China has amended its seed law to make it easier for seed companies to introduce new crop varieties and stimulate more innovation with greater emphasis on developers' rights. Rape oil, potatoes and peanuts are among more than 20 crops for which new seeds will no longer be subject to lengthy approvals but can be registered directly with authorities, according to the revisions approved by the country's top legislature, the National People's Congress.
The updated law was published on the parliament's website on Thursday and comes into effect on January 1, 2016. The cumbersome approval process, which requires participation in government-run trials and can take up to four years, remains unchanged for rice, corn, wheat, soybeans and cotton, China's most important commodity crops.
China's seed industry is the world's second largest, worth 104 billion yuan ($16 billion) in 2012, according to the agriculture ministry. Generous government subsidies for farmers' seed purchases has supported rapid development of the sector and attracted investment from multinationals. Business is tough, however, with more than 5,000 companies competing for a share of profits eroded by a thriving trade in counterfeit products and severe overcapacity.
The revised law will "encourage breeding innovation, safeguard farmers' interests and promote the healthy development of China's seed industry while ensuring food security," Xinhua quoted parliament head Zhang Dejiang as saying during the debate on the proposed amendments. Much of China's huge growth in grain output in past years came from heavy use of fertilisers and pesticides but under pressure to better protect the environment, farmers will need to use better seeds for ongoing productivity, said Guolian Securities analyst Wei Zhenya.
The new emphasis on plant variety protection and larger fines for infringement of those rights will encourage more seed companies to invest in new products, he wrote in a report. "In the future, companies with a lot of original plant variety rights will have a strong competitive edge." Others said the revision does not do enough to support research and development. They cited the failure to adopt tougher rules on what can be considered a new hybrid, an area known under international plant rights conventions as Essentially Derived Varieties (EDV). "Today you can get anyone's germ plasm and make it your own by changing one or two traits. doesn't represent innovation," said a foreign seed company executive who declined to be named. This week's changes are the first since the law was enacted in 2000.