Seed Law of the People's Republic of China (Revised in 2015)
Seed Law of the People's Republic of China (Revised in 2015)
Seed Law of the People's Republic of China (Revised in 2015)
Order of the President of the People's Republic of China No.35
November 4, 2015
The Seed Law of the People's Republic of China, as revised and adopted by the 17th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress of People's Republic of China on November 4, 2015, is hereby issued and shall take effect as of January 1, 2016.
Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China
Seed Law of the People's Republic of China (Revised in 2015)
(Adopted at the 16th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress on July 8, 2000; amended for the first time according to the Decision on Revising the Seed Law of the People's Republic of China at the 11th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Tenth National People's Congress on August 28, 2004; amended for the second time according to the Decision on Revising 12 Laws including the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics at the Third Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress on June 29, 2013; and revised at the 17th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress on November 4, 2015)
Contents
Chapter I General Provisions
Chapter II Protection of Germplasm Resources
Chapter III Selection, Cultivation, Verification and Registration of Varieties
Chapter IV Protection of New Varieties
Chapter V Seed Production and Business Operation
Chapter VI Supervision and Regulation on Seeds
Chapter VII Import and Export of Seeds and Foreign Cooperation
Chapter IX Legal Responsibility
Chapter X Supplementary Provisions
Chapter I General Provisions
Article 1 The Seed Law of the People's Republic of China (Revised in 2015) (hereinafter referred to as the "Law") is enacted in order to protect and make rational use of germplasm resources, regulate the variety selection and cultivation, and the production of, trading in and management of seeds, protect the rights in new plant varieties, safeguard the lawful rights and interests of seed breeders, traders in seed and seed users, improve seed quality, drive the industrialization of the seed sector, develop modern seed industry, ensure national food security and facilitate the development of agriculture and forestry.
Article 2 The Law applies to the activities such as variety selection and cultivation, production of, trading in, use and management of seeds engaged in within the territory of the People's Republic of China..
For the purpose of the Law, the term "seed" refers to the materials used for planting or propagating "crops" and "forest trees", including grains, fruits, roots, stems, seedlings, buds, leaves and flowers.
Article 3 The competent agriculture and forestry departments under the State Council shall be respectively in charge of the work involving crop seeds and forest tree seeds nationwide. The competent agriculture and forestry departments of the local people's government at or above the county level shall respectively take charge of the work of crop seeds and forest tree seeds within their respective administrative regions.
The people's government at all levels and relevant departments thereof shall take measures to strengthen the seed law enforcement and supervision, and sanction seed-related illegal behaviors that infringe upon farmers' rights and interests in accordance with the law.
Article 4 The State supports the protection of germplasm resources, and the selection, cultivation, production, rebirth and popularization of improved seeds. The State encourages the combination of seed selection and breeding and seed production and operation, and rewards any person/entity who/that has a good performance in the work of germplasm resource protection, improved seed selection, breeding and popularization.
Article 5 The people's government at or above the provincial level shall make development plans of seed industry in accordance with the Guidelines of Making Use of Science and Education to Improve Agriculture, and based on the demands for the development of the agriculture and forestry, and organize the implementation of the plans.
Article 6 The people's government at or above the provincial level shall establish a reserve system of seeds to meet the demand of production and surplus and deficiency regulating in the event of a calamity so as to ensure the production safety of agriculture and forestry. The reserved seeds shall be checked and replaced on a regular basis. The State Council shall provide detailed measures for the seed reserves.
Article 7 A safety assessment shall be carried out for the selection, breeding, trial, examination, approval and popularization of transgene plant varieties and strict safety control measures shall be adopted. The competent agriculture and forestry departments under the State Council shall enhance the tracking and supervision and release the information on examination, approval and popularization of transgene plant varieties in a timely manner. The State Council shall provide the specific measures.
Chapter II Protection of Germplasm Resources
Article 8 The State protects germplasm resources according to the law. No individual or entity may take or destroy germplasm resources.
Wild germplasm resources are also subject to the special protection by the State, and shall be prohibited from gathering or cutting. In special cases, such as scientific research, where it is necessary to collect or fell, the collection or felling shall be subject to the approval of the competent agriculture and forestry departments under the State Council, or of the people's governments of the provinces, autonomous regions or municipalities directly under the Central Government.
