The seed industry is the "chip" of agriculture, and it is also a national strategic and basic core industry. How should China's seed industry, which is in the critical period of the world's new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, win the initiative in seizing opportunities? How to improve the ability of provenance guarantee and the level of innovation in the seed industry is an urgent need for scientific analysis and judgment.
Zhang Taolin, Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, revealed at the National Seed Industry Innovation Promotion Conference held on December 17 that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, my country will strengthen its advantages, make up for shortcomings, strengthen the protection and utilization of germplasm resources, and strengthen the seed industry. Supported by industry technology, support enterprises to grow bigger and stronger, build a modern seed industry base, and accelerate the construction of a modern seed industry system with Chinese characteristics.
Strive to complete the registration task of existing germplasm resources within 3 years, cultivate industrial entities with core competitiveness, focus on building three types of enterprise entities, highlight the role of the "national team" with 152 seed production base counties as the backbone, and create an international high-level modern Seed industry innovation highland...In a series of data, the blueprint for the development of my country's modern seed industry has become increasingly clear.
Strive to complete the registration task of existing germplasm resources within 3 years
Agricultural germplasm resources are strategic resources that guarantee national food security and the supply of important agricultural products, and are the material basis for the original innovation of the seed industry.
In recent years, the challenges facing my country's agricultural germplasm resources have become more and more severe, and the urgency of retaining good seeds, good varieties, and strengthening the protection and utilization of resources has become stronger and stronger.
Since the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan", various localities and relevant departments have actively established a protection system for crops, livestock, poultry, and agricultural microbial germplasm resources. The total amount of resources has continued to increase, and the utilization effect has gradually appeared. Through the third national general survey of crop germplasm resources, livestock and poultry genetic resources surveys and material collection, a large number of new resources were rescued and 520,000 copies of crop resources were preserved nationwide, 560 local livestock and poultry breeds, and 90 genetic materials were collected. More than 10,000 copies and 100,000 copies of agricultural microbial resources are among the top in the world.
Experts pointed out that the protection and utilization of agricultural germplasm resources in my country is still an outstanding shortcoming of seed industry innovation. The problems of increased risk of resource disappearance, insufficient precision identification, and insufficient development of local characteristic resources deserve great attention.
To solve these problems, a series of far-sighted plans are starting.
Zhang Taolin said that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, my country will coordinate the layout of resource pool nurseries (field areas), implement national and provincial management, and strive to initially establish a system for the protection and utilization of agricultural germplasm resources by 2025, and identify and discover a number of outstanding products. Germplasm and excellent genes should be fully collected, guaranteed and developed in an orderly manner.
Rescue collection and protection of resources is the primary task of protection of agricultural germplasm resources. "my country will improve the protection system and protection mechanism, scientifically arrange the national and provincial agricultural germplasm resource nurseries (fields), improve the protection of infrastructure conditions, and increase the collection of agricultural germplasm resources." Zhang Taolin said, in addition, It will promote the exchange and sharing of resource registration, accelerate the construction of a big data platform for agricultural germplasm resources, and strive to complete the registration of existing germplasm resources within three years.
Zhang Taolin revealed that in order to innovate the development and utilization mechanism, my country will rely on superior scientific research institutes, universities and enterprises to build platforms for resource identification and evaluation and new gene discovery, build a molecular fingerprint library, and explore pilots and researches on the reform of resource protection and utilization rights. Formulate resource empowerment policies, promote the establishment of resource sharing and utilization and trading platforms, and encourage enterprises that integrate breeding, reproduction and promotion to gradually become the mainstay of innovative utilization of germplasm.
Seed industry independent innovation must "strong advantages and make up for shortcomings"
At present, my country's seed industry has entered a new stage of development driven by independent innovation. In the past 10 years, 39,000 crop varieties have been approved and registered nationwide, and the number of applications for new plant variety protection has ranked first in the world for four consecutive years. High-yield models of rice, wheat, corn, and soybeans have continued to emerge, and the level of quality has been continuously improved; new approved livestock and poultry There are 93 varieties of matching lines, accounting for 56% of all certified varieties, and the production performance of improved varieties has been significantly improved.
