Violations in production and trading of improved Khang Dan rice variety (DCG72)

(Baonghean) - Although not yet on the list of plant varieties permitted for production and business, the improved Khang Dan rice variety (DCG72) in the trial production phase has been sold on local markets in the province. In addition, there is ambiguity about subsidies, between “trial production” and “mass production”…

Sold freely on the market

Mr. Hoang Dinh Lam - Accountant of Thanh Ha Agricultural Service Cooperative said that after hamlet chief Hoang Van Nam discovered the improved Khang Dan rice variety being sold at a "black market dealer", he reported it to the Cooperative. Confirming that Mr. Nam's information was correct, the Cooperative also reported the incident to the commune authorities.

Mr. Lam affirmed that although he had worked with Thanh Chuong District Agricultural Materials Joint Stock Company, the issues that people were asking about had not been clarified. And this was causing Thanh Ha Agricultural Service Cooperative to face difficulties when it had to collect money from people for seeds to pay (total cost of 26,560,000 VND).

Nghe An Newspaper reporter gathered information at the rice seed sales facility of Ms. Phan Thi Hang.

Together with Mr. Hoang Dinh Lam, we checked the 2 bags of improved Khang Dan rice seeds that Mr. Hoang Van Nam kept and found that the packaging design was completely identical. The front of the 2 bags had the same promotional lines printed on them: High quality rice seeds; rice variety: DCG72 (Improved Khang Dan); extremely short growing time; high yield; good quality rice; collaborative product between: Vietnam and Japan Plant Seed Center - Vietnam Agricultural Institute and Nghe An Plant Seed Center... and had the same weight of 1kg.

On the back, in addition to the technical information; the place of production and packaging is Nghe An Plant Seed Center; and there is also a "stamp" on which is clearly written the seed lot code X16.03; production date: April 2016; expiration date: April 2017 and "quality warranty".

Going to the rice seed selling facility in Thanh Ha commune, meeting Ms. Phan Thi Hang - the owner of the facility confirmed that at the beginning of the summer-autumn crop of 2016, she imported 80 kg of improved Khang Dan rice seeds to sell. However, most of the people in the area ordered through the cooperative so they could not sell all of them and she returned the remaining stock to the place of purchase.

Regarding the source of goods, according to Ms. Hang, "it is taken from the Hung Oanh agent in Do Luong with an import price of 16,000 VND/kg". Ms. Hang contacted the owner of the facility by phone and said: The Hung Oanh agent is in Yen Son commune, Do Luong district; the owner of the agent is Mr. Tang Van Hung. Ms. Hang mainly imports fertilizer from the Hung Oanh agent, occasionally taking a few rice seeds to sell to acquaintances. With the improved Khang Dan rice variety, because the price people buy seeds at the Cooperative is 17,000 VND/kg, she only sells it like that.

Hung Oanh Agency is located right at the gateway to Do Luong town and is a fairly large rice seed sales facility in Do Luong district. Here, the agency owner, Mr. Tang Van Hung, said that he had purchased improved Khang Dan rice seeds from Nghe An Plant Seed Center at a price of only... 14,000 VND/kg.

Then, he just redistributed it to the facilities at the commune level like the case of Ms. Phan Thi Hang in Thanh Ha commune so that they could resell it to the people. How much improved Khang Dan rice variety did agent Hung Oanh import? - "I imported exactly 1 ton" - Mr. Hung replied. So what is the resale price to the agents? - "I sell it for 15,000 VND/1kg" - Mr. Hung affirmed.

Serious Violation

Based on the information we have, we had a meeting with representatives of Nghe An Plant Breeding Center, Mr. Ngo Xuan Than - Deputy Director and Ms. Luong - Deputy Head of Administration Department. According to Mr. Than, the improved Khang Dan rice variety (DCG72) is a purebred rice variety researched and improved from the Khang Dan 18 rice variety; researched and selected by the JICA Project (Japan) in collaboration with the Center for Development of Improved Crops - Vietnam Academy of Agriculture.

Nghe An Plant Seed Center is a unit assigned by the Provincial People's Committee and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to conduct research, testing, evaluation and transfer in Nghe An province from 2014 to present. Currently, the improved Khang Dan rice variety is in the trial production stage. The price of 1kg of improved Khang Dan rice is 32,000 VND, but because it is in "trial production", people are entitled to a subsidy of 15,000 VND/kg from the "unit's production and business resources".

