Farmers are afraid to buy fake seeds and choose multiple varieties for trial planting: is it different from doing experiments?

Li Zhongming, a farmer from Qingan County, Suihua City, transferred to more than 10 dealerships in the seed market in Heilongjiang Province, but failed to select suitable seeds. Li Zhongming told the Economic Information Daily that there are more than 4 acres (15 mu per hectare) of land in the family, and eight or nine corn varieties will be selected in recent years, and since they bought poor quality seeds last year, they are going to choose more this year.

As the northeast enters the peak period of preparing for spring ploughing, the reporter recently visited the seed market in Heilongjiang Province in Harbin and saw that there are about 100 corn seed dealers here. Not only farmers around Harbin come here to buy seeds, but also farmers from Suihua, Qiqihar and other places.

Many farmers said that for fear of buying fake seeds, they would choose more varieties to try. "No one dares to say that they can buy a variety in one place or two. Now this seed has an old nose (the northeast dialect of the old nose means too much), and seed selection every year is the biggest headache." Wang Xiaoliang, a farmer in Baiquan County, Qiqihar City, said that six or seven varieties may be selected in one piece of land. "if you buy a few more fake ones, you will be left behind."

Li Zhongming said that there are so many seeds on the market that it is difficult to tell which is good or bad, but according to experience, some of the corn planted every year will have problems more or less. With spring ploughing approaching, few people prepare only one or two varieties. Farming is similar to doing a seed test. Whoever will take this risk, we will buy what we buy, and we dare not buy new varieties if we do not buy them.

Six or seven corn seeds have to be selected as soon as the land is closed, which shows that farmers are worried about the quality of the seeds. A reporter from the "Economic Information Daily" further interviewed and found that it is precisely the phenomenon that has frequently encountered poor seeds in recent years, which has affected the yield, or even lost production, which has led to farmers' worries when selecting seeds.

In Lanxi County, a major corn-growing county, the county's seed law enforcement brigade handles three to four fake seed cases every year. According to Xia Yuanquan, deputy leader of the seed law enforcement brigade of the Lanxi County Agricultural Bureau, some farmers in Kangrong Township and Bei'an Township of Lanxi County planted fake corn seeds last year. As a result, only straws grew but no stalks grew. At the autumn harvest, farmers had to sell the corn they planted as green fodder, involving more than 100 farmers.

The sales manager of a large seed company in Heilongjiang told reporters that it takes about 10 years to cultivate a variety, and many tests such as lodging resistance, drought resistance, and saturation must be tested, but many companies begin to enter the market ahead of time without being examined and approved by provincial departments. "many kinds of companies are selling unapproved seeds. This seed is called strain, not variety. It is easy to reduce production, and it is an important source of fake and inferior seeds." The manager said.

The reporter learned from the Heilongjiang seed Administration that in 2014, a total of 279800 kilograms of suspected problematic seeds were returned to neighboring provinces, and 17 cases of untried and fake seeds were found on file. Last year, the seed Administration of the Ministry of Agriculture took 82 maize seed samples from Shuangcheng and Tailai County, Heilongjiang Province. A total of 53 samples were found to be unqualified. Agricultural experts believe that fake and shoddy seeds have been banned repeatedly, exposing loopholes in business supervision.

The low threshold for seed entry is an important reason for the endless emergence of fake and shoddy phenomena in China's seed industry market. "now seed companies with a registered capital of 1 million yuan can sell seed varieties on their behalf, and enterprises with a registered capital of 5 million yuan can produce and operate a seed variety at the provincial level. this threshold is too low. it has created conditions for those enterprises that engage in fake and shoddy seeds and brand seeds." A shopkeeper in the seed market in Heilongjiang Province told reporters.

In addition, it is difficult to identify the responsibility of fake seeds, and farmers "cannot afford to procrastinate" and often give up safeguarding their rights. Cheng Yong, leader of the seed law enforcement brigade in Zhaoyuan County, said: "in fake and shoddy seed cases, if arbitration or judicial procedures are followed, at least one year or as many as three years. As the process of technical identification is very long, farmers cannot afford to procrastinate and finally give up their rights. "