Agricultural Development: Efforts to protect national seed and plant varieties

The 31st Meeting of the National Seed-Related Committee (NSC) was held at the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation in Nay Pyi Taw on August 28.

Chaired by Deputy Minister Dr. Tin Htut, the committee reviewed and discussed new seed varieties proposed by experts and working groups. They considered 68 new crop varieties for official certification. So far, a total of 2,033 crop varieties have been certified up to the 30th meeting.

The Deputy Minister also attended the 5th Coordination Meeting of the National Plant Variety Protection Central Committee. The meeting discussed protecting the rights of plant breeders and issuing certificates for new plant varieties. Three new varieties are under review for certification.

As of the previous meeting, 12 out of 49 applied varieties have been certified under the Plant Variety Protection Law. Awareness programs are ongoing to prevent unauthorized use of protected foreign plant varieties.