Seeds are the "chips" of agriculture. In July 2021, the 20th meeting of the Central Committee for Comprehensively Deepening Reform reviewed and approved the "Seed Industry Revitalization Action Plan." Over the past five years, China's seed source security level has steadily improved, with landmark achievements emerging in succession. The "15th Five-Year Plan" proposal calls for the in-depth implementation of the seed industry revitalization action. China is now pooling resources to solve difficult problems, shore up weaknesses, enhance strengths, and control risks, accelerating the realization of self-reliance and self-improvement in seed industry technology and ensuring seed sources are independently controllable.
The foundation of seed sources has become thicker. The proportion of independently bred crop varieties exceeds 95%, while the domestic market shares for livestock, poultry, and aquatic seed sources have surpassed 80% and 85%, respectively. The comprehensive strength of leading enterprises has significantly improved, and the seed supply guarantee rate from national-level seed industry bases has reached 80%. A series of data points illustrate the latest progress in China's seed industry development, indicating that the phased goal of achieving "visible results in five years" for the seed industry revitalization action has been completed as scheduled. The seed supply capacity of China's seed industry bases has markedly strengthened, ensuring that "Chinese grains" primarily use "Chinese seeds." The layout of these bases has been further optimized, with a "national team" for seed breeding essentially formed, centered around four major national breeding and seed production bases: Gansu for corn, Sichuan for rice, Heilongjiang for soybeans, and Hainan's Southern Breeding Base. Seed supply guarantees have become more effective, achieving full coverage of national and provincial-level disaster relief and famine-preparedness seed reserves. Over the past five years, nearly 22 million kilograms of national reserve seeds have been utilized, ensuring the replanting and interplanting of over 11 million mu of affected farmland.
White-feather broiler chickens, which account for approximately half of China's broiler market, had seed sources that long relied on imports, constraining the high-quality development of the country's poultry industry. Units including Beijing Huadu Yukou Poultry Industry Co., Ltd. have bred three white-feather broiler varieties, filling the gap in domestic white-feather broiler seed sources. Wu Guiqin, Deputy General Manager of Beijing Huadu Yukou Poultry Industry Co., Ltd., stated that the new varieties are better suited for the diverse cooking scenarios of Chinese households. The foundation of seed sources has also become more substantial. It is reported that over the past five years, China has bred a number of new varieties urgently needed for production, such as wheat resistant to fusarium head blight, rice resistant to brown planthoppers, and corn with high density tolerance suitable for mechanical harvesting. The per-unit yield and quality of rice, wheat, and other crops have continuously improved, maintaining an internationally leading position. The area planted with independently bred corn varieties has increased from 91% in 2020 to the current 94%, while the figure for vegetables has risen from 87% to 91%. The production performance of the top 10% of breeding pigs in national core swine breeding farms has reached internationally advanced levels.
Innovation efforts are being intensified. At the Guanshan Rice R&D Base of Yuan Long Ping High-Tech Agriculture Co.,Ltd. in Changsha City, Hunan Province, a batch of rice is undergoing resistance evaluation tests for tolerance to high and low temperatures in smart greenhouses. Yang Yuanzhu, the Chief Rice Expert at Yuan Long Ping High-Tech Agriculture Co.,Ltd., explained that the smart greenhouses simulate natural environments through precise temperature and humidity control to evaluate the high and low-temperature tolerance of rice materials and new varieties, ensuring safety for large-scale planting. Seed vigor is a critical factor determining seed quality. In the germplasm resource bank of the Yuelushan Laboratory, a prototype of a non-destructive rice seed vigor detection and sorting machine is in operation. This instrument can achieve a prediction accuracy of over 95% for the vigor of individual rice seeds. "Previously, seed vigor could only be determined through germination tests, which were cumbersome. With this device that essentially takes a 'CT scan' of the seeds, we can quickly judge seed quality without germination, improving the efficiency of seed testing and sorting and providing technical support for the safe and efficient preservation of germplasm resources," said Zhu Mingdong, a researcher at the Yuelushan Laboratory Germplasm Resource Bank.
Currently, the overall level of scientific and technological innovation in China's seed industry has entered the world's first tier. Since the launch of the Seed Industry Revitalization Action, China has carried out research on key core technologies for seed sources, implemented major bio-breeding projects, continued national breeding joint research initiatives and livestock and poultry genetic improvement plans, and established multiple national and regional seed industry innovation platforms, represented by the Yazhouwan National Laboratory, constructing a multi-level, three-dimensional breeding innovation and research system. However, it is also recognized that there remains a gap when benchmarking seed industry innovation against high-quality development requirements. For instance, while the number of high-level papers in basic breeding research ranks first in the world, the translation of this research into industrial application is still insufficient. Experts believe that in the next phase, efforts should be guided by industrial needs to accelerate the breeding of more high-yield, high-quality, green, cost-saving, and specialized fine varieties, helping to hold the Chinese rice bowl more steadily and securely.
Seed industry revitalization is inseparable from the global stage of seed industry development. In recent years, China's international cooperation in the seed industry has expanded and accelerated, with its international competitiveness continuously strengthening. In 2024, China's seed export value exceeded its import value for the first time, achieving a trade surplus. Hybrid rice, cotton, and vegetable seeds are exported to over 40 countries, and independently bred layers, broilers, mutton sheep, beef cattle, dairy cows, turbot, and Pacific white shrimp have successively gone global. Many enterprises have actively responded to the Belt and Road Initiative, promoting domestic varieties to the world and deepening international agricultural cooperation. Yuan Long Ping High-Tech Agriculture Co.,Ltd. has deepened international cooperation in hybrid rice, corn, and cotton with Belt and Road partner countries. Guangdong Haid Group Co., Ltd. has invested in and built multiple aquatic seed and seedling farms in Vietnam, Indonesia, and other places, supplying and promoting high-quality fish and shrimp fry to the global market. In June 2023, Beijing Huadu Yukou Poultry Industry Co., Ltd. completed the first export of China's independently bred poultry varieties, with the parent stock of the "Jinghong No. 1" layer and the "Wode 188" white-feather broiler. Wu Guiqin explained that the "going global" of the seed industry is driving the entire industry to go global, transitioning from single product exports to the full-chain export of services including feed, equipment, and breeding models.
According to relevant deployment arrangements, during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, China will concentrate efforts on solving difficult problems, shoring up weaknesses, enhancing strengths, and controlling risks to advance the high-quality development of the seed industry. This will involve accelerating the precise identification of germplasm resources and implementing germplasm resource improvement plans; formulating and issuing the "15th Five-Year Plan" for the Modern Seed Industry Enhancement Project to cultivate breakthrough varieties urgently needed for production; strengthening the gradient cultivation of leading enterprises and reinforcing their role as the main body of innovation; constructing national seed industry bases to high standards and enhancing their modernization level; strengthening the whole-chain management of varieties and intensifying the protection of intellectual property rights in the seed industry; and enhancing scientific and technological safety measures for agricultural biosecurity to firmly safeguard the bottom line of seed industry security.
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