In 2014, following the guidance of a document released by the general office of the State Council on deepening systemic reform of the seed industry and enhancing innovation, regional governments attached great importance to innovate the system of the seed industry, and implemented new measures and policies, which benefited the development of a modern seed industry.
1. Mobilizing researchers to advance the reform of innovation system
In order to break the restrictions of the current system, in October 2014, the MoA, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance released a document on initiating a pilot program on rights allocation between research institutes and researchers. The document stated that four research institutes affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the China Agricultural University were selected as pilots, where researchers had more rights of their research outcomes, in order to stimulate innovation. To provide more access to turn research into product, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences created a trading platform for seed research outcomes, ensuring transparent and fair trade. The first batch of deals in December was worth more than 30 million yuan. To encourage researchers to work for companies, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security released a document to guide the flow of talents. In provinces such as Gansu, Hubei, Zhejiang, Hunan and Heilongjiang, researchers can work for companies while maintaining their affiliation to research institutes, and after a 30-year length of service they can retire from the research institutes.
2. Enacting support policies to promote business development
In order to encourage innovation in seed companies, the MoA released a guiding document on providing convenient procedure for rice and corn variety certification. Some 28 companies were qualified for the convenient certification procedure. The ministries provided tax deduction and exemption and other financial supports for the qualified companies. The Modern Seed Industry Development Fund invested 350 million yuan for 10 companies. More companies worked on national projects and received funding of over 600 million yuan in seed engineering, seed breeding and commercialization. Yuan Longping High-Tech Agriculture Co. and Beidahuang Kenfeng Seed Co. invested 500 million yuan to build two molecular breeding platforms, the Huazhi Rice Bio-Tech Company and the China Golden Marker Biotech Company. High-level foreign R&D talents were hired to provide technology support for the molecular breeding of the companies. In provinces such as Jiangsu, Jilin, Fujian and Zhejiang, seed breeding funds were established to support seed companies.
3. Promoting the construction of national seed breeding bases to secure seed supply
The MoA, the National Development and Reform Commission and several provincial governments planned the construction of three national seed breeding bases in Hainan, Gansu and Sichuan. In July, officials from the central government and Hainan provincial government formed a leading group for the management of Nanfan Base. Some 17 900 hectares of land in the Nanfan Base was included in the Permanent Farmland Protection program, which restricted land use; some 3 533 hectares of land was identified as research core area, and 333 hectares was identified as breeding area. Support policies were enacted for the construction and management of seed bases in identified major seed-producing counties. In 2014, the central government funded 200 million yuan for 38 major seed-producing counties. In Gansu, Sichuan, Guizhou, Ningxia Autonomous Region and other provinces and autonomous regions, support policies for seed bases were implemented in aspects such as facility reconstruction, insurance and subsidies.
4. Researches were conducted to make breakthroughs in seed breeding
In order to innovate the seed breeding system and accelerate the breeding of high-quality seed varieties, a special committee was created to organize research teams involving companies and research institutes, which formed a joint system integrating the research advantages of research institutes and the financial advantages of companies. The joint researches on breeding high-quality corn and soybean varieties were initiated in December. In order to set the base for strengthening the seed industry, the MoA enacted a medium and-long term (2015-2030) plan for the use and protection of seed resources, which set the general objective of seed resources development, and created tasks such as three times of nationwide census of seed resources, conserving endangered seed varieties, and breeding high-quality seed varieties.
5. Creating favorable market environment and enhancing market supervision and intellectual property rights protection
In 2014, the MoA, the Ministry of Public Security, and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce took actions against infringement of intellectual property rights and fake seed commodities; a platform was built for the disclosure of criminal case information to disclose companies that conducted illegal activities through the media, which suppressed crimes, improved market environment and increased the sales of company-owned seed varieties. An evaluation system was built to evaluate enterprise credit. Leading companies were encouraged to create e-commerce platforms, in order to break local protectionism and promote fair competition. The seed law was revised to enhance variety protection, streamline administration and strengthen punishment, so as to build a better legal system for the modern seed industry.
In addition, the MoA and Beijing Municipal Government successfully held the 2014 World Seed Congress, which demonstrated the achievements of China's seed industry and advanced international collaboration. The Farmers' Daily and the National Seed Association honored 10 persons who made great contributions to the seed industry, which created a good environment for seed industry reform.
