Du Pont's Pioneer combating fake seeds

Pioneer, a unit of US chemicals maker EI du Pont de Nemours and Co, is building up its dealer network and research facilities in northeast China. The world's largest hybrid-corn-seed producer by market share wants to tackle the market in counterfeit seeds in the nation's largest corn-grain-planting region.

Almost half China's farmland is in the north, particularly the northeast, where land doesn't always depend on heavy irrigation. The region can increase corn, rice and soybean output.

The amount of counterfeit seeds in northeastern provinces such as Heilongjiang and Jilin has increased over recent years as China's grain-production base moved gradually from the south to the northeast.