Food security in the vegetable growing for private farms: AIRSC work

The key factors for the self-sufficiency of vegetable crops include the availability of competitive domestic varieties and hybrids, as well as the production of sufficient volumes of their seeds within the country, primarily in specialized areas for commercial seed production. The article notes that the Federal Law No.454 “On seed production” introduces new bureaucratic procedures, prohibitive barriers, and requirements without taking into account biological and economic difference between professional and hobby (amateur) markets of the vegetable crops. It has been proven that the existing varieties listed in the State Register don’t meet of hobby growers’ needs, which finally has led to a decrease in interest of vegetable crops production on personal subsidiary plots and gardens. Very high costs of State registration new varieties of vegetable crops have been analyzed, which make the breeding and seed production process economically unfeasible. The problems associated with registration of new varieties in Russian Federation have been identified. The State Commission of the Russian Federation for the Testing and Protection of Breeding Achievements (the State Commission) doesn’t use modern technologies and doesn’t take into account the needs of the vegetable crops marker. Russian seed companies in the vegetable crop sector have a number of issues related to the organization of work of the State Commission which has led to a lack of trust to the institution. The low professional performance of the State Commission, combined with extremely high registration fees for new varieties in the State Register, threatens vegetable crops production in private households, where 60% of the country’s vegetables are produced. It is recommended to exclude seed production vegetable crops on personal subsidiary plots from the Federal Law No.454 “On seed production”. This step will allow to expand the range of available varieties for hobby-market, as well as to cancel the existing mandatory registration new breeding achievements in the State Register.

Key words: seed production, legislation, registration, cultivar, hybrid.