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China may realize industrial production of soybean and corn in five years
Oct. 20, 2016
In 2008, China set up the Project, which plans to input USD3.6 billion (USD1.8 billion by the Government) into the R&D of GM products in 15 years.
On the seminar, Wan elaborated the newest progress of the Project. He said that the focuses of the Project were rice, wheat, corn, soybean, cotton, pigs, cows and sheep. In the planting area, 124 varieties have been approved so far, all of which are insect-resistant cotton. During 2008-2015, the accumulative promotion area of GM cotton reached 26.7 million ha, accounting for 95% of the national total by GM crop planting area; the GM cotton reduced the application of 400,000 tonnes of pesticides and gained economic benefit of USD6.7 billion.
Moreover, the Ministry of Agriculture of China (MOA) released six GM safety certificates for GM insect-resistant cotton, GM insect-resistant rice, phytase corn and GM papaya.
GM herbicide-resistant soybean and GM insect-resistant corn are most possible for commercial planting in priority in China
According to the current Safety Management Regulations of Agricultural Genetically Modified Organisms, in addition to the acquisition of GM safety certificate, the industrial promotion of GM crops requires the variety approval that is stricter than normal crops. Except for the commercialized production of GM cotton and papaya since the 1990s, there is no commercialization of GM insect-rice or GM phytase corn, which have already gotten safety certificates.
In accordance with the National Science and Technology Creation Plan, GM crop varieties may realize commercial production in the next five years. On the seminar, Wan said that GM herbicide-resistant soybean and GM insect-resistant corn may be the most possible ones to be approved for commercial planting in priority. Because the two varieties boast huge market demand, and their product technologies are mature and enjoy strong competitiveness in the international market.
China has few patents for GM achievements and it disconnects with the market demand
Wan thinks that in the field of GM technology system, including technologies and breeding, China ranks second in the world, just behind the US, but leading Japan, Germany and the UK, boasting a solid technology foundation for the development of the GM industry.
However, there are several weak links in the Chinese GM market, among which the most obvious one is the insufficiency in the protection of intellectual property rights. Though China has made some research achievements, it owns few patents, far behind the US. In addition, the achievements are not connected with the market demand, not favoring their industrialization.
China’s GM development should “be local”
Zhang Shiping, an attending scientist from the agricultural biology field of the seminar, said that compared with multinationals, Chinese counterparts are obviously weak in industry layout and capital input. Therefore, China’s GM must give full play to its advantages by developing GM insect-resistant corn to cater for the local market demand. For instance, it should target at Asian corn borers and east armyworms, the most common pests in the domestic market, to fulfill the need from the Chinese agricultural growers fast.
Moreover, Zhang believes that Chinese seed enterprises can focus their R&D force on several segments in priority like rice, corn and soybean. If policies are more open, there may be emergence of internationally leading seed enterprise giants in China.
China’s GM industrialization still needs to address problems like inefficient approval system
Huang Dafang, a researcher from the Biotechnology Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, delivered a speech that the release of China’s technology creation plan doesn’t mean the immediate industrialization of GM in the domestic market. Instead, many problems have to be addressed first. For example, some regulations that are not suitable for the development of industrialization, including those for safety evaluation and variety approval, or without scientific basis, need amendment. For instance, the application of GM safety certificate has to pass production experiment and the variety approval of main agricultural crops requires the same experiments for three to five years, which are repetitive and delay the GM industrialization, unfavoring enterprises to seize market opportunities.
China is pushing forward the amendment of GM Remarking System
Currently, China is adopting to Qualitative Remark System for GM, which means that GM ingredients in food have to be remarked. In many other countries and regions, the Quantitative Remark System is being adopted, according to which only when the volume of GM ingredients reaches certain point, 5% in Japan, 3% in South Korea and 0.9% in the EU, need them be remarked. In the EU, only when the GM ingredients in soybean exceed 0.9% of the total volume (50 kg) need they be remarked.
The MOA said that it is negotiating with the Office of Legislative Affairs of the State Council and other governmental departments to push forward the amendment of the system to be connected with international ones as soon as possible.
Source: Think Real
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