**3.1**

Seeds Technology Transfer: With seed reforms from the early 1980s, the number of improved varieties allowed for sale (with either registration or production permits) increased dramatically over the next several years, as shown in Table 3.1. For sunflower, for example, the number of varieties increased from three in 1982 to about 30 in 1987. For soy beans, varieties increased over the same period from two to more than 40. Many of these new varieties have been introduced and tested at the initiative of private seed companies as part of their efforts to expand seed sales.

Even for crops with strong public sector involvement in seed trade, 1980s reforms brought increases in numbers of varieties available, through public as well as private efforts. In wheat, for example, government allowed a total of only 21 improved varieties in 1982; after reforms, government approved an average of over five new varieties per year during 1984-94. In 1980, Agricultural State Enterprises (TIGEM) produced seeds for 14 wheat and four barley varieties; by 1994, TIGEM offered 42 varieties of wheat and nine of barley. In sugar beets, KWS (partner with the government in Pan Tohum) responded to competition from several fully private competitors by selecting additional lines from their breeding program that are specially suited for Turkey.

Prior to the 1994 PVP law, companies have had no legal way to stop any other company from taking and reproducing seed for self or open-pollinated crops such as wheat, barley, and soy bean. Nevertheless, companies have invested to identify, test, and introduce new varieties for non-hybrid crops. During interviews in 1994, seed company managers reported only one case of a company multiplying seed of a variety introduced by another: TIGEM multiplied seed of a soy bean variety that May and its international partner Asgro had introduced.

Expansion of the Seed Industry: Before the 1980s reforms, the few private seed companies importing and producing seed in Turkey (one source reports only one, May Seed Company [Freiberg and Grobman 1985, p 279]) focused on vegetables. In addition, there were two semiprivate seed companies: Pan Tohum, a joint venture between the government's Turkish Sugar Factories Company (SEKER) and KWS, a German firm; and BETA, for which the dominant owners are sugar cooperatives, so that BETA is controlled by Pankobirlic, a government-run apex cooperative.

In 1980, government directly managed or controlled most commercial seed production and trade through cooperatives and SOEs, including TZDK and TIGEM. For sugar beet seeds, Pan Tohum had a monopoly for production and import and distributed seeds through sugar cooperatives.

A 1985 World Bank paper reports nine new seed companies established from the time seed reforms began (Freiberg and Grobman, p 280). That number increased rapidly; several years after reforms, all major US and European-based seed multinationals had established a presence in Turkey along with companies from Israel, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, Korea, and other countries. In 1986, Turkish seed companies founded a Seed Industry Association (TEBD); TEBD in 1994 represents 29 companies, most of which are private. The seed industry includes another 50 or so private companies that have not joined TEBD.

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