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Why is the "niche" seed specialty hot?
As we all know, seeds are the "chips" of modern agriculture.
On July 9, 2021, the 20th meeting of the Central Committee for Comprehensively Deepening Reform passed the "Action Plan for the Revitalization of the Seed Industry". The meeting emphasized that the safety of seed sources should be elevated to a strategic height related to national security, and efforts should be concentrated to solve problems, make up for shortcomings, Strengthen the advantages and control the risks, realize the self-reliance and self-improvement of the seed industry technology, and the independent and controllable seed sources.
As the seed industry becomes increasingly large-scale, market-oriented, and technologically advanced, local governments, scientific research institutes, and enterprises have also increased the demand for seed industry talents.
According to a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily, recently, with the announcement of admission scores by many colleges and universities, the once "niche" majors such as seed science and engineering and biological breeding have gradually become popular.
Strong base plan, batch in advance: "grab the seeds into the bowl"
According to Zhang Zhanying, assistant dean of the College of Agriculture, China Agricultural University, the seed science and engineering majors in the school's general majors are recruited under the category of agriculture. Judging from the enrollment situation in recent years, the majors of agriculture are gradually favored by candidates. The first choice The application rate increases by about 10% every year, the difference between the average admission score and the first-line score increases by 8-9 points every year, and the quality of students is improved year by year.
In 2021, the first year of enrollment in the school's "Strong Foundation Plan" will include the major of seed science and engineering, and the candidates with the highest scores in the school that year chose this major.
It is worth mentioning that this year, China Agricultural University set up the undergraduate program of biological breeding science for the first time nationwide. Among them, the two directions of plant breeding and animal breeding were included in the "Strong Foundation Program" for enrollment.
"This is an important measure to solidly promote the construction of new agricultural sciences and strengthen the strategic scientific and technological strength of the national seed industry. It is of great significance for breaking through the 'stuck neck' technical bottleneck of the seed industry." Zhang Zhanying believes.
A reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily learned that this year, Northwest A&F University also started the "Strong Foundation Program" enrollment for the first time this year, and the seed major was also included.
However, compared with the "Strong Foundation Plan" of the above two schools, from the perspective of the number of enrollments, a more vigorous measure is that the Ministry of Education will urgently need relevant documents for the early batch admission of agriculture-related majors. From 2021, seed Science and engineering majors (hereinafter referred to as "seed majors") are 15 colleges and universities that are first-class undergraduate major construction sites, and are eligible to enroll in batches in advance.
Not long ago, a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily learned from Nanjing Agricultural University, a "double first-class" construction university, that this year's school's seed major admissions score line has increased by nearly 3,000 places compared with last year.
"Whether it is from the score line, or from the attention of parents and students, the popularity of the seed major has obviously improved." Fang Gan, director of the undergraduate admissions office of the school, said.
According to reports, the seed major of Nanjing Agricultural University is supported by the national key discipline - crop science. Among the three academicians of the school, two have made important contributions in breeding.
In Fang Gan's view, the core direction of modern agriculture in the future is the two major fields of breeding and mechanization, and the revitalization of the seed industry is the fundamental basis for agricultural development. Many students who are interested in solving the technical problems of the country's agriculture choose seed majors, and in the future There is an opportunity to achieve breakthroughs in key technologies.
"Our research guarantee rate is above 25%, and most of the students will go on to further studies in the future, thus embarking on the road of scientific research." He believes that for students who want to engage in academic research, the seed major is a good choice.
This heat has also spread to ordinary colleges and universities.
Anhui University of Science and Technology, as a provincial undergraduate college that has been running schools in the county for a long time, recently, a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily learned from the school that the school's seed major has been approved in advance in four provinces of Anhui, Shandong, Henan and Shaanxi. After the one-time recruitment was completed, the first-choice admission rate reached 100%, and the overall quality of students increased significantly.
The school has recruited 120 students in this major this year, and plans to increase by 50% compared with last year.
Under the circumstance of a substantial increase in the enrollment plan, the lowest ranking of applicants has increased by nearly 5,000 places compared with last year. Among them, the lowest admission score in Henan Province exceeds the batch control line by 86 points.
The person in charge of the school's admissions and employment department analyzed that with the blessing of "early batch admission", the "urgently needed" status of this agricultural-related professional talent has been highlighted. Considering future employment and career development, some assertive candidates will This major is the first choice.
