China News Service, Changsha, April 1st: How does Changsha's "Silicon Valley of Seed Industry" build a solid foundation for the "Chinese rice bowl"?
Author Fu Yu Zhang Wenbo
The construction project of the Yuelu Mountain Laboratory, which is a benchmark for the world-class seed industry laboratory, has recently started in Changsha.
This laboratory, which focuses on the "stuck neck" problem of the seed industry, will integrate the innovative resources of the seed industry on a higher level, and is committed to building it into a core strategic scientific and technological force supporting the revitalization of China's seed industry.
Seeds are known as the "chips" of agriculture.
It is the key to make the Chinese people's own rice bowls more secure, to have more "vegetable baskets" and "fruit baskets", and to make China's seed industry bigger and stronger.
In Changsha, a "Silicon Valley of Seed Industry" initiated by Yuan Longping, the "Father of Hybrid Rice", is on the rise, nurturing "agricultural core" for Duanjing's "Chinese rice bowl".
The construction of the Yuelu Mountain Laboratory will gather more "core" forces for it.
The site of the groundbreaking ceremony of the Yuelu Mountain Laboratory Construction Project.
Photo courtesy of Hunan Provincial Department of Science and Technology
Hold the "rice bowl" firmly
To create a "Silicon Valley of Seed Industry" in Changsha is an initiative issued by Academician Yuan Longping in 2013.
The world-class breeder once said in public before his death that Changsha has a foundation and advantages in biological breeding, and should be driven by solving food security problems in China and the world, and realizing the dream of benefiting mankind, to create a "visible, Touchable" "China Seed Industry Silicon Valley".
Since China first proposed "building a strong country in the seed industry" in 2013, "enhancing the independent innovation capability of the seed industry" has repeatedly become the key word in the Central No. 1 document in recent years.
In December 2016, the State Council approved and approved the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for Promoting the Rise of the Central Region" issued by the National Development and Reform Commission, proposing to build a modern seed industry base in Changsha.
The construction of Changsha's "Silicon Valley of Seed Industry" has thus risen to the national strategic level.
To build a solid foundation for the "Chinese rice bowl", Changsha's "Seed Industry Silicon Valley" has unique advantages.
First of all, Hunan is located in the central and subtropical monsoon humid climate region of China, which is very suitable for carrying out breeding research.
"From a global perspective, most countries will deploy seed industry laboratories in off-center areas to ensure the safety of breeding." Bai Lianyang, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and secretary of the Party Committee of the Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, introduced that Hunan's diverse climate types are very Seeds that are suitable for breeding and have been tested by the Hunan climate will have stronger adaptability.
Hunan's talents and scientific research advantages are even more solid support.
As the core area of Changsha's "Seed Industry Silicon Valley", Longping Hi-Tech Park has nearly 4,000 seed industry researchers led by 7 academicians, 25 related universities and research institutes, and nearly 300 upstream and downstream leading enterprises in the biological breeding industry chain. It is the most dense area of China's biological breeding cutting-edge talents and research institutes.
The market share of hybrid rice, hybrid millet and hybrid sunflower developed here is the largest in the world, and the market share of hybrid cucumber, hybrid corn and hybrid pepper is the largest in China.
High-level promotion and top-level design are powerful guarantees.
Accurately grasping the development trend of the international and domestic seed industry, combined with its own potential and advantages, in May 2019, the Changsha Municipal Government released the "Changsha China Longping Seed Industry Silicon Valley Development Plan (2019-2025)", with "one garden, six towns and more" The spatial layout of "base" and the strategic positioning of "one place and two districts" (the source of major original innovations in the seed industry, the best ecological demonstration area for the development of the seed industry, and the exhibition area for the cultural exchange of the seed industry) will start a new journey of construction of the "Silicon Valley of the Seed Industry".
The "Longping Rice" developed from Changsha's "Silicon Valley of Seed Industry" is fragrant overseas.
Photo courtesy of Longping High-tech Park Management Committee
Create "core" results "visible"
Diversified germplasm resources are the source of innovation in the seed industry, and contain various potentially usable genes for improving the shortcomings of existing varieties.
In the germplasm resource bank of Hunan Province and Changsha City, there are more than 30,000 copies of various germplasm resources from 59 countries and regions around the world, and nearly 1,000 somatic cells are produced in the unique local breeds Ningxiang Hua pig and Daweizi pig. Parts, to consolidate the "ballast stone" for the scientific research of Changsha Seed Industry.
If germplasm resources are the first "checkpoint" for the seed industry to be "stuck", then breeding technology is another "stuck point" that needs to be broken through.
In the Molecular Breeding Laboratory of the Yuelu Mountain Seed Industry Innovation Center, researchers screen seeds with a high-throughput genotyping system to predict what it will grow into in the future and which genes need to be improved.