The problem is that people are the beneficiaries of subsidies, but they have to pay higher prices than those at “black market agents”. Mr. Than and Ms. Luong said that there is no such thing as improved Khang Dan rice being sold freely in the market because the center only delivers rice seeds to its level 1 agents (including agent Hung Oanh - PV) to sell to direct producers at 17,000 VND/kg.

So has there ever been a case where the center's agents sold rice seeds to the market? "That cannot happen. The center has made commitments to the agents on this issue!", Ms. Luong replied. She asked again: How are the agents' commitments to the center implemented? Is there a document showing the commitment? (no answer). (Reporter) asked again: The center assigned agents to sell rice seeds to producers at the same price of 17,000 VND/kg; so the agents worked for free for the center? - "This is the center's business secret, it cannot be disclosed to the press".

Improved Khang Dan rice has small grains, high rate of empty grains, and low number of grains.

When the reporter continued to ask: The Center affirmed that the source of subsidy for Khang Dan improved rice comes from the unit's production and business activities. So why in the Notice on price support policy mechanism sent to the People's Committee of Thanh Chuong district, the source of support for implementation comes from the budget source of the 2016 Agriculture Sector Career Plan and the unit's development source? After a while of explaining, Mr. Ngo Xuan Than finally defended: "The official dispatch sent to the newspaper has a text error..."; and he suggested to postpone the exchange time to prepare documents and provide full information. "We also do not know what information Nghe An Newspaper needs" - Mr. Than said.

Returning to Nghe An Plant Seed Center as scheduled, we were provided by Mr. Than with some documents related to the subsidy budget and price of improved Khang Dan rice variety in the summer-autumn crop of 2016. Of note is the detailed budget estimate not assigned autonomously (under Decision 204/QD-SNN.KHTC dated March 21, 2016 of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development) for Nghe An Plant Seed Center to test the production of DCG72 rice variety (improved Khang Dan, short-term).

According to this estimate, the improved Khang Dan rice variety will be implemented on a total area of ​​200 hectares, in the districts of Nam Dan, Hung Nguyen, Thanh Chuong, Do Luong, Yen Thanh...; the implementation period is from May to September. The total State budget for testing is 287 million VND, of which, seed support for producers is 180 million VND/12 tons of rice seeds. How much improved Khang Dan rice variety has the center sold in the summer-autumn crop of 2016? "We sold about 60 tons. Equivalent to about 1,000 hectares..." - Mr. Than said.

In Article 8 (Trial production procedures), Decision No. 95/2007/QD-BNN of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on regulations for recognition of new agricultural plant varieties clearly states: “Organizations and individuals with trial production varieties or authorized trial production varieties are allowed to transfer varieties to producers and must comply with the following requirements: Provide specific instructions on the technical process of growing trial production varieties to producers; have a contract or list clearly stating the name and address of the trial production organization or individual, time and quantity of transferred varieties; monitor and evaluate varieties during the trial production process and must compensate or support damages if caused by the variety”.

Therefore, we have surveyed the implementation of this regulation by Nghe An Plant Seed Center for the people of Thanh Ha commune and some communes in Hung Nguyen district. Thereby, it is confirmed that there is no contract or commitment document with organizations or individuals directly producing by Nghe An Plant Seed Center. Even the guidance on the process and cultivation techniques... is not there!.

Regarding this content, Hamlet 13 Chief, Thanh Ha Commune, Mr. Hoang Van Nam said: "Because in the announcement to the people, Khang Dan improved is a mass-produced variety, so they do whatever they want. Technically, we just follow the instructions on the packaging to plant...".

Decree No. 15/PL-UBTVQH of 2004 of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Plant Varieties strictly prohibits the production and trading of plant varieties that are not included in the List of Plant Varieties Allowed for Production and Trading. With the improved Khang Dan rice variety, which has just passed the testing stage, it is clear that it is not yet included in the List of Plant Varieties Allowed for Production and Trading, so it will not be allowed to be freely traded on the market.

Therefore, it is affirmed that the Nghe An Plant Seed Center's production and packaging with labels that do not fully state the content, and leaving it to its agents to supply to the market, is a violation of the law. In addition, the trial production but failure to implement the commitment contract, technical support for producers... shows that the Nghe An Plant Seed Center has "ignored" the regulations in Decision No. 95 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. With such violations by the Nghe An Plant Seed Center, the question must be asked: Why does this center dare to act so haphazardly and carelessly with a project that has foreign cooperation?

PVDT Group

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