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Dr. Jagveer S.
Sindhu - The Asia and Pacific Seed Association |
October 2002 |
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What are the
main issues facing the seed industry in the Asia and Pacific
region? Which ones do you see as being specific to the region?
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The main
issues facing the seed industry today include:
- Increasingly difficult access to
available germplasm due to uncertainty on IPR issues.
- Phytosanitary regulations being
used as non-transfer barriers, often clogging the free flow
of seed at the transnational level. This causes problems in
seed availability in the markets that have the greatest
need.
- Seed quality assurance needs to be
improved to meet world standards.
- Seed regulations with regards to
PVP patents are not ready in several countries in the
region, as a result of which seed trading is not expanding
at the desired rate.
- Inadequate investment in agbiotech
and poor information on IPR issues, may be critical for the
adoption of GMO seeds.
Due to economic disparities among
countries in the region, these issues are not important for
many governments. In such countries, the replacement of O. P.
seed and land races by hybrid seed (F1) is the most important
concern. All other issues are of no immediate concern.
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