"In the past, many enrollment plans for agronomy majors could only be completed by adjustment. Now through early batch admission, candidates are all admitted by their first choice out of active choice." In the view of the person in charge of the school, this also It has improved students' recognition of their majors. After they entered the school, their professional thinking was more consolidated, and the phenomenon of changing majors was alleviated.
In 2021, the seed major of Anhui University of Science and Technology will admit 90 students in advance, and this "seed class" has attracted much attention in the whole school.
After a period of adaptation, up to now, only 3 students in this class have transferred to other majors.
However, it is worth mentioning that there is another student who transferred in from a foreign major.
"For agronomy majors, this is already quite stable," said Yang Xiaoyan, a counselor teacher.
Song Yuwen is the student who was "admired" from a foreign major. This spring, Song Yuwen, who was born in the 2000s, transferred from the major of food science and engineering to the major of seeds.
In high school, he liked biological knowledge, and liked to think and find answers by himself.
He feels that the seed major matches his interests and knowledge structure, and it can also exercise the ability to use the brain.
In order to adapt to the current professional courses and catch up with the progress of other students, he goes to the library on time every night after self-study or on weekends, and makes up for the gaps and gaps based on the teachings of professional teachers and the materials inquired on the Internet.
"The seed industry project is constantly moving forward, and this professional platform brings not only personal development," said Song Yuwen, who strives to engage in scientific research related to the seed industry in the future.
The choice of seed major is out of a feeling
"Students who choose seed-related majors are interested in life sciences, hoping to explore the magic of seeds and the mysteries of biology, design cutting-edge breeding programs, and contribute to the construction of a modern seed industry powerhouse." Zhang Zhanying said.
Zhang Zhanying analyzed that students majoring in seeds mainly master the theoretical knowledge and practical skills of seed production, processing and storage, quality testing, and marketing management, while the emerging biological breeding major is the intersection of crop science, animal husbandry, biology, genetics, and informatics. Integrate, focus on the research of modern breeding theoretical basis and cutting-edge technologies such as animal and plant germplasm resources innovation, digital breeding, genome editing, synthetic biology, etc., and cultivate outstanding talents with innovative spirit and creativity.
A reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily noticed that in the 2021 "seed class" of Anhui University of Science and Technology, more than half of the students came from rural areas, and their attachment to agriculture affected their major choices to a certain extent.
He Zhiyang, from a rural village in Chaohu, Anhui, is one of them. Last year, he made a decision that surprised the whole family in the college entrance examination. He was admitted to the seed major with a score 16 points higher than the first-line of Anhui Science.
The school leaders personally sent the first admission notice of the major to He Zhiyang's home.
He Zhiyang lived with his grandparents when he was a child. He often followed his grandfather to plant rice in the field, carried water and tools, and helped him with his hands. Under the scorching sun, his grandfather and grandson sweated together.
Even after school, he would always go home during the holidays to help with farm work.
Looking at the more than 10 acres of land at home, He Zhiyang has always had a wish: can the seeds be improved in the future to develop seeds that can resist diseases without spraying and fertilizing?
His parents wanted him to major in computer science or teaching.
When filling in his volunteers, He Zhiyang only paid attention to agricultural colleges.
The family did not understand this, so He Zhiyang painstakingly explained: "Grandpa and grandma are so tired every day. If I develop new seeds in the future, they won't have to work so hard!"
Returning home this summer, he couldn't wait to share with his family his preparations for participating in the school's agricultural professional skills competition.
He confidently told his family: "The national agricultural policy is getting better and better, the level of mechanization is also improving, and agricultural development will get better and better."
Graduated from Hunan Agricultural University majoring in crop genetics and breeding in 2006, Zhou Hongying entered Hefei Fengle Seed Industry to engage in the selection and breeding of new rice varieties. This work has been done for 16 years.
Zhou Hongying also grew up in the countryside, and has been planting rice with her parents since she was a child.
She still remembers the academic report on hybrid rice brought by Academician Yuan Longping in the school auditorium when she was an undergraduate student.
At that time, Zhou Hongying listened very carefully.
She recalled that Yuan Yuan was dark-skinned and thin, and his appearance and words were very simple, but almost every word made her emotional.
