(East-West question) Yang Yuanzhu: Is the world food safe for Yuan Lao's anniversary?
China News Agency, Changsha, May 21, Question: Yuan Lao's Anniversary, Is World Food Security?
——Interview with Yang Yuanzhu, Vice President of Longping Hi-Tech and Chief Rice Expert
China News Agency reporter Bai Zu and Fu Yu
May 22 is the first anniversary of the death of Academician Yuan Longping, the "Father of Hybrid Rice".
Yuan Longping has long been committed to promoting hybrid rice to the world. "Developing hybrid rice and benefiting the people of the world" is his lifelong pursuit and dream.
Since going abroad for the first time in 1979, Chinese hybrid rice has been researched and promoted in dozens of countries and regions, making significant contributions to world food security and the dissemination of improved seed technology.
Yuan Longping Agricultural High-Tech Co., Ltd., located in Changsha, is the largest hybrid rice breeding company in China, and its hybrid rice market share ranks first in the world.
Yang Yuanzhu, vice president of the company and chief rice expert, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency "Dongxiwen" to explain how "Oriental Magic Rice" contributes "grain" strategies to world food security.
The following is a summary of the interview transcript:
China News Service reporter: How is the promotion and application of Chinese hybrid rice technology overseas at present?
Yang Yuanzhu:
Since the successful research and widespread promotion in the 1970s, the Chinese government, together with the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and other international organizations, have provided a series of technical assistance to the world's major rice-growing countries.
In the early 1990s, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations listed the promotion of hybrid rice as the preferred strategic measure to solve the food shortage problem in developing countries.
In 2018, the rice harvesting ceremony of the China-aided Senegal Agricultural Technical Cooperation Group was held.
Photo courtesy of China News Agency Longping Hi-Tech
At present, China's hybrid rice technology has been tested and demonstrated in at least 40 countries around the world, including the United States, India, the Philippines, Pakistan, Vietnam and Indonesia, etc., which have been widely promoted in more than a dozen countries. The annual planting area exceeds 6 million hectares, and the average yield is It is 2 tons per hectare higher than that of local conventional rice.
The United States was the first country to introduce Chinese hybrid rice technology.
In 1979, the American Ring Seed Company introduced three hybrid rice varieties from China for trial planting. The yield per unit was 165% to 180% higher than that of the American varieties. The Americans exclaimed that they were "Oriental Magic Rice".
The following year, the United States and China signed an agreement on the transfer of hybrid rice seed production technology, and China sent experts to the United States to teach the technology, which soon succeeded.
Today, nearly 60% of hybrid rice is planted in the United States, with an annual planting area of about 600,000 hectares.
Vietnam is the first country to directly apply Chinese hybrid rice, with an annual planting area of over 700,000 hectares.
Pakistan is the fastest-growing South Asian country for hybrid rice, with the current annual planting area accounting for more than 20%.
The annual planting area of hybrid rice in India exceeds 3.3 million hectares, accounting for 8% of the rice planting area, making it the country with the largest area of hybrid rice cultivation outside of China.
China News Service reporter: How many stages has China's hybrid rice "going out" gone through?
Yang Yuanzhu:
It has gone through three stages.
The first is the stage of "going out of products" before 2007, mainly to carry out seed export trade, that is, to directly sell commercial hybrid rice seeds to foreign seed companies.
The second is the stage of "localization of scientific research". Chinese seed companies set up hybrid rice R&D centers (breeding stations) overseas to cultivate hybrid rice varieties that are truly suitable for the target country through "localized" breeding.
The third is the "foreign investment" stage that has just started. Chinese seed companies and foreign seed companies set up joint ventures to accelerate the industrialization of overseas hybrid rice.
Yang Yuanzhu's team carried out hybrid rice breeding at Longping Hi-Tech Pakistan (Lahore) breeding station.
Photo courtesy of China News Agency Longping Hi-Tech
China News Agency reporter: What are the main difficulties faced by the overseas promotion of hybrid rice? What efforts has China made to solve these problems?
Yang Yuanzhu:
The overseas promotion of hybrid rice mainly faces three difficulties.
One is the limitation of domestic hybrid rice variety resources.
In the past, Chinese hybrid rice had weak resistance to bacterial diseases and rice planthoppers in tropical regions such as South Asia and Southeast Asia, and the risk of planting in the rainy season was high. In addition, the paddy fields in these places had poor soil and low fertilization levels, so the yield increase potential was not high.
In addition, most Chinese hybrid rice varieties have low amylose content and sticky rice, which is not suitable for countries such as India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh that are used to eating hand-picked rice.
Second, the overall strength of Chinese seed enterprises is not strong.
Due to low R&D investment and lack of international R&D talents, most seed companies do not have "localized" R&D support and remain in the seed trade stage.
Due to the rising cost of domestic hybrid rice seed production year by year, export profits are getting lower and lower, and it is difficult to sustainably develop solely by exporting.
Third, farmers in developing countries such as Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Africa have a backward level of scientific farming and cannot achieve good seeds and methods, which also brings certain obstacles to the promotion of hybrid rice.
In response to the above problems, China has made the following efforts:
First, establish the strategy of "R&D first" for hybrid rice to go global.
Chinese seed companies and scientific research institutes have successively established hybrid rice R&D centers (breeding stations) in target countries to carry out "localized" breeding in a targeted manner, focusing on the problems of disease and insect resistance, lodging resistance, low fertilizer resistance, and specific quality of varieties. traits, which significantly improved the ecological adaptability of hybrid rice varieties.
