Defra, UK - Farming - Crops

Farming: Crop varieties

Plant and seed varieties

Seed varieties are developed by plant breeding companies who have the legal right to recoup a return on their investment through royalties from growers’ use of:

certified seed and
farm-saved seed

The plant breeder will need to apply to the Plant Varieties and Seeds Division (PVSD) to register a new variety, and the variety will need to be accepted as distinct before the plant breeder is entitled Plant Breeders’ Rights (PBR).

Plant Breeders’ Rights

Plant Breeders' Rights cover any species of plant - agricultural, horticultural and ornamental - and provide the plant breeder a licence to prevent anyone using the variety in the following ways without their authority:

production or reproduction (multiplication)
conditioning for the purpose of propagation
offering for sale
selling or other marketing
exporting
importing
stocking for any of the purposes mentioned above

If you hold the variety rights, you can subcontract to others to carry out the services listed above on whatever terms and conditions you wish to impose.

As a holder of PBR you also have the above rights for any variety which is dependent on the protected variety e.g. a hybrid variety.

If you wish to carry out any of the services listed and consider the terms imposed by the holder of the plant breeders’ rights as unreasonable, or are not granted, then you may apply for a compulsory licence. An application form can be downloaded from the the Defra website and should be sent to the Plant Varieties Rights Office.

For further details on the requirements for registering a new variety see the PVSD’s UK Plant Breeders’ Rights Handbook.

National Listings

For a variety of the main agricultural crops to be marketed in this country it must be included in the National Listing.

Plant breeders can apply for new varieties to be added to this list, and will need to demonstrate the variety is distinct, sufficiently uniform and stable (DUS) and, for agricultural crops, have satisfactory value for cultivation and use (VCU).

The National Listing is managed by the Plant Variety and Seeds Division. For further details of the National Listing see the Guide to National Listing of Varieties of Agricultural and Vegetable Crops in the UK.

Official trials are conducted, in most cases for a minimum of two years, to test each new variety for a range of characteristics. The testing will determine the varieties uniqueness, its genetic uniformity, and its value to growers and the rest of the food chain.

Varieties in the National Listings are then tested for their commercial value by the UK Levy bodies to produce the Recommended Lists by crop. The levy boduies include:

Certified Seed

Seed of an approved variety can only be marketed if it is certified as meetings strict quality criteria. These quality standards are laid down in UK and EU law and policed by agencies appointed by Government.

Certified seed offers the grower an independent assurance of quality and cover:

varietal identity
purity
germination capacity

Strict limits also apply to seed borne disease, and the presence of physical impurities such as weed seeds.

The breeder bulks up supplies of the purified lines of breeder’s seed into pre-basic and basic seed. Each year specialist seed growers are used to grow basic seed for the first generation of certified seed - C1 seed. After one more year this becomes C2 seed, the main source of certified seed used by farmers.

Breeders continually maintain breeder’s seed for the process of multiplication to ensure the variety’s performance and quality year after year. Preserving the identity of individual varieties has become more important; both to conserve quality characteristics and to meet consumer demands for assurances about the integrity and traceability of their food.

Royalties paid on certified seed remain the plant breeder's main source of investment income.

Farm Saved Seed

Farm Saved Seed (FSS) is defined as seed planted on a farmer's own holding using material harvested on his own holding. Payments on farm saved seed make up an increasingly significant proportion of breeder’s income and are vital for the continued development of new varieties.

The Plant Varieties Act 1997 provides for holders of rights to claim remuneration from farmers for the use of farm saved seed of varieties of the following species:

beet
cereals
fodder Plants
oil and Fibre plants
potatoes
vegetables

The British Society of Plant Breeders is responsible for collecting the royalties on Farm Saved Seed from growers for: wheat, barley, oilseed rape, field peas and beans, oats, linseed, triticale, yellow lupins and potatoes.