Why can seed production bases become the main stronghold for the supply of quality seeds?
Zhangye City in Gansu Province, located in the central part of the Hexi Corridor, bordered on the south by the Qilian Mountains at the northern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and facing the Badain Jaran Desert of the Inner Mongolia Plateau to the north, lies in the middle reaches of China's second-largest inland river——the Heihe River. The area has abundant sunshine, convenient irrigation conditions and low precipitation, making Zhangye extremely suitable for corn seed production and storage.
Jianning County in Fujian Province, where mountains crisscross and streams and rivers interlace, and where hills, rivers, villages and non-rice crops serve as natural barriers, provides numerous relatively isolated pit-and-ridge fields for rice seed production. Different altitude zones and different farming systems within its territory have formed a variety of rice-growing areas, further providing good isolation conditions for various hybrid rice variety combinations.
Gong'an County in Hubei Province, bordered by Shishou to the east, Songzi to the west, Li County to the south and Jingzhou to the north, is rich in water resources, with an annual active accumulated temperature of 5000°C, an effective accumulated temperature above 3000°C, humidity above 80%, large diurnal temperature differences and low wind speeds. From late June to October, the weather is mostly sunny with little rain, which is extremely favorable for hybrid rice seed production.
Seed production bases are precious resources that bring together advantages in nature, economy, science and technology, and human resources. Turning the seed production advantages of places such as Zhangye, Jianning and Gong'an into a winning position for agricultural production is the main role of comprehensive agricultural development projects for quality seed breeding and processing.“Seed production bases are the foundation for guaranteeing the supply of quality seeds and carry the important task of meeting the seed demand for agricultural production.” Yu Xinrong, Vice Minister of Agriculture, stressed at the national on-site meeting on modern seed industry seed production base construction, “We must elevate the construction of advantageous seed production bases to the level of national strategy to strengthen them, and we must expend great effort to plan them well, protect them well, build them well, manage them well and utilize them well.”
The central government strongly supports localities in coming up with numerous ingenious measures—better facilities, larger scale, stronger technology
In recent years, the development of the modern seed industry has placed increasingly high demands on seed production base construction, and the modernization of the seed industry is bound to rely on the modernization of seed production bases. The “Opinions on Accelerating the Development of the Modern Crop Seed Industry” issued by the State Council in April 2011 and the “Opinions on Deepening the Reform of the Seed Industry System and Improving Innovation Capacity” released by the General Office of the State Council at the end of 2013 both explicitly require strengthening the construction of seed production bases and rapidly enhancing China's seed supply guarantee capacity. As seed industry reform continues to deepen, seed production base construction has also entered a new golden period, and the level of large-scale, standardized, mechanized and intensive seed production is rising rapidly.
Since the implementation of comprehensive agricultural development projects began in 1996, the Ministry of Agriculture and the National Comprehensive Agricultural Development Office have implemented a total of 161 projects across 28 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities nationwide, with cumulative central investment of 500 million yuan by 2012. In recent years, the state's investment in quality seed breeding and processing base projects has continued to increase, with central investment of 100 million yuan in 2013, growing to 120 million yuan in 2014.
Between 2010 and 2013, the Ministry of Agriculture established 51 quality seed breeding and processing bases undertaken by enterprises in 47 important seed production counties (cities and districts) across 19 provinces (municipalities), involving important crops such as corn, rice, wheat and cotton. The national-level hybrid corn seed production base located in Ganzhou District, Zhangye City, Gansu Province, was the earliest seed production base in the country undertaken by an enterprise under the “National Comprehensive Agricultural Development Ministry of Agriculture Quality Seed Breeding and Processing Base Project Overview”. Wang Lixiao, Deputy Director of the Gansu Provincial Seed Management Bureau, told reporters: “In 2010, China National Seed Group Co., Ltd. undertook the ‘Zhangye High-Quality and High-Yield Corn Quality Seed and Processing Base Construction Project’, with a central government investment of 5 million yuan.”
While the state comprehensively strengthens seed production base construction, local governments where the bases are located are also “adding bricks and tiles”. The national-level corn seed industrial park built in Linze County, Zhangye City, has attracted more than ten seed production enterprises with strong breeding capacity and advanced production and processing technology. In addition, supporting facilities such as seed production and processing areas, seed inspection, testing and technical service centers, and seed trading and exhibition centers are all fully available. In recent years, while Gong'an County in Hubei Province added 10 million yuan in funding for hybrid rice seed engineering base construction projects, it also established a rice seed production work leading group, incorporating seed production work into the county's economic development plan while coordinating and resolving various problems arising in seed production work. Cengong County in Guizhou Province issued preferential policies for seed industry investment promotion. For land acquisition fees paid by seed enterprises for infrastructure construction land such as seed warehouses, drying facilities and seed drying yards, the Cengong County government will return them in full within 3 years.
Clear construction goals and standardized project management
——Build one area, achieve results in one area
Whether seed production bases can remain sustainable and stable is an important guarantee for adequate and safe seed quantities, and is also a key factor in the sustainable development of the seed industry. To consolidate seed production bases, Mianyang City in Sichuan Province proposed an administrative management system of “one promotion, two strict controls, three strengthening measures”. While promoting the “one township, one enterprise seed production” system, it strictly controls enterprise entry, strictly reviews enterprise economic strength and credibility; strengthens management education on enterprise self-discipline, strengthens supervision and management of illegal and non-compliant behavior, and strengthens management of enterprise payment for seed procurement and storage.
