The Current Situation of and Future Tasks for the Marketization of Rice Variety Improvement in China

Abstract

This study aims to find the reasons the government shifted the rice breeding from national control to market mechanism and explore the impact and future tasks of the marketization of rice variety improvement in China. From interviews and a review of related materials, I find that overproduction of rice, reduction of labor and arable land, and disasters are related to the marketization of rice variety improvement. The changes in breeding targets and the increasing numbers of new varieties show us that marketization promotes rice variety improvement. However, the high breeding risk, including high costs, significant amount of time, and difficulty in accessing the parent material for rice breeding, prompts seed companies to purchase varieties from institutions rather than breed varieties by themselves. Therefore, the government needs to make further changes to the policy to provide a better breeding environment and clarify the leaders between public institutions and private seed companies.