The results of his breeding allowed each Chinese to add 4 and a half pounds of rations

The results of his breeding allowed each Chinese to add 4 and a half pounds of rations

Nie Shoujun

Director and researcher of the Rice Quality Breeding Institute of Suihua Branch of Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Seeds are the "chips" of agriculture. A seed is related to the safety of Chinese's rice bowl.

These are the words often spoken by Nie Shoujun, director and researcher of the Rice Quality Breeding Institute of the Suihua Branch of the Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

More than 20 years ago, on the black soil of Heilongjiang, there were many main varieties of cultivation that originated from abroad, and some self-bred rice varieties were of excellent quality, but they were prone to lodging and low yields. "Rice seeds should be equipped with 'Chinese cores.'" Nie Shoujun spent 26 years practicing this sentence.

Not long ago, the cooperation project "Creation, Conservation and Research and Utilization of Rice Genetic Resources" in which Nie Shoujun participated won the first prize of the 2020 National Science and Technology Progress Award. However, because of the epidemic, he was unable to go to the Great Hall of the People to receive the award, "but sitting in the office and watching the report of the award ceremony, he was just as excited."

"My greatest ideal is to make every inch of black soil in Heilongjiang planted with the high-quality and high-yield rice varieties we have selected and bred." Nie Shoujun said.

"Take a nap when you're tired, and you often hold an investigation book in your hand"

"When I was a kid, my dream was to eat fragrant rice every day." Because of this, Nie Shoujun was associated with rice breeding.

On weekdays, Nie Shoujun was low-key and modest, and did not talk much. Sometimes, he squatted in the field to watch the rice, and he couldn't say a word at the end of the day.

Nie Shoujun left all the "words" in his stomach to rice. "Rice breeding requires observation, thinking, and you have to learn to 'communicate' with them. Sometimes, the sudden appearance of a unique and excellent trait of a rice plant in the field can bring a breakthrough to the breeding work and create a possibility for the breeding of a new variety. He said.

Between 2000 and 2010, the second temperate zone in Heilongjiang Province lacked main cultivars, and foreign varieties such as Fujiguang and Shashani hit the rice market in the region. At that time, the varieties "Ken rice 12" and "Sui Japonica No. 4" that were more used in production were not ideal in their planting effects: "Ken Rice 12" had high yield but poor lodging resistance, resulting in high production costs; "Sui Japonica No. 4" had excellent quality, aroma and lodging resistance, but the yield was low.

In order to solve this problem, Nie Shoujun led the team to pay hardships that are unimaginable to ordinary people.

In order to be able to know the growth of rice at any time and capture the unique characteristics of rice in time, Nie Shoujun and team members had to inspect each test field every day. Pulling the line planning, pulling up seedlings and transporting seedlings, investigating seedling conditions, measuring plant height, selecting single plants and harvesting and removing communities... They have to do this work every year, and the cycle begins over and over again.

"Thirsty for a bottle of water, hungry for a bucket of noodles, tired to take a nap, often holding an investigation book in his hand." Colleagues said that this was the normal work of Nie Shoujun. Because Nie Shoujun was particularly obsessed with rice, everyone called him "Nie Rice".

Nie Shoujun had long been accustomed to this kind of busyness.

After years of hard work, Nie Shoujun has selected and bred more than 50 new varieties of high-quality, stress-resistant and widely adaptable rice in the Sui Japonica series, ending the history of foreign rice varieties monopolizing the second-accumulated temperate seed market in Heilongjiang Province. Through extensive cooperation between science and technology enterprises and promoting the transformation of achievements, the new rice varieties cultivated by their team have been promoted by a total of 140 million mu, and the yield of rice has increased by nearly 7.6 billion kilograms.

Among the many varieties he has bred, "Sui Japonica 18" is the most dazzling one. It is said that "ten years to grind a sword", and it takes at least 12 years to cultivate a new rice variety cycle, and Nie Shoujun took 14 years to cultivate "Sui Japonica 18".

From 2017 to 2018, "Sui Japonica 18" became the largest rice variety in China in a single year, with an annual promotion area of more than 10 million mu.

"Breed a variety, benefit the people"

"Breed a variety to benefit the people." This was the breeding concept that Nie Shoujun hung on his lips.

Nie Shoujun not only devoted himself to rice breeding, but also formed a scientific and technological pair with rice farmers to help farmers get rich. Wang Zhongyan, a villager in Xiangrong Village, Keyinhe Township, Suileng County, Suihua City, Heilongjiang Province, is a rice farmer. In the past five years, under the technical guidance of Nie Shoujun, her family's rice field has saved nearly 50 yuan per mu of planting costs, and the average yield per mu has increased by 48.7 kg. This not only greatly increased her family's economic income, but also made her a well-known local rice grower.

Under the guidance of Nie Shoujun, many villagers in Nuominhe Village, Shangji Town, Suileng County, achieved a substantial increase in production by planting new rice varieties "Sui Japonica 18", "Sui Japonica 28" and "Sui Japonica 302" bred by Nie Shoujun, accumulating more than 32 million yuan in peasant income.

In order to further accelerate the transformation of new rice varieties, Nie Shoujun put forward a new idea of cooperation between science and technology enterprises: enterprises set up stages, and scientific research singing. He led the team to carry out scientific and technological cooperation with a number of units to promote the integrated development of rice production, education, research, breeding and breeding.

Someone once calculated that Nie Shoujun's breeding results were equivalent to adding four and a half catties of grain to each of the 1.4 billion Chinese.

"In the future, I will continue to use the power of science and technology to guard the granaries of big countries." Nie Shoujun was full of confidence.

Source: Science and Technology Daily