Science and Technology Ministry Actively Advances Commercial Breeding of Crops
In order to implement the spirit of the document “Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Deepening the Reform of the Seed Industry System and Improving Innovation Capacity” [Guobanfa (2013) No. 109], and to advance the construction of a new type of seed industry science and technology innovation system, the Ministry of Science and Technology in 2014 established and implemented the “12th Five-Year Plan” National Science and Technology Support Program project “Research on Commercial Breeding Technology for Major Crops and Model Demonstration”. The project is led by seed enterprises, with research teams formed jointly by enterprises, research institutes and universities, taking varieties as the main line and setting research tasks around the entire crop seed industry chain and innovation chain. It aims, through joint efforts by enterprises, research institutes and universities, to cultivate a number of breakthrough varieties while guiding the orderly flow of scientific and technological resources such as breeding talent, breeding technology and breeding materials from research institutions to enterprises, promoting seed enterprises to strengthen their commercial breeding capacity and conditions, forming an effective mechanism for close cooperation between science and enterprise, establishing a crop commercial breeding system and model, and enhancing seed enterprises' independent innovation capacity and international competitiveness.
On September 24, the Rural Department and Rural Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology organized a seminar on crop commercial breeding and a project progress meeting. Nearly 50 people attended the meeting, including administrative staff from relevant departments and bureaus of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Agriculture, heads of each project task, heads of well-known domestic seed enterprises, and crop breeding experts. At the meeting, heads of 11 seed enterprises including China National Seed Group Co., Ltd., Longping High-Tech Agriculture Co., Ltd., and Shandong Denghai Seeds Co., Ltd. exchanged views on their understanding and practice of crop commercial breeding, the achievements already made and the ideas for next steps, and reported on the implementation plans of each task. Participants conducted extensive exchange and discussion on how to build seed enterprises' commercial breeding capacity, enhance enterprises' independent innovation level, and construct a commercial breeding mechanism and model with Chinese characteristics for the new era.
Guo Zhiwei, Deputy Director-General of the Rural Science and Technology Department of the Ministry of Science and Technology, made a concluding speech on four aspects: correctly understanding and recognizing the concept and connotation of commercial breeding, accelerating the process of commercial breeding, exploring the model of joint research by industry, universities and research institutes in the commercial breeding system, and building a commercial breeding system with Chinese characteristics around the national goals and tasks of crop breeding. He pointed out that to understand and recognize the concept and connotation of commercial breeding, attention must be paid to distinguishing it from traditional breeding methods, and attention must be paid to differences from traditional methods in aspects such as decision-making on breeding objectives, utilization of germplasm resources, research and development of breeding technology, field testing and evaluation, and feedback from production and market; in accelerating the process of commercial breeding, it is necessary to establish the concept of commercial breeding, and by enhancing enterprise innovation capacity, establish a crop commercial breeding model as soon as possible, and establish and improve a commercial breeding system compatible with it; in building the commercial breeding system, attention must be paid to combining industry, universities and research institutes and to joint research, and it is necessary to grasp the core issue that enterprises are both the main body of innovation and should also be the main body of investment, with goals and tasks centered on enterprises, while also paying attention to the supporting and leading role of universities and research institutes in basic research such as germplasm resource innovation and breeding technology research and development; in building a commercial breeding system with Chinese characteristics, it is necessary to learn from the advanced models of multinational companies and, even more, to combine them with China's actual conditions. At the same time, enterprises should, according to their own circumstances, do a good job in planning enterprise breeding, do a good job in top-level design, and establish commercial breeding models with their own distinctive features.