600,000 person-time relays support the Chinese rice bowl to cultivate over 70% of new crop varieties
Southern Breeding
Our reporter Han Yadong Guan Xiaopu
In autumn, they fly from all over the country like migratory birds; in spring, they bring the heavy harvest and scatter the seeds of hope to the earth——
In the 2022 "First Lesson" broadcast by CCTV recently, Xie Huaan, an 82-year-old breeding academician, told elementary and middle school students across the country about the "Golden Seed Dream" he had worked hard for his whole life: "To let everyone have a bowl" "Rice" to eat, he followed the light and heat to Hainan Nanfan base to cultivate high-quality rice seeds, fighting the sky and the earth, and fighting mice... Nanfan, a word with special meaning in the minds of breeding experts, is also like a seed Planted in the hearts of many children.
Nanfan, short for Southern Breeding of Crop Seeds, refers to the fact that breeding experts from mainland China come to the south of the 18th latitude every autumn and winter to engage in scientific research on crop breeding in the coastal areas of Sanya, Lingshui and Ledong. .
This hot spot is like a magnet, attracting generations of scientific researchers who are chasing their dreams.
Of the more than 20,000 new crop varieties bred since the founding of New China, over 70% have been bred in the South.
More than 8,000 scientific and technical personnel from more than 800 agricultural research institutes, colleges and universities, and seed industry institutions have a common name - Nanfan people because of the routine "migration" year after year.
They not only hold up the solid foundation of the "Chinese rice bowl", but also erect monuments on the spiritual heights.
Among the new crop varieties that have been bred across the country, more than 70% have been cultivated by the Nanfan base, supporting a solid foundation for the "Chinese rice bowl"
"I grew up hungry since I was a child. The one time that impressed me the most was that my grandmother wanted to drink a bowl of porridge and couldn't get it, so I knew from a young age how important a bowl of rice is..." In "One Lesson", Academician Xie Huaan's remarks brought people's thoughts back to the era of scarcity of materials.
With only 9% of the world's arable land, feeding nearly one-fifth of the world's population, the issue of food has always been a major issue in my country.
In order to keep people full, in the 1950s, New China launched various efforts to repair water conservancy, breed better seeds, and create fertilizers.
In 1956, Wu Shaoyu, a breeding expert, first proposed the theory of off-site breeding, which opened the prelude to breeding in the south.
"Hybrid rice has been planted all over the country, but few people have noticed that almost all the excellent varieties of rice are bred from Hainan." Speaking of Nanfan, Yuan Longping sighed before his death.
"Turn the enthusiasm for the motherland into a full ear of rice". Since 1968, Yuan Longping has taken two assistants to Hainan to find wild rice. The three-line hybrid rice must be based on male-sterile rice, while wild rice It is the hope of breeders.
Year after year, Yuan Longping and his assistants silently bowed their heads under the sun, searching the earth for the wild male sterile rice that might benefit mankind.
At 11:00 on November 23, 1970, this wild rice plant, which will go down in history forever, was discovered by Feng Keshan, an agricultural technician of Sanya Nanhong Farm, and Li Bihu, assistant of Yuan Longping, by a pond near a railway culvert in Nanhong Farm.
It was this wild rice, later named "Wild Defeated", that opened a breakthrough for hybrid rice research.
Since then, from the three-line matching of hybrid rice to the success of the two-line method, to the breakthrough of super hybrid rice yield per mu, which has repeatedly set new records... Behind the scientific research peaks, Yuan Longping came to Hainan like a migratory bird every year.
He said many times during his lifetime: "Half the credit for the success of hybrid rice should be attributed to Nanfan."
He is not tall, dressed in ordinary clothes, has a bright dark face, and has a pair of rough and strong hands - this is the impression left by Academician Xie Huaan.
In "The First Lesson of School", Academician Xie's pair of hands that are "rougher than those who cultivate the fields" made people cry.
Xie Huaan told reporters that his parents named him "Huaan" because they hoped that the Chinese nation would be in long-term stability.
The experience of starvation as a child planted the seeds of "food security is the safety of China" in his heart.
After graduating from high school, he did not hesitate to apply for the Fujian Longyan Agricultural School.
At the end of 1972, a nationwide wave of collaborative research on hybrid rice was launched.
Coming with the simple desire to make people full, they face far more than technical problems.
