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confirmed that the AFSTA Annual Congress 2012 will be held in Tanzania next March.
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China’s seed industry is experiencing massive growth. This spring, China’s Vice Premier Hui Liangyu urged local governments to give top priority to establishing a modern seed industry in order to promote the stable development of the country’s agriculture sector and ensure food security. Relevant local authorities should include breeding highquality seeds in their efforts to boost agricultural innovation and develop a modern agricultural system, Liangyu said at a national work conference on developing a modern seed industry held in Changsha, the capital city of central China’s Hunan Province. “All regions and departments concerned should step up efforts to accelerate the seed industry’s modernization and strive to transition from a traditional seed industry to a modern one,” he said. He called for increased efforts to advance technical innovation in breeding top-quality seeds, promote seed enterprises’
competitiveness through mergers and restructuring, strengthen policy support to ensure seed supplies, and enhance seed market supervision.
industry is the capital that is invested in research. Research investments are generally long-term, and many require significant amounts of capital resources and entail large risks.
Meanwhile, the Asian and Pacific Seed Association announced that Japan, which was to host this year’s Asian Seed Conference, was forced to cancel due to the recent earthquake and tsunami. The conference was to be held in November.
The Seed Association of the Americas is a nongovernmental organization that fully represents the interests of the seed industry within countries in South, Central and North America. SAA has many projects and workshops in progress to educate and support development, marketing and free movement of seed within the Americas.
The statement also claims that the level of investment in the seed industry is directly related to the effectiveness of the intellectual property protection available. In order to attract the size and scope of investment necessary to develop improved products, whether they are varietal, hybrid or from biotechnology, investors must have the opportunity to earn competitive returns on their original investments. SAA members, therefore, are unanimously in favor of a strong intellectual property protection system, which will ensure an acceptable return on research investment, and encourage further research efforts in plant breeding.
Intellectual Property SAA distributed an official statement on IP in December 2010. SAA recognizes that the protection of intellectual property rights is essential for the sound development of the seed industry in the Americas. One of the key drivers of innovation within any
Phytosanitary The second workshop on phytosanitary measures organized by SAA was held at Montevideo, Uruguay in September 2010. Directors and high-level officials from five COSAVE countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay),
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plus all North American Plant Protection Organization members, as well as the executive directors from both NAPPO and COSAVE, a representative from Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, a number of specialized industry staff from different countries of the continent, the International Seed Federation, the Centre for Agricultural BioscienceInternational and SAA participated in the workshop. During the workshop, 27 speakers covering 11 important topics discussed their points-of-view related to seed trade and how phytosanitary regulations affect it. A general consensus emerged that there is a new trend in trading seeds worldwide that includes increased quantities, multiple destinations and reexports. These factors were identified as the “new seed paradigm of trade.” The third Seed Congress of the Americas will take place September 28-29, 2011 in Santiago de Chile.
Proud main sPonsor of the isf world seed congress 2011 meet us there or learn more about us at www.isf2011.bayercroPscience.com