Remove the ‘golden headband’ for the research institute

Memoirs of a cultivar copyright transaction

M.Sc. Nguyen Duc Thanh, Head of Agronomy Department of the Maize Research Institute, recalls the story of his cultivar “Prosperity 9999” having its copyright sold to Nha Ho Seed Joint Stock Company for more than VND 3 billion in 2017: “Upon sending the seeds to Nha Ho Seed Joint Stock Company for trial planting, this cultivar was so good that they asked me to keep it for them. But at the same time another business also visited the institute, saw its potential and asked for a deposit.

“We had to call Nha Ho Seed Joint Stock Company, saying that if we can't come out here tomorrow, we will have to sell the product to another business. The very next day, they flew from the South to order and complete the deal right away. I feel so proud when my products are bought by businesses at a high price and are well received by farmers.”

Mr. Thanh's phone bell in the following days kept ringing, the statuses on Zalo and Facebook are full of congratulatory comments. Everything was like a turning point for him, although not many people know that after paying taxes, the main author is only divided with an amount of money equal to a common motorbike, while the co-authors receive even a smaller share.

After graduating from university and making the Institute home in 2004 were the days when he and his colleagues went to the field at the crack of dawn just to wrap the corn silk to avoid when the sun rose and the wings of bees and butterflies are dry, they might fly and carry pollen from one tree to another, causing shambles.

Those were the rainy and windy days when they had to visit the cornfield, drawing out one leaf after another from dozens and hundreds of lines in the group to see whether they caught a disease. It was also those nights when he was sound asleep but wake back up pondering about a stumbling breeding process, flipping through the books, opening the computer to see what's wrong in the diary.

Two corn maize officially recognized, of which one has had its copyright sold, are the result of more than 10 years of his diligent research from breeding, crossbreeding, testing their ability through combination and testing.

Now he also has two other maize varieties under testing which several enterprises offering to buy but he does not want to. He has become hesitant because of the Decree 70/2018/ND-CP on management and use of assets formed through the implementation of scientific and technological tasks using state capital.

The day before, when the delegation of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan came to work with the Institute, he also reflected on the shortcomings of this Decree: “The ultimate goal of scientific products is to benefit the people. In order to encourage researchers to come up with many good products for the people, appropriate policies and mechanisms must be put in place. But now if we sell the copyright, the state collects it all, then no one would be foolish enough to sell it since there is no benefit”.

“Apart from selling seed copyrights we are also cooperating with enterprises in the form of a group of authors who are responsible for maintaining the line and producing hybrid seeds, while the enterprises do business and then share profits. However, there are many businesses that still want to buy the copyright outright instead of cooperating in this way," said Mr. Nguyen Duc Thanh.

Once upon a glorious time

The period 2006 - 2016 was the most glorious days of the unit. The whole agricultural industry looked at the income of the staff of the Maize Research Institute with admiration. Phung town, where the Institute is located, became a bustling corn town all day round when the crop season came.

People competed to buy corn seeds, using all connections to persuade and buy them at all cost, because just one truck of goods coming out of the institute’s gate meant a profit of one whole bar of gold.

The management mechanism then changed, complying with the Law of Science and Technology, which assigned the copyright to the owner. The Institute could be proactive in utilizing and distributing after-tax profits at the rate of 70% paid to the State, and 30% to the Institute and the authors.

It takes at least 6 years, not less than 10 years to create a new corn variety.

The cost, down to the water bottles for workers to drink, was already not less than VND 6 billion. The State only invested partly, including research funding for the topic. To be more specific, a topic on corn varieties usually got a maximum of VND 4.8 billion divided in 5 years, meaning less than VND 1 billion per year. The Maize Research Institute and the authors personally had to invest 1/3 of the cost to complete the creation.

Therefore, the act of selling the copyright and then deducting 30% of the profit for the Institute and the author group, even if it is VND 1 billion, the profit can only be compensation in some part. The Institute still has to use the revenue to cover the expense.

Nonetheless, thanks to it, the scientists once again found the strength to continue their work. They felt greatly encouraged.

The total revenue of the Maize Research Institute at present is only VND 27 billion and the income is only about 5 million VND/person/month. This result is inevitable due to many reasons, including the fact that the hybrid corn market can be compared to a car going downhill without brakes, and the scientific product management mechanism is not appropriate.

Independent from the limited investment of the State, the Institute has built a transfer center, a qualified breeder as it is now, entirely from its own budget.

Even now, in the agricultural research system, the Maize Research Institute, although has little investment, is the largest taxpayer with an average of VND 2 billion or more per year.