An overview of development of Chinese seed industry

Recently Yu Xinrong, the Vice Minister of Chinese Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs, says that the development of Chinese seed industry is experiencing 4 significant improvements and that agricultural production in the next stage is targeting at the objective of “Chinese seed” being used for production of “Chinese food grain”.

According to Yu Xinrong, Chinese seed industry is currently developing rapidly, which is reflected by the 4 significant improvements.

Firstly China’s seed security capacity is significantly improved. Concerning staple crops including rice, wheat, soybean and rapeseed, China is able to conduct breeding of all varieties independently. The planting area of independently bred corn varieties have been resumed from 85 percent to above 90 percent. For vegetable production, the market share of independently bred varieties reached over 87 percent. The construction of the 3 national breeding bases located respectively in Hainan, Gansu and Sichuan are proceeding smoothly while a number of regional improved seed breeding bases are developing steadily. The conformity rate of seed of major crops is maintained at above 98 percent and the use of improved seed reaches over 97 percent.

Secondly the independent innovation capacity of seed industry is significantly improved. On one hand, the reform of the ownership of the rights and interests of technical achievement has formed an institutional mechanism for sharing and transferring the rights and interests as well as for classified management of technical researchers. On the other hand, research and development of improved seed variety is conducted at national level, which results in a breakthrough in innovation of improved seed varieties. Also with the ongoing reform of administration of seed industry, 7 license and approval items are cancelled or delegated to local authorities, which have contributed to the vibrant development of seed industry.

Thirdly the competitive edge of enterprises is significantly improved. The market position of seed enterprises is strengthened constantly. In terms of market concentration, the market share of the top 50 enterprises accounts for above 35 percent. A number of prime enterprises have emerged with sales exceeding respectively Yuan1 billion, 2 billion and 3 billion while over 60 enterprises have been listed in stock market. So far as research is concerned, seed enterprises have increased their input into research activities. The annual spending on researches from top 50 enterprises has reached over Yuan1.5 billion, accounting for 7.5 percent of the sales. As regards to innovation capacity, the novel product varieties filed by enterprises for protection each year have doubled that of 5 years ago, accounting for 50 percent of the total quantities filed for protection.

Fourthly the business environment of seed industry is significantly improved. In the last years, Chinese government has issued 3 seed industry-oriented regulations and amended the Seed Law, thus having established a sound policy framework for development of seed industry. While the intellectual property right protection and market regulation are strengthened increasingly in the seed industry, the problem of “bad seed” is basically solved and the occurrence of “fake seed” is well contained. According to primary statistics, the occurrence of “fake seed” is 50 percent reduced and seed infringement cases are 36 percent reduced as compared to the year of 2011.