On December 12, the China Agricultural Green Industry Conference and the 20th Guangdong Seed Industry Conference, titled "Green leads the revitalization of seed Industry", was opened in Guangzhou, in which over 6,000 new excellent varieties were showcased. Not long ago, three large white-feathered broiler breeds were approved by the authority. That was, for the first time, China had its own independent breeding of white-feathered broilers, representing a tremendous stride forward in livestock and poultry breeding. In the same month, the in-depth implementation of seed industry revitalization came to be an important issue discussed in the Central Economic Working Conference. On December 21, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) held a subgroup meeting to review the draft amendment to the Seed Law to meet the requirements of the CPC Central Committee, which aimed to bring about an upswing in seed industry through promoting independent innovation and protecting intellectual property rights. In August this year, the NDRC and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs jointly issued the 14th Five-Year Construction Plan for Modern Seed Industry Upgrade Project, making a comprehensive arrangement for the overall thoughts, framework and system, key projects, and safeguard measures of the infrastructure construction layout of seed industry during the 14th Five-Year period. More than that, as early as on July 9 this year, the General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that it was more urgent than ever to ensure the independence and controllability of seed source and emphasized the importance of that at the meeting of the Commission for Deepening Overall Reform of the CPC Central Committee, raising the security of seed source to a strategic height relating to national security. Seed industry, the field that was strange to public, is gradually out of the shadow and standing on the stage with the vigorous promote by the state.

    Seed industry, as the name suggests, is the sum of activities related to seed and breeding, comprising R & D, cultivation, and marketing, etc. It is the most important component of planting and breeding industry and the fundamental and irreplaceable means of production in agricultural production, which locates upstream in the agricultural production chain. The seed source security, like the chip of electronics, plays an essential role in the development of agriculture, without which the agriculture of any country would face with the risk of being contained by other states.

    China is a great agricultural country with great grain production and reserves capacity, of which the seeds for planting and breeding, however, are mostly imported from foreign countries. According to data of the China National Seed Trade Association (CNSTA), in 2019, China imported nearly 70,000 tons of crop seeds that worth 435 million dollars. Correspondingly, the export value was just 211 million dollars, making China a sheer net importer of seeds with a trade deficit of 224 million dollars. For instance, the seeds of field crops (e.g., corn and wheat) and vegetables are mainly imported from America and Japan, respectively. In addition, a huge number of foreign seeds have occupied domestic farmland and market, which is not strange considering that China seeds market is dominated by over 70 international seed industry giants. In Keshan County, known for “the hometown of Chinese potatoes”, American varieties account for half of the planting; In Shouguang, the “hometown of Chinese vegetables", foreign seeds account for more than 30 percent. The most common white radish varieties on Chinese market are imported from South Korea, while that of chilies are from Israel.

    The over-reliance on foreign seeds not only affects China's market initiative in international price negotiation, but also puts the vegetable cultivation for some varieties in the risk of "seed cutting". Since January this year, Russia has raised export customs duty rate on sunflower seeds and rapeseed from 6.5 percent to 30 percent based on the forecast that the Russian seeds are going to account for 50 percent of the Chinese market in coming years. Broccoli seed tells the same story. The Price of imported broccoli seeds from Japan have risen from 3,500 yuan per bag (100,000 seeds) in 2015 to more than 20,000 yuan per bag in 2021. The main reason behind that is almost 95 percent of broccoli seeds on Chinese market are imported from Japan, which means Chinese dealers can barely say no to whatever their foreign counterparts do.

    Faced with the bottleneck of the development of seed sources, what can be done to safeguard the food security of 1.4 billion Chinese? The state has its answer. In recent years, the CPC Central Committee has issued a series of documents, in administrative and in legal, to ensure the safety of the national seed industry, of which the core is improving the innovation ability in seed industry, specifically, cultivating excellent varieties with independent intellectual property rights to guarantee the national food security from the source. Wan Zhong, the vice president of Guangdong Rural Research Institute, puts forward four suggestions on how to improve the development of seed industry in China, which are building genetic resources center for seeds, lending long-term support to seed industry scientific research projects, deepening the R&D and application of modern breeding technology, and boosting the sense of achievement and acquisition of scientific and technological personnel in seed industry. These four suggestions reveal not only the key points, but also the sore points of China's seed industry development.