In order to buy a ticket to Haikou, I lined up for an entire night; I thought that Hainan was full of birds singing, birds chirping and flowers fragrant, but it was greeted with "three mice and a sack, ten mosquitoes a plate of vegetables, three The leech makes a trousers belt, and the poisonous snake jumps on it."
A 20-square-meter warehouse full of millet, fertilizers, pesticides and diesel barrels was their first home after arriving at the Nanfan base.
There is no running water, no electricity, we have to chop wood for cooking every day, and often cannot eat hot meals because of the rain and no firewood to burn the fire... Despite this, everyone has no complaints, and they "fly" there like migratory birds year after year, rain or shine. , day after day, all night long.
"It is precisely because of Nanfan on Hainan Island that my ideal has been achieved, and Shanyou 63 has been bred." Xie Huaan said.
From 1986 to 2001, Shanyou 63 became the hybrid rice variety with the largest planting area in China for 16 consecutive years, with a cumulative promotion area of nearly 1 billion mu and an increase of more than 70 billion kilograms of grain.
Half a century of hard breeding, the imprint of struggle is engraved on the hand, and it has been weathered.
Xie Huaan suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis, but he said: "The best way to keep fit is to go to the field." Among the green rice seedlings, Xie Huaan, who is over 80 years old, Hua An bent down like a drawn bow.
According to Cao Bing, vice president of Hainan University, not only rice, but more than 70% of the new crop varieties that have been bred across the country have been cultivated by the Nanfan Base.
Since the 1950s, a total of 600,000 people have come to Hainan to carry out scientific research and breeding of Nanfan, which has built a solid foundation for the "Chinese rice bowl".
"Grasp the Chinese seeds with your own hands" and firmly hold the agricultural "chips" in your own hands
The country has no agriculture and is unstable, and agriculture is based on planting.
Only by holding the Chinese seeds tightly with our own hands can we stabilize the "Chinese rice bowl" and achieve food security.
Seed sources must be independent and controllable, and seed industry technology must be self-reliant.
Located in the tropics, with high temperatures all year round, only one to two seasons of crops can be planted elsewhere, and the Nanfan base can grow two to three seasons.
One of its important functions is the "additional generation" of breeding, that is, in the breeding process, the generation of seed reproduction is increased.
"In other places, when only sons were raised, in Nanfan, grandchildren have already been born." Nanfan base has become a "breeding paradise" due to its unique conditions, and it also witnesses that breeding experts are trying to realize the independent control of seed sources. of unremitting efforts.
In the 1990s, the cotton bollworm disaster broke out year after year and ravaged the whole country.
With the increase in the resistance of cotton bollworms, general pesticides are no longer helpful.
Cotton can hardly be cultivated any more, and cotton farmers are all "talking about the discoloration of insects", so they have to abandon their crops one after another.
The textile industry has been hit hard by the shortage of raw materials, and foreign companies have taken the opportunity to occupy the Chinese market.
At that time, Monsanto Company of the United States had developed Bt insect-resistant cotton, and my country had negotiated with the other party several times, but it could not be introduced due to harsh conditions.
"One is that the asking price is high, and the other is that there is no need to talk about intellectual property issues. To put it bluntly, we can only buy it, and we can't follow it." Guo Sandui, the father of Chinese insect-resistant cotton, recalled.
In the face of the country's worries, the desire of cotton farmers, and the pressing of foreign seed industry, there is no other way except to develop insect-resistant cotton with independent intellectual property rights.
Guo Sandui was ordered to lead the team to start the "general battle" for scientific research on insect-resistant cotton.
In 1994, the monovalent insect-resistant cotton was successfully developed, making China the second country with independent intellectual property rights for insect-resistant cotton.
Since 1996, in order to speed up the breeding speed, Guo Sandui's team came to Hainan to carry out southern breeding.
In 1998, the bivalent insect-resistant cotton was successfully developed, which effectively solved the problem of resistance of cotton bollworms.
Since then, Guo Sandui's team and the breeding unit have jointly bred, and since 2005, 4 three-line insect-resistant cotton varieties have been approved for 4 consecutive years, which has greatly increased the output, making my country the earliest approved three-line insect-resistant cotton varieties and used for production. nation.
"Without the Nanfan base and the concerted efforts of the whole country, there would be no development speed of the transformation and industrialization of insect-resistant cotton in my country today." Guo Sandui told reporters.
In recent years, Guo Sandui's team and breeding experts have jointly bred 197 new varieties of insect-resistant cotton, with a cumulative promotion of 560 million mu, a reduction of 650,000 tons of pesticides, and an increase of 100 billion yuan in output value.
