Order of People’s Republic of China (PRC) Ministry of Agriculture (No.4, 2013) Measures for Examination and Approval of Main Crop Varieties
Order of People’s Republic of China (PRC) Ministry of Agriculture
2013 Niandi four number
The measures for the examination and approval of main crop varieties were adopted at the tenth executive meeting of the Ministry of Agriculture on December 18, 2013, and are hereby promulgated and shall come into force as of February 1, 2014. The Measures for the Examination and Approval of Major Crop Varieties promulgated by the Ministry of Agriculture on February 26th, 2001 and revised on November 8th, 2007 shall be abolished at the same time.
Minister Han Changfu
December 27th, 2013
Measures for examination and approval of main crop varieties
Chapter I General Principles
the first In order to scientifically, fairly and timely examine and approve the main crop varieties, these measures are formulated in accordance with the Seed Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) (hereinafter referred to as the Seed Law).
the second These Measures shall apply to the examination and approval of major crop varieties in People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Article The term "main crops" as mentioned in these Measures refers to rice, wheat, corn, cotton, soybeans, rape and potatoes, and other 1-2 crops determined by the administrative department of agriculture of the provincial people’s governments.
Chapter II Variety Approval Committee
Article 4 The Ministry of Agriculture has established the National Crop Variety Approval Committee, which is responsible for the approval of national crop varieties. The agricultural administrative department of the provincial people’s government shall set up a provincial crop variety examination and approval committee, which shall be responsible for the examination and approval of provincial crop varieties.
Article 5 Variety Approval Committee is composed of professionals in scientific research, teaching, production, promotion, management and use. Members should have senior professional and technical titles or positions at or above the division level, generally under the age of 55. The term of office is 5 years.
Variety Approval Committee has 1 director and 2-5 deputy directors.
Article 6 The Variety Approval Committee shall set up an office to be responsible for the daily work of the Variety Approval Committee, with 1 director and 1-2 deputy directors.
Article 7 Variety Approval Committee shall set up professional committees according to crop types, and each professional committee shall be composed of 11-23 people, with 1 director and 1-2 deputy directors.
Article 8 The variety examination and approval committee shall set up a chairman committee, which shall be composed of the director and deputy director of the variety examination and approval committee, the directors of various professional committees and the director of the office.
Chapter III Application and Acceptance
Article 9 Units and individuals applying for variety approval (hereinafter referred to as applicants) may apply directly to the National Crop Variety Approval Committee or the Provincial Crop Variety Approval Committee.
Foreigners, foreign enterprises or other organizations that have no habitual residence or business premises in China apply for variety examination and approval in China, and shall entrust China seed research, production and management institutions with legal person status as agents.
Article 10 Rice, wheat, corn, cotton, soybean, rape and potato varieties shall be examined and approved at the national or provincial level. An applicant may apply for national or provincial examination alone, or both, or apply to several provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government at the same time.
The main crop varieties determined by the administrative department of agriculture of the provincial people’s government shall be examined and approved at the provincial level.
Article 11 Varieties applying for examination and approval shall meet the following conditions:
(a) artificial breeding or discovery and improvement.
(2) It is obviously different from the existing varieties (other varieties that have been approved or accepted by the variety approval committee at the corresponding level).
(3) The genetic traits are stable.
(4) The morphological characteristics and biological characteristics are consistent.
(5) Having a name that conforms to the Regulations on Naming Agricultural Plant Varieties.
(six) have completed more than 2 years of multi-point variety comparison test in the same ecological type area. Among them, the application for national variety approval, rice, wheat, corn variety comparison test of not less than 20 points per year, cotton, soybean, rape, potato variety comparison test of not less than 10 points per year, or have a provincial variety approval test results report; To apply for provincial variety approval, the comparative test of rice, wheat and corn varieties shall be no less than 10 points per year, and the comparative test of cotton, soybean, rape, potato and major crop varieties determined at the provincial level shall be no less than 5 points per year.
If the applicant commits fraud, bribery and other improper acts in the process of applying for variety approval, his application will not be accepted within three years; If a crime is constituted, criminal responsibility shall be investigated according to law.