    Establishing genetic resources center for seeds is a program needing long-term effort. By now China has approved the construction of multiple repositories, including the National Crop Germplasm Repository put into operation in September, the National livestock and Poultry Germplasm Repository, the National Marine Fisheries Biological Germplasm Repository put into operation in October, and the upgrading and rebuilding of the National Agricultural Microbial Germplasm Repository. These repositories are important facilities for long-term strategic preservation of agricultural germplasm resources in China and important tools for guaranteeing food security. With all those effects, we are, however, in the beginning of a thousand miles journey. If China wants a complete security in this "seed war", independent innovation capacity in the seed industry is a must, in order to avoid the possible containment from other countries that will affect the speed and quality of agricultural development.

    But how can we do that? A key step is to strengthen the intellectual property protection for seed industry, improve the intellectual property protection system encouraging innovation, encourage and help relevant enterprises to protect their rights, and crack down on the behaviors of counterfeiting, infringement, and illegality.

    According to the data, two enterprises, Bayer and Corteva agriscience dominate the international seed industry, accounting for 50 percent of the market shares and most core patent technologies. As to the seed industry in China, almost 80 percent of science and technology resources and talents are concentrated in scientific research units, which directly leads to the low R&D investment and capacity of relevant enterprises although the number of them is not small. The separation between scientific research and free capital is quite an obstacle to enhance the competitiveness of enterprises. Modern seed industry, as a technology-intensive and capital-intensive industry, needs the integration of technology and capital to get great development. Therefore, supporting superior enterprises to become bigger and stronger is a necessary measure to be taken.

    In addition, it is a new requirement for seed industry in China to further improve the tort compensation system and increase the tort legal liability in this new situation. Due to the long time and high costs to cultivate a new variety, it will be a big blow for the breeder if someone else can easily steal the variety by slightly changing some trivial characters without or with a little compensation. There is no doubt that the incentive to innovate will be undermined in that way. In response, the preceding Seed law had a small deterrence effect on infringement to the rights of new plant varieties because of small punishment. While the revised Seed Law, issued on December 24, increased the penalties for infringement. Specifically, it stipulates that for infringement of which the compensation can be determined, the cap of amount is raised from three times to five time, while for infringement that cannot, the cap of compensation amount shall be increased from three million yuan to five million yuan. The revised Seed Law also increased the penalties for fake and shoddy seeds. For the behavior of producing and operating fake seeds, the fine of twenty thousand yuan to two hundred thousand yuan will be charged, and the behaviors of producing and operating shoddy seeds will be charged with the fine of five thousand yuan to fifty thousand yuan. These measures have further expanded the scope and strength of intellectual property protection for seed industry, playing a positive role in regulating seed production and maintaining the healthy and safe development of the seed industry market.

    Seed security concerns the national food security, the development of agriculture, and the vital interests of broad masses of the people. That is why it is an irresistible trend to promote a high-quality development of seed industry in China. Only by promoting the protection, development, and utilization of agricultural germplasm resources, improving the scientific and technological innovation ability in seed industry, strengthening the protection for intellectual property rights of the seed industry, increasing the punishment of infringement, and providing fine breeds for seed industry continuously, can the seed industry bring up an upswing and the food security of 1.4 billion people be ensured.

Reference Links:

重科学严监管，打好种业翻身仗 http://jl.people.com.cn/n2/2021/1224/c349771-35065680.html

我国种业发展困境及化解策略 https://news.dayoo.com/guangzhou/202104/12/153828_53869603.htm

打好种业翻身仗，又有新动作 http://finance.people.com.cn/n1/2021/1216/c1004-32309247.html

把种业的“芯片”掌握在自己手中 http://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/c30834/202109/17191afbf9f44154ae8b847cffd93ffd.shtml

强化知识产权保护 打好“种业翻身仗”https://www.chinacourt.org/article/detail/2021/12/id/6450367.shtml

打击侵权、鼓励创新……新修改的种子法怎样护航中国种业发展？http://www.stdaily.com/index/kejixinwen/2021-12/25/content_1241793.shtml