61 



I think on the other side, in terms of the economic argument 

 from the seed companies' point of view, I think that one side of 

 that would be to look at the loss of breeding programs due to an 

 inability to finance them. I don't have figures today how to quanti- 

 fy that in all the crops represented. 



Dietrich, would you have anything to add to that? 



Mr. Schmidt. I would clearly state here that it is very important 

 for the U.S. farmers to have superior varieties which give them in- 

 creased yields and therefore they can go to the world markets and 

 sell that product, the commodity product, at a price that many 

 others cannot compete, and this is the fact to this date and we 

 want to maintain that. That is the important thing. U.S. export of 

 agriculture products is still a very important part of our export 

 trade and balance of payments. 



From the seed companies' point of view, there is no question in 

 my mind that if I invest $1 million or whatever that might be, I 

 need to have a return for that investment. It can be clearly demon- 

 strated that the investments we are making today are very signifi- 

 cant in order to remain competitive worldwide, and the seed com- 

 panies are certainly doing that. 



From the point of public research, there has been a lot of public 

 research done over the past years, but over the past 10, 15, or 20 

 years, we have seen this eroding as far as coming out with varieties 

 that can be commercialized, simply because the public research 

 funding has dried up or has been shifted, as you stated, to more 

 basic research or new things. The public is now responsible almost 

 to come up with new varieties and to improve those. 



Furthermore, I would like to say one other thing about the diver- 

 sity of germplasm. The diversity of germplasm is still available, be- 

 cause we do have a research exemption, and that germplasm can 

 be available to anyone worldwide. 



Thank you. 



Senator Kerrey. Would you comment, Mr. Schmidt, on the state- 

 ments that Ms. Shand made regarding the interest of developing 

 nations as well as the interests of farmers versus breeders? 



Mr. Schmidt. The interest in the developing nations, I should 

 also say that this is a global business. We are not living within the 

 U.S. frontiers. Many of the seed companies are dealing worldwide. 

 Our own company deals in at least 10 different countries, including 

 developing countries. 



We do breeding in those developing countries, and the germ- 

 plasm in many instances stays right there and it is sold in those 

 countries, and these countries encourage us to come there and 

 breed for their needs. They don't have the money, but we invest 

 that money in those countries. So there is certainly a great oppor- 

 tunity for these people to benefit from these programs. 



Senator Kerrey. Dr. Watson, can you comment on this issue of 

 developing versus developed and breeder versus farmer interests? 



Dr. Watson. Senator, from the perspective of the certification 

 agencies, I can speak from expressions of interest from other coun- 

 tries that we have in participating within our organization. 



We were solely a U.S.-Canada group prior to 1991, when New 

 Zealand petitioned to become part of our organization. Just within 

 the last 2 years, we have also had expressions of interest from Ar- 



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