The Seed Quality Assurance Regulations and Certification System in Soybean Production—A Chinese and International Perspective

Shwu-Pyng Joanna Chen, Man-Wah Li, Ho-Yan Wong, Fuk-Ling Wong, Tingting Wu, Junyi Gai, Tianfu Han and Hon-Ming Lam
Additional contact information
Shwu-Pyng Joanna Chen: School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China
Man-Wah Li: School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China
Ho-Yan Wong: School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China
Fuk-Ling Wong: School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China
Tingting Wu: MARA Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology (Beijing), Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Junyi Gai: National Center for Soybean Improvement, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Tianfu Han: MARA Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology (Beijing), Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Hon-Ming Lam: School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 5, 1-14

Abstract: Soybean is an important and valuable crop for global food and feed supply, providing high-quality nutrition. Globally, five countries—namely Brazil, the USA, Argentina, China and India—have dominated soybean production for many years. The intention of this paper is to review the reasons for their dominance, starting with seeds. High-quality seeds enable stress-free, high-density and even planting of soybean in the field. Seed quality assurance is essential for the successful expansion of soybean cultivation. The aim of this review is to compare and contrast the factors impacting soybean seed production in these top five soybean-producing countries, including the situations at different stages of the supply chain; research and development on new soybean varieties; and regulations, rules and quality assurance systems (seed testing, certification and labeling). Since the soybean supply chain involves many different operating parties, principles and practices, efforts on different fronts need to be well coordinated by a central authority to ensure successful production. Recently, China has implemented a revised national “Seed Law”. The possible impacts of this new legal framework on soybean seed development and trading in China are also discussed. The strengthened China Seed law to protect resources and encourage variety innovation, as well as the clearer China GM soybean commercial release policy, implies future soybean cultivation expansion with elite varieties. A continuous global production increase will require every party’s compliance to the sustainability principles.

Keywords: soybean; seed standard; seed certification; seed law; cultivar registration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/5/624/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/5/624/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:12:y:2022:i:5:p:624-:d:803627

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().