Now, they have made significant progress in the breeding of herbicide-resistant cotton.
"In a sense, herbicide-resistant cotton has a wider application prospect than insect-resistant cotton." Guo Sandui said that grass seeds are scattered in the wind, causing great harm. It relies on manual weeding, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive. It will inevitably damage crops.
With the help of technical strength, they began to develop herbicide-resistant cotton, which can better solve the problem of herbicide residues compared with similar products in the United States.
At present, the herbicide-resistant cotton has completed the production test of safety evaluation, and is applying for the production and application safety certificate, which is expected to make new contributions to reducing weed damage and promoting the development of my country's cotton and related industries.
"Being a farmer and doing scientific research at the same time", I only do one thing in my life, and write my papers on the land of the motherland
"Let's call after 5 pm, it's in the field now..." When the reporter called Cheng Xiangwen, a corn breeder, the 86-year-old expert was recording crop traits in the corn field.
He was supposed to be at an age when his children and grandchildren would be around their knees and enjoy their family, but he gave all his time to corn.
At present, Cheng Xiangwen is working on breeding high-yielding varieties with stronger stress resistance and easy harvesting.
At around 9 am, he picked up his research notebook, led two graduate students, and burrowed into the ground.
5 steamed buns and 3 bottles of water are all meals.
Cheng Xiangwen's graduate student Zhang Zhiteng told reporters that it is now more than half a month before the corn is harvested, and Cheng Lao will take them to the field every day. "Bring some steamed bread and water, it is normal to work in the field for seven or eight hours."
Cheng Xiangwen said: "Corn is a living body. If you want to feel it and understand it, you have to go to the field."
"A seed can change a world, and a variety can benefit a nation." This sentence is always written on the title page of Cheng Xiangwen's notebook.
He said that he has been working on corn for decades, thinking about corn, and cannot live without corn for a day.
In November 1964, 28-year-old Cheng Xiangwen wore a cotton jacket, cotton trousers, square-mouth cloth shoes, a cotton trousers belt around his waist, and a cloth bag with more than 50 kilograms of corn seeds on his back. After 15 days of running around, I came to the Nanfan Base for breeding.
He rented 8 mu of wasteland in the village, and the 4 experimental fields he cultivated were all in the valley.
In the first year of breeding, there was a severe drought. The production team sent 6 young members to carry water to fight the drought. It took 14 days to make 8 mu of corn seedlings turn green.
Just breathed a sigh of relief, a heavy rain flooded the seedlings of the two fields again.
He rolled up his trouser legs again and scooped water from the ground to the outside with the members. After lining up for seven days, he finally saved the corn seedlings.
This year, Cheng Xiangwen took the first batch of hybrids he harvested back to his hometown for farmers to plant, and the yield per mu increased from more than 100 catties in previous years to 500 to 600 catties.
The villagers all said, "What Xiaocheng brought back was 'Golden Beans'."
"Fan Nanfan is difficult and annoying." In 1995, an assistant of Cheng Xiangwen first arrived in Nanfan.
"Don't eat dumplings during the New Year, is this called the New Year?" On New Year's Eve, he bought meat in the afternoon, made stuffing in the middle of the night, and made dumplings in the early morning of the first day of the new year.
When the dumplings were cooked, I saw a layer of white foam floating in the pot. Looking closely, it turned out to be maggots that came out of the stuffing!
At that time, there was no electricity in Nanfan, and there was no refrigerator. Under the high temperature of nearly 30 °C, the dumpling filling had deteriorated.
Despite the hardships, in Cheng Xiangwen's eyes, this is a "breeding paradise".
There are many mice in Hainan, and the locals have the habit of stocking buffalo.
In order to take care of the corn, Cheng Xiangwen raised water cows during the day, and at night he would fight mice in the field with a flashlight.
In this way, I take care of the corn seedlings 24 hours a day and watch it grow day by day.
Fruitful.
no pain no gain.
Cheng Xiangwen said: "I have been engaged in breeding work for more than 50 years. I have suffered and suffered a little, but God has not lived up to our efforts and efforts. In real terms, the harvest is much more than the effort."
While working as a farmer and doing scientific research at the same time, I have done one thing well in my life, traveling from south to north for more than 50 years.
Xiao Cheng, whose head is full of blue silk, has become an old Cheng of hair dyeing cream.
