Grower’s Insight Into Seed Innovations

Recently I asked myself, “How does a Grower begin to understand the fascinating efforts behind today’s seed innovations?”   I’ve struggled with this for quite some time, trying to avoid the usual statistics about costs, time, and investments.  Then it came to me a couple of weeks ago during a Zoom call with a small group of plant breeders from the National Association of Plant Breeders.  This group of ~490 members include established plant breeders from across the US, along with geneticists, crop physiologists, molecular biologists, statisticians, and computational biologists. Some are graduate students in various phases of their education. What they all do individually is mind-boggling but envision finding a needle in a haystack then taking it a quantum step forward by trying to find a needle in haystacks across the US!

But first, let’s get the basic statistics out of the way to provide a baseline.

$20.8 B 2020 Value of US Seed Sector	~15-28% % of sales invested in seed innovations	~$3 B / year Seed company R&D spend.	7-18 years Years to commercialize vegetable seeds.
$1-2 M Cost to commercialize a vegetable variety.	< 1% % of all hybrids tested that are commercialized.	~$10M & 5 years Cost to commercialize genome editing innovations.	6:1 ROI Growers realize a 6:1 ROI on every dollar spent on new seed!

Mark Twain used to say, “There are three types of lies:  lies, damn lies and statistics!”

Seed companies are willing to take significant risk to bring valuable seed innovations to market because it’s a good business model…good for the grower, good for the consumer, good for the company, and good for the environment.

Don’t laugh about the altruistic nature of the statement above – a seed company does have a responsibility to its shareholders but also to its customers…all of the ~7.2 B people that don’t want to go to bed hungry every night.  You may not recognize this responsibility but dig deeper and try to understand each company’s brand.   A brand is a “customer experience” that runs through the blood of each employee interacting with customers.  You see it show up in the customer service, the needs discovery, and the hand-holding your seed company or seed dealer representative demonstrates!   After each visit, they should be asking you, “Have I met your expectations?”

To make this symbiotic relationship grow the pie, a set of guideposts is used to outline everyone’s responsibilities.  This shows up as plant variety protection certificates, utility patents, plant patents, legal agreements, or trade secrets.  Without these guideposts, all parties wouldn’t be working harmoniously together to grow the seed innovation pie.  Look at the seed label on the seed again and understand that a whole group of people work tirelessly to ensure Growers receive a valuable, high-quality seed product backed by the seed company’s brand.

The American Seed Industry Association and the Seed Innovation & Protection Alliance work together to educate growers and the public about the importance of seed innovations.  Our organizations want to thank you for buying new seed from an authorized seed company or seed dealer.

For more seed care innovation tips, click here.

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