"Seed Street"

The Han's lost heart when faced with the huge choice. The fear of buying counterfeit seeds locally led them to travel by long-distance bus to Yushu city, the largest grain production base in the province, clutching a list of preferred seeds, garnered after long consultations with their family and neighbors.

Yushu has more than 320 different seed companies and about 200 of them are on Gongnong Street, known locally simply as "Seed Street". A board hanging in the corridor of the Yushu Agricultural Supervision Team indicates the 471 varieties of corn seeds approved by the Ministry of Agriculture.

"In addition, there are more than 700 varieties of seed named after the local companies that produced them, meaning that at present more than 1,300 different kinds are on sale," said Sun Chengju, the team leader.

Of the 200 seed companies in Yushu's Seed Street, only a few have the ability to conduct research and development. Zhang Xue, director of the Yushu Agriculture Bureau, admitted that the differences in management styles and product quality in these enterprises results in market chaos and distorts competition.

However, this phenomenon is not unique to Yushu, it's widespread in China's Northeast and other provinces and regions. Yushu is just a microcosm of China's seed industry. "Some seed companies mislead customers by misusing trademarks, exaggerating and misrepresentation in their advertisements.

"Using inferior seeds in place of high-quality ones is a common trick practiced by a number of the companies. It can be done easily, just by putting inferior seeds in packages designed for high-end brands," said Xu Lei, chairman of Northern Agriculture Technology Co.

"In 2010, we undertook a special investigation into farming materials and discovered more than 450,000 kg of fake corn seeds. We took emergency measures that directly avoided losses of more than 200 million yuan. It's the largest case of counterfeit seeds in our city so far," said Sun.

"In a bid to guarantee the quality of the seeds, we worked out a number of measures, such as introducing a seed security fund to compensate farmers for losses and a five-shop joint-guarantee system under which if any shop in the group sells fake seeds, the other four receive the same punishment. All the measures were effective, and so far we haven't received a single complaint about fake seeds," he said.