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The Seed
Industry: Today and Tomorrow
The seed industry
is an ever-changing force in agriculture. From the beginnings
of agriculture until the most recent advances in biotechnology,
farmers and consumers have relied on seeds to support and
sustain themselves. This essay will explain the driving forces
of the seed industry and how it has become more important to
agriculture. It will also explore the role that cooperatives
play in shaping the industry.
In order to
explain how the seed industry has become more important in
agriculture, we must first look at its role in the past.
Formerly, most producers would save their seed from year to
year. Now, new seed is usually purchased for each planting.
One reason for this is that much of the seed sold today loses
some of its yield potential if it is saved from a previous
harvest. According to the USDA website’s report on the seed
industry, average yields of 20 bushels of corn per acre were
prevalent in 1930. By 1990, 140 bushels of corn per acre was
considered average. In the past five years, that number has
jumped considerably with many regions having 200+ bushels per
acre on average. We can see that not only has the amount of
seed purchased increased, but the average yields for corn as
well as soybeans, cotton, wheat, and other crops have increased
greatly.
Yield potential
will need to continue to increase in order to meet the needs of
an increasing world population. Some of the main forces driving
this increase and the future of the entire seed industry are the
advances made in the field of biotechnology. Using genetic
modification techniques has enabled farmers to grow crops with a
multitude of desirable traits. Crops that are resistant to
insects, diseases, temperature extremes or herbicides are
usually developed by private companies. These private companies
invest huge amounts of money into research and development
projects. The introduction of plant variety protection (PVP)
certificates has led private companies to invest more money in
developing new products. A PVP certificate gives the rights of
selling a certain product to the developer of that product.
This helps to guarantee profits for that developer on their
product. Many new advances in biotechnology and the seed
industry can be foreseen as the need for more profitable crops
and higher yields continues to grow.
As more and more
new products enter the market, small and large farming
operations need somewhere to turn to keep up to date on the
latest advances. This is where the role of cooperatives becomes
important. A cooperative is essentially a business that is
owned by its customers. The people who use the many services
that cooperatives provide are also the ones who receive extra
profits from the cooperative in the form of dividends.
Cooperatives began to flourish in the Great Depression when
farmers had to pull together in order to turn a profit. Today,
agricultural cooperatives offer everything from seed to
equipment to good advice. Cooperatives offer farmers assistance
with production management, including seed selection and
purchasing. A cooperative employee may help a farmer perform
fertility tests and decide what fertilizers or pesticides need
to be applied to maximize yield. Cooperatives provide producers
with a way to share costs of expensive equipment. They help
producers market their crops and make a profit. Cooperatives
empower today’s farmers by bringing them new technologies
essential for competing in today’s markets.
In conclusion, we
can see how the seed industry has changed and become more
important to agriculture. We have explored some of the factors
that continue to drive the future of the seed industry and can
see how today’s cooperatives allow producers to access the
technologies that shape their industry. The seed industry is an
ever-changing and ever-present force in agriculture of today and
tomorrow.
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