2015: The Seed Industry Needs a Brainstorming Session

With the development of science and technology and the continuous improvement of varieties, in recent years the upgrading of varieties in our country has helped the national average grain yield per mu to continuously achieve breakthroughs.

A grain of millet planted in spring, ten thousand seeds harvested in autumn. Time surges forward through year after year of spring sowing and autumn planting, and humanity multiplies and thrives through season after season of cultivation and harvest. Seeds carry infinite hope and repay us with golden harvests.

Seeds are the most basic and irreplaceable means of production, and also the agricultural input that farmers choose most carefully every year. With the development of science and technology and the continuous improvement of varieties, in recent years the upgrading of varieties in our country has helped the national average grain yield per mu to continuously achieve breakthroughs. According to statistics from relevant departments, every step up in our country's grain production is closely related to breakthrough varieties. In the 1980s, the promotion of hybrid rice and in the 1990s the promotion of compact-type corn increased the per-mu yields of rice and corn by nearly 100 kg each. In the "eleven consecutive increases" in grain production, the upgrading of superior varieties likewise played an irreplaceable and important role. At present, the promoted area of nationally approved varieties of our country's three major staple grains has accounted for more than 60% of the planted area. In particular, the promotion of the Liangyou series of super rice varieties and high-yield corn varieties such as Zhengdan 958 and Xundan 20 has strongly supported the rapid increase in the level of grain unit yields.

However, as new varieties constantly set new high-yield records and constantly challenge biological limits, what we should pay even more attention to is the field performance of these varieties and the yields farmers get. Only what farmers say is good is truly good, and only the seeds farmers love to plant are good seeds. Nowadays, every industry is talking about internet thinking and hit-product thinking. Even a restaurant making a bowl of noodles specifies the flour brand, the simmering time for the chicken broth, and even the temperature of the soup when it is served at the table, and a bowl of noodles sold 1 million portions in two months. The same is true for the seed industry: figuring out user needs and providing a better experience is the lifeline of a variety, and the ultimate means by which a variety can survive and how long it can survive. So what kind of variety is one that farmers say is good?

First, seeds suited to mechanization.

The just-past 2014, for corn, was a year that concealed enormous changes and enormous opportunities, and this "concealment" may, this year or in a few years a little further off, trigger a new round of fierce competition for market share in reality. "Don't you see corn kernels go straight from the machine to sale, so who still wants to shovel and dry them all over the place?" At the end of the year, the banter of a senior figure in seed industry circles pointed out farmers' needs and also hit the excitement points of corn breeders and company executives. Mechanical grain-harvesting varieties are regarded as another major transformation in corn production after "Xianyu 335" created the era of "single-seed sowing." One can imagine, changing "harvesting corn cobs" to "harvesting corn kernels," how great the benefits brought by the simplicity of links such as drying, storage and threshing would be for many large grain-growing households, and how welcome they would be.

Second, seeds suited to light and simplified cultivation.

In scientists' experimental fields, in order to test the extreme yield of a variety, they may even plant at a density of one plant per square meter, maintaining unobstructed sunlight and ventilation conditions; they also monitor the entire growth period and track it closely. But the yield produced by such intensive and meticulous cultivation is impossible for farmers. During interviews in Northeast China, the author once heard that before large machinery became so widespread, when farmers rushed to plant corn in time for the farming season, they hired people to scatter seeds in the field handful by handful - as long as it was planted it could be harvested, and as for what it looked like when planted, they really could not attend to that. Especially at present, young and middle-aged migrant workers go to cities to work, and the "3860 force" does the farming; or farmers farm while also working, showing a tendency toward part-time farming. These new changes at the level of production relations will inevitably create new demands for seeds, and some "tough" seeds and seeds suited to light and simplified cultivation are widely welcomed by farmers.

Third, seeds with good stress resistance.

In interviews we found that for large grain-growing households with several hundred mu or more of land, most do not plant the same variety, the so-called "don't put all your eggs in one basket." Some large households say bluntly that a high safety margin is even more important than high yield, so varieties with relatively stable yields, such as those resistant to lodging, resistant to pests and diseases, and resistant to drought and wind, are the first choice for large grain-growing households.