Every December, Kemulang in Guangzhou is particularly lively due to the hosting of the Guangdong Seed Industry Expo. On December 12th, the opening ceremony of the 24th Guangdong Seed Industry Expo (hereinafter referred to as the "Expo"), hosted by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Guangdong Province, was held at the Guangdong Agricultural Technology Promotion Center and the Guangdong Modern Agricultural Technology and Equipment Demonstration Base (Kemulang, Guangzhou).
Through the Seed Expo, a window to the forefront of the global seed industry, Guangdong's seed industry can be seen. From leading the country with super rice to independent breakthroughs in livestock, poultry, and aquatic products, from leveraging billions of yuan in output value with a single seed to creating a billion dollar characteristic industry, Guangdong has submitted a brilliant answer to the "five-year results" of seed industry revitalization, based on the strategic height of ensuring national food security and important agricultural product supply.
At the press conference of Yangcheng Evening News, it was learned that Guangdong has vigorously implemented the "Guangdong Strong Seed Core" project by anchoring the overall goal of national seed industry revitalization, which is to start well in one year, lay a foundation in three years, see results in five years, and achieve major breakthroughs in ten years. Especially in the three years since the implementation of the "Hundred, Thousand, and Ten Million Project", Guangdong has solidly promoted the protection and utilization of germplasm resources, innovation and research in the seed industry, support for excellent seed industry enterprises, improvement of seed industry bases, and purification of the seed industry market. The seed industry revitalization has achieved a number of landmark results, with multiple indicators ranking among the top in the country and some fields leading internationally.
In the past five years, Guangdong's seed industry has risen to the challenge and gained momentum to make breakthroughs.
By vigorously implementing the "Guangdong Strong Seed Core" project, Guangdong has solidly promoted the "Five Actions" of seed industry revitalization and achieved a number of landmark results: breeding a batch of high-yield, high-quality, disease resistant rice varieties such as "Nanjingxiangzhan" and "Qingxiangyou 19 Xiang"; Developing the world's first hybrid new variety of longan and lychee, "Crispy Honey"; Leading the world in using genome design to achieve potato hybrid breeding instead of potato chunks; 31 broiler chicken breeds have been developed, accounting for over 40% of the national total;
Guangming No.2 has achieved a breakthrough of zero domestic white feathered broiler chickens; Guanghong 3 "is the first small-scale white feathered broiler chicken breeding line in South China and innovatively introduces the bloodline of yellow feathered broiler chickens; Pioneering the artificial breeding technology of multiple species such as yellow lipped fish
At the beginning of this year, the "Huahang Fragrant Silver Needle", which had traveled in space, was selected for the list of super rice released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and is currently the only conventional silk seedling rice super rice variety. So far, 36 super rice varieties have been developed or participated in by Guangdong, accounting for 28% of the country's total. There are also 17 varieties selected for the National Quality Rice Taste Evaluation Gold Award, accounting for 21%, all of which are among the top in the country, becoming evidence of Guangdong's seed industry moving towards a higher level.
According to Liu Xihong, a large-scale grower, "The quality and resistance are both excellent, and it is expected that the yield per mu can reach 1200 pounds, which is the core confidence of high-quality rice
How did Guangdong achieve N top seed industry rankings?
Guangdong seed industry has produced numerous' firsts'. Behind the impressive performance report is Guangdong's long-standing efforts in the exploration and utilization of germplasm resources, the aggregation of innovative elements in the seed industry, and the tackling of key core technologies.
——Promote the protection and utilization of germplasm resources. Focusing on the two core aspects of seed source protection and utilization, we aim to achieve strong development of stored resources and achieve new results in seed source utilization. As of now, Guangdong has successfully completed the survey of agricultural germplasm resources, collecting and preserving 368000 germplasm resources, ranking among the top in the country. Establish a national regional livestock and poultry gene bank, and build and put into use four provincial-level agricultural germplasm resource banks for crops, livestock and poultry, aquatic products, and microorganisms. Simultaneously establish a molecular identification system for germplasm resources. We have taken the lead in building and operating a DNA fingerprint feature library for 45 livestock and poultry breeds such as pigs, broiler chickens, and waterfowl in China, achieving precise molecular identification of germplasm resources and local livestock and poultry breeds.
——Promote the aggregation of innovative elements in the seed industry. Cracking the bottleneck problem in the seed industry, focusing on promoting the upgrading of research and innovation platforms, and optimizing the allocation of talent teams. Looking at the whole province, major seed industry innovation platforms such as the National Key Laboratory of Pig and Poultry Breeding, the Key Laboratory of Agricultural Genomics, the National Gene Bank, and the National Rice, Litchi, and Soybean Improvement Sub centers are distributed in a dot matrix pattern, gathering a group of academician seed industry innovation teams to provide strong software and hardware support for the revitalization of Guangdong's seed industry.
——Promote key core technology research and development. Taking gene editing, genome selection, artificial intelligence and other breakthroughs, we aim to promote the transition of breeding from "experience breeding" to "precision design breeding". Focusing on "breaking monopolies and creating first-class", Guangdong has solidly promoted the national key core technology research and development of lean meat pigs and white feathered broiler chickens, as well as the joint breeding research and development of local characteristic species such as lychee, banana, and lion headed goose, with multiple achievements reaching the international advanced level.
