China's commercialization rate of improved seed varieties is still less than 50%

Core advantages: The core technology of this project mainly consists of three parts: an automated seed morphology recognition system, a correlation model between seed morphology and seed quality, and seed quality inspection and assurance technology. The techniques for improving the quality of seed industry products mainly include seed air separation and cleaning, fine selection and grading, coating and packaging, and safe storage technologies, together with supporting seed quality inspection and assurance technology. Because during the production and harvesting of crop seeds, the physiological and biochemical state of the seeds varies greatly depending on the harvest period and the different positions at which the seeds are attached to the mother plant, it is often the case that within a batch of seeds there are differences in indicators such as seed color, length, width, thickness and specific gravity, showing a normal distribution. Seeds with relatively consistent physical indicators are conducive to mechanized sowing in production, and field emergence is relatively uniform, without the phenomenon of large and small seedlings; uniform seed height also helps improve the commercial quality of the seeds. There are many attribute indicators of seeds, and the measurement workload is very large, time-consuming and labor-intensive. Seed automated recognition software can reduce the workload, quickly and automatically identify relevant seed attributes, produce test results with good repeatability, reduce human error, and effectively promote the development of related scientific research.

Technical assessment: This project is already relatively mature in terms of basic technology. At present, the basic software development for seed classification in corn seed quality improvement and the supporting seed morphology and seed quality model and seed quality assurance technology have been completed, further improving corn seed quality improvement technology, while simultaneously carrying out the software and models required for seed quality improvement technology, as well as seed quality inspection and assurance technology, for other crops with high commercialization rates such as rice and cotton, and for vegetables with high commercial value such as cabbage, pepper, tomato, zucchini and pumpkin.

Potential business model: Whether to carry out business by selling software or by providing services represents two different approaches.

Market analysis: China's seed industry has entered a market-oriented stage. In 2011, the State Council issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Modern Crop Seed Industry", encouraging and supporting large enterprises integrating breeding, propagation and promotion to carry out mergers and reorganizations, and the industry will usher in a period of rapid development. China's total annual seed usage is about 12.5 billion kg, of which commercial seeds account for about 5 billion kg, with a total market size of more than 50 billion yuan, accounting for about 20% of the total world seed market. There are more than 6,000 companies in the industry holding seed production and operation licenses. The biggest problem currently existing in the seed industry is that the industry is too fragmented, with low concentration; the market share of the largest company is less than 5%, and the concentration of the top 10 in the industry is less than 20%. The prominent problem currently facing China's seed industry is insufficient breeding R&D capability among enterprises, a lack of breakthrough varieties, and a low rate of industrial transformation of R&D results. At present, China's commercialization rate of improved seed varieties is still less than 50%, and the application and promotion of seed quality improvement technology will have broad market prospects.