He has successively bred 14 new high-yield corn varieties that have passed the examination and approval, among which the "Jundan" series has been promoted over 300 million mu nationwide.
But there is no word "retirement" in Cheng Xiangwen's life dictionary, and he continues to live as a migratory bird from winter to spring.
"Do scientific research with a pure heart like cotton wool" "Breeders should be like high-quality cotton seeds, with strong adaptability and strong resistance"... For more than 60 years, generations of breeding experts have swayed their wisdom in this hot land, bringing The thesis was written on the land of the motherland, and the results were sent to hundreds of millions of farmers.
"Chuanxin Street" and "Longping Street" lead to "Rejuvenation Road" in parallel. Promoting the revitalization of the seed industry is the common mission pursuit of several generations of Nanfan people.
Ten years ago, when Cao Ming, an assistant researcher at the Sanya Agricultural Technology Extension Service Center, graduated as a graduate student, he was faced with the following paths: first, to return to his hometown to be elected as a transfer student; second, to stay in South China Agricultural University to continue his research; third, Go to a company in Shenzhen.
But he chose the fourth way - to Nanfan.
Previously, Cao Ming came here with the topic of his thesis on banana fertilization technology. Unexpectedly, halfway through the experiment, the bananas contracted the fusarium wilt and wiped out the whole army, so he had to start anew in another place.
It was only later that he learned that the problem was with the soil.
"There are indeed unique light conditions here, but the soil conditions are not ideal." Cao Ming explained that Hainan's tropical soil body foundation is not very good, the fertility is not strong enough, coupled with the sun, rain, and typhoon erosion, it has a certain impact on breeding.
How to improve soil?
The traditional idea is to apply organic fertilizer, but it is time-consuming and labor-intensive and not the optimal solution.
After research, Cao Ming and his team came up with a method of returning to the fields with green manure: planting plants in the summer when the soil is idle, and then turning it into fertilizer on the spot to supplement the soil with organic matter.
After several experiments, they chose Tian Jing.
Cao Ming said that Tian Jing grows fast, sowing in May and June every year, the plants can grow to 2 meters high in 2 months.
Hainan is often disturbed by strong typhoons in summer. Tian Jing is not only resistant to waterlogging, but also grows rapidly by using water. In addition, it is a leguminous plant. Through rhizobia, nitrogen in the air can be converted into nitrogen fertilizer in the soil, effectively supplementing fertility. .
Drones are planting seeds, and large-scale machinery is returning to the fields.
Planting green manure on one mu of land is equivalent to adding 1 to 2 tons of commercial organic fertilizer.
After promotion, the technology has achieved full coverage in the core area of Nanfan, Sanya, and has been selected as a typical case of national agricultural green development in 2021.
In the winter and summer, autumn is "planting" and winter is "busy". What has changed is the coming and going of scientific research materials and cultivated varieties, but the constant is the dedication and dedication of scientists.
In today's Nanfan, there are many "post-80s" and "post-90s" like Cao Ming. They work diligently, forge ahead, and dedicate their youth and sweat to the development of my country's modern seed industry and national food security.
"Give the best land to Nanfan." In order to ensure the national breeding plan, Hainan Province has specially established the Nanfan Administration, set up a scientific research breeding reserve, supplemented by the construction of high-standard farmland and service infrastructure, and scientific researchers are "packed in" , no more worries.
From indeterminate residence, looking for land every year, to improving infrastructure and securing land for scientific research, Nanfan's entrepreneurial and innovative environment is not what it used to be.
In June 2020, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Overall Plan for the Construction of Hainan Free Trade Port", which pointed out that the advantages of the national Nanfan scientific research and breeding base will be leveraged to build a global tropical agriculture center and a global transfer base for the introduction of animal and plant germplasm resources.
In July 2021, the 20th meeting of the Central Deep Reform Commission emphasized that the key core technologies of provenance should be tackled, and the construction of innovation bases such as Nanfan Silicon Valley should be solidly promoted.
Relying on Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City, Nanfan Science and Technology City has accelerated its rise.
The naming of the roads in the city also reflects the wishes of generations of Nanfan people.
A "Longping Street" expresses Nanfan people's nostalgia and respect for Yuan Longping, and a "Cherish Street" means that the breeding career will be passed down from generation to generation and there will be successors.
It is the common mission and pursuit of several generations of Nanfan people to run the two roads in parallel, leading to the "Rejuvenation Road" and promoting the revitalization of the seed industry.