However, judging from the actual level of technological innovation in the seed industry, my country's seed industry has made significant progress in recent years, but there is still a gap between the level of independent innovation and developed countries, especially the lack of core technological innovation.
According to expert analysis, currently, the foreign seed industry has entered the "4.0 era" of "conventional breeding + biotechnology + informationization" breeding, and my country is still in the "2.0 era" dominated by hybrid breeding, with insufficient basic theory and original technology innovation.
"Most of my country's crop germplasm resources come from China, the genetic base of breeding populations is narrow, and the selection space is limited. my country's livestock and poultry genetic resources account for 1/6 of the world, but the identification and selection work is still in its infancy." Zhang Taolin said, in addition, my country's crop breeding The degree of large-scale organization is low, the commercial breeding system is not sound, and the multi-generation continuous and standardized performance measurement and breeding system of live pigs, dairy cows and other livestock and poultry breeds needs to be improved.
Experts suggest that, focusing on the "14th Five-Year Plan", independent innovation of the seed industry should adhere to "strong advantages and make up for shortcomings", and strive to be a national seed industry innovation with enterprises as the main body, basic public welfare research as the support, and integration of production, education, research and application by 2025 The system is basically established, a number of major varieties with independent intellectual property rights are cultivated, a number of breakthrough key core technologies are overcome, and the innovation capabilities of key crops and livestock and poultry breeding are close to or reach the international first-class level.
"It is necessary to increase the joint research efforts of improved seeds, accelerate the innovation and application of key technologies, strengthen the strategic layout of national seed industry innovation forces, explore ways to promote the deep integration of science and technology enterprises, and support the establishment of substantive innovation consortia." Zhang Taolin said.
Cultivate industry entities with core competitiveness
Enterprise is the main body of modern seed industry innovation. If the seed industry is strong, the enterprise must be strong. In recent years, my country's seed industry enterprises have continued to increase R&D investment, mergers and reorganizations have accelerated significantly, and the overall competitiveness of the industry has improved significantly. However, there is still a significant gap compared with international giants.
"We must unswervingly cultivate and expand the main body of enterprises, enhance the competitiveness of my country's seed industry, and promote the high-quality development of the seed industry." Zhang Taolin believes that based on the basic national conditions and seed industry of my country's large agriculture, small farmers, diverse species types, and complex ecological regions In the current situation of unbalanced development, the development thinking must support the cultivation of large and strong leading enterprises, but also support the development of specialized and sophisticated characteristic enterprises. It is necessary to give play to the decisive role of the market, guide the participation of financial and social capital, adopt differentiated support policies, enhance the differentiated competitiveness of enterprises, and gradually build a pattern of industrial entities for the coordinated development of large, medium and small, and multi-level enterprises.
Experts suggest that in the cultivation of the main body of the seed industry, efforts should be made to build three types of enterprises: aircraft carrier-type leading enterprises, characteristic advantage enterprises, and specialized platform enterprises, and support characteristic advantage enterprises to play in market segments such as economic horticultural crops and local livestock and poultry varieties. Cultivate competitive advantages such as special resources, characteristic varieties, and unique models, create "hidden champions", and cultivate a group of platform-based enterprises that provide specialized technical support or services in key links of the seed industry chain, innovation chain, and supply chain.
“The protection of new plant varieties in my country at this stage adopts the 1978 text of the Plant Protection Union, which does not protect the original innovations enough.” Zhang Taolin said that it is necessary to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, improve the regulatory system and technical standards, improve the anti-counterfeiting mechanism, implement full-process supervision, and strive to 2025 In 2015, the level of protection of intellectual property rights in the seed industry was significantly improved, the problems of counterfeiting, infringement, and “seed imitation” were fundamentally curbed, and the system to protect the innovation of the seed industry was effectively implemented.
Source: Guangming Daily
