Seeds are known as "agricultural chips" and play an important role in agricultural production, if the quality of seeds is not good, then it is impossible to grow excellent quality agricultural products. Moreover, seed technology is an emerging science and technology, which is related to the food security of a country, which shows the importance of seed safety to a country.
In 2020, a Chinese fruit farmer and his wife were sentenced to 65.26 million yuan in compensation for smuggling fruit vines, what is the reason behind this?
Chinese fruit farmer couples were fined
In fact, kiwifruit is commonly known as kiwifruit. Mr. and Mrs. Gao Haoyu once planted kiwifruit in New Zealand, when the kiwi fruit planted by the couple was of excellent quality and the fruit was extremely sweet and juicy, and the couple accumulated some wealth in New Zealand by planting kiwifruit.
Because the variety of kiwifruit in New Zealand is good, Gao Haoyu and his wife wanted to plant this kiwifruit variety in China, so they privately brought a few fruit vines back to China and began large-scale planting.
But no one could have imagined that one day in 2020, Gao Haoyu and his wife actually received a court summons from New Zealand, and they were sued by a New Zealand company named "Jiapei".
New Zealand Jiapei Company is the leading enterprise in the global kiwifruit market, with a production of about 30% of the world's kiwifruit and can deliver more than 100 million boxes of kiwifruit to the world every year. So why would an ordinary couple of fruit growers be sued by a big company?
It turned out that the kiwifruit species with independent intellectual property rights cultivated by Jiapei Company inexplicably appeared in the Chinese market, and before that, Jiapei Company had not cooperated with Chinese fruit farmers. After investigation, it was found that several kiwi fruit vines brought back to China by Gao Haoyu and his wife were exactly the varieties cultivated by Jiapei Company.
Therefore, New Zealand Jiapei Company sued the New Zealand court on the grounds that Gao Haoyu and his wife had brought the fruit vines with the independent intellectual property rights of Jiapei Company back to China without authorization and planted them on a large scale.
After a lengthy trial by the New Zealand court, the new Zealand Jiapei Company was finally awarded the case, and Gao Haoyu and his wife needed to compensate Jiapei Company for NZ$12.25 million, equivalent to about RMB65.26 million.
But the reason why this incident caused such a big movement is not only because Gao Haoyu and his wife violated the interests of others, but also threatened the seed security of a country.
Is it necessary to make such a fuss about seed safety?
Just as the so-called "the country is based on agriculture, agriculture is the first", "sowing a grain of millet in spring, harvesting ten thousand seeds in autumn", seed safety is not simply to protect the safety of seeds, seed safety includes the quantity, quality, market, industry and system of seeds and many other contents. Food security is a matter of national rise and fall, social stability and economic development. To ensure food security, it is necessary to ensure the safety of seeds.
For example, Russia and Ukraine account for 80% of the entire European grain exports, and with the escalation of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the food supply shortage in European countries with low agricultural development such as the United Kingdom and France is the result of insufficient seed security.
And a small seed requires huge investment of manpower, material resources, and financial resources, and there is a huge scientific and technological content behind it. Seed R&D companies around the world even invest 10% of their profits in seed R&D, with the aim of obtaining better quality products. Seeds have gradually become a commodity, because the huge investment behind them has made seeds one of the weapons of competition between countries.
Similarly, seeds have always been a problem that plagues the mainland, such as carrots, spinach, onions and other daily vegetables and fruits that each of our families cannot do without, and at least 90% of their seeds need to be completely imported. This is not only a problem that the country needs to pay more money to buy seeds, once the foreign countries accidentally cut off the supply of seeds, the Chinese people will not have fresh vegetables and fruits to eat. Therefore, the mainland is not willing to be restricted by foreign seeds to the development of national agriculture.
The importance of seed safety to China
Since the reform and opening up 43 years ago, China's economy and science and technology have developed rapidly, but China's seed industry has long lagged behind the developed countries in the world. It can be said that without the invention of Yuan Longping's hybrid rice, more than half of China's rice still does not need to be imported.
If, in times of war, a country does not have enough food reserves for war readiness, it will still lose the war. If China wants to truly become a world power, it must first fill the grain bag and grasp the seeds in its own hands.
China's seed industry remains grim
Since 2015, the number of seeds with independent intellectual property rights in China has increased by more than 50 times, but most of these seeds are actually hybrid rice seeds invented by Yuan Longping's team and hybrid wheat seeds invented by Li Zhensheng. In many agricultural and seed fields, the mainland still needs to rely on imports.
So most Chinese farmers are working for foreign seeds, which feels worse than being "stuck in the neck" by a chip. The mainland has long been caught in a passive situation of seed safety, so foreign seed giants have long asked for seeds.
In December 2020, the China Economic Work Conference was held in Beijing, which made "solving the problem of seeds and arable land" one of the eight key tasks of China's economy.
At the meeting, it was proposed to strengthen seed quality and resource protection and utilization, and strengthen the construction of seed banks. It is necessary to respect science, strengthen supervision, and orderly promote the industrial application of breeding. It is necessary to focus on the core technology of "card neck" at the source of seeds and fight a battle to turn the seed industry around.
How to win the battle
The safety of seeds is related to the stability of the country's livelihood. In order to better grasp the national "seed security", we should do a good job in turning seeds around. In 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People's Republic of China further deployed the seed industry in an all-round way. These include: in-depth implementation of seed industry revitalization actions, strengthen the protection of germplasm resources, and accelerate the promotion of breeding innovation.
The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has established a seed resource bank known as "Noah's Ark" in Beijing's North Third Ring Road, which preserves 525,000 seeds, making it the second largest seed bank in the world. This huge seed bank has a huge role in China, is an "ammunition depot" to ensure the safety of national seeds, and is also a leader in the development of agriculture on the mainland.
Future trends in seed safety
In recent years, there are two cost problems in the development of the seed industry, the first is the high cost of R&D investment, and the other is the legal cost of maintaining its intellectual property rights. Therefore, if you want to develop the seed industry, you must first develop seed technology and improve relevant laws and regulations.
In addition to high-tech and legal supervision, the promotion of financial resources is also an inevitable trend in the development of the seed industry. The demand for funds for the development of the seed industry in the mainland is gradually increasing. Seeds require a lot of capital investment from the beginning of the breeding stage. Moreover, now the seed industry is mostly commercial operation, and seed companies are facing long-term capital needs and financial risk protection.
Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the construction of seed financial bases and establish a financial service system to resist risks. The mainland should improve the all-round financial service system of the seed industry, strengthen various financial services such as M&A financing, cross-border investment, and financial guarantees for seed enterprises, and solve the financial concerns of seed enterprises.
It can be seen from the fines imposed by Gao Haoyu and his wife for smuggling fruit vines that seed safety is very important to a country. Seeds as the "chip" of the seed industry are the foundation of the country's agricultural development. The development of the seed industry is one of the strategic developments of the country. The mainland attaches great importance to the development of the seed industry and has taken corresponding measures in terms of financial assistance, policy support, and legal supervision. It is believed that the seed industry in the mainland will quickly get rid of the status quo of technological "card neck" and become a real agricultural seed industry.
Author: Sanshi Proofreader: Xiao Wan