Article 9 The State censuses, collects, sorts out, appraises, records, conserves, exchanges and uses germplasm resources in a planned way, and regularly releases the catalogue of available germplasm resources. The competent agriculture and forestry departments under the State Council shall provide specific measures.
Article 10 The competent agriculture and forestry departments under the State Council shall establish the germplasm-resource databases, germplasm-resource protection zones or germplasm-resource protection areas. The competent agriculture and forestry departments of the people's governments of the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government may establish the germplasm-resource databases, germplasm-resource protection zones or germplasm-resource protection areas as needed. The germplasm resources of germplasm-resource databases, germplasm-resource protection zones or germplasm-resource protection areas belong to public resources and shall be opened and utilized according to the law.
The approval of the original establishing authority is required for the occupation of any germplasm-resource database, germplasm-resource protection zone or germplasm-resource protection area.
Article 11 The State has sovereignty over germplasm resources. Where any entity or individual provides germplasm resources for foreign countries or carries out cooperation with overseas organizations or individuals in studying and using germplasm resources, the entity or individual shall file an application with the competent agriculture and forestry departments under the people's government of the relevant province, autonomous region or municipality directly under the Central Government and submit the scheme sharing benefits with the State; the competent agriculture and forestry departments accepting the application will report it to the competent agriculture and forestry departments under the State Council for approval after the review.
The introduction of overseas germplasm resources into China shall be handled according the relevant provisions of the competent agriculture and forestry departments under the State Council.
Chapter III Selection, Verification and Registration of Varieties
Article 12 The State supports scientific research institutions, colleges and universities to focus on the basic and frontier research on applied technology for breeding, the study on breeding of conventional crop, main afforestation species and vegetative propagation materials, and other nonprofit researches.
The State encourages seed enterprises to take full use of results of nonprofit researches, cultivate fine varieties with proprietary intellectual property; to build the technology research and development platform with scientific research institutions, colleges and universities, and establish the technology innovation system of seed industry which integrates the industry-university-research cooperation, takes the market as the orientation and capital as the link, shares interests and bears risks together.
The State strengthens the building of the scientific and technological innovation capacity of seed industry, accelerates the commercialization of research findings of seed industry and safeguards legal rights and interests of scientific and technical personnel in seed industry.
Article 13 The patent for invention of breeding and the right of new plant variety generated due to the support of financial fund shall be obtained by the undertaker of the authorized project in accordance with the law, except for those involving the national security, national interests and major public interests.
The transfer, permission and other activities related to breeding achievements which are generated mainly due to the support of financial fund shall be conducted in public according to the law and such achievements shall not be traded in private.
Article 14 If the individual and/or entity's income reduces due to the case that the competent forestry department establishes testing forests, trial forests, excellent tree collection areas or gene bases for the purpose of selecting and cultivating improved forest tree seeds, the competent forestry department that approves the establishment shall provide economic compensation in accordance with relevant national provisions.
Article 15 The State implements the variety examination and approval system for main crops and forest trees. The varieties of main crops and forest trees shall pass the national or provincial examination and receive the approval before the popularization. The main forest tree varieties determined by the competent forestry departments of the people's governments of the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall be subject to the provincial examination and approval.
Varieties for which the examination and approval is applied shall conform to the requirements of specificity, consistency and stability.
The measures for examination and approval of the main crop and forest tree varieties are stipulated by the competent agriculture and forestry departments under the State Council. The measures for examination and approval shall embody the principles of equity, publicity, science and efficiency and be conducive to the improvement and coordination of production volume, quality, resistance and etc. and to the popularization of varieties that meet the demands of markets and living consumption. Opinions of breeders, users of seeds, producers, operators and relevant industrial representatives shall be fully listened to while the measures for examination and approval are formulated or revised.
Article 16 The competent agriculture and forestry departments under the State Council and under the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall respectively set up the examination and approval committee for crop and forest tree varieties that is consisted of specialized persons. The varieties examination and approval committee will undertake the examination and approval of main crop and forest tree varieties, establish the examination and approval files with contents including application documents, test data for variety examination and approval, seed samples, opinions and conclusions on examination and approval to ensure the traceability thereof. Relevant information on varieties which have passed the examination and received the approval that is released according to the law shall include the examination and approval opinions and be under the supervision.
The variety examination and approval shall be subject to the avoidance system.
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