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In the last month of 1849, Hannah, pregnant by a traveling seed trader, arrives in a small village in the Swabian Mountains to find the father of her child. Helmut is due to be married to the town beauty in January and Hannah is determined to win his love for herself but the longer she stays, the more attached she becomes to both the town and to Helmut's fiancâee.

In the face of marketization and globalization of agricultural product trade, ensuring food security through effective seed industry policies has become a vital objective for many nations, especially for developing countries striving toward this goal. The evolution of seed industry policies to meet the challenges of marketization and globalization has not been extensively examined. This study seeks to answer how China’s seed industry policies have been continuously adjusted since the 21st century to ensure seed security and food security amidst marketization and globalization. Focusing on 96 national-level seed policies issued between 2000 and 2024, we employ methods such as co-word analysis, social network analysis (SNA), cluster analysis, and content analysis to explore policy evolution from five perspectives: policy stakeholders, policy issues, objectives, discourse, and tools. The key findings are: (1) China’s seed policies have largely aligned with the country’s marketization and globalization processes, progressing through three stages: seed industry marketization, response to globalization, and modernization and self-strengthening, forming a comprehensive policy framework. (2) The scale of cooperation networks among policy issuers has expanded, shifting toward a loose-centralized structure, with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs as the core and coordinated involvement of other departments such as the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State Administration for Market Regulation. (3) The policy discourse shifted from fostering a market-oriented environment to emphasizing seed industry innovation, reinforcing basic R&D capabilities, addressing innovation challenges, and promoting industrialization. (4) The policy paradigm transitioned from an initial phase of adjusting to market-oriented transformation to a comprehensive phase of modernization and self-reliance, with policy focus moving from incomplete market mechanisms and regulatory shortcomings toward issues like seed source bottlenecks, and objectives from reforming seed management to achieving technological independence. (5) The logic of policy evolution shows notable differences in attention focus related to management concepts, support for technological innovation, and promotion of quality seed breeding—shifting from regulation to service emphasis, from focusing on key projects to diversified innovation, and from importing superior varieties to breakthroughs in new breeds and technologies. These findings offer valuable insights for developing countries facing food security challenges.

Seed production of common vetch (Vicia sativa L.) and sweet white lupine (Lupinus albus L.) is risky due to weed infestation as few herbicides are permitted for use in crops. Our aim was to test herbicides in these crops in order to expand the list of available herbicides. Various pre- and post-emergence herbicides were tested for their phytotoxicity and weed-control activity in field cultures of the common vetch (cv. Emma) and sweet white lupine (cv. Nelly). After the application of herbicides, phytotoxicity was monitored visually. Data collection involved the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), the plant height, the number of weeds, yield, and its contamination. Additionally, 1000-seed-weight measurements were taken for lupine. Summarizing the phytotoxicity and efficacy results in common vetch, the agents S-metolachlor, flumioxazin, and clomazone can be recommended for further pre-emergence testing, while metazachlor + quinmerac, chlorotoluron, and flumioxazin can be recommended for further post-emergence testing. In sweet white lupine, pre-emergence applications of flumioxazin, pendimethalin, dimethenamid-P, pethoxamid, clomazone, metobromuron, and diflufenican were found to be effective without any significant phytotoxicity. Further post-emergence testing of flumioxazin, chlorotoluron, carfentrazone-ethyl, and diflufenican can also be recommended, as well as the application of halauxifen-methyl and sulfosulfuron at low doses (0.4 L ha[sup.−1]; 13.0 g ha[sup.−1]). Additional evaluations of these treatments are recommended, including in different soil and weather conditions.

Melittobia acasta Walker is one among other hymenopterous parasitoids of Megachile rotundata F. Commercial M. rotundata populations are employed to pollinate North American alfalfa for seed production. This wasp can be prolific when using M. rotundata as a host and can reduce or destroy bee stocks. Hundreds of M. acasta female offspring can develop in a single M. rotundata cell and disperse to infest other cells, producing thousands of more parasitoids. In this study, we determined (i) upon what bee life stages M. acasta females choose to lay eggs and if those eggs ultimately become adults and (ii) M. acasta female longevity when exposed to various resources within M. rotundata cells. We found that M. acasta females lay eggs on M. rotundata prepupae and pupae and that those eggs can hatch and survive to adulthood. Eggs are not laid on early instar bee larvae; eggs laid on adults do not survive. Average female life span is 5 days without feeding, 8-9 days if a pollen-nectar provision is available while the bee develops through larval stages, and 34 days if the wasp can feed on prepupal hemolymph. Wasp females can emerge from bee cells several days after trays of cells are taken to fields. Therefore, adult females could survive long enough for new bee offspring to become prepupae. Our findings support a better understanding of host life stage preference and the longevity of M. acasta females that can inform the timing of the implementation of possible control measures.