"Behind this simplicity is the dedication and love for agriculture, which gives our young people the strength to forge ahead."
"Old Yuan is our role model. He often mentioned the dream of enjoying the coolness under Hexia and the dream of hybrid rice covering the world, which are also the goals of our breeding work." In his senior year, Zhou Hongying worked in the fields with the intern teacher and went to the laboratory to do experiments. , and she took crop genetics and breeding as a research direction in her master and doctoral stages.
"It can be said that Academician Yuan Longping is the benchmark in our industry. His deeds have influenced many people's career choices in their lifetimes. It is worth mentioning that many post-00s are now applying for this major under the inspiration of Yuan Lao. "Shu Yingjie, deputy dean of the School of Agriculture, Anhui University of Science and Technology, is in charge of seed science and engineering. During the admissions season, he often receives professional consultation calls from parents of students." As long as the word 'Yuan Longping' is mentioned, parents and children Immediately I understood the mission of our profession.”
Today, the two undergraduate classes of the school's 2021 seed major have invariably used Yuan Lao's photo as the avatar of the class's QQ group.
A 19-year-old girl quoted Yuan Lao's words as her motto in her QQ personality signature - "The pursuit of life is to enjoy the cool dream. People are like a seed, and one must be a good seed!"
Also at South China Agricultural University, the deeds of the old president, Academician Lu Yonggen, inspired generations of students.
The rice geneticist has always been at the forefront of scientific research and has made outstanding contributions to the country's agricultural development.
Before his death, he also donated more than 8.8 million yuan of savings to set up an education fund, and donated his body to medical research.
In order to effectively promote the construction of "New Agricultural Science" and explore the cultivation of high-level talents, this year South China Agricultural University decided to set up a "New Agricultural Science" innovation class based on the advantages of crop science.
After a series of assessments, a total of 30 students from 12 colleges including agronomy, plant protection, resource environment, biology, and horticulture were finally selected. The average grade point of the whole class reached 4.09, and the students ranked within the top 30% in their original majors.
"The students signed up very enthusiastically, and many of them came from non-agricultural majors, which exceeded our expectations and could feel their feelings for agriculture." In the view of Professor Chu Chengcai, the dean of the school's agricultural college, academicians Yuan Longping and Lu Yonggen When the pursuit of agriculture and the spirit of patriotism and dedication of the older generation of scientists have truly infected the young students of today, "the power of role models is infinite."
However, it is necessary to recruit, but also to be stable.
It is crucial to cultivate agricultural talents, including seed professionals, to ensure that they will study agriculture in the future.
Many agricultural schools have made continuous explorations in ideological and political education and farming education.
In Anhui University of Science and Technology, Professor Jiang Delqin, Secretary of the Party Committee of the school, took the lead in undertaking the national-level new agricultural science research and reform practice project "Ideological and Political Education of Agricultural Talents in Local Universities and Education Practice of Agriculture, Countryside and Countryside", and jointly created a course ideological and political case library And 5 "big country, agriculture, rural areas and farmers" real-life experience bases, and published 4 general education textbooks, aiming to cultivate students' "Sannong" feelings.
In order to spread this kind of feeling to more young people, the school also used the holiday to carry out the "I go back to my alma mater to report the good news" activity. In addition to reporting their experience of studying agriculture, the college students also focused on popularizing agricultural knowledge and preaching for their younger students. Agricultural majors sowed the "seeds" of learning agriculture in the hearts of high school students, mobilizing them to apply for agricultural colleges in the future.
Seed industry talents are increasingly "in short supply"
A reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily learned from many agricultural colleges and universities that in the past, "imports were not prosperous, but exports were prosperous". In recent years, the situation of "in short supply" of employment has become increasingly prominent.
Take Anhui University of Science and Technology as an example. On average, half of the graduates are admitted to postgraduates every year, some of them are admitted to civil servants and public institutions in Nongkou, and most of the rest go to work in agricultural science and technology enterprises and seed industry companies.
According to the data provided by the school, more than 40 seed industry companies have settled in the school on the school employment information network and the Anhui University Student Employment Service Platform, which has grown significantly in the past two years and will increase by 45% in 2021.
In some listed seed companies, alumni have formed a mentoring system, allowing graduates to form a scale effect in employment.
