The protection of new varieties of plants is to gather momentum over the next few years among Chinese agronomists and technicians, according to the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), according to today's China Daily.

In the first half of this year, the agriculture authority received 151 applications for listing new plant varieties - five times more than in the same period last year.

The news was announced at an international conference on plant variety protection which opened yesterday in Beijing and continues until tomorrow.

Sponsored by the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), the Ministry of Agriculture, the State Forestry Bureau and the State Intellectual Property Bureau, the conference is seeking to co-ordinate the protection of new plant varieties among Asian countries and regions.

According to Zou Ping, an official at the Department of Sciences and Education of the MOA, all 380 such applications have been accepted since China entered into the UPOV in April 1999.

And Li Yunku, vice-director of the Department of Sciences of the State Forestry Bureau, said his organization had accepted 172 applications.

Both of the authorities are in charge of the job.

The protection of new varieties of plants is of strategic importance to China.

According to Chen Ruming, a divisional director at the MOA, a new plant variety protection system allows their owners to reap economic benefits by selling their plant variety rights, thus obtaining funds for further research and cultivation. Enditem

And this will in turn push technological innovation in agriculture.