China becomes the biggest winner of the United Nations plant mutation breeding awards
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency jointly presented the plant mutation breeding awards in Vienna on the 24th, and Chinese research teams became the biggest winners of this award, taking one Outstanding Achievement Award and three Achievement Awards.
The awards were presented on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, to recognize the contributions of researchers to international food security. The radiation mutation breeding research team of the Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences' Jiangsu Lixiahe Regional Agricultural Science Research Institute won the Outstanding Achievement Award for its outstanding contributions in this field, while the other three Chinese research teams all received Achievement Awards.
Liang Qu, Director of the Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, said that plant mutation breeding technology is safe and effective and has certain advantages over other breeding methods, and he firmly believes that this technology will make great contributions to international food security and China's food security in the future.
Plant mutation breeding uses nuclear radiation to accelerate genetic variation in organisms, thereby cultivating high-quality food crop varieties with characteristics such as high yield, disease resistance and drought resistance. At present, more than 100 countries around the world have used this technology to improve food and cash crops.
Liang Qu said that according to incomplete statistics, using this technology, a total of 3218 mutant crop varieties have been cultivated worldwide, of which mutant crop varieties cultivated by Chinese scientists account for nearly one quarter. Chinese scientists have made outstanding contributions in this field.
It is understood that nuclear technology has many applications in agriculture. In addition to mutation breeding, it also has uses in pest control and other areas. In recent years, researchers have used irradiation technology to breed male sterile insects and successfully controlled and eradicated some important pests harmful to agricultural production. Liang Qu said that through their efforts, researchers used this technology to eliminate fruit flies in the border region between the United States and Mexico and to eradicate screwworm flies in the Mediterranean region, and are currently studying technology to control mosquitoes.