Farm saved seeds in Poland
Karol Marciniak
Polish Seed Trade Association
Plant breeder’s rights are the key issue for financing of plant breeding. The most important
way of exploiting them are royalties paid on certified seeds. Since there are important crops
where farmers use the intellectual property rights producing farm saved seeds breeders in
some EU states have developed systems to collect relevant compensation for it. In Poland the
system of collecting remuneration for using farm saved seeds by farmers have not been
established so far. There is a number of reasons of this situation including legal base, structure
of farms, political influence of farmer’s organizations, weak position of the domestic plant
breeding and seed industry.
This paper gives an overview on the most important aspects which may decisively influence
the possibility and the way of the future collection of farm saved seeds remuneration in
Poland.
Legal base of the plant breeder’s rights in Poland
The legal plant variety protection in Poland is based on a few sources:
a) international - “sui generis” UPOV system and its conventions. Poland joined this
organization in 1989 and the latest Act of 1991 have been adopted by Poland on 15th
of August 2003,
b) european – Community Plant Variety Rights based on UPOV Act 1991 and on the
directive EC Nr/2100/94,
c) national legislation stated in the Plant Variety Act issued on 26th of June, 2003.
As details on the existing PBR’s are widely discussed in other presentations during this
Seminar for the purposes of this presentation it will be enough to underline the following
aspects of it:
 the national Plant Variety Act allows to use farm saved seeds of the following
crops: wheat, barley, rye, oats, triticale, winter rape and potatoes – article 23.2.
 the definition of a "small farmer" according to the mentioned act described in the
article 23.3 and 23.4:
23.3. "the holder of a farm below 5 ha can use farm saved seed for sowing
without the necessity of paying remuneration to the breeder" or,
23.4. " the holder pays the remuneration if uses farm saved potato seeds of early
type on the acreage bigger than 1 ha. In case of other types of potato
varieties he pays the remuneration if uses farm saved potato seeds on the
acreage bigger than 2 ha"
 no administrative or legal procedures to verify the information supplied by
farmers or processors,
 infringement against the plant variety right even the serious one is treated as an
offence not a crime and only a fine might be imposed – article 37.1.
Cultivation of crops involved in the “farmer’s privilege”.
As mentioned above in Poland the farm saved seed can be produced only in case of cereals,
winter rape and potatoes. In the Table 1 the surface of cultivation of these crops is presented.
There is almost 8 million ha of cereals cultivated in Poland. Apart from basic cereals there is
ca. 1,4 mio. ha sown with cereal mixtures. Majority of this kind of cultivation are spring crops
involving mainly barley and oats sometimes completed with some wheat seeds especially for
using on better soils. As farmers usually prepare cereal mixtures for sowing themselves this
will cause more difficulties to identify the varieties involved in the mixture when introducing
fss remuneration system.
Production and use of certified seeds
For the purposes of sowing 1,5 to 1,6 mio. tons of cereal seeds are used every year. The
certified seed production covers very small part of it. On the Figure 1 the cereal seed
production area is presented. Last 10 years we have observed dramatic decrease of seed
production and there is little chance to change it. Moreover the average selling of certified
seed from one hectare of multiplication is below 2 tons. The usage of certified seeds of cereals
is on the level of 7%, on average. There is no official data on it and especially on the volume
of the illegal seed market. The calculation was made on the base of the information from
Central Statistical Office, State Plant Health and Seed Inspection and the estimation of Polish
Seed Trade Association. The usage of certified potato seed is even lower, the estimation of it
is on the level of 3 – 4% in 2005.
Table 1. Cultivation of cereals, winter rape and potatoes in Poland
Crops
1995
2000
in thous. ha
2005
wheat
2407
2635
2218
rye
2452
2130
1416
barley
1048
1096
1113
oats
595
566
539
triticale
616
695
1194
cereal mixed
1366
1478
1436
cereals total
8484
8600
7916
rape
606
437
527
potatoes
1522
1251
594
There are many reasons and circumstances which have born the present dramatic situation.
One of the most important is the structure of farms in Poland. According to the information
based on the Agricultural Census 2002 there is almost 2 million farms – Table 3. Majority of
these farms aren’t run intensively so they sell almost nothing to the market. They don’t use
certified seeds at all. The bigger the farm the better the knowledge of the farmer on the
advantages of using high quality seeds. However many farmers have an easy access to the
illegally offered seeds. This is the next very important reason of decreasing seed exchange in
Poland. Black market is growing and there are no tools to fight against. Controlled shopping
is difficult to conduct and to prove that seeds not grain are sold. Moreover, the court decisions
usually treat single infringement as a little harm for the society so the punishment is usually
very mild, if any. The knowledge of judges in the courts regarding PBR is very low.
