How can China's grass seed industry switch to a "Chinese chip"
In the process of adjusting the structure and transforming the mode, the area of artificially planted grass in China will continue to increase. By 2020 it will reach 350 million mu, the area of high-quality forage grass seed will reach more than 60%, the demand for grass seed will reach 1 million tons, and the demand for high-quality cultivated forage grass seed will reach 600,000 tons.
At present, China's grass seed industry is still very weak, and the seed used for the construction of high-quality artificial grassland basically depends on imports, of which 80% of forage grass seed for feeding depends on imports, and 98% of turfgrass seed depends on imports.
Why does China's grass seed industry rely excessively on imports, and how can China's grass seed industry switch to a "Chinese chip"? On August 1, the Grassland Professional Committee of the China Animal Agriculture Association and Mengcao Company jointly initiated the "2015 Modern Grass Seed Industry Development Summit Forum" to find answers for the revival of native grass.
An integrated mechanism of "breeding, propagation and promotion" should be established
For a long time, China's grass seed production has not formed a mature and effective improved variety breeding system. The cultivators of new varieties and the seed producers are disconnected. Most new varieties come from scientific research institutes, and the evaluation standards for breeders have not been closely combined with the results of market promotion. After new varieties are successfully cultivated, there is a lack of motivation and mechanism for improved variety propagation.
"As the grass seed industry is the foundation of grassland development, the institutional mechanisms and policies still need to be further tackled." said Yun Xujiang, deputy director of the National Animal Husbandry Station. At present, China's grass seed industry faces several major problems: weak scientific and technological strength, insufficient research teams and talent; although it is a large country in germplasm resources, the genetic characteristics of germplasm are unclear, breeding methods are single, and the competitiveness of bred varieties is poor; the purpose of breeding is not market promotion, and there is a lack of commercial breeding and integrated breeding, propagation and promotion seed enterprises.
Chen Gu, general manager of Barenbrug International Grass Industry Co., Ltd., also said: "The national grass seed industry has not yet straightened out the mechanism of breeding, propagation and promotion, lacks commercial breeders, the communication mechanism between scientists and enterprises is not smooth, and the setting of breeding indicators often pays more attention to resistance while ignoring seed yield, so it cannot well connect with market demand."
Enterprises should be the main body for native grass to occupy the market. According to Duan Ruixia, general manager of Inner Mongolia Hexinyuan Mengcao Drought Resistance Greening Co., Ltd., Mengcao proposes an integrated "industry-university-research" partner mechanism for the grass seed industry. Through the partner mechanism, the enthusiasm of scientific research, entrepreneurs and relevant parties is mobilized, so that all participants can share the fruits of development, thereby stimulating industrial vitality and boosting industrial momentum. At present, Mengcao has built a scientific research platform that meets the needs of "integrated breeding, propagation and promotion", and has built a grassland wild plant germplasm resource bank, including 1 main bank and 8 sub-banks, with a total of more than 1,600 kinds of grassland plant germplasm resources. It has established 9 research institutes for different types of grassland, and has laid out grass seed breeding bases with a total area of more than 120,000 mu, becoming China's largest grass seed breeding base at present.
Variety management should be standardized
The grass seed produced in China lacks institutional guarantees, grade certification and label restrictions, resulting in genetic confusion of seeds in the market, unclear sources, no guarantee of brand, a low qualification rate of grass seed circulating in the market, and no way to trace the source when problems occur.
Li Qingfeng, a professor at Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, explained that variety registration announces the advent of a new "biological product", while seed certification ensures that in the further production process, the variety quality of the new product is guaranteed. In seed production and circulation, quality control should be done well in three links, namely, doing well in variety registration at the variety cultivation stage, doing well in seed certification at the production and propagation stage, and doing well in seed testing at the circulation and sales link.
Wang Yanrong, a professor at Lanzhou University, believes that grass seed DUS testing should be launched as soon as possible, the protection of breeders' rights and interests should be strengthened, and the improvement of grass breeding capacity should be promoted; a seed certification system should be established as soon as possible; and the construction of seed quality inspection centers should be strengthened to expand inspection business.
On how to create a good environment for fair competition, Lu Xinshi, president of the Grassland Professional Committee of the China Animal Agriculture Association, believes that through the establishment of a label system, the genetic registration, quality grade, production source base and seed authenticity of seed production can be identified, and on this basis, a comprehensive certification system for seed production can be gradually realized, ensuring that the varieties circulating in the market are genuine, the quality meets genetic requirements, the quality meets standards, and responsibility can be traced.
The development of the grass seed industry needs more social capital to enter
A company executive said: "China's grass seed production level is still relatively low. When large-scale planting is needed, it is difficult to produce so many seeds at once. When it is time to plant, there are not so many seeds, so we can only rely on imported varieties."
Liu Fuyuan, technical director of Chengdu Daye: "Enterprises not only need a smart brain, but also need to show our muscles." At present, China's grass seed production layout is not scientific and reasonable enough. Production enterprises act independently, teams are scattered, there is a lack of leading enterprises, a lack of integration strength, and a lack of core competitiveness. Every seed enterprise is struggling while producing.
In addition, compared with food crops, grass seed production is marginalized, the available land is barren, the planting environment is difficult, the basic production conditions are simple, the basic construction investment is relatively large, and the production cost is too high, which seriously affects the production enthusiasm of grass seed enterprises.
The grass seed industry urgently needs the injection of capital to carry out industry mergers and reorganizations and equipment upgrading.
Some entrepreneurs are puzzled. The grass seed industry is a very small industry, a market of 2 billion yuan. If calculated at a profit of 10%, it is only 200 million yuan in profit. The current market is only this big, so what is the point of investing in it? The seed industry is the most upstream thing, the chip of the entire industry. What is the point of investing in it?
On how enterprises choose capital, Gong Yanru, general manager of Zhejiang Hecheng Huizhi, believes that industrial financial funds can solve many problems. In fact, some sources of funds are related to the capital market, such as listing; another way is venture capital, which must be equity investment, that is, becoming a shareholder of the enterprise.
Guo Kaihua of Haier Industrial Finance believes that providing financial help for a certain business, although it is a single matter, for example, importing equipment that could not be afforded before. There are also other ways to obtain funds, including government investment. Combined, they can solve the current shortage of funds. Whether used for mergers and reorganizations between enterprises, or for the upgrading of industrial equipment, as well as infrastructure construction, appropriate funds can be obtained.