As we enjoy the nutrition and delicacy of the table, the corn growing in the field may be threatened by a "moth": it eats not only leaves, but also ears of corn, but also other crops, it is the grass moth, the first of the major migratory pests warned by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
How to control the grassland nocturnal moth? From the central to the local agricultural sector, it is actively monitoring and comprehensively controlling insect pests through multiple means such as physical, biological and chemical means. Among them, agricultural experts pointed out that from the comprehensive effect, genetically modified crops, especially Bt gene corn, have a very good control method for grassland moths.
"The genetically modified corn soybeans have been planted in the fields in several places for a year, and the whole effect is very shocking." At the recently held 10th National Media Transgenic Reporting Seminar with the theme of "Orderly Promoting the Industrialization of Biological Breeding and Comprehensively Promoting the Revitalization of the Seed Industry", Zhang Jie, deputy director and researcher of the Institute of Plant Protection of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, introduced in detail the progress of the pilot planting of genetically modified soybean corn in 2021 from the perspective of weed control, insect resistance, agronomic traits, mycotoxin residues and tracking and monitoring results.
Zhang Jie introduced the progress of the pilot planting of genetically modified corn and soybeans.
Pilot planting effects
The effect of genetically modified corn on the control of grassland nocturnal moth can reach 95%
The weed control effect of genetically modified soybeans is more than 95%.
Nandu reporter learned that according to FAO monitoring, the grassland moth, a pest originating in South America, has invaded many countries such as Africa and Asia in recent years, causing serious harm, and the corn yield in some areas has been reduced by 20%-70%. In January 2019, the pest invaded the mainland Yunnan and gradually spread to 28 provinces and cities across the country, which not only has great harm to crops such as corn, but also poses a serious threat to grain production on the mainland.
In order to solve the problems of grassland moths and grass pests currently faced in agricultural production, in 2021, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will carry out industrialization pilot projects for herbicide-tolerant transgenic soybeans and insect-resistant herbicide-resistant transgenic corn that have obtained production and application safety certificates.
So, what are the results of the current pilot?
According to the information of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the genetically modified soybean corn has excellent insect resistance and herbicide resistance characteristics, increased production and efficiency and ecological effects are remarkable, and the supporting high yield and high efficiency, green light and simplified production mode have gradually taken shape. The pilot has achieved remarkable results, which marks that the industrial trial of genetically modified soybean corn in the mainland has finally taken a historic step.
The invasion of the mainland in 2019 by the grassland moth was not available in the past, including the lack of chemical pesticide and biopesticide reserves, and it has also been urgently responded to in recent years. Zhang Jie said, "From the comprehensive effect, genetically modified crops, especially genetically modified insect-resistant corn, are the best means of coping. ”
"In the seedling stage, jointing stage, big horn mouth stage, male extraction stage, maturity stage and other growth stages of corn, in general, the control effect of transgenic corn on the grassland nocturnal moth is more than 85%, up to 95%, which is better than the prevention effect of conventional corn spraying chemical insecticides, and the insect resistance effect is very obvious, and the planting of transgenic corn reduces chemical pesticides and also reduces the pollution of the soil and the environment." In terms of yield, genetically modified corn can increase production by 6.7% to 10.7%, significantly reducing the cost of insect control. Genetically modified corn is less moldy due to small pests, low mycotoxin content, and good quality. Zhang Jie specifically mentioned aflatoxin and vomatoxin, which are not only harmful to the human body, but also to feed after conventional corn infection, and are also extremely harmful to livestock.
In addition, weeds are also a big problem facing agricultural production in mainland China today, and weed hazards are the primary constraint on soybean production, resulting in a reduction in soybean production by more than 10%. Moreover, conventional herbicides are used a large number of times and have a long residual period, which affects the growth of stubble crops and easily causes obstacles to crop rotation. Zhang Jie pointed out that in the seedling stage, ridge sealing stage, mature stage and other stages of soybeans, transgenic soybeans only need to be applied once with herbicides, and the herbicide effect is more than 95%, which is significantly better than the effect of conventional soybean spraying herbicides; it can reduce the cost of weeding by 50% and increase yield by 12%.
"A technology of more than 90% is a very successful technology, which can recover losses, increase production and improve product quality." Zhang Jie pointed out that the average yield increase of 10%, the effect is very good, "the selection of a variety can increase the yield of 10% is a good variety." Zhang Jie said, "We as plant protection people are particularly pleased to see such varieties." If it is well managed, it can really be managed by large-scale agricultural operations to promote ordinary products, and this effect can be more reflected. ”
Transgenic corn has a significant insect resistance effect.
