China's seed industry must look to the world and accelerate the pace of going global

In recent years, the state has strongly supported the national seed industry, exchanges between domestic seed enterprises and leading international seed enterprises have become increasingly close, and more and more experts, scholars, technologies and materials have been introduced into the country. With the implementation of the "Belt and Road" and "going global" strategies, the national seed industry must not only bring in talent, resources and capital from overseas, but also export our excellent varieties, advanced and sophisticated technologies, concepts and even culture to overseas markets. This will be an important measure for the development and revitalization of the national seed industry.

In breeding, heterosis is the most widely known aspect of crossbreeding; the greater the distance between the parents, the more beautiful and intelligent the mixed-race offspring tend to be. The same is true for seed enterprises: the clash and integration of different concepts, cultures, technologies and resources is an important driving force for seed enterprises and even for the development of the seed industry.

In 2011, China National Seed Group Co., Ltd. and the Hybrid Wheat Research Center of the Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences established China National Hybrid Wheat Seed Industry (Beijing) Co., Ltd., and the world's first company with hybrid wheat as its main business was founded. To this day, while vigorously promoting the industrialization of domestic hybrid wheat, China National Hybrid Wheat Company has not forgotten to open up an international perspective and is committed to promoting hybrid wheat abroad.

The first stop abroad --

Comprehensive trials in Pakistan

Pakistan, located in Central Asia, is, like China, a major wheat-growing country, with about 130 million mu of domestic wheat planting area. Estimating the seed cost of wheat at 50 yuan per mu, the potential market size of wheat seed in Pakistan is about 6.5 billion yuan.

At the end of May last year, during the World Seed Congress, China National Hybrid Wheat Seed Industry (Beijing) Co., Ltd. and Pakistan JADE Agricultural Research and Services (Private) Co., Ltd. signed a China-Pakistan hybrid wheat industrialization cooperation agreement in Beijing, and China's hybrid wheat took the first step toward the world.

More than 1 year since the signing, China National Hybrid Wheat Company has carried out comprehensive trial and testing work in Pakistan, established 28 testing bases, can provide 20 hybrid combinations each year for trial testing, and has screened out combinations suitable for local production.

According to Song Weibo, deputy general manager of China National Seed Group, this year's two-line hybrid wheat cooperative trial and demonstration work in Pakistan achieved remarkable results, with yield increases reaching 30%-50%, and large-area demonstration and extension work was carried out in Pakistan, receiving high recognition from all sectors of Pakistani society. Some of the introduced superior combinations have already entered Pakistan's variety examination (registration) procedures.

"Introducing germplasm resources and creating new combinations suitable for application in Pakistan is what we have always been doing." Song Weibo told reporters that, based on the Yuanmou base in Yunnan, a hybrid wheat breeding base specifically oriented toward Pakistan has been established. At present, 2 sterile line materials with Pakistani and other bloodlines have been improved and bred, 50 existing excellent restorer line materials have been improved, and 2 excellent restorer lines have been created.

Driven by China-Pakistan cooperation and in light of the characteristic that countries along the "Belt and Road" use wheat as their most important staple food, in May this year, China National Hybrid Wheat Company signed a material transfer agreement with Bangladesh Golden Granary Kingdom (Private) Co., Ltd. and formally established a cooperative relationship with Bangladesh. At present, the hybrid wheat varieties participating in testing have already begun to be sown.

Focusing on the "future" of the seed industry --

Hybrid wheat gives China's seed industry an opportunity

As one of the world's three major staple crops, wheat ranks first in global planting area and has played an important role in world food security. From the direction of wheat breeding in our country, the reality of little land and many people over many years has made our country's requirements for crop yield and comprehensive stress resistance relatively high. "Emphasizing these two elements is mainly to solve the problem of having enough to eat, while in Europe and North America, the pursuit is more for wheat quality." Song Weibo said, "Because of its obvious characteristics in reducing sowing rate, saving water and resisting drought, hybrid wheat shows great advantages in medium- and low-yield fields, especially saline-alkali land, and has very good yield potential."

In the coming years and even decades, in which crop breeding areas might China's seed industry hold a globally leading position? This is a question China National Seed Group has been exploring for many years.

In Song Weibo's view, the commercial value contained in hybrid wheat is very great. Scientists around the world have studied hybrid wheat for decades, and so far large-scale industrialization has not yet been achieved, while our country's two-line hybrid wheat technology is leading globally and has initially achieved industrialization. "If one day hybrid wheat can achieve large-scale commercialization, then not only China's market but the global market will have huge potential." Song Weibo said, "Judging from the trend of technological development and future market potential, this is an opportunity for China's seed industry to lead globally, so we must do this."

Respecting the laws of industry development --

The seed industry is a globalized industry

"At present, strong-heterosis combinations of hybrid wheat already exist, and research and development of large-scale seed production technology has also made great progress, but there is still a long way to go to meet the requirements of industrialization." Song Weibo said frankly.

Strong-heterosis hybrid combinations are the foundation of industrialization. "Only varieties that can make ordinary people willing to pay are competitive." Song Weibo has always viewed breeding research issues from a market-oriented perspective. "Strong-heterosis combinations must have traits such as increased yield and resistance to pests and diseases. Only varieties that bring farmers real benefits have a market."

Commercial feasibility is equally crucial. "Seed production yield, seed production quality, development of large-scale seed production technology, supporting facilities for fully mechanized seed production, and so on are all important factors determining whether the hybrid wheat industry can be smoothly commercialized." Song Weibo said.

If independent research and development technical capability and the ability to allocate resources and capital conditions can be called an enterprise's hard power, then management capability and multicultural integration capability are an enterprise's soft power. "Management issues ultimately still come down to people, to concepts and culture." Speaking about improving enterprise management capability, Song Weibo said, "There are many ways to improve enterprise management capability, and one of the most effective is to invite people in and send people out."

Inviting excellent foreign teams in and sending our own excellent teams out is precisely through such exchanges that China National Seed Group has gradually integrated into the large circle of global development. "The seed industry is a globalized industry; the diffusion of its technology needs the support of a globalized market, and investment in technology research and development also needs returns from a globalized market." Song Weibo believes that if the national seed industry wants to develop and grow itself, going global is a necessary path. As for the path of going global, "however multinational companies enter the Chinese market, that is how we go global."

"Policies that match the industry are equally important." Song Weibo told reporters, "We cannot require the state to formulate supporting policies at the early stage of industrialization, but as the industry develops step by step, I believe policies will also become more and more complete."

Link · Wheat

The origin of wheat is the Fertile Crescent in West Asia. The earliest wheat site discovered in our country is near the Hemudu basin, and carbonized wheat was found in a Loulan ancient tomb more than 4,000 years ago. Wheat has been a traditional crop in our country since ancient times, and as early as before the Yuan dynasty there was the farming proverb "harvesting wheat is like fighting fire."

Up to now, the vast majority of wheat planted in our country and even worldwide is conventional wheat. It was not until 2005 that "Jingmai No. 6," bred by Zhao Changping, director of the Hybrid Wheat Engineering Technology Research Center of the Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, passed the Beijing municipal variety approval, and the world's first winter two-line hybrid wheat variety came into being.