The seed industry is a strategic and fundamental core sector for ensuring national food security. In 2021, China's "Seed Industry Revitalization Action Plan" outlined a phased approach with the goals of "making a good start in the first year, laying a solid foundation in three years, demonstrating results in five years, and achieving major breakthroughs in ten years." The objective of "demonstrating results in five years" has now been successfully met as scheduled. By the end of 2025, China had established national germplasm resource banks for crops, livestock and poultry, and marine fisheries, with the total long-term preservation of germplasm resources for crops, livestock, poultry, and aquaculture ranking first in the world. Over the year, more than 100,000 portions of resources were distributed, effectively supporting breeding innovation entities. At the National Marine Fishery Biological Germplasm Resource Bank, staff are intensifying efforts to conduct precise identification of the phenotypes and genotypes of preserved aquatic germplasm resources. The bank has collected and preserved a total of 145,791 physical resources, including genes, cells, microorganisms, and live specimens. Currently, independently developed crop varieties account for over 95% of the cultivated area in China. The modernization levels of four national breeding and seed production bases—Gansu corn, Sichuan rice, Heilongjiang soybeans, and the Hainan winter breeding base—continue to improve. At Heilongjiang's first breeding R&D service platform, researchers have screened over 2,000 high-quality soybean breeding materials through quality testing and manual selection processes, which will provide core seed sources for this year's spring sowing. Today, China's seed industry technology innovation has entered the top tier globally, with enterprises leading more than half of the scientific and technological攻关 tasks. In 2025, R&D investment by leading national crop seed enterprises doubled compared to 2020.
Comments