The seed industry must become the breakthrough point for agriculture's innovation-driven development
On March 8, the 4th National Modern Seed Industry Development Training Course, held by the Ministry of Agriculture for the 4th consecutive year, opened in Beijing. At the training course, Vice Minister of Agriculture Yu Xinrong emphasized the need to deepen reform, forge ahead with innovation, accelerate the development of the modern seed industry, and strive to be a provider of scientific and technological achievements, a practitioner of reform, and a driver of the modernization process in agriculture's “transformation of development modes and structural adjustment”.
Yu Xinrong pointed out that China's seed industry reform measures have now taken root, and the seed industry's development results are notable. In launching the pilot program on equity ratios, advancing the planning and construction of the Nanfan breeding base, carrying out joint research on varieties, and promoting the flow of scientific and technological personnel, they have dared to gnaw on hard bones and have repeatedly broken through key and difficult points. Seed enterprises have seized development opportunities and achieved notable results. As of the end of 2014, there were 5,064 licensed seed enterprises nationwide, a decrease of 41.8% from 3 years earlier. Enterprise innovation capacity has accelerated, and in 2014 enterprises applied for 626 new variety protections, a year-on-year increase of 43%.
Yu Xinrong emphasized that at present, as economic development enters a new normal, the most urgent task for agricultural departments is to vigorously advance the transformation of agricultural development modes and structural adjustment, and the seed industry must become the breakthrough point for agriculture's innovation-driven development. In advancing the transformation of agricultural development modes, the seed industry must play a pioneering role. It is necessary to accelerate the breeding and promotion of new varieties that are high-yielding and stable-yielding, high in added value, suitable for mechanical operations, light and simplified cultivation, and efficient in fertilizer and water use; seed enterprises must carry out technological integration centered on varieties and provide technical services for the entire process from sowing to harvest; the seed industry must actively “go global”, make use of the world's advantageous resources, and enhance its core competitiveness. In promoting agricultural structural adjustment, the seed industry must play a guiding role. It is necessary to advance breeding innovation in feed grain varieties, forage grass varieties, and so on, and guide grain, cash, and feed crops in carrying out “ternary” structural adjustment. In deepening reform and innovation, the seed industry must play a vanguard role.
Yu Xinrong required that it is necessary to accurately grasp new development trends and vigorously advance the modernization of the seed industry. First, it is necessary to stimulate the innovation vitality of scientific and technological personnel, optimize the allocation of “resources”, and strive to master a number of core technologies with independent intellectual property rights and major application value at the frontier of world seed industry science and technology. Second, it is necessary to make enterprises bigger and stronger, and more specialized and refined; it is necessary both to build 2-3 seed industry “aircraft carriers” and to accelerate the cultivation of specialized and service-oriented enterprises. Third, it is necessary to cultivate and promote excellent varieties that meet the needs of the times, build a mechanism for “breeding” good varieties, improve the system for “approving” good varieties, and innovate the model for “promoting” good varieties. Fourth, it is necessary to follow the path of internationalized development of the seed industry, strengthen confidence, summon courage, and boldly “go global”. Fifth, it is necessary to advance law-based seed management, highlight crackdowns on counterfeiting and protection of rights, and transform management methods.
More than 200 principal responsible persons from units such as provincial seed management bureaus (stations) nationwide, the Ministry of Agriculture's Plant New Variety Testing (Sub) Centers, and seed enterprises integrating breeding, propagation, and promotion participated in this training.