Article 12 To apply for variety approval, the following materials shall be submitted to the office of the Variety Approval Committee:
(1) An application form, including crop species and variety names (written guarantee that the applied variety names are consistent with the names used in the new variety rights of agricultural plants and the safety evaluation of agricultural genetically modified organisms); Name, address, postal code, contact person, telephone number, fax number and nationality of the applicant; Variety breeding units or individuals (hereinafter referred to as breeders) and other content.
(2) Variety breeding report, including parental combination and parental consanguinity, breeding method, generation and characteristic description of hybrid; Description of characteristics of varieties (including hybrid parents), standard pictures, suggested test areas and cultivation points; Main defects of varieties and problems that should be paid attention to.
(3) Variety comparison test report, including test purpose, test varieties, test design, undertaker, resistance identification, quality analysis, yield results, data of each test site and summary results, etc.
(four) varieties and application materials authenticity commitment.
(5) A report on genetically modified organisms.
(six) genetically modified cotton varieties should also provide agricultural genetically modified organisms safety certificate.
Article 13 The office of the Variety Approval Committee shall make a decision on acceptance or rejection within 60 days after receiving the application, and notify the applicant in writing.
In accordance with the provisions of Article 11 and Article 12 of these Measures, it shall be accepted, and the applicant shall be notified to provide test seeds within 30 days. For those who provide test seeds, the office will arrange variety tests. Failing to provide experimental seeds within the time limit shall be deemed to have withdrawn the application.
Those that do not conform to the provisions of Articles 11 and 12 of these Measures shall not be accepted. The applicant may state his opinions or make amendments to the application materials within 60 days after receiving the notice. If he fails to state his opinions or make amendments within the time limit, he shall be deemed to have withdrawn his application. If the amendment still does not meet the requirements, the application shall be rejected.
Article 14 The office of the Variety Approval Committee shall take standard samples from the test seeds provided by the applicant and hand them over to the designated institution of the Ministry of Agriculture for preservation.
Chapter IV Variety Test
Article 15 Variety test includes the following contents:
(1) Regional test;
(2) production test;
(3) Variety specificity, consistency and stability test (hereinafter referred to as DUS test).
Varieties that have passed the provincial examination and approval and have the test data of more than 10 production test sites in the same ecological type area of neighboring provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government for two years may be exempted from regional tests and production tests when applying for national examination and approval.
Specific test methods shall be formulated and promulgated by the Variety Approval Committee.
Article 16 National variety regional test and production test are organized and implemented by the National Agricultural Technology Extension Service Center, while provincial variety regional test and production test are organized and implemented by provincial seed management institutions.
DUS testing is organized and implemented by the New Plant Variety Testing Center of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Article 17 Regional trials should identify agronomic traits such as high yield, stable yield, adaptability, stress resistance and quality of varieties, and carry out DNA fingerprint detection and transgenic detection.
The regional test of each variety takes no less than two production cycles, and the test is repeated no less than three times; There are not less than 10 experimental sites in the same ecological type area at the national level and not less than 5 at the provincial level.
Article 18 DUS test should be synchronized with regional test and carried out according to the requirements of corresponding crop test guidelines.
Article 19 The production test should further verify the high yield, stable yield, adaptability and stress resistance of varieties under the conditions close to field production in the same ecological type area after the regional test is completed.
The number of production test points of each variety is not less than that of regional test points, the planting area of a test point is not less than 300 square meters and not more than 3000 square meters, and the test time is not less than one production cycle.
Article 20 The control varieties of regional test and production test should be approved varieties popularized and applied in the same ecological type area at the same time, which have good representativeness.
The control varieties are put forward by the organization and implementation unit of variety test, confirmed by the relevant professional committees of the variety examination and approval committee, and replaced in time according to the needs of agricultural production development.
The provincial crop variety examination and approval committee shall report the reference varieties of provincial regional tests and production tests to the National Crop Variety Examination and Approval Committee for the record.
Article 21 The undertaking unit of regional test and production test shall have the qualification of independent legal person, with corresponding test land, equipment and technicians.
