b'CONNECTING THE DOTSFor the Asia and Pacific Seed Association and its executive director, bolstering intellectual property enforcement is a top priority. Marc ZienkiewiczIT CAN BEhard to make sense of alltional and domestic seed shipments, the implications of the COVID-19difficulties in getting inputs and pandemic, but Asia and Pacific Seeddifficulties getting labour for seed Association (APSA) executive directorproduction and processing. May Chodchoey is used to lookingReduced access to finance was back at a situation and making thealso reported by 64% of the respond-most of what she learned from it. ents. Yet, international seed ship-While working on her PhD inments clearly appear as the most biotechnology at Mahidol Universityseverely affected aspect of the seed in Bangkok, Thailand, she was oftenindustry with 52% of the respondents inspired by the words of Apple co- reporting a strong negative effect, founder Steve Jobs, especially hisaccording to the survey results.2005 Stanford University commence-ment address, in which he encour- Bolstering IPaged people to connect the dots byFor Chodchoey, the key to strength-looking backward and learning fromMay Chodchoey is the executive director of theening the Asia-Pacific seed trade is to their mistakes. Asia and Pacific Seed Association. strengthen its system of intellectual In a world obsessed with lookingproperty protection. She cites lack of ahead to the future and not dwellingworked for a leading multinationalIP enforcement as the top factor that on the past, she has always remem- seed company prior to joining APSA. affects seed businesses throughout bered those words. There are so many unique thingsthe region. Severe restrictions on the move- about Asia-Pacific, she says. We areThere is no one-size-fits-all solu-ments of people and goods imposedso diverse. The languages, the croption and it still depends a lot on a in recent months are having wide- types, the climate, the culture andregion or country to develop their spread negative effects on the seedthe environment are so varied. Itsown strategy, she says. industry in the Asia-Pacific region,not always the success stories, butI personally think that a strong with international seed trade par- the failures that can help us all to becollaboration between regional ticularly affected, a survey of seedmore proactive. organizations and the private sector companies finds. In this spirit of collaboration,to send clear messages, facilitate Chodchoey chooses to look at theAPSAs Special Interest Group forinformation exchangeespecially situation as an opportunity to high- Vegetables and Ornamentals recentlywith regard to intellectual property light the strengths of and challengesjoined with the World Vegetableprotectioncan really help us faced by the Asia-Pacific seed trade.Center (WorldVeg) to conduct acreate a strong policy framework to According to APSA figures, the Asia- survey among seed companies oper- tackle this issue.Pacific seed market was worth $22.9ating in the Asia-Pacific region. TheThe region faces many challenges billion in 2018, which representsonline survey sent to seed companyincluding plant variety protection about 30% of the global seed market.managers recorded their opinions onsystems harmonization, seed legisla-We can be a leader geographi- how the crisis has affected their busi- tion, patent and trademark protection. cally. Asia-Pacific has significantness and identified emerging bottle- APSA has developed a position paper resources. Many seed companiesnecks in the seed supply chain. on intellectual property rights for the start seed production in this region.One thing has become clear as aseed industry so each country can If we support stakeholders by link- result of the survey: nearly all aspectsshare this position to their respective ing them with resources and otherof Asia-Pacifics seed business arepolicy makers, ensuring IP law can seed associations, that will help bringnegatively affected by the pandemic,be enforced.new knowledge and technology towith more than 85% of respondentsWith increasing demand for food, this region, says Chodchoey, whoreporting negative effects on interna- feed and fibre to meet the growing 46GERMINATION.CAJULY 2020'