With the massive transfer of young and middle-aged rural labor, the problem of labor shortage during the busy farming season at many seed production bases is becoming increasingly prominent. The aging and feminization of the labor force is also becoming more and more serious, the proportion of labor costs in seed production costs is rising, and the labor shortage is making the demand for mechanized seed production at seed production bases increasingly urgent.
While the policy of subsidies for the purchase of agricultural machinery and tools for seed production is being effectively implemented nationwide, subsidy standards are continuously rising, and the types and recipients of subsidies are gradually expanding. Research and development of agricultural machinery and equipment for key seed production links is receiving increasing attention, and mechanization in links such as detasseling, pollination, harvesting, drying and processing is being continuously improved.“In 2013, the production line built by Zhangye Sanbei Seed Industry Co., Ltd. in the national-level corn seed industrial park was the most advanced corn seed production line in the country and even in Asia.” Li Changxiu, Director of the Linze County Agriculture Committee and Director of the Seed Management Bureau, told reporters, “This production line involved an investment of nearly 90 million yuan. From ear collection and ear picking to drying and threshing, and then to fine selection and coating, its annual processing capacity exceeds 6500 tons. Using corn cobs as fuel for drying is also a major feature of this production line.”
“Build one area, achieve results in one area” has been the primary goal of quality seed breeding base construction projects in recent years. In order to standardize each stage of the project and ensure management is in place, project leading groups and project execution groups have been established successively in each project implementation area. Both Ganzhou District and Linze County in Zhangye City have formed a “county and township two-level seed affairs system”, in which village cadres spontaneously become a bridge between seed production farmers and seed production enterprises, supervising quality at important seed production stages to ensure yield. In order to monitor and manage state support funds and enterprise matching funds well, Beijing Origin Seed Co., Ltd. proposed a “three dedicated” management system, namely dedicated account storage, dedicated personnel management and dedicated use of project construction funds. Song Jianhu, head of the Linze area of Beijing Origin Seed Co., Ltd., said: “The project and fund management system improved through comprehensive agricultural development has effectively guaranteed the standardized and safe use of project funds, and also boosted our confidence in smoothly advancing project implementation and truly giving play to project benefits.”
Support from all sectors enhances base results significantly
——Turn advantages into a winning position
“Since the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has built a total of 4.383 million mu of quality seed breeding bases, added 130 million kilograms of breeder's stock production capacity, added 340 million kilograms and 2.18 billion kilograms of stock seed and quality seed production capacity respectively, and cumulatively provided farmers with 4 billion various types of seedlings.” Liu Beihua, Deputy Director of the Development Planning Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, said, “The completion of a large number of quality seed breeding bases and advantageous characteristic demonstration bases has strengthened quality seed infrastructure, improved agricultural research and breeding conditions, enhanced comprehensive quality seed production and processing capacity, accelerated the speed of new variety breeding and promotion, and improved the seed supply capacity and quality seed coverage rate of advantageous characteristic agricultural products.”
With the implementation of quality seed breeding base construction projects, support for the seed industry from various policies and departments has grown stronger and stronger, and the quality seed supply of the national seed industry has provided strong support for food security and stable agricultural development. After large-scale promotion of a large number of fine varieties, in recent years China's quality seed coverage rate for grain crops has reached over 96%. Since 2012, the area of major crop seed production bases in China has reached more than 20 million mu, with annual commercial seed production exceeding 8 billion kilograms, and the quality pass rate of “two hybrid” seeds has remained stable at over 95%.
“The results of quality seed breeding base construction projects in recent years are obvious to all.” Liao Xiyuan, Deputy Director of the Seed Management Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture, said, “The advantages of seed production bases across the country are gradually being transformed into a winning position for the industry.” In addition to the water, electricity, forest, road and other seed production field infrastructure in the project areas having been unified planned and renovated to a large extent, the pace of promoting fine seeds and fine methods in the project areas is also accelerating, and a large number of new varieties have been demonstrated and promoted. Not only that, the agricultural industrial structure in the project areas has been adjusted. Through the guidance and driving force of the projects, the seed industry has gradually become the leading industry in agricultural development in seed production areas such as Zhangye City in Gansu Province, Pi County in Sichuan Province and Ezhou City in Hubei Province, and seed production has also become the leading path for farmers to become wealthy.
With the development of seed production bases and the refinement of social division of labor, the seed production industry is flourishing, the local economy and farmers' incomes are growing continuously, and a number of seed enterprises with credibility, strength, varieties and markets have successively settled in seed production bases across the country. Enterprises and bases have formed a virtuous cycle model of mutual driving and mutual promotion. “Drive bases with varieties, promote development with bases” is no longer empty talk. Seed production enterprises are striding forward toward large-scale operation, industrialization and integrated breeding, propagation and promotion. Mechanized operations, refined planting, specialized production and intensive management have formed a seed production industry cluster with bases at the core.