"Russia sets new standards: how the seed breeding law improves the quality of domestic seeds and supports business"

In the Russian Federation, there are laws aimed at implementing their own seed farming and using domestic breeding material. Targeted financing and the work of scientists in this field are also provided for.

In 2023, a federal law on seed farming was adopted to improve the mechanisms for developing this sector, increase the quality of domestic seeds, and create favorable conditions for business development in this area.

The law introduced new concepts: "domestic breeding" is an activity carried out in Russia, and "special seed farming zones" are regions that determine favorable zones for seed farming themselves and provide plots for scientists and entrepreneurs in this field. In addition, the law allows for the protection of the rights of domestic seed farmers and the expansion of state support measures in this direction.

Creating favorable conditions for domestic breeding and seed farming is one of the priority tasks of the Ministry of Agriculture. In the medium term, the aim is to increase seed self-sufficiency in Russia to 75% in accordance with the threshold value of the food security doctrine, and then raise this level to around 90%.

As part of this, a transparent procedure for the operation of foreign companies in the domestic market is planned to be established, encouraging them to relocate production and research activities to Russia. In this direction, new rules for localizing seed production have already come into effect on September 1, 2023.

These rules will strengthen the positions of domestic breeders and seed farmers and protect the domestic market from unfair actions by foreign players. The issues of breeding and genetics are addressed by both Russian universities and world-class scientific and educational centers created by the decree of the President of the Russian Federation.

For example, the Eurasian Scientific and Educational Center in the Republic of Bashkortostan is implementing the project "Breeding, genetic, and molecular-cellular technologies in animal husbandry and plant breeding." The Center for Progressive Technologies in Genetics and Embryology was established at the Bashkir State Agrarian University (BSAU) with financial support from the business. This Center is the largest in Russia and its main goal is to increase productivity and reduce dependence on the import of breeding stock from abroad by developing unique methods of genetic control and using the offspring of breeding animals in crossbreeding.

The Center is developing technologies for the production of embryos of dairy cattle breeds with high genetic potential, increased productivity, and fully adapted to local conditions. The obtained embryos will accelerate the reproduction of high-yielding animals, and the genetic passport guarantees the quality of the offspring. The Center plans to produce 20 thousand embryos per year for subsequent sale on domestic and foreign markets. BSAU also cooperates with entrepreneurs in the republic working in the field of public catering and semi-finished products manufacturing.

The Ufa Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, based on a structural unit of the Bashkir Research Institute of Agriculture, is involved in the development of more than 235 varieties of agricultural crops, including short-stem varieties of winter rye, valuable pea varieties, grape varieties adapted to regions north of the 55th parallel, as well as dairy and meat breeds of horses.

Employees of the farms of two breeding centers of the Russian Academy of Sciences are actively solving the issues of import substitution of seeds of agricultural crops previously purchased abroad. Scientific departments located in all soil and climatic zones enable the development of scientifically substantiated recommendations and technologies for the production of agricultural crops taking into account local conditions, contributing to the food security of the republic and the country as a whole.

Under one of the three priority areas of the Baikal Scientific and Educational Center – "Agrobiopharmtechnologies" – technological projects are being implemented in Siberia to ensure food security, increase crop yields, use bioresources, and introduce environmentally friendly technologies. Agricultural scientific institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences and agrarian universities of the Irkutsk region and the Republic of Buryatia, in collaboration with industrial partners, are addressing several key tasks. In particular, the breeding and mass use of mid-early and mid-ripening varieties of spring cereals are being carried out, as well as the development of seed farming technologies for growing vegetable crops in risky farming conditions, which should contribute to the development of seed farming programs in unfavorable regions of the country where there are difficulties in growing seed potatoes. In addition, "Baikal" is involved in the breeding of valuable breeds of agricultural animals.

An interesting project is the use of industrial hemp as a renewable bioresource. In the Buryat Agricultural Academy, technologies for planting, growing, harvesting, and processing industrial hemp are being developed and tested. The technology for deep processing of industrial hemp will allow obtaining various products, including craft paper, hemp oil, insulating materials, stone building materials, modern composite materials, as well as food products such as hemp flour and sports nutrition products.

Currently, a new technological project of the Baikal Scientific and Educational Center is being developed at the federal level to create the All-Russian Hydroponics Center. The plan is to create a scientific and production complex for the study, popularization, and testing of innovative developments in hydroponics and related technologies.

Scientists are also working on creating farms for breeding animals and growing plants, within which feed production and waste disposal take place.