Technical personnel of variety test shall have college degree or above or intermediate professional title, more than 3 years working experience in variety test, and receive relevant technical training regularly.
Identification of stress resistance, quality testing, DNA fingerprinting and transgenic testing shall be undertaken by the testing institutions designated by the Variety Approval Committee.
Article 22 The organization and implementation unit of the variety test shall, jointly with the office of the Variety Approval Committee, regularly organize the variety test inspection, check the test quality, appraise the performance of the test varieties, and form an inspection report.
Article 23 The organization and implementation unit of variety test shall hold a summary meeting of variety test within 60 days after the end of each production cycle. The professional committee of the Variety Approval Committee shall determine whether to terminate the test, continue the test and submit it for approval according to the test summary results and test investigation, and the office of the Variety Approval Committee shall notify the applicant of the variety treatment results in time.
Article 24 Seed enterprises that combine breeding, production and operation with a registered capital of 100 million yuan can carry out regional tests and production tests of their own varieties when applying for national examination and approval of major crop varieties. The test scheme shall be reported to the Office of the National Crop Variety Examination and Approval Committee for confirmation within 60 days before sowing, and the test conditions and standards shall not be lower than the requirements of national regional tests and production tests, and shall accept the variety test inspection as stipulated in Article 22 of these Measures. Specific measures shall be formulated and promulgated by the National Crop Variety Approval Committee.
Chapter V Examination, Approval and Announcement
Article 25 For varieties that have completed the regional test, production test and DUS test procedures, the organization and implementation unit of variety test shall submit the data and summary results of each test point to the office of the Variety Approval Committee within 60 days.
Where the varieties specified in the second paragraph of Article 15 of these Measures apply for national-level examination and approval, the breeder shall submit the provincial-level examination and approval certificate, a copy of the examination and approval announcement, the summary report of the production test conducted by the breeder himself and the DUS test report to the office of the National Crop Variety Examination and Approval Committee.
The office of the Variety Approval Committee shall submit the preliminary examination to the relevant professional committee of the Variety Approval Committee within 30 days, and the professional committee shall complete the preliminary examination within 60 days.
Article 26 In the preliminary examination of varieties, all professional committees shall hold a plenary meeting, and the meeting shall be valid if the members present at the meeting reach more than two-thirds of the total number of members of the professional Committee. In the preliminary examination of varieties, according to the examination and approval standards, a secret ballot is adopted, and varieties with more than half of the votes in favor of the total number of members of the professional Committee pass the preliminary examination.
Article 27 The first instance implements the avoidance system. The withdrawal of the director of the professional committee shall be decided by the office of the Variety Approval Committee; The withdrawal of other members shall be decided by the director of the professional Committee.
Article 28 The varieties that have passed the preliminary examination shall be publicized on the official website of the agricultural administrative department at the same level by the office of the Variety Approval Committee within 30 days, and the preliminary examination opinions and the data and summary results of each pilot test shall be publicized for a period of not less than 60 days.
Article 29 After the expiration of the publicity period, the office of the Variety Approval Committee shall submit the preliminary examination opinions and publicity results to the chairman of the Variety Approval Committee for review. The chairman’s committee shall complete the audit within 30 days. If it is approved by the examination, it will pass the examination and approval.
Article 30 Approved varieties shall be numbered and issued certificates by the Variety Approval Committee, and announced by the competent agricultural administrative department at the same level.
Before the announcement, the agricultural administrative department of the provincial people’s government shall report the variety name and other information to the Ministry of Agriculture for publicity.
Article 31 The approval number is the abbreviation of the approval committee, the abbreviation of crop species, the year number and the serial number, in which the serial number is three digits.
Article 32 The contents of the approval announcement include: approval number, variety name, applicant, breeder, variety source, morphological characteristics, growth period, yield, quality, stress resistance, key points of cultivation techniques, suitable planting area and matters needing attention.
The announcement of provincial variety approval shall be reported to the National Crop Variety Approval Committee for the record within 30 days after its release.