There are also many graduates who have embarked on the road of entrepreneurship, and started a seed service company in a group to engage in seed sales.
Wu Xiaoliang, vice president of Hefei Fengle Seed Industry Rice Research Institute, has been engaged in breeding for nearly 20 years.
He has observed an increase in the number of young people entering the breeding field in recent years.
According to his analysis, on the one hand, with the large-scale and intensive development of agriculture, the scientific research force is becoming more and more concentrated, which provides space for independent innovation of enterprises. On the one hand, with the dismantling of the concept of "thesis only", the state encourages scientific researchers to go to the fields to innovate, and to jointly tackle agricultural topics with experts, increasing the demand for applied talents.
In addition, with the retirement of the older generation of scientific researchers, the talent echelon is "broken", and young people have more opportunities and positions.
At present, many governments have provided real money to increase subsidies and support for talents in the seed industry.
A reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily learned that Hebei, Anhui, Hubei, Hunan, Shanxi and other provinces and cities have introduced policies to revitalize the seed industry, covering scientific research subsidies, talent subsidies, project funding, etc., to promote talent flow and agglomeration.
Hefei once gave birth to the first seed industry in China, Fengle Seed Industry. Currently, it has two listed companies in the seed industry. Last year, the Hefei Municipal Government issued the implementation opinion to build a "seed industry capital".
Among them, it is mentioned that the introduction of talents in the seed industry will be strengthened. For those who come to work in the seed industry enterprises in this city and meet the urgently-needed talent catalogue, doctoral, full-time master and "double first-class" college graduates and other urgently needed talents will be paid monthly for three years. Give 3,000 yuan, 2,000 yuan living allowance, in addition to a certain housing allowance.
"Our graduates mainly went to developed cities in the Yangtze River Delta in the past. Now many cities in Anhui are 'increasing' subsidies for talent introduction. Coupled with the impact of the epidemic, the proportion of choosing to stay in the province for employment has increased significantly this year."
A teacher from the Admissions and Employment Office of an agricultural college in Anhui told the China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily that Anhui's grain sown area and total output ranked fourth in the country. The staying of these seed industry talents will promote the development of the local seed industry. , providing important technical support for the increase of grain production in Anhui.
Zhang Zhanying believes that the national "Seed Industry Revitalization Action Plan" clearly proposes to support the development of advantageous seed industry enterprises, to take enterprises as the main body, to achieve the integration of multiple elements such as funds, projects, talents, and technology, and to establish and improve a commercial breeding system.
Therefore, more high-level seed industry talents are needed to be added.
Zhang Zhanying introduced that recently, Syngenta Group and industry-university-research institutions jointly established the National Corn Seed Technology Innovation Center to provide the industry with innovative achievements with commercial value and promote the high-quality development of the corn seed industry; , Beijing Pinggu District Government, China Agricultural University, Beijing University of Science and Technology, Longping Hi-Tech and other colleges and universities and leading companies in the seed industry have established the Beijing Biological Seed Industry Innovation Consortium to undertake major scientific research tasks in the national and Beijing biological seed industry, and develop biological species. Major technological breakthroughs in the industry.
"We have graduates this year who have entered the Beijing Biological Seed Industry Innovation Consortium. In the future, there will be more and more high-end seed industry companies, and the demand for high-end seed industry talents will also increase."
In addition, many industry insiders pointed to Hainan Island for the important demand for seed industry talents when they were interviewed by reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily.
At present, more than 800 Nanfan units across the country have established stable scientific research and breeding bases in Hainan, and a "Nanfan Silicon Valley" that integrates scientific research, production, sales, exchange and achievement transformation to serve the whole country is on the horizon.
This is a fertile ground for seed industry talents: nearly 10,000 seed industry scientific and technological personnel are active here every year, including not only dozens of academicians who often travel to and from different places, but also many graduates from colleges and universities who have recently poured in and settled there.
Not only in the ends of the earth, but even in the vast space, the seed profession has a broad application space.
On April 16 this year, the crew of Shenzhou 13, which had been in space for 183 days, returned to Earth, along with 16 seeds selected by the National Plant Aerospace Breeding Engineering Technology Research Center of South China Agricultural University - this is the current resident in my country. A batch of crop seeds with the longest stay in space is expected to obtain a batch of original and excellent germplasm resources with rich variation types and important application and promotion value.
