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 Essay - mar/apr 2008
THE SEEDS SYSTEM
James C. Delouche
Professor Emeritus Mississippi State University
Just a hundred years ago seeds were considered as perhaps the simplest and best understood component in crop agriculture. Soils and a suitable climate, the other essential components, were not so simple. They were rather complex. The soils used for crop production could range from thin to deep, light to heavy, fertile to infertile, acidic to alkaline, non-toxic to toxic or saline. In turn, the considerable variability of soils had a great influence on the complexity of many of the ancillary components of crop agriculture such as the mechanical devices and types of power used for soil preparation and cultivation. Climate was, of course, the most variable, complex and controlling component in crop agriculture. It determined whether crop production was feasible, the type of crops that could be grown, and the scheduling and timing of crop production operations. While these comments are expressed in the past tense, those related to the basic properties and complexity of the soils and climate component could and should be in the present tense because they are substantially the same as they were 100, or many hundreds of years ago. The present ease and facility of soil preparation and management, for example, are not the result of a reduction in the complexity of the soils component but rather improvements in the types and power of the equipment used for cultivation. Climate is changing but not in complexity. It is still the controlling and largely uncontrollable component in all types of agriculture. While the soils and climate components have not changed, seeds are no longer the simplest, best understood, and low cost component in crop agriculture
Perceptions of Seeds
Seeds evolved to perform two fundamental linked functions in the survival and dispersal of plant species. The first function is physiological: the preservation of the life and inheritance of the species between growing seasons and during times of unfavorable climate in a miniscule, highly resistant, easily dispersed form, i.e., the seed. The second function is generative: the resumption of active growth of individual members of the species population, i.e., germination, when conditions become favorable for plant growth and reproduction. The preservative and generative roles of seeds have been recognized and appreciated since the beginnings of crop husbandry. Indeed, their recognition is considered the crucial event in the genesis of crop agriculture. These early perceptions of the seeds system became imprinted in the generations of farmers that followed and persisted with a few embellishments until about 100 years ago. What discoveries, events, and circumstances have occurred since then to change perceptions of seeds from a relatively simple, easily understood, commonly accessible essential component for crop production to the complex, multi-function, difficult to understand and proprietary component system that they have become?
Genesis of the Seeds System
Perspectives of the functional properties of seeds began to change with two fundamental discoveries: the laws and modes of inheritance in the early years of the 20th century and the structure and properties of DNA some 50 years later. Discovery of the laws and modes of inheritance permitted the construction of a relative abundance of stable sub-specific populations of plants, i.e., varieties and hybrids, with desirable characteristics from the natural variability in the species. Seeds, therefore, began to be perceived as the repository for the results of scientific plant breeding and the means for delivering these results, i.e., improved varieties, to farmers. Discovery of the structure and properties of DNA identified and revealed the basic units and mechanisms of inheritance that spawned the discipline of molecular biology and led to the development of recombinant genetics. In time, recombinant genetics became the biotechnology that has produced the modern, high-tech trait based crop variety development and improvement industry. The changes in the perspectives of seeds initiated and propelled by these scientific discoveries and developments were further advanced by two events: the elaboration of a legal frame for establishing proprietary or intellectual property rights, i.e., plant variety protection, for crop varieties in the 1960s, and, a few decades later, the even more powerful patent protection for specific transgenic technologies and genetic traits. These legal actions provided the protection needed by research and development organizations, i.e., companies and institutions, to make the investments in time, talent and finance required to produce the technologically advanced, very productive and increasingly proprietary crop agriculture of today.
The circumstances that conspired with the discoveries and events listed above to accelerate the metamorphosis of the simple, well understood seeds component of crop agriculture into the complex system that it has become are many and varied. Generally, they arose from the enormous advances in industrial technology, finance, communications, transportation and other infrastructural elements in modern economies. Crop agriculture has been drastically transformed. Land holdings have greatly increased in size and are increasingly corporately owned or controlled. Production has become highly mechanized and commercialized. The focus of production and marketing has been changed from local to essentially global. And, very significantly, the seeds components for crop production are increasingly constructed, controlled and supplied by specialized companies to crop producers as a proprietary product for one-time use.
Structure and Interrelationships of the System
One definition of a system is a group of functionally related, interacting elements or components forming a complex whole. Arguably, this definition encapsulates the developing perception of seeds neatly and completely. Seeds of modern, transgenic and hybrid crop varieties represent a system that will surely increase in complexity as more and more related crop production functions are subsumed under the umbrella of its fundamental preservation and generative functions. Seeds are no longer a production input, they are a package of production inputs that has been readily accepted because it simplifies many of the decisions crop producers have to make. Before traits for tolerance to wide spectrum herbicides and control of specific insect pests were introduced in crop varieties, effective pest control involved the development of an elaborate recipe or cocktail of herbicides, insecticides and application schedules that frequently required the services of a crop consultant. The release of varieties with herbicide tolerance and insect control has simplified management and reduced decisions on pest control measures to selection of the appropriate variety and adherence and commitment to the protocols and terms of the technology agreement. Very importantly, use of such varieties has greatly reduced the use of chemical pesticides with huge benefits to the environment.
The first package or wave of seed borne and transmitted traits consisted of varieties with input traits such as herbicide tolerance and insect control which were soon stacked in the same variety. The complexity of the seeds system has now progressed to GM maize varieties produced by collaboration of two competitive companies that have eight stacked traits or events for control of insects that attack the above and below ground parts of maize plants and tolerance to two wide spectrum herbicides. Traits for resistance to certain diseases and tolerance to environmental stresses such as drought, heat and cold are already in the pipeline and undoubtedly will eventually be stacked with those for pest control. The drought, heat and cold tolerance traits are especially interesting as they provide some control over the climate component in crop production, thus reducing its complexity and associated risks. The next wave of transgenic varieties will likely involve traits that affect the outputs or end-uses of crops such as nutritive value, taste, shelf-life, improved composition for conversion into industrial products, i.e., ethanol, and so on. Still further back in the technological and regulatory pipeline are GM varieties that produce industrial chemicals and pharmaceuticals. These types, however, are likely to encounter much more resistance and regulatory scrutiny than those with input traits.
The incorporation of more and more production inputs and product outputs into the seeds system must be appreciated as tremendous, astonishing and beneficial achievements, but, they are not without significant concerns and serious questions. Those related to the safety of products from transgenic varieties as voiced by Europeans and assorted other groups have been forcefully stated and are well known .But, there are others. Are there not risks in incorporating multiple input traits and eventually end-use traits in the seeds component? Will reliance on engineered genetic traits for control of the important pests reduce research and development on new and improved chemistry for their control? Could reliance of such traits result in the emergence of populations of resistant pests? What might be the consequences of local and, especially, widespread shortages of seed supplies for popular and important transgenic varieties? These and other concerns and questions need not and should not retard progress in crop variety biotechnology; but they should introduce greater caution in the process and gather more attention.
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