Innovation in plant breeding is essential for sustainable food production, leading to better-performing varieties that ensure higher yields and sufficient income for farmers.
Investment in Plant Breeding
Breeding new plant varieties requires significant investment in skills, labor, technology, and time. It takes around five years or more to develop a new variety that satisfies farmers’ needs for high yield, disease resistance, early harvest, and adaptability, as well as consumer preferences. These improved traits lead to higher income and productivity for millions of farmers.
Our breeding program complies with the policies of all countries where we operate. All East-West Seed products are developed using conventional plant breeding techniques and are free of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).
Innovation with CRISPR-Cas9
East-West Seed strongly believes in using innovative plant breeding tools like CRISPR-Cas9, which induces precise changes in DNA to produce new traits and properties in plants. This technique helps develop varieties with better disease resistance, drought tolerance, climate adaptation, higher yield, improved taste, and nutritional qualities in a faster, more efficient manner.
We support the global seed industry’s proposition that plant varieties developed through the latest plant breeding methods should not be differentially regulated if they are similar to varieties produced through traditional methods. Techniques like CRISPR-Cas should not fall under existing GMO regulations.
Due to the promise of this technology, East-West Seed has initiated research on CRISPR, fully compliant with current regulations in the countries where we operate. This research has not yet resulted in varieties that have been tested or released commercially.
Intellectual Property Protection
To encourage and incentivize innovation towards the development of improved varieties beneficial to smallholder farmers and ensure food security, protecting breeders’ rights through plant variety protection (PVP) is crucial.
