Vegetable breeding must be closer to market demand

When people mention breeding goals, they often first think of high yield, disease resistance, and stress resistance. But as living standards improve, market demand is becoming increasingly segmented; as breeding technology advances, breeding results are becoming more precise, so today's breeding goals are increasingly showing a trend of diversification. Especially for vegetable breeding, it should be more closely tied to market demand.

For example, developing vegetable varieties with low nitrate content would better meet modern people's demand for healthy eating, and would be especially good news for people who like pickled foods. Another example: even with the same chili peppers, people in Hunan love pickled peppers, Chongqing hotpot needs red chili oil, and people in Shaanxi like oil-splashed chili; different market demands also require different characteristics such as the content of substances in the fruit, spiciness, and flavor. At this time, precise breeding must be carried out to match personalized needs.

This is also where the special nature of breeding technology lies. On the one hand, it must be rooted in the fields, meeting farmers' demands for increased yield and reduced labor intensity; on the other hand, it cannot be separated from the market. In particular, vegetable breeding differs from field grain crop breeding in that it plays more of a role in improving people's quality of life and enriching dietary structure, so the requirements for flavor and taste are also higher. Therefore, vegetable breeding that starts from consumer demand and improves product flavor and taste is precisely an important direction for future development.

The Vegetable Research Institute of the Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences has made a useful attempt by reducing nitrate content in bok choy through methods such as lowering root affinity and regulating reductase activity. It is hoped that in the future more cutting-edge technologies can be transformed into products consumers like most, and into delicious food on people's dining tables.