In recent years, the National Plant Space Breeding Engineering Technology Research Center of the school has carried out in-depth research on the genetic effects of the space environment, and cultivated a series of new plant varieties for industrial application, which has become one of the characteristic research directions of crop disciplines.
A reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily learned that this direction will be deeply integrated with a new generation of aerospace engineering in the future, analyze the molecular relationship between space environment and genetic evolution, and develop new technologies for rice space mutation breeding.
Relevant personnel said, "This direction is a multidisciplinary field, requiring researchers to have innovative thinking in engineering, genetics, breeding, information science and seed science, and have the characteristics of typical compound talents."
Ten years of sharpening a sword, are you really ready?
Only people can stay, and they have to use it well and work for a long time.
Breeding is a job with a "life cycle", which requires careful protection, patient waiting, and no fear of setbacks.
Right now is the critical season for summer planting, and the land of Jianghuai has ushered in the strongest sustained high temperature since the beginning of summer.
Zhou Hongying, a post-80s female doctor with her head in the scorching sun, wearing rubber shoes and a straw hat, sometimes bends over, sometimes squatting down, in the 200-acre experimental field of Fengle Seed Industry's Feixi Yandian Township Comprehensive Test Base in Fengle Seed Industry, making identification records for rice leaf age.
"Looking at the leaf age is to know the number of leaves of the female parent and the male parent and their developmental progress. You can speculate on the reproductive process of other organs, and judge whether the male and female parents can meet and pollinate during the flowering period. We can test and match more than 2,000 combinations here. To choose the best quality rice, the goal is to be delicious, good to grow, easy to manage, and high yield!" With the rustling of rubber shoes wading through the muddy water, she moved her steps and introduced to the reporters of China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily.
In the past 16 years, she was most impressed that in 2018, a rice variety cultivated by the team for 10 years entered the last link - demonstration and promotion.
However, the high summer temperatures and the low seed set rate gave the team a head start.
"We are still inexperienced. We have to start all over again and introduce heat-resistant genes during the cultivation process. It took a lot of hard work." Zhou Hongying said.
Standing in the experimental field, Wu Xiaoliang told reporters that a new rice variety, from seed selection to experimentation to promotion, is at least "a sword in ten years."
"What we are in now is the testing and matching field, and there are also areas such as breeding fields, seed production fields, and product comparison fields in the distance. Correspondingly, rice selection and breeding must go through parental creation, combination testing and matching, combining ability advantage identification, and product comparison test. Layer by layer screening.”
"If you are in mud every day, you must be able to calm down and endure loneliness. The more you study on the front line, the better you can choose seeds." For this reason, every time Wu Xiaoliang recruits graduates on behalf of the company, he will ask each other over and over again whether Really interested?
"If you are interested in agriculture, you will be able to work more easily."
In fact, rice breeding is also a field knowledge, which tests the patience, perseverance and physical strength of practitioners all the time.
The breeding materials of each field are different, and only one plant can be manually marked and tested according to the field ridge area.
Except from November to April of the following year, Zhou Hongying will lead the team to the Hainan Nanfan scientific research base, and spend most of the time in the laboratory in Hefei, using various instruments to analyze the quality of rice, which determines "the rice in the rice bowl is not fragrant or not. fragrant".
"Scientific research is a long-term and tenacious process. It takes 5 years for 'Xiaobai' to start gradually. The breeding work is full of uncertainties, and it may be impossible to cultivate several new varieties in a lifetime." Zhou Hongying sighed.
Fighting side by side with her in the field is a breeding team of 11 people, half of whom are born in the 1990s, all undergraduate and master graduates from agricultural colleges in genetics and breeding, cultivation, seed science and engineering.
The team currently has 35 new rice varieties approved at the national or provincial level.
Nowadays, the technological content of breeding methods is getting higher and higher. Zhou Hongying is very happy to see that the seeds she has selected are going to the market step by step and being accepted by farmers.
"From choice, loyal to love, although bitter, but also full of fun." Zhou Hongying hopes that this sentence can be shared with "prospective college students" majoring in seeds.
China Youth Daily, China Youth Daily reporter Wang Lei and Wang Haihan Source: China Youth Daily