The variety name announced in the examination and approval announcement is the common name of the variety. It is forbidden to change the generic name of this variety without authorization in the process of production, management and promotion.
Article 33 The contents of the approval certificate include: approval number, variety name, applicant, breeder, variety source, approval opinion, announcement number and certificate number.
Article 34 For varieties that fail to pass the examination and approval, the office of the Variety Examination and Approval Committee shall notify the applicant in writing within 30 days. If the applicant disagrees with the examination and approval results, he may, within 30 days from the date of receiving the notice, apply to the original variety examination and approval committee for review. The Variety Approval Committee shall review the reasons for review, the original approval documents and the original approval procedures during the next approval meeting. If the office of the Variety Approval Committee deems it necessary, it may arrange a variety test in a production cycle before the review.
The office of the Variety Approval Committee shall notify the applicant in writing of the review results within 30 days after the review.
Article 35 The standards for variety approval of rice, wheat, corn, cotton, soybean, rape and potato shall be formulated by the National Crop Variety Approval Committee.
The standards for variety approval of major crops determined by the provincial agricultural administrative department shall be formulated by the provincial crop variety approval committee and reported to the national crop variety approval committee for the record.
The formulation of variety approval standards shall be publicly solicited.
Chapter VI Variety Exit
Article 36 The varieties that have passed the examination and approval shall be withdrawn under any of the following circumstances:
(a) found in the process of using insurmountable shortcomings;
(2) The species is seriously degraded;
(3) Failing to provide standard samples of varieties as required.
Article 37 The varieties to be withdrawn shall be put forward by the office of the Variety Approval Committee after soliciting the opinions of breeders or variety owners in writing, and shall be publicized on the official website of the agricultural administrative department at the same level after preliminary examination by the professional Committee for a period of not less than 60 days.
After the expiration of the publicity period, the office of the Variety Approval Committee shall submit the preliminary examination opinions and publicity results to the chairman of the Variety Approval Committee for review, and the chairman shall complete the review within 30 days. If the audit agrees to withdraw, it shall be announced by the administrative department of agriculture at the same level.
Article 38 The varieties announced for withdrawal shall stop production from the date of announcement of withdrawal, and stop operation and promotion after one production cycle of announcement of withdrawal. If the Variety Approval Committee deems it necessary, it may decide to stop the operation and promotion from the date of the announcement of withdrawal.
The announcement of the withdrawal of provincial varieties shall be reported to the National Crop Variety Approval Committee for the record within 30 days after its release.
Chapter VII Supervision and Administration
Article 39 The units and staff of variety testing and approval shall have the obligation to keep confidential the business secrets of the applicant learned in the process of testing and approval, and shall not provide the seeds applied for variety approval or seek illegal interests.
Article 40 If the unit undertaking the variety test practices fraud, it shall be disqualified from undertaking the variety test, and the administrative responsibility and civil liability of the unit and its relevant responsible persons shall be investigated according to law; If a crime is constituted, criminal responsibility shall be investigated according to law.
Article 41 Those who practise fraud, engage in malpractices for selfish ends, abuse their powers, neglect their duties and ask for bribes shall be given administrative sanctions according to law; If a crime is constituted, criminal responsibility shall be investigated according to law.
Chapter VIII Supplementary Provisions
Article 42 Major crop varieties approved at the provincial level may be introduced in the same suitable ecological zone in the neighboring provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government with the consent of the agricultural administrative departments of the people’s governments of the neighboring provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, but the introduction test shall be carried out in the promotion area first to prove its applicability.
Article 43 The funds needed for crop variety approval and variety test shall be included in the special financial budget of the agricultural administrative department at the same level, and shall not be charged to the applicant.
Article 44 The examination and approval of silkworm varieties shall be carried out with reference to these measures.
Measures for the examination and approval of varieties of genetically modified crops (excluding genetically modified cotton) shall be formulated separately.
Article 45 These Measures shall come into force as of February 1, 2014, and the Measures for the Examination and Approval of Major Crop Varieties promulgated by the Ministry of Agriculture on February 26, 2001 and revised on November 8, 2007 shall be abolished at the same time.