According to Li Le, the director of the experiment, traditional breeding requires the selection of excellent varieties based on experience in the field. Through the direct selection and effective aggregation of genes, molecular breeding can greatly improve the breeding efficiency and achieve "precision breeding".
Yuelushan Seed Industry Innovation Center is only one of dozens of innovation platforms in Changsha's "Seed Industry Silicon Valley".
Aiming at the problems of scattered innovation elements and low level of collaborative innovation in the scientific and technological innovation of the seed industry, this seed industry innovation center jointly built by 20 units including government, enterprises, gardens, and schools, with molecular breeding and biological intelligence big data. It is a key common technology platform that provides technical support for 8 professional research centers such as rice, rapeseed, vegetables, and camellia oleifera, and strives to achieve breakthroughs in the breeding of major strategic varieties.
By concentrating advantageous resources and optimizing the innovation ecology, Changsha's "Seed Industry Silicon Valley" has produced "core" results frequently, and its R&D capabilities in fields such as rice, rapeseed, pigs, aquatic products, tea, and pepper lead the country.
The world's leading hybrid rice breeding and application technology has been mastered here, and China's first "double-low" high-quality rapeseed variety has been bred, which has overcome the major technical difficulties of reproductive isolation between fish species...
To make a good turnaround in the seed industry, we must speed up the improvement of the entire industrial chain of the modern seed industry, promote the combination of production, education, research and application, so that a good seed can truly drive the quality and efficiency of agriculture.
In recent years, Changsha has included the seed industry in 22 industrial chains in the city. By introducing and cultivating strong chain and supplementary chain seed industry enterprises, it strengthens the main role of enterprises in innovation, and guides technology, talents, capital and other elements to gather in the park's advantageous enterprises to promote Improve the modernization level of the whole chain of product research and development, product development, and industrial application.
In 2021, the Changsha seed industry chain is expected to achieve a total output value (revenue) of 9.85 billion yuan.
Rice planthopper is the "big enemy" of rice crops.
"The annual rice planthopper occurrence area in China exceeds 100 million mu, causing huge losses." Ma Dehua, president of Longping Hi-Tech, one of the world's top ten seed companies, introduced that relying on a mature commercial breeding system, the company has bred the leading rice planthopper-resistant rice variety "Weiliangyou" 7713", which has been approved by the state at the beginning of the year.
There are also nearly 140 new varieties of rice, corn and cotton that have passed the national examination at the same time, and are about to be introduced to the market.
The opening ceremony of the Yuelu Seed Industry Summit.
Photo courtesy of Longping High-tech Park Management Committee
The new platform adds stamina
From a global perspective, the characteristics of the seed industry, such as highly integrated technology, highly intensive resources, and highly concentrated talents, are becoming more and more obvious, and the international seed industry is setting off a new wave of reorganization.
In order to conform to the requirements of the current situation and create a global "seed industry Silicon Valley", Changsha urgently needs to amplify the advantages of the existing seed industry and achieve greater breakthroughs through a higher-level innovation platform.
This year, the Hunan delegation submitted a "Proposal on Supporting Hunan to Lead the Establishment of a National Laboratory for Biological Seed Industry" in the name of the whole group. , facing the frontier of world seed industry science and technology, integrating the advantages of Chinese seed industry scientific research institutions, colleges and universities, and leading enterprises, and jointly participating in the construction of a national laboratory for biological seed industry based on the model of "headquarters + base + network".
The Yuelushan Laboratory opened this time will further empower the "core" of Changsha's "Seed Industry Silicon Valley".
It is reported that the laboratory will build a Changsha headquarters, and lay out bases in the five major regions of China's "southeast, northwest, and central". With the relevant research institutions as a network, the top seed industry forces in the country will be united to create a national seed industry field covering the whole country. laboratory system.
At present, Hunan is committed to building a technological innovation highland with core competitiveness.
Changsha, which is striving to be the "leading goose", looks forward to showing greater achievements through stronger scientific and technological strength and innovation capabilities of the seed industry.
The 14th Party Congress of Changsha City and the government work report of the two sessions this year clearly stated that the innovative development of the seed industry should be promoted, and the "Silicon Valley of the Seed Industry" should be included in the four major innovation collaboration sectors; relying on the Yuelu Mountain Seed Industry Innovation Center, according to the national Laboratory standard construction Yuelushan laboratory.
"The 'Silicon Valley of Seed Industry' shoulders the major mission of collaborative innovation, industry-university integration, and industry aggregation. The high-standard planning of the Yuelu Mountain Laboratory by the province and city will bring more elements of modern seed industry resources." Longping High-tech Park Party Working Committee Secretary Tan Xiongwei said that Changsha's "Seed Industry Silicon Valley" will strive to create more than 100 new technologies, new genes and new varieties with great application value during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, and the number of national and provincial innovation platforms will reach 100. There are 100 leading companies in the seed industry, and the seed industry has turned around.
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