Villagers transplant watermelon seedlings at a planting base in Gaochong Village of Neijiang City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Feb. 11, 2022.(Photo: Xinhua)

China will strengthen regulation on seed production and operation, in order to create a healthy and orderly environment for the domestic biobreeding industrialization, according to a regulatory plan on agricultural genetically modified organisms (GMOs) by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on Monday.

According to the plan, the ministry will ramp up regulation on seed production bases and seedbed-like fields, implementing more frequent testing during the seedling stage, in a bid to prevent the production of illegal genetically modified seeds.

Moreover, the ministry will strengthen the sampling of genetically modified components during seed processing, and strictly punish illegal processing, so as to prevent the illegal seeds from entering the market.

The plan also states that the ministry will improve the management and step up the validation of genetically modified varieties including soybean, corn and cotton.

The ministry noted that it will strengthen the review of foreign traders, domestic traders and processing enterprises, strictly prohibiting the change of use of imported agricultural GMOs, to ensure that all will be used for raw material processing.
 
China has always placed a priority on ensuring food security. On February 22, China's central authorities released the No.1 central document, an important indicator of policy priorities for the year, vowing to ensure food security by holding the people's rice bowl firmly in its own hands.

As part of efforts to ensure food self-sufficiency, a push for breakthroughs in key agricultural technologies such as seed sources is among the key takeaways of the policy document. 

The country's action plan for vitalizing the seed sector would be implemented in a comprehensive way, per the document, pledging to strengthen intellectual property rights protection in the seed sector, among other moves to advance progress on agricultural seed sources.

Global Times