Jiangsu Golden Land, China National Seed Group increasing its capital to control Guangdong Jindao, and the Modern Seed Industry Development Fund injecting 350 million yuan into the seed industry, the pace of mergers and acquisitions in the seed industry has accelerated, and capital strength, scientific research strength, and market competitiveness have also risen substantially, with the positive energy for making the national seed industry bigger and stronger becoming ever more abundant.
⟦NL> Stimulating the vitality of market entities means innovating institutions and mechanisms and clarifying the attribution of rights and interests. The pilot reform of the equity ratio of scientific research achievements in the seed industry, launched this year, has fully stimulated the innovative vitality of scientific and technological personnel, granting researchers more rights to use, profit from, and dispose of achievements, and from what can be seen so far, results have already begun to show. For researchers engaged in commercial breeding, breeding resource elements should be allowed to flow, so that they breed for enterprises and go to enterprises to breed. Since the beginning of this year, some provinces, represented by Hunan, have issued special, flexible transitional policies on the flow of seed industry talent, supporting research institutes and universities in creating conditions through part-time work, temporary posts, and contract signing to encourage researchers to innovate and start businesses, and promoting research talent to breed for enterprises and go to enterprises to breed.
Promoting scientific management means innovating methods and approaches and clarifying the government's role. Since the beginning of this year, the government's “visible hand” has shifted toward a more scientific, efficient, fair, and transparent role: First, “streamlining administration.” The newly revised “Measures for the Approval of Major Crop Varieties,” issued at the beginning of the year, opened a green channel for variety approval, allowing enterprises to test varieties on their own, which encouraged enterprises' innovative capacity and strengthened their sense of responsibility. Second, “strict supervision.” Since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Agriculture has joined with public security, industry and commerce, judicial, and other departments to carry out special actions against infringement of variety rights and counterfeit and inferior seeds, intensifying the investigation and handling of major and important cases. Third, “service.” Strengthening research on frontier science and core technologies, advancing basic and public construction such as seed production bases, germplasm resources, and seed industry talent cultivation, organizing major national scientific research efforts on improved varieties, and expanding public services for seed industry technology and information. Fourth, “guidance.” Under the government's leadership, a series of activities such as the selection and evaluation of the “Ten Meritorious Figures of China's Seed Industry” not only greatly inspired confidence within the industry to make the national seed industry bigger and stronger, but also drew more attention and support for the seed industry from all sectors of society.
A journey of a thousand li begins with a single step; without accumulating small streams, one cannot form a river or sea. The seed industry reform of 2014 was not only gradual and detailed, advancing step by step, but also clear in its goals and far-reaching in its layout, because more and more people in the seed industry have reached a consensus: only when the two wheels of scientific and technological innovation in the seed industry and institutional reform truly mesh and turn at the same frequency will the industry's development undergo a qualitative leap, and will the future of the national seed industry hold even greater promise.