The official approved that the grain species were left out in the cold, "go to the point and send the seal" to hide the chain of corruption.

In this year's Central No. 1 document, food security is still a top priority, and food security is closely related to the promotion of improved varieties. However, during the investigation of the half-month reporter in the border areas of Hubei and Henan and Hebei and Henan, it was found that unapproved "grey seeds" and fake "black seeds" could be found everywhere in the seed market, while legal and compliant "official seeds" were hard to find. The chaos of grain seeds has not only brought risks to farmers, but also caused deep concern among journalists-- the "black seeds" of a set of cards have been played repeatedly and have not been widely sought after by the "gray seeds" recognized by the competent authorities. Is this the result of weak law enforcement and supervision by government departments, or has our seed industry management mechanism reached a juncture when it must be changed and marketed? Is it really impossible for grain seeds related to the increase of farmers' income and national food security to be delivered to the grain growers in a truthful and quality-guaranteed manner?

The officially approved varieties were given the cold shoulder.

In the seed market opposite Xiangyang Road bus Station in Zaoyang City, Hubei Province, Ma Renyong's inconspicuous seed store prominently posted "Hubei Provincial Agriculture Department's announcement of leading varieties of main crops sown in Autumn in 2014." The wheat varieties specified in the announcement are Xiangmai 25, Emai 596, Xiangmai 55 and Zhengmai 9023. Among them, Zhengmai 9023 is a national wheat variety, and the other three are approved by Hubei Province.

However, including Lao Ma's storefront, the reporter visited more than 20 seed stores on the market, almost every one of them selling wheat seeds from neighboring province Henan. Lao Ma said frankly: "99.5% of the wheat seeds in the market are from Henan, and I have been selling seeds from Henan." Similar phenomena are common in agricultural aid shops in grass-roots villages and towns.

On the one hand, officially approved legal varieties are difficult to find in the market, on the other hand, "gray seeds" beyond the approved area are widely sought after.

The reporter learned from the seed Administration of Zaoyang City, Hubei Province that at present, there are mainly three major varieties of wheat sown all the year round, namely, Zhengmai 9023, Hengguan 35, and Xinong 979. But according to the scope of the official announcement, except for Zhengmai 9023, the rest are "gray seeds" that have not been approved by the local authorities.

There are a large number of similar situations in the seed market in the border area of Henan and Hebei. Investigations by local professionals for many years show that among the wheat varieties grown in Handan City, Hebei Province, Hengguan 35, which is officially approved and promoted by the province, is difficult to find. On the contrary, some varieties from Henan are popular, especially Zhoumai 16 selected by Zhoukou Academy of Agricultural Sciences. However, according to the local approval announcement, the suitable area of the variety does not include Hebei Province.

Why are "official seeds" snubbed and "grey seeds" popular? Cheng Chaoyang, deputy director of the Zaoyang City seed Administration, revealed the mystery: "the Hubei authorities have approved the poor performance of the varieties such as Emai and Xiangmai, and the farmers in Zaoyang basically do not grow. Take Emai 18, which is easy to lodge, as an example, because of the small planting area, it is difficult to sample the yield every year. In contrast, the output of Hengguan 35 is very popular. When it first came out, it was not sold on the market in Hubei, and some farmers went to Tanghe County, Henan Province to buy it. "

Shuanggou Town, Xiangzhou District is a major grain town at the junction of Hubei and Henan provinces. Lao Wang, a local farmer who bought seeds in an agricultural store, told the reporter that he had planted the land all his life and really didn't know much about variety approval and so on. "according to the views of the old farmers, no matter what kind of seeds, more grain is a good seed!"

Farmers vote with their feet, creating a huge underground seed trading chain. Cheng Chaoyang told reporters that the 1.6 million mu of arable land in Zaoyang needs about 50 million jin of wheat seeds every year. In addition to farmers' own retention, the remaining half of the arable land needs market supply. Zhengmai 9023, the "official seed" within the scope of the announcement of the Provincial Agriculture Department, can only provide 4 million jin in the city, and a large number of gaps ultimately rely on "gray seeds" without legal status and fake "black seeds".

From putting a set of cards into the market to borrowing a shell to "revive"

Not only that, a number of industry insiders told reporters that although the supervision of the domestic crop seed market has been unprecedented in recent years, the problem of market order disorder is still quite prominent. The unpopularity of the "official seeds" in the above-mentioned inter-provincial border areas is only one of various strange phenomena, but the problem of "out of shape" of the local variety approval system reflected from this cannot be ignored.

