Variety Observation Season Is Here: A First Look at New Superior Varieties in the Field
Around the Mid-Autumn Festival, the harvest season for corn and rice is approaching, and this is also a great season for variety observation. How varieties perform this year determines the variety choices farmers make next year. Recently, Henan, Anhui, Sichuan and other places have held corn and rice variety observation meetings one after another.——Editor
This year's National Core Display and On-Site Observation Event for New Corn Varieties Shows
Suitability for mechanized grain harvesting is the main direction of corn breeding
On September 8, the 2016 National Core Display and On-Site Observation Event for New Corn Varieties was held in Zhengzhou, Henan Province. In order to promote superior new varieties of grain crops, accelerate the renewal of leading varieties, and optimize variety distribution, the National Agricultural Technology Extension Service Center, on the basis of continuing to do a good job in public-interest display and demonstration of major crop varieties, selected superior varieties of major grain crops such as corn, rice and wheat, and set up a national core display and demonstration platform for new major crop varieties in major grain-producing areas such as Northeast China, the Huang-Huai-Hai region and the Yangtze River Basin. This year, the national corn core display and demonstration activity was first carried out in the Huang-Huai-Hai region.
Dai Jingrui, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor of China Agricultural University; Chen Weicheng, professor of Henan Agricultural University; Ding Xinkui, chief economist of the Henan Provincial Department of Agriculture; Ma Yunliang, director of the Henan Provincial Seed Management Station; Ding Wanzhi, director of the Corn Professional Committee of the National Crop Variety Approval Committee; as well as well-known domestic corn experts, members of the National Corn Variety Approval Committee, representatives of relevant provincial seed management stations, technical personnel of the national Huang-Huai-Hai summer corn regional trials, and representatives of seed enterprises and breeding units, totaling 150 people, visited the new corn variety demonstration base of Henan Ping'an Seed Industry Co., Ltd. in Wen County and the scientific research base of Henan Jinyuan Seed Industry Co., Ltd. in Xingyang. Twenty varieties including "Weike 702" and "NK718" participated in the display.
"The display and demonstration of new crop varieties is the follow-up work to variety testing and approval. It is an important way to publicize and promote the extension of superior new crop varieties and accelerate the transformation of agricultural scientific and technological achievements, and it is a powerful lever for agricultural technology extension work," said Zhang Yi, director of the Regional Trial Division of the National Agricultural Technology Extension Service Center. "Through integrating resources from all sides, relying on market forces, and taking a third-party perspective, the national core display of new corn varieties publicizes, recommends and tracks and evaluates new nationally approved varieties from various testing channels, increases publicity and promotion of superior varieties, and promotes the application of new varieties."
On the afternoon of September 8, the 2016 National Huang-Huai-Hai Summer Corn Region Variety Experiment Training Meeting was held. Experts and scholars from the front line of corn seed production research explained and reported some of the latest research results to the participating representatives. Li Shaokun, researcher at the Institute of Crop Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, analyzed changes in corn planting density and yield in various regions of China in recent years and compared them with corn planting conditions in the United States, and put forward suggestions for dense planting and high-yield cultivation of corn.
Dai Jingrui commented on this joint display of new varieties, believing that these participating enterprises had done very well in variety research and development, especially achieving breakthroughs in suitability for mechanical harvesting and lodging resistance, demonstrating the strong strength of domestic corn seed production research. Dai Jingrui said: "From the perspective of demand, mechanical harvesting of corn grain is more advanced than any other production model. This has been proven by corn production throughout the world. Mechanical grain harvesting can greatly improve the efficiency of large-scale corn production. Although it cannot be fully rolled out in the Huang-Huai-Hai region in a short time, this is the direction of the future."
"In the future, corn breeding will take 'saving water, fertilizer and pesticides' as the core, pursuing ecologically friendly and sustainable development," said Zhao Jiuran, director and researcher of the Corn Center of the Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, when reporting on engineering-based corn breeding. "In order to reduce labor costs, full mechanization will be one of the important directions. In addition, wide adaptability, multiple resistance and efficient resource utilization are also important breeding directions, reducing the input costs of agricultural materials such as chemical fertilizers, irrigation and plant protection, and improving market competitiveness through cost reduction and efficiency improvement and quality and efficiency improvement."
Chen Shaojiang, professor of China Agricultural University, introduced corn haploid technology and reviewed the development history and application of haploid technology. He believed that haploid technology should be combined with engineering-based breeding to strengthen technological maturity. Chen Weicheng, professor of Henan Agricultural University, reviewed the history of corn seed production development in Henan Province and China, and suggested subdividing multiple corn varieties, delineating the core promotion areas for each variety, and creating variety characteristics.
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This year, the National Agricultural Technology Extension Service Center set up a total of 10 core display sites in 5 provinces in the Huang-Huai-Hai summer-sown corn region, namely Henan, Shandong, Hebei, Anhui and Jiangsu, for regional joint display. The 20 participating varieties included corn varieties approved nationally for the Huang-Huai summer-sown region in recent years, some superior varieties that entered national production trials in 2016, and superior varieties approved at the provincial level in the past 3 years, with "Zhengdan 958" as the control.
Participating varieties: "Weike 702", exhibited by Henan Jinyuan Seed Industry Co., Ltd.; "Meiyu 5", exhibited by Henan Province Yuyu Seed Industry Co., Ltd.; "Shengrui 999", exhibited by Zhengzhou Shengruiyuan Agricultural Science and Technology Development Co., Ltd.; "Qiangsheng 369", exhibited by Shanxi Qiangsheng Seed Industry Co., Ltd.; "Huanong 138", exhibited by Beijing Huanong Weiye Seed Technology Co., Ltd.; "Dacheng 168", exhibited by Henan Dacheng Seed Industry Co., Ltd.; "Nonghua 816", exhibited by Beijing Golden Nonghua Seed Technology Co., Ltd.; "Huayu 168", exhibited by Henan Huafeng Seed Technology Co., Ltd.; "Weike 966", exhibited by Henan Yijiahe Seed Technology Co., Ltd.; "Zhengdan 1002", exhibited by Henan Qiule Seed Technology Co., Ltd.; "Yudan 606", exhibited by Henan Zhenghan Seed Technology Co., Ltd. and Henan Darun Agriculture Co., Ltd.; "Jingnongke 728", exhibited by Beijing Longyun Seed Industry Co., Ltd.; "J1483", exhibited by Jinnuo Agricultural Science and Technology Park in Gaocheng District, Shijiazhuang City; "Yuanfeng YT008", exhibited by Beijing Yutian Fengyuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences; "Huaiyu 23", exhibited by Huaichuan Seed Industry Co., Ltd.; "Ningyu 468", exhibited by Jiangsu Jin Hualong Seed Technology Co., Ltd.; "Huawan 617", exhibited by Anhui Longping High-Tech Seed Industry Co., Ltd.; "NK718", exhibited by Hefei Fengle Seed Co., Ltd.; "Ludan 9088", exhibited by Tianyiqing Group; "Liyu 88", exhibited by Shijiazhuang Liyu Science and Technology Development Co., Ltd.