Spot Checks on Key Seed Production Bases Fully Underway

On August 31, the second 2014 meeting of the National-Level Seed Base (Zhangye) Management and Coordination Leading Group was held in Zhangye City, Gansu Province, and the meeting made arrangements for the upcoming spot checks on key seed production bases.

It is reported that since late August, the Seed Management Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture has dispatched 11 inspection teams to conduct spot checks on key seed production bases. Among them, the spot check tasks for the seed production bases in Xinjiang, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps and Hubei Province have been completed. From September 1 to 4, spot checks will be conducted in key areas of Gansu Province such as Zhangye City, Jinchang City, Jiuquan City and Wuwei City.

Unlike the previous “dragnet-style” inspections, this round of spot checks focuses on field plots in bases implicated by clues about unlicensed and infringing production provided by rights-protection companies, as well as field plots in bases of companies found in recent years by the Ministry of Agriculture's supervision and inspection of bases, markets and enterprises to have engaged in label-swapping and infringement. It also checks the full-process traceability systems for seed production base information of companies such as Origin Agritech, Kenfeng, Longping High-Tech, Denghai, China Seed, Fengle, Golden Nonghua, Liaoning Dongya, Henan Qiule and Jiangsu Dahua.

The meeting required that key investigations be carried out in 5 major areas: whether the regulatory responsibilities of supervisory departments have been fulfilled, whether management officials have participated in illegal activities, whether cases already assigned for handling have been effectively dealt with, retroactive investigation of the handling process of key cases, and illegal and infringing acts by seed enterprises this year.