Proceedings of the Fifth Asian Regional Maize Workshop - Search ...

egions which do not allow a sufficient profit to interest the private
sector (usually these farmers are located in marginal production regions)
providing special trait materials (e.g., materials with resistance
to specific abiotic and biotic stresses) that require a considerable
investment in plant breeding over time and that enhance the
stability and social benefits from private sector hybrids developed from
using these special trait populations.
providing information (based on multilocational testing) about yields
and other traits of private sector hybrids.
Other potential roles of the public sector are more controversial. Possible activities
include:
evaluation and approval for release of private sector hybrids.
Although responsibility for this important function is usually
assigned to government-appointed varietal certification boards or
agencies, in cases where public breeding programs are seen as competing
with the private sector, government-appointed agencies often are
charged of favoring materials produced by public breeding programs and
discriminating against materials submitted by private companies.
charging royalties for the use of public sector inbreds and hybrids.
some countries in Latin America are now actively experimenting with
this approach, but there is a danger that a "profit driven" public sector
will target its research to compete with the private sector, rather than
playa complementary role as discussed above.
implementation of IPR legislation to provide greater protection to
private sector R&D. Intellectual property rights are more important in
mature seed industries than in emerging industries and may be
especially important in facilitating the transition to single-cross
hybrids. However, the real importance of IPR laws is not that they
stimulate investment by the private sector in R&D, but rather that they
facilitate the transfer of new technologies from other countries
(especially technologies produced using biotechnology methods).
4.3 Structuring incentives to ensure satisfactory market performance
In order to establish and maintain competitive hybrid seed industries in Asia, it
will be necessary to balance a number of conflicting goals. Policies will have to be
enacted which enable large seed companies to protect their products and thus generate
reasonable returns to their R&D investment, while at the same time allowing small seed
companies to remain in the market as active players. By implication, public breeding
programs will have to concentrate on the development of basic germplasm (improved populations
and inbred lines). A major challenge will be to devise policies which provide fair
access to this basic germplasm to all potential users. Although some have argued that
small seed companies need special assistance in the form of preferential access to
germplasm produced by public breeding programs, administrators of public programs probably
do not want to get involved in attempting to provide access to one set of companies while
denying access to another, because of the difficulties inherent in enforcing any sort of
discriminatory germplasm distribution policy.
While it may be true that large seed companies can sometimes capture economies of
scale, allowing them to operate more efficiently than small companies, policy makers
should not be unduly influenced by the exaggerated rhetoric heard in many countries
alleging that large companies will inevitably come to monopolize the market. In attempting
to assess the competitiveness of the seed industry, it is important to establish appropriate
performance measures. The fact that a small number of firms may be present in a given
market does not necessarily indicate poor performance, as long as the firms compete. In
this respect, it is instructive to look to the experience of the USA and the Ee, where
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