Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 5220 I EUROPEAN SEED I EUROPEAN-SEED.COM s of the first of January I have handed over my responsibilities as head of the Naktuinbouw Variety Testing Department to my suc- cessor, Bert Scholte. Such an occasion is always a good time to reflect, to sit a while and mull over the past and especially the past year's events. COOPERATION AND MOLECULAR TECHNIQUES Reflecting also means taking a step back for a different perspective. So I would like to look back on the series of visits I made to China, India, the U.S. and the CPVO all within a month. We also welcomed two colleagues from Japan to Naktuinbouw. Still impressed by all the experiences during my travels, this is a good oppor- tunity to distil a common thread from the developments in the world relating to Plant Breeders’ Rights. During all the visits there were two recurring themes: cooperation and molecular techniques. These are important topics for the Netherlands. International cooperation can signify that by adopting each oth- er’s reports, one single application for Plant Breeders’ Rights can be granted in multiple countries. And molecular tech- niques will contribute to increasing the efficiency of testing. CHINA: READY FOR THE NEXT STEP At a forum on Intellectual Property Rights (IP) for plant varieties in China, it was apparent that the debate on the possible upgrading of the Plant Breeders’ Rights system to UPOV ’91 is still raging. Of the points causing the biggest head- aches: Plant Breeders’ Rights for the entire plant kingdom, Essential Derived Varieties and farmers’ privilege, only the latter point can still be seen as a potential ‘deal breaker’. The restrictions placed on the right to save seeds is a bitter pill to swallow for many small farmers. After the European system, the Chinese system of Plant Breeders’ Rights already has the highest volume of applications annually. This places immense pressure on the system to process all these applications properly. THE WORLD OF PLANT BREEDERS’ RIGHTS IS ALIVE AND KICKING! BY: KEES VAN ETTEKOVEN