For example, Longping Hi-Tech has set up overseas hybrid rice R&D centers in the Philippines, Pakistan, India and Vietnam, and Sanya Overseas Hybrid Rice R&D Center in Hainan to coordinate and manage overseas hybrid rice breeding stations.
As of 2021, the company has approved 31 new varieties of hybrid rice overseas. The sales volume of overseas hybrid rice seeds that year exceeded 6,800 tons, and 100% of the products sold were independently developed locally.
China Rice Institute has also established hybrid rice research centers in Indonesia and Pakistan, which are progressing well.
Secondly, set up a hybrid rice industrialization company in the target country to promote localization of production and greatly reduce the cost of seed production.
Generally, the purchase price per kilogram of overseas seed production is more than 30% lower than that of domestic seed production, which significantly improves the efficiency of the seed industry.
Third, strengthen international training on hybrid rice.
China's Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and Ministry of Science and Technology have all set up international training programs for hybrid rice.
As the first "Chinese Hybrid Rice Technical Assistance Training Base" awarded by the Ministry of Commerce, Longping Hi-Tech has held more than 100 international training courses on hybrid rice, trained nearly 10,000 agricultural officials and agricultural technology experts for more than 100 countries, and provided "hybrid rice " "Going Global" has laid a solid talent foundation.
Yuan Longping taught African students in the field.
Photo courtesy of China News Agency Longping Hi-Tech
China News Agency reporter: From the research and practice of hybrid rice in China, what do you think is the significance of international cooperation in germplasm resources to ensure world food security?
Yang Yuanzhu:
Germplasm resources are the material basis for breeding innovation. The breeding of breakthrough new varieties depends on breeders' discovery and utilization of excellent germplasm resources.
The successful research of hybrid rice in China, in addition to the discovery of the "wild-destroyed" cytoplasmic sterile germplasm, also benefited from the effective use of restorer germplasm in Southeast Asian countries or regions.
Germplasm resources have the characteristics of regional evolution, and specific germplasm is the result of long-term stress and evolution of biotic and abiotic stress in a region. It is difficult for a country or region to have all germplasm resources.
After more than half a century of development, China's hybrid rice currently has the best hybrid rice germplasm in the world. The hybridization improvement with the germplasm resources in Southeast Asia and South Asia will undoubtedly play a huge role in accelerating the cultivation of overseas hybrid rice varieties. .
Therefore, international cooperation on germplasm resources is of great significance for promoting the exchange of excellent germplasm resources, the mining and genetic improvement of excellent genes, accelerating the cultivation of breakthrough varieties, and ensuring world food security.
China News Service reporter: Why has China's hybrid rice research achieved such great achievements? What can be done more about global food security?
Yang Yuanzhu:
The outstanding achievements in hybrid rice research in China are mainly due to the following factors.
First, the urgent need to ensure national food security.
It is the original intention and mission of Academician Yuan Longping to carry out hybrid rice research by utilizing the heterosis of rice to greatly increase the yield per unit of rice and to solve the problem of food and clothing for more than one billion Chinese.
Second, a large number of Chinese breeders headed by Academician Yuan, down-to-earth ploughing the fields, are committed to "writing the paper on the ground", and only then have the breakthrough and success of China's hybrid rice technology.
Third, the state attaches great importance to and supports it, and the nationwide large-scale exchanges, large-scale cooperation, and large-scale battles have overcome difficulties one by one, which fully reflects the advantages of concentrating efforts on major affairs under the socialist system.
Fourth, as one of the birthplaces of rice, China is rich in rice germplasm resources, laying a genetic material foundation for the success of hybrid rice research.
"Giant rice" was successfully planted in Changhong Village, Shiwan Town, Dazu District, Chongqing City, with an estimated yield of 1,600 jin per mu.
Photo by China News Agency reporter He Penglei
The successful research and large-scale application of hybrid rice is the best answer to the question of "who will feed China" to American Lester Brown with practical actions by Chinese scientific and technological workers represented by Yuan Longping.
"Chinese rice bowls are loaded with Chinese grains, and the Chinese people's rice bowls are firmly in the hands of the Chinese people." This is China's solemn commitment and positive contribution to the world.
In today's community with a shared future for mankind and the severe food security situation, we are more responsible for undertaking the mission of the times, contributing Chinese wisdom, solutions and strength to realize the "global dream of hybrid rice covering the world" of Academician Yuan Longping and to solve global food security problems.
(Finish)
Interviewee Profile:
Photo courtesy of Yang Yuanzhu interviewee
Yang Yuanzhu, Vice President of Longping Hi-Tech, Chief Rice Expert, concurrently a member of the Rice Professional Committee of the National Crop Variety Approval Committee, a member of the National Crop Germplasm Resources Management Committee, etc., and a doctoral tutor of Hunan Agricultural University and Nanjing Agricultural University.
He has been engaged in hybrid rice research for a long time, and has undertaken more than 30 research projects, presided over the breeding of 349 hybrid rice varieties, of which 216 varieties have been reviewed in China, with a cumulative promotion area of more than 600 million mu.
He has won special government allowances from the State Council, national-level young and middle-aged scientific and technological experts with outstanding contributions, national labor model, national outstanding scientific and technological workers, top ten outstanding figures in China's seed industry, and national innovation award.