Moreover, the geleral financial condition of the farmers is rather bad so they look for any
possibility to control costs. Usually many of them buy certified seeds for small multiplication,
then use harvested material as farm saved seed for commercial production.
Fig. 1. Cereal seed multiplication in Poland in the years 1997 – 2006 (thous. ha)
200
184
180
164
160
143
140
120
112
106
100
81
80
62
61
60
48
40*
40
20
0
1997
*
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006*
the estimation of Polish Seed Trade Association, March 2006
Table 2. The estimation of the usage of certified seed of cereals, potato and winter rape
in Poland for sowing in 2005.
crop
certified seeds
fss
illegal market
winter wheat
9%
61 %
30 %
spring wheat
10 %
70 %
20 %
winter barley
13 %
67 %
20 %
spring barley
13 %
57 %
30 %
winter rye
4%
76 %
20 %
oats
5%
75 %
20 %
winter triticale
6%
69 %
25 %
spring triticale
8%
67 %
25 %
potatoes
4%
81 %
15 %
winter rape
65 %
25 %
10 %
The decreasing seed market brings to seed companies serious financial problems. They try to
survive mainly by decreasing the prices or offering uncertified seeds. Low prices not covering
the cost lead to the lower quality of the seeds sold which is not an incentive for farmers to buy
certified seeds.
Both domestic and foreign breeders have started licensing PBR’s just few years ago. In the
license agreements the seed company is granted the right to produce, process, offer and sell
seeds of protected varieties. There is no direct license contract between the breeder and the
producer to grant the right to multiply protected variety on the contract for seed companies.
There are not any agreements or contracts between breeders and processors, too.
Nevertheless in 2004 some state domestic plant breeders established a trust company called
Agencja Nasienna. This body represents plant breeders in controlling whether the seed
companies properly declare the amount of certified seed sold and pay royalties. Agencja
Nasienna is the body which could organize the fss remuneration system in the near future in
Poland.
Table 3. The number of farms in Poland
hectares at farm
number of farms
1-5
1 146 890
5 - 10
426 869
10 - 20
266 623
20 - 30
64 265
30 -50
31 678
50 - 100
12 394
more than 100
7 422
total
1 956 141
based on the agricultural Census 2002
Royalties collected and potential volume of fss remuneration in Poland.
The level of royalties collected in 2005 varied depending on the breeder and cereal variety
from 8 to 18 PLN the most often on the level of 10 – 12PLN for 100kg of C1. The total
volume of royalty collected in Poland for the certified cereal seed sold in 2005 can be
estimated on the level of 10 000 thous. PLN. For potato and rape seed it could be 700 and
11 000 thous. PLN, respectively.
The potential volume of fss remuneration on cereals and potatoes could be estimated as four
times higher than royalty volume and 1/3 of the winter rape royalty volume.
The varieties without legal protection
After joining EU apart from varieties listed in Poland (NL) there is a number of varieties
from Common Catalogue (CC) commercialized here – Table 4. There are mainly winter
wheat, barley, potato and winter rape varieties. However in case of winter rape there is no
exact evidence since some seeds are not produced in the country but provided by foreign
producers. What is more interesting and important from the point of view of the possibility to
collect remuneration on fss is that there is a number of varieties without the legal protection.
Moreover, among the CC varieties commercialized in Poland there are unprotected varieties
although many of them are quite new releases. It seems that the foreign breeders protect them
in their countries on the national level, only. They don’t see the advantage of legal protection
for these varieties in Poland.
Table 4. Cereal, potato and winter rape varieties commercialized in Poland and their
legal protection
crop
National
List ‘06
protection
EU
PL
lack
Common
Catalogue
EU
protection
lack
s. wheat
w. wheat
s. barley
w. barley
oats
s. triticale
w. triticale
37
56
51
17
31
7
30
37
26
7
22
5
2
14
16
6
30
20
8
s. rye
w. rye
2
32
2
14
5
263
163
51
49
28
19
132
66
39
27
33
15
51
11
14
cereals
total
potatoes
w. rape
5
5
9
4
9
2
1
15
4
4
1
1
2
1
13 (9 F1)
1
3
1
2
1
12
3
2
1
1
1
26 (12F1)
1 (F1)
10 (1 F1)
18
lack of data
Table 5. Seed production area of cereal and potato varieties in Poland in 2005
crop
ha
listing
National List
s. wheat
w. wheat
s. barley
w. barley
oats
s. triticale
w. triticale
s. rye
w. rye
cereals
total
potatoes
protection
CC
PL
EU
lack
3 841
15 594
11 236
2 007
3 225
983
3 801
14 061
11 003
1 872
3 203
873
40
1 533
233
135
22
110
3 777
9 941
7 352
1 348
2 557
359
24
5 466
3 328
509
6 794
6 710
84
3 873
2 921
14
4 030
14
3 930
100
14
1 588
899
1 543
47 724
45 468
2 257
30 809
13 257
3 658
4 634
3 941
693
1 963
1 506
1 165
110
40
186
556
151
668
514
To realize the scale of the presence of the unprotected varieties the seed production area of
cereal and potatoes is presented in the Table. 5. In 2005 the unprotected varieties of cereals
were produced on the area of 3004 ha (6,4% of the total area). The highest share of
unprotected varieties was noticed for spring triticale (52,3%), winter rye (29,6%, excluding
hybrids) and oats (20,7%). In case of potatoes ca 25% of the area seed potato production is the
area of unprotected varieties production.