Pilot planting effect of genetically modified soybeans.
Why develop GMOs
To solve China's food security, we need to seek breakthroughs in science and technology to increase
Behind the keywords mentioned by Zhang Jie and other agricultural experts such as genetically modified crops, biological breeding technology, and industrialization pilots, it is related to the food security of the whole of China: "the rice bowl of the Chinese must be firmly held in their own hands at all times, and the rice bowl is mainly filled with Chinese grain."
On the one hand, in recent years, the mainland's grain output has been continuously stable at more than 1.3 trillion catties, the supply of rations is sufficient, and the grain output in 2021 has achieved "eighteen consecutive years of abundance". On the other hand, however, food imports also hit record highs. The latest data show that in 2021, the cumulative import volume of grain from the mainland was 160 million tons, an increase of 18.1% year-on-year, and the import amount was 74.81 billion US dollars, an increase of 49.2% year-on-year. Among them, the cumulative import volume of soybeans is 96.52 million tons, and in 2020, the mainland imports more than 100 million tons of soybeans. Corn imports in 2021 nearly tripled from 2020 to 28.35 million tonnes, a record high.
Since the mainland is rich in grain production, why does it need to import a large amount? Is the demand for food still increasing? On the one hand, with the improvement of the living standards of the people on the mainland, more grain needs to be consumed to be refined into high-end food; on the other hand, the consumption of meat, eggs and milk has increased, and the corresponding grain imports needed to raise animals have continued to rise, especially soybeans, edible oil and corn, which are larger in scale and have higher dependence on foreign countries.
"In 2019, soybeans reached 83% foreign dependence, milk 31%, sugar 23%, beef 20%... Every percentage point of the nationwide external dependence is a huge number, and there is a tendency to continue to grow." Liu Chunming, dean of the School of Modern Agriculture at Peking University and researcher at the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, pointed out in his report on the same day that there are three major pain points in the dependence on imported agricultural products on the mainland, that is, the absolute amount is too high; the import country is single, about 73% comes from Brazil, the United States, and Argentina; and the imported crops are concentrated, mainly soybeans, rapeseed, and corn. Among them, imported soybeans are mainly used to squeeze oil and feed. Soybean meal is a high-quality feed protein, and pigs, chickens, cattle and fish all depend on high-protein feed supplies.
Coupled with the impact of the new crown epidemic and international market fluctuations, the high price of commodities such as grain and agricultural materials, and the tightening of "grain bags" in some traditional grain exporting countries, the task of stabilizing grain supply is still very arduous. "From the current situation, the potential to increase the planting area in China is already very limited, and to make up for the gap in production demand, we can only make a fuss about the increment and seek breakthroughs in science and technology." Liu Peilei, director of the Agricultural Genetically Modified Organism Safety Management Division of the Department of Science and Technology Education of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said.
"Modern agriculture is needed to feed more people." Liu Yaoguang, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and researcher of the College of Life Sciences of South China Agricultural University, pointed out that the existing varieties are the basis for ensuring food security, and it is also necessary to use agricultural biological breeding technology to strive to cultivate higher yielding crop varieties.
Biological breeding technology can effectively enhance the competitiveness of corn, soybeans and other crops in mainland China in terms of cost, price and quality. The development of biological breeding is a major decision-making deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, and is the only way to achieve self-reliance and self-improvement in seed industry science and technology. General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized agricultural modernization, seeds are the foundation, and the national seed industry must be carried out. The essence of the competition in the seed industry in today's world is scientific and technological competition, and the core is the competition of biological breeding technology. In recent years, the global biotechnology industry has shown a trend of accelerated development, the application of biotechnology is profoundly changing the global agricultural product production and trade pattern, "one gene and one industry" has become a reality.
Liu Yaoguang, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and researcher of the College of Life Sciences of South China Agricultural University, made a report.
Experts appeal
Eliminate rumors that deliberately "demonize" GMOs in the production and spread market
Science and technology have always been an important means for increasing grain yields on the mainland. "Since 1949, the yield and total output of staple grain crops on the mainland have increased by 4 to 5 times, and the average national yield of the three staple grain crops has increased from about 100 kilograms at the founding of the People's Republic of China to more than 400 kilograms today. Liu Chunming analyzed that science and technology have penetrated into many fields of agriculture, such as fertilizers, pesticides, agricultural machinery and breeding technology. The high yield and high efficiency of crops brought about by these new technologies and varieties, such as hybrid rice and hybrid corn breeding and seed preparation technology, are typical examples.
