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 Essay - sept/oct 2008
Changes in seed production
James C. Delouche
Professor Emeritus Mississippi State University
Biologically seed production has not appreciably changed since the beginning of crop husbandry. Nature has always taken care of most of the technical steps. Pollen grains are shed from anthers, transferred to receptive stigmas, germinate and the tubes enter the ovary where sperm cells fertilize the egg cells and polar nuclei in the ovules which then develop into seeds. Just during the past half century or so, however, there have been revolutionary changes in WHO produces seeds, WHERE seeds are produced and to a lesser extent, HOW seeds are produced.
The first farmers were the first seed producers. They recognized that seeds needed to be saved from the harvest for planting crops the next season. On-farm seed production and saving that began about 9000 years ago continued as the common method of seed supply well into the 20th century when there began to be revolutionary changes in who, where and how seeds are produced. These changes in seed production have been largely completed in the industrial, agriculturally advanced countries but in the less developed countries, especially those in Africa, they have been implemented to a significant degree only for some specialty crops such as vegetables
The Transition Years
Interestingly for me at least, much of the transition from seed production practices of the past to the present situation has occurred during my professional work with seeds. When I began my studies and work with seeds about 1950 most U.S. farmers selected and saved seeds for planting all of their major crops except maize, e.g., cotton, wheat, soybeans, oats, sorghum, barley, rice. They only infrequently obtained seeds from a neighbor, cooperative, or a small specialized seed producer when they needed to change variety or lost their seed supply as a result of some natural disaster or just negligence. As noted, the one major crop exception was maize. Maize production in the U.S. had largely shifted from open pollinated varieties to hybrids by the early 1950s. Since hybrid seed production required access to suitable inbred lines, knowledge and skills beyond those possessed by most farmers, the production and supply of hybrid maize seeds had been taken up by specialized hybrid seed companies. Thus, for one of the major crops grown in the country dramatic changes had already occurred in who produced the seed, specialized hybrid companies rather than individual farmers, and how the seeds were produced, by carefully controlled pollination of compatible inbred lines rather than random mating in open pollinated populations.
Significant changes in who produced seeds of many of secondary crops such as the vegetable, pasture, forage and lawn species had already occurred prior to 1950. Most of these crops are produced for products other than the seeds, e.g., foliage, roots, fruits, so on-farm seed production and saving is difficult, inconvenient and inconsistent. Since most farmers needed only relatively small amounts of seeds they had become largely dependent on specialized seed companies for their vegetable seeds, and on local farmer based businesses and small companies for their supplies of forage, pasture and lawn.seed. Seed production was opportunistic. Company agents surveyed the area for farms with pastures and forage crops with good potential for producing seeds and negotiated with the farmer owners for rights to lease and/or manage them for producing seeds. The companies then harvested, cleaned and packaged the seeds for marketing to farmers in the area. For these lesser crops, therefore, the change in "who" produces the seeds had largely taken place. Only a minority of farmers continued with on-farm seed production and saving for the seeds needed for these kinds of crops.
The changes in "where" vegetable, forage, pasture and lawn grass seeds were produced were largely accomplished in the 1950s and early 1960s. The production of seeds of alfalfa (Medicago sativa), many of the clovers (Trifolium spp.) and vegetable crops was shifted from the areas where the crops were grown to the irrigated valleys of California. The Pacific Northwestern states of Oregon and Washington became the major seeds producers for the important pasture and lawn grasses such as the various species of bluegrass (Poa spp.), ryegrass (Lolium spp.), fescue (Festuca spp.) and others. These shifts in production of seeds thousands of kilometers from where they would be marketed and planted were made to take advantage of the very favorable environmental conditions in California and the Pacific Northwest for economical and consistent production of high quality seeds. They could not have occurred, however, without the efficient and effective transportation and communication systems already in place and, most importantly, the network of specialized seed companies that developed to produce, transport and market the seeds. Thus for the vegetable, forage, pasture and lawn species and various other specialty crops the important changes in "where" the seeds were produced, California and the Pacific Northwest rather than the states where they were grown, and "who" produced them, specialized seed companies rather than local farmers and seed businesses, was largely completed by the middle of the 1960s.
Although many small to medium size companies were involved in the production of seeds of the major crops in the 1950s and 1960s, on-farm seed production and saving continued as the main source of seed supplies for cotton, wheat, soybeans, barley and rice until the 1970s. Hybrid varieties of sorghum were developed in the late 1950s and seed supply was quickly and efficiently taken over by hybrid seed companies, most of which were already well established in hybrid maize breeding and seed supply.
Powerful Change Agents
Several important reasons, i.e., change agents, have been responsible for the changes in seed production that occurred mostly in the last half of the previous century. Some of these change agents have been mentioned and discussed. One of the first and most important was the development of hybrid varieties. Seed production for hybrid varieties is complex and beyond the capability of most farmers so the "who" and "how" of seed production were shifted from the farmer to specialized hybrid seed companies. With the commercialization of farming in the early 1900s the on-farm production of seeds of most kinds of vegetable, pasture, forage and lawn seeds became increasingly inconvenient with the result that the "who" of seed production was shifted to local farmer based and company businesses. In turn serious problems of reliability and quality encountered in producing seeds locally led to a shift in "where" they were produced to areas with very favorable climates for producing high yields of disease free, high quality seeds, albeit areas very distant from where many of the crops are grown.
The two most significant and widely recognized change agents influencing the who, where and how of seed production became operative during the last three decades of the 20th century. First, there was the enactment and implementation of laws - plant variety protection (PVP) - that awarded ownership or proprietary rights of crop varieties to the individuals, institutions and/or companies that developed them. Although a farmer's exemption did permit on-farm seed production, the protection granted by PVP provided the incentives for major private sector investments in the breeding and development of the main self-pollinated crops e.g., soybean, wheat, cotton, etc., with the result that these activities had been almost wholly taken over by private companies by the late 1980s. Second, the extraordinary progress in plant molecular biology and recombinant genetics resulted in the development and release of transgenic varieties of cotton, soybean, maize, canola and other major crops beginning in the 1990s. Most of these varieties have the double protection of PVP and patents. Patented varieties do not have a farmer's exemption and seed production by anyone other than the owner or its licensee is prohibited.
The Present Situation
In the case of the well accepted and widely planted transgenic and hybrid varieties and the conventional varieties of most vegetable, pasture, forage, and lawn crops, the changes in seed production are essentially complete in the agriculturally advanced countries. On-farm seed production, the traditional seed supply system, is rapidly fading into history. As a summary the changes in the production of these kinds of seeds can now be reformulated as three questions. Who presently produces seeds? The proprietors of the varieties and their licensees. Where are the seeds produced? In places determined by the proprietors as most economical and/or ecologically favorable. How are the seeds produced? By highly skilled technicians using the best equipment and quality assurance procedures under professional management. In countries where circumstances and developments have made these changes in seed production possible, their impact has been very favorable despite some opposition and fears. But, in countries with inadequate development and marginal infrastructure their implementation will and must be unhurried, cautious, and very selective.
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