Plant breeders in Poland and their representatives
When considering the possibility to create a system of fss remuneration we have to analyze
who could be interested in it. Below there is a list of the breeders of cereals, potatoes and
winter rape whose varieties are listed and/or commercialized in Poland. Some of them are the
breeders of two groups of species. In case of cereals and potatoes the majority seeds offered to
farmers belong to domestic breeders. In winter rape the situation is different. All together
there is ca 40 breeders or their representatives who can act jointly and built common system
of fss remuneration.
Table 6. Breeders or their representative having listed and/or commercializing their
varieties in Poland in 2005
cereals
Danko
HR Strzelce
Lochow-Petkus Polska
Poznańska Hodowla Roślin
HRR Nasiona Kobierzyc
HR Smolice
SW Seed
Saaten-Union Polska
HR Szelejewo
RAGT Semences Polska
CN Środa Śląska
DLG Polska
PPH Womir
Małopolska HR HBP
Piast H.R. Łagiewniki
Irena Szyld
Marek Juś
Stanisław Ramenda
18
potatoes
PMHZ w Strzekęcinie
Hodowla Ziemniaka Zamarte
Hodowla Roślin Szyldak
Norika Polska
Europlant H.Z
Farm Frites Poland
C. Meijer B.V.
Olznas-CN
Distriban
Frito Lay Poland
Nasiennictwo Bałtyckie
DLG Polska
HZPC Agras
Solana Polska
PRH Bracia Buczak
15
winter rape
DSV Polska
KWS Polska
Monsanto Polska
Syngenta Seeds
HR Strzelce
Saaten-Union Polska
SW Seed
HR Smolice
Rolagra
9
It is also important to underline that in Poland there is a breeder’s organization representing
their interest. This is Polish Seed Trade Association (Polska Izba Nasienna - PIN) gathering
96 members who are breeder’s or seed companies both domestic and from abroad. Majority of
these enterprises listed in the Table 6 are the members of PIN.
Framer’s organizations in Poland
There are many farmer’s organizations in Poland. Some of them have been created on
political base (farmers’ parties) other on economical or organizational aspects. There is one
which gathers all farmers, since the membership is obligatory. That are Agricultural
Chambers in each province which make up The National Council of Agricultural Chambers.
This organization seems to be relevant to discuss enforcement of PBR’s regarding fss and
eventually sign an agreement with breeder’s representatives on the collecting remunerations
on fss.
The perspectives of building the system of farm saved seed remuneration in Poland
Building an efficient system to collect fss remuneration is essential for the possibility to
finance further breeding of new varieties in Poland. That would be an incentive for farmers to
use certified seeds and moreover to discourage them from using seeds from illegal market. On
the other hand there are some circumstances which seriously influence the possibility of
effective system creation. The most important are connected with the structure of agriculture:
agrarian structure of farms, huge number of small farms, mentality of farmers, political
influence of farmer’s organizations and parties.
Next group of factors is connected with the present organization of domestic breeders. During
90. of the former century the state aids were high enough to cover the cost of breeding. The
licensing of PBRs and collecting royalties has started just 5 - 6 years ago with a strong
opposition from farmers who had got used to cheap certified seeds and from seed companies
forced to increase the price. Moreover, despite the end of state aids for breeding among the
breeders there are different opinions whether to start or not building the system now.
As reported in other presentations during this Seminar the existing legal plant variety
protection law does not give the breeder in Poland the tools sufficient for enforcement of his
rights. The proposed amendment which is now (April 2006) being discussed in our parliament
should improve this situation.
Taking into account the described situation it will be extremely difficult to built an effective
system. Anyway it is high time to start.