"The basis of seed industry innovation is genetic variation." Liu Chunming said that breeding as a whole is the genetic modification of genes, the traditional method is through thousands of years through natural variation and artificial selection, the rapid development of genetic breeding technology in the past 100 years, through interspecific hybridization or close-knit species hybridization to breed high-quality and multi-resistant crop new varieties. In addition, there are new germplasm resources created through mutagenesis and gene editing technologies, and a large number of important agronomic traits are rapidly integrated through molecularly assisted breeding and genome-wide selective breeding. Among them, transgenes are mainly used in traditional hybrid breeding to introduce traits, "which is an important biological breeding method or auxiliary means." ”
"Who knows that chinese food and grains are hard", Liu Chunming sighed, people who have not done breeding, it is difficult to imagine how complex the traits faced by breeders are. There are many goals for crop genetic improvement, and social requirements are changing. For example, in terms of resisting natural threats, temperature (high temperature resistance, cold damage resistance), light (strong light resistance, shade resistance), water (drought resistance, flood resistance, high humidity resistance), storms (no lodging), weeds, diseases (resistant to viral diseases, bacterial disease fungal diseases, etc.), insect pests (corn borer, cotton bollworm, dimorphic borer, grassland night moth); and people's requirements for food, to provide nutrition and energy, high yield, delicious, good looking, good seeds, good harvest, resistant to storage, etc. "These are all things that breeders need to consider when breeding new varieties." Liu Chunming said that most of the genetic traits can be obtained from natural germplasm resources, but a few such as drought resistance, cold resistance, weed resistance, insect resistance, mildew resistance and other issues, traditional breeding methods are difficult to solve, transgenic technology provides opportunities for the improvement of this type of trait. For example, in the above-mentioned industrialization pilot, the effect of transgenic corn on the control of grassland moth and the effect of transgenic soybean weeding were verified.
In addition, Xie Chuanxiao, a researcher at the Institute of Crop Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, pointed out in the theme report that in the long run, in addition to some specific fields, gene editing technology is expected to replace transgenic technology, "At present, from the perspective of insect resistance, transgenic is not replaceable." ”
At present, as an important aspect of biological breeding, agricultural transgenic technology is also the modern biotechnology with the fastest development speed, the widest application range and the greatest industrial impact in the world. Since the commercial cultivation of genetically modified crops in 1996, the global planting area has reached 2.86 billion mu, increasing the average yield of crops by 21.6%. Through the cultivation of high-yield varieties and the application of genetically modified technology in the United States, the average yield of corn and soybeans is about 40% higher than that of the mainland. It can be said that genetically modified technology has become the strategic focus of countries to seize the commanding heights of science and technology and enhance the international competitiveness of agriculture.
Transgenic technology is a very efficient crop improvement technology, and genetically modified crops must pass strict food safety and environmental safety tests and evaluations before commercial production. Liu Yaoguang pointed out that the mainland has made great investment in the research and development of genetically modified technology breeding, but it is more cautious in promoting and commercial application. At present, the cultivation of genetically modified crops is mainly cotton and papaya. Among them, the market share of domestic insect-resistant cotton has increased from 10% in 1999 to more than 99% at present.
"GMOs have not yet been industrialized in China, and the biggest obstacle is that public acceptance is not high, so the policy has not been liberalized before." Experts, including Xie Chuanxiao, have called for greater public awareness of GMOs. Liu Yaoguang said that there is no so-called "pure natural food" in the world, and most of the crops are developed from the domestication and artificial breeding of wild plant species, which is accompanied by a large number of genetic mutations and gene transfer. The transgenic technology of modern biotechnology is based on these naturally occurring transgenic events and phenomena, rather than being created out of thin air.
"Although from the perspective of scientific and technological principles, the safety of transgenic technology and products is clear and controllable, as a scientific and professional technology, the public's understanding and understanding still needs a process." Liu Peilei called for eliminating social doubts about genetically modified technology and eliminating the market for the production and dissemination of rumors and information that deliberately "demonize" genetically modified organisms and mislead the public.
Nandu trainee reporter Chen Qiuyuan was sent from Beijing