"Support according to law" strengthens the development power of seed industry

On April 24, after the revised draft of the seed Law of the people's Republic of China was submitted to the 14th meeting of the standing Committee of the 12th National people's Congress for deliberation, the revised draft of the seed Law was made public to solicit opinions and suggestions from the whole society. A new chapter on "supportive policies" has been added. Strengthening the support for the seed industry is determined by the industrial status and development stage of China's seed industry. Upgrading the policy to legal provisions is the continuation and strengthening of the support policy, which will make the support more solid and more deeply rooted.

The industrial status and development stage of the seed industry determine that support must be strengthened.

Crop seed industry is a national strategic and basic core industry, which is fundamental to promote the long-term and stable development of agriculture and ensure national food security. To ensure that the Chinese people's rice bowls are firmly in their own hands, they must hold the seeds tightly in their own hands. Seeds, as the most basic means of agricultural production, the coverage rate of improved varieties in China has reached more than 95%, and the contribution rate to agricultural production has reached more than 40%. Especially at present, with the increase of resource constraints and the reduction of the yield-increasing effect of inputs such as chemical fertilizers, the popularization of improved varieties is of more significance to increase production.

However, China's seed industry market is still in the initial stage of development, and it has only been more than ten years since it entered the market stage, the market concentration is low, and the scale of seed enterprises is generally small. The trade volume of the top 10 seed enterprises in China accounts for 13% of the total domestic trade volume, the trade volume of the top 10 seed enterprises in the world accounts for 35% of the world total trade volume, and the trade volume of the top 20 seed enterprises in the United States accounts for 70% of the domestic trade volume.

From the perspective of different crops, the varieties of rice, wheat, cotton and rape in China have strong international competitiveness, but there is a big gap between China and the developed countries in corn, soybean and some vegetable varieties. As the origin of rice and the birthplace of hybrid rice, China occupies the first advantage in germplasm resources and technology, and mainly uses domestic varieties in production. The research and development of wheat variety breeding in China is mainly based on conventional breeding, which is in a relatively dominant position, and domestic varieties are mainly used in wheat production. However, at present, the yield of corn per mu in China is only about 400 kg, which is nearly 300 kg less than that of the United States. China is the origin of soybean, with an average yield of 116.7 kg per mu, compared with 165kg per mu in the world and 177kg in the United States. China is a large vegetable producer in the world, with vegetable acreage and output accounting for 42.8% and 51.7% of the world respectively, but foreign high-end vegetable varieties occupy an important market share, especially those suitable for facility cultivation. The value of imported seeds accounts for more than 70% of the national seed market value.

There is a strong momentum for foreign capital varieties to enter our country. Xianyu 335, a maize variety of American Pioneer improved Variety International Co., Ltd., has become one of the main maize varieties in China. China imports about 15000 tons of seeds every year, mainly vegetable seeds, some sunflower seeds and sugar beet seeds, less than 10% of tomato seeds and 15% chili peppers. However, the price of foreign seeds is generally several times or even tens of times higher than that of domestic seeds, and the proportion of imported vegetable seeds is small, but while foreign seeds grab excess profits, it increases the production cost and management risk of domestic farmers. take tomato as an example, the cost per mu of using foreign varieties is about 1000 yuan higher than that of domestic varieties. According to experts from Shandong vegetable Research Institute, the amount of imported seeds in Shandong Province accounts for about 20% of the total seed consumption, but the market value of its seeds has exceeded that of domestic seeds, which account for 80% of the total seed consumption.

Whether considering the status of the seed industry or the development stage of the seed industry, it is still necessary to strengthen legal and policy protection and provide multi-faceted support to the seed industry.

The support policy has been raised to legal provisions to reflect the continuity of seed industry support.

In recent years, the state has issued a series of supporting policies and measures to speed up the development of seed industry in the aspects of industrial policy, financial support, scientific and technological investment, tax preference, agricultural insurance, credit support, personnel training and so on. To absorb these mature and feasible supporting policies and measures into the law, standardize and systematize them, and fix them through legal form is the development and continuation of the supporting policies of China's seed industry.

In 1989, the State Council promulgated regulations on seed management, which regulated seed production and management; in 2000, the National people's Congress promulgated the seed Law, which fully liberalized the seed market and opened up the process of marketization of the seed industry. Especially in recent years, with the continuous introduction of a number of documents and strong seed measures, the state's support measures for the development of the seed industry are intensive and the gold content is unprecedentedly high.

In 2012, the State Council issued the opinions on accelerating the Development of Modern crop seed Industry, which made it clear for the first time that crop seed industry is the strategic and basic core industry of the country, and that enterprises are the main body of the development of modern seed industry, which opened a new journey for the development of modern seed industry. In 2012, the General Office of the State Council issued the National Development Plan of Modern crop seed Industry (2012-2020), which mapped out the development blueprint for the future seed industry. In 2013, the General Office of the State Council issued the opinions on deepening the seed Industry system Reform and improving the Innovation ability, which further clarified the policy of deepening the seed industry system reform and put forward the goal of building a powerful country in the seed industry.

