b'ON LOCATION: ISF WORLD SEED CONGRESSTAKING NOTICE OFILLEGAL SEED PRACTICESAccording to the International Seed Federation, we need to combat illegal seed practices and communicate clearly about how they hurt our industry.Alex MartinIN TODAYS WORLD,there are plenty of things that can beVillarroel says that infringements can cover a wide counterfeited and which are therefore illegal. Music isrange of examples, including brown bagging, fake farm-easier to pirate now more than ever because its digi- saved seed and theft of parental lines and counterfeit tal. Books can be found online in a free PDF. Moviesseed, for example. are pirated and shared online. Seed is no exception toIn vegetable seeds, were seeing theft of parental this list, as was a major focus of this years Internationallines for hybrids, he says. Its harmful in particular in Seed Federation World Seed Congress in Nice, France.tomatoes and watermelons due to vegetable propagation. Germination attended the event and got insights fromWere also seeing the misuse of trademarks.world seed leaders on a variety of issues that affect theAs much as wed like to think the seed industry industry. is unaffected by illegal practices, Villarroel says that From my own experience and from an internal surveyinfringements are happening everywhere.in ISF in 2018, there are quite a lot of infringements inInfringements are found in developed countries where seed that vary from crop to crop, says Antonio Villarroel,up to 40% of seed can come from illegal sources, he says. secretary general of ANOVE and chair of the ISF IllegalIn developing countries, weve seen up to 50-60% of cer-Seed Practices Working Group. tain crops are illegal. This is a major problem worldwide, and we arent the only industry affected by this.Eduard Fit, president of ISF, agrees that infringements are a worldwide problem that needs to be addressed. In fact, eradicating illegal seed practices is one of the major priorities of ISF.Counterfeiting undermines our capacity to innovate, therefore we must make a commitment to engage in the fight against illegal seed practices, Fit says. Fit compares illegal seed practices to piracy in the music industrytheres been a dramatic increase in piracy since the evolution of digital music formats like mp3. In response, the music industry has looked at new ways to sell music. But how can we start making the change in our industry? Acknowledge Where the Problems BeginVillarroel says one thing that makes infringements in seed so widespread is the ease of reproducing plants.Plants are easy to replicate due to reproduction, Villarroel says. Once people have access to your seed, they can be recreated. Its like with luxury brand purses or clothesit doesnt take much to produce a knock-off. Illegal seed practices take on many formsfor exam-ple, when grain harvested from hybrids is misrepresented and sold as genuine hybrid seed for sowing. It could also be that seed packages are labelled with false variety names, or minimum seed quality standards, like varietal purity or germination percentage, are not met. In all their forms, illegal seed practices mislead and exploit farmers. 16GERMINATION.CA SEPTEMBER 2019'