All varieties of seeds used for sowing on the territory of our country must be included in a single state register. Before these seeds are to undergo varietal testing and GMO testing, having received a quality certificate. Such provisions are spelled out in the government bill on seed production submitted to the State Duma. What changes await domestic seed growers and what issues related to the development of the industry have yet to be resolved was discussed at a meeting in the Federation Council on April 5.
Fight against GMOs and a transparent market
The bill on seed production should replace the current law of the same name in 1997, which is significantly outdated. "The new document is designed to radically change the situation in domestic seed production," said Roman Nekrasov, head of the crop production department of the Ministry of Agriculture, at a meeting in the Federation Council on April 5.
The law pursues two major goals: to protect the domestic market from seeds imported from abroad, containing GMOs, and to give impetus to the development of domestic breeding.
“For the revival of domestic seed production, transparency is first of all necessary,” stressed the official of the Ministry of Agriculture. In order to achieve this, the document proposes the creation of a unified seed register, which will become part of the federal state information system (FSIS).
Previously, a new variety of seeds will have to receive a quality certificate, which will reflect their zoning, as well as other indicators of economic efficiency. The fact is that today an extremely unpleasant situation has developed on the Russian seed market associated with the dominance of imported goods, often of extremely low quality. The roots of the problem go back to the 90s, when, taking advantage of the collapse of domestic breeding stations, foreign manufacturers came to our market offering cheap goods of equally low quality.
In crops such as soybeans, corn, sunflowers, potatoes, seed imports are 20 to 80 percent. The worst situation is with sugar beet seeds - 93 percent! At the same time, paying large sums in foreign currency to foreign seed companies annually, our farmers do not receive any guarantees of the germination of the purchased seeds. According to the Rosselkhoznadzor, in batches purchased by domestic agricultural enterprises in 2019, up to 30 percent of the seeds did not meet the declared varietal and sowing qualities. Losses of the agro-industrial complex due to substandard seeds since 2019 amounted to more than 327 million rubles.
The President of Russia and Chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko drew attention to serious problems in domestic seed production. “The current situation does not correspond to the level of a developed agrarian power, which our country claims to be,” Sergei Mitin, First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Agrarian and Food Policy and Environmental Management, recalled her words. He stressed that the development of import substitution in seed production is a priority. "The document developed in the Government generally meets this task, but not all controversial issues have yet been resolved, so work on the bill will continue, and the senators intend to make a number of amendments by the second reading," the senator promised.
Scientists expect a breakthrough
To combat the import of seeds containing GMOs, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Rosselkhoznadzor intend to develop a procedure for the movement of consignments of seeds within the country and control over their circulation. Mandatory requirements will be established for the production, turnover, transportation, storage, use of agricultural seeds. “Control over the content of genetically modified elements in seeds is especially important in the production of organic products and products of green brands. In these sectors, Russia has huge potential and export opportunities, ”said Sergei Belousov, Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Agrarian and Food Policy and Environmental Management.
At the same time, according to the senator, in the field of methods of high-tech control over the content of GMOs, our country is still lagging behind.
According to the head of the Department of the Ministry of Education and Science, Vugar Bagirov, such methods have been developed and have been tested so far only for sugar beet and potato seeds; work is still underway on other crops (there are more than forty of them in the list of the Government).
In addition, new varieties of seeds will be tested in the diagnostic laboratories of variety testing stations, and their capabilities are not great.
“Our variety testing stations determine only the yield of seeds, but there is no possibility of diagnosing even such important qualities as resistance to diseases,” says Vladimir Levunov, chairman of the association of independent seed companies. In his opinion, if in the near future the equipment is not updated at the stations, the introduction of the quality certificate envisaged by the bill will be under threat. Meanwhile, the discussion among experts about exactly what such a certificate should be continues.
Breeders fear for the safety of trade secrets
The quality certificate will contain the following indicators of varietal testing: suitability for climatic conditions, disease resistance, germination, etc. If this or that variety has proven itself well and passed tests on the territory of our country, it will be included in the seed register. The appearance of the register will make it possible to establish state control over the seeds used in the country. In addition, agricultural producers are expected to turn to it in order to protect themselves from counterfeits. Recognizing the advantages of the measures introduced by the bill to achieve transparency of the seed market, a number of experts see negative aspects in additional state regulation.
Breeders are seriously concerned that commercial secrets may be violated at the stage of testing new varieties of seeds. “Selection data can be stolen by foreign competitors,” says Vladimir Levunov.
Arkady Zlochevsky, President of the Russian Grain Union, draws attention to the fact that grading tests themselves are expensive. "They are carried out at the expense of breeding companies, and will cause an increase in the cost of seed material," says Zlochevsky. In his opinion, the danger lies in the fact that the newly developed varieties of domestic seeds will thus not be able to compete in price with imported seeds.
“Farms will continue to buy what is cheaper,” the expert notes. He also noted that one should not everywhere abandon imported seeds in areas where there are no domestic analogues yet. “These and many other issues related to the development of domestic seed production will be resolved in the course of further work both on the draft law and on related documents. By the way, more than forty by-laws are to be prepared, ”reminded Senator Sergei Mitin.