The Ministry of Agriculture has also revised the measures for the Licensing Administration of crop seed production and Operation to encourage enterprises to speed up mergers and reorganization and become bigger and stronger; to revise the measures for the examination and approval of Major crop varieties, to open up a green channel for variety examination and approval for conditional integrated enterprises for breeding, breeding and promotion; to include seed machinery in subsidies for the purchase of agricultural machinery, and to subsidize seed machinery. The Ministry of Finance, in conjunction with the Agricultural Development Bank and Sinochem Group, invested 1.5 billion yuan to set up a modern seed industry development fund to support the merger and reorganization of enterprises; the Ministry of Finance, together with the State Administration of Taxation, reduced the income tax of integrated enterprises to support enterprises to increase investment in research and development; the National Development and Reform Commission set up a special project for biological breeding, with a total investment of 472 million yuan to support 41 enterprises to improve their breeding capacity. The Ministry of Agriculture has allocated 500 million yuan for seed projects to support the construction of crop germplasm resources nurseries, variety regional test stations, testing centers, improved variety breeding and scientific research and breeding innovation bases; the Ministry of Finance has included 38 state-level seed production counties in the scope of grain production awards, and increased financial incentive funds by more than 200 million yuan.

While the state is increasing its support, various localities are also strengthening their support for the seed industry. Since the introduction of the full text of document No. 8, local support policies have been issued one after another. Every year, Jilin implements 50 million yuan to establish a provincial seed industry development fund; all parties in Liaoning invest 110 million yuan to set up Liaoning East Asia Modern seed Industry Research and Development Center relying on industry-university-research units; Shandong allocates 160 million yuan to support the development of seed industry. A modern seed industry development fund with a scale of 372 million yuan has been set up. Hunan, Hubei and Zhejiang have added 90 million yuan of special funds to support improved varieties and integrated breeding and breeding projects. Sichuan allocated 535 million yuan for basic scientific and technological research to support institutions of higher learning and scientific research institutes to strengthen basic public welfare research, research and development of core technologies, and speed up the training of innovative talents.

The support policy has taken root, and it has been planted in accordance with the law to let the roots take root.

The draft provides all-round provisions on how to support enterprises. Yu Xinrong, vice minister of agriculture, said: "it is necessary to further increase investment in enterprises, support enterprises to further improve their capabilities in scientific research, production, management, and services, and narrow the gap with multinational seed enterprises as soon as possible. to promote the restructuring of enterprises in the seed industry, we should not only build 2-3 seed industry 'aircraft carriers', but also speed up the cultivation of specialized and service-oriented enterprises. Our goal is to strive for the concentration of 50 enterprises to reach more than 60% by 2020, and to strive for Chinese seed enterprises to have stronger competitiveness in international seed enterprises. "

"seize the opportunity." Li Jijun, general manager of Henan Qiule seed Industry, told reporters, "many of the company's major reform decisions have seized the national policy and support opportunities." Qiule seed Industry invested in conjunction with other domestic seed companies to set up a major maize research and breeding platform-Zhongyujin Marker Biotechnology Co., Ltd., decoupled from Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and set up Henan Qiule seed Industry Research Institute directly under the company. promote the company to land the "new third board", build a rapid approval platform for new corn varieties "green channel", and participate in major national corn and soybean scientific research cooperation projects.

The effect of modern seed industry development fund as a way of supporting innovation is beginning to appear. "while we are looking for investment targets, some enterprises also take the initiative to come to us to negotiate capital needs." Zhu Shunquan, chairman of the Modern seed Industry Development Fund, said. On June 16, the Modern seed Industry Development Fund signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Jiangsu Zhongjiang seed Co., Ltd. Zhongjiang seed Industry is one of the enterprises to negotiate actively. "through targeted additional issuance, enterprises have sufficient funds and can better strengthen breeding research and development." Jiang Hongyun, general manager of Zhongjiang seed Company, said. Up to now, the Modern seed Industry Fund has invested in 15 projects with an investment scale of 670 million yuan, driving financial capital of 760 million yuan and coalescing more than 6.9 billion yuan of other social capital.

The draft stipulates that the state supports insurance institutions to carry out seed production insurance. The people's governments at or above the provincial level shall adopt measures such as insurance premium subsidies to support the development of seed industry production insurance. Sichuan has piloted seed production insurance. Ding Shengyu, a hybrid rice farmer in Zitong Village, Yonghe Town, an County, Mianyang City, was most worried about continuous overcast and rainy weather during the flowering period, which would lead to a substantial reduction in production. At the end of 2014, Mianyang launched hybrid rice seed production insurance, "seed production insurance cleared away the concerns of farmers." Li Weiping, director of Mianyang seed Management Station, said that the cost of Mianyang hybrid rice seed production is about 2000 yuan per mu. According to the 5% premium rate, the premium is 100 yuan per mu, of which 40% is borne by the municipal finance, 20% by the county finance, 20% by the seed production enterprises and 20% by the farmers.

The seed industry support policy has taken root, continue the support policy, enhance the main body of the seed industry's expectations of the policy, enhance confidence in the development of the seed industry, promote good support policies into the law, and help seed in accordance with the law will improve support efficiency and release more driving force for development.