It is understood that from the initial experimental breeding to the promotion in the field, domestic crop varieties actually need to go through several layers of screening and elimination, and the seed variety approval system in various places is the most critical "threshold." According to the seed Law, all major crop varieties entering the market must be examined and approved by the national or provincial variety approval committee, and shall not be promoted at will without examination and approval.

Tong Pingya, a seed industry expert at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, pointed out that each variety has a relatively suitable ecological area, and the border area of neighboring provinces is often the same ecological area. "however, in the actual operation of variety approval, some provinces often simply take the administrative boundary as the red line, rather than delineating their suitable sowing areas in terms of geographical location, climatic conditions and variety characteristics. this is bound to be different from the actual ecological area of crops, so it is easy to see that 'official seeds' can not beat 'gray seeds' in the border area of two or several provinces."

In addition to the market distortion caused by artificially drawing a circle on the ground as a prison, the phenomenon of licensing and counterfeiting caused by the lowering of the "threshold" of variety approval is also quite serious, leading to the proliferation of "black seeds". According to the National crop Variety Regional Test Conference held in Luoyang, Henan Province, from 2001 to 2012, a total of 15000 major crop varieties including rice, wheat, corn (0,-2510.00,-100.00%), cotton (13310,-15.00,-0.11%) and soybeans (4367,-10.00,-0.23%) were approved, with an average of more than 1200 per year. After batch approval, the scarce good varieties will inevitably be set up by some big-road goods.

Chang Wenchang, an anti-counterfeiting consultant for a seed company in Henan, said that in recent years, the fight against counterfeiting of card seeds has almost become a routine action of the company. "take Zhumadian, a big grain-producing city, as an example, there are more than 100 wheat varieties registered in one of the counties alone. there are a variety of seeds on the market, but those good varieties are sold and sold in bags. most of them are 'black seeds' of a set of cards."

Wang Dongdong, business manager of a seed company in northern Henan, said that due to the excessive number of approved varieties, there is also a "new variety" of counterfeiting and selling fake products: enterprises spend a little money to buy the use rights of a variety that is about to be withdrawn from the market and no one is interested in, and then use this legal "shell" to sell seeds from seed production bases or self-propagating seeds to the market.

"running a point and sending a seal" hides the chain of corruption.

In the face of the market distortion caused by the variety approval system, the agricultural departments in some areas are also adjusting their policies. Liu Mingjing, director of the Tanghe County seed Management Station, told reporters that wheat varieties such as Hengguan 35 and Xinong 979 were finally agreed by the Henan Agricultural Department to be introduced in Nanyang, Xinyang and Zhumadian. So far, these "gray seeds", which have been privately planted by local farmers for seven or eight years, have now acquired legal status.

However, such a temporary request or application is not a permanent cure. Liu Fenghua, head of the quality Inspection Section of the Zaoyang seed Administration, believes that now, the variety examination and approval system has evolved into a tough administrative examination and approval, and the color of administrative instructions is too strong, which lags far behind the actual development of the seed industry. As a matter of fact, the chaos behind the little seed is not only the superficial reason for the lack of government supervision, but also the deep background of the power to seek rent. Tong Pingya said bluntly that the current domestic seed industry is "the head of the planned economy and the leg of the market economy." Due to the excessive concentration of power and lack of supervision of the variety approval committee, the implementation of the system is often "out of shape", and the corruption caused by power rent-seeking needs to be paid more attention.

"in some places, it is up to a few people to decide whether the variety is good or not. Once the variety is approved, the value of the variety will immediately double, so the falsification of experimental data and the time-running relationship has become an unspoken rule in the industry." Tong Pingya said, "when conducting regional experiments, 'running point delivery' is very popular. A 'seal' ranges from a few thousand yuan to tens of thousands of yuan. Usually, the provincial regional trial costs 300, 000 or 400, 000 yuan, while the national regional trial costs 500, 000 or 600, 000 yuan."

People in the industry suggest that the future development of the variety management system should take the opportunity of revising the seed law, adhere to the direction of marketization and de-administration, gradually abolish the variety examination and approval system, and even finally realize the variety registration and filing system. at the same time, we should increase the coverage of agricultural insurance and strengthen the main responsibility of seed enterprises, while the government should do a good job in market supervision and intellectual property protection. (half-monthly reporter Zhang Xingjun and Huang Yan)