The status of the seed industry is very important, known as the chip of agriculture, playing a central role in increasing grain production, the mainland has reached a new high in grain production for many years, and the seed industry has made an indispensable contribution.
Courtesy photo: Zhao Naiyu
The Seed Law has been amended and will come into force on 1 March 2022. At this year's two sessions, a number of deputies and members actively offered suggestions and suggestions, starting from the current situation and difficulties of the mainland seed industry, suggesting the protection of the mainland's germplasm resources, increasing the intensity of policy funds, promoting the in-depth integration of seed scientific research units and enterprises, guaranteeing and promoting the ability of independent scientific and technological innovation, etc., hoping to rapidly promote the development of the mainland seed industry, and strive to make "Chinese grain" mainly use "Chinese seeds" to ensure China's food security.
After years of development, the traditional breeding in the mainland has achieved great results, but also faces industry bottlenecks and needs to be upgraded, and now the popular gene editing, transgenics, synthetic biology and so on in the academic circles are biological breeding.
Biological breeding is the consensus of mainstream scientists around the world, and it is expected to continue to greatly increase yields, improve product quality, and increase farmers' incomes. There are many companies in China that have many years of reserves in this regard.
The current situation of the seed industry
Industry data show that the contribution rate of varieties to improving yield is more than 30%, of which the contribution rate of maize hybrid varieties is more than 40%, which shows that the role of excellent varieties is very important.
There are many industries in China and overseas, and in the field of agricultural seed production, the gap is different. At present, the proportion of independently selected breeding varieties in the mainland is as high as 95%. In the field of cash crops, such as vegetables, melons and fruits, there is a gap between the yield and taste and overseas varieties, which is to make the national life better and improve the economic efficiency of planting, and it will not affect the problem of rations.
Wheat and rice, the two staple grains, have a 100% share of independent breeding varieties, and grain yields are also at the upper reaches of the world.
However, there is a big gap between corn yields and the United States. According to the USDA, in the 2019/2020 market year, China produced an average of 6.32 tons per hectare of corn, compared with an average of 10.51 tons of corn per hectare in the United States during the same period.
According to statistics from Kynetec, a global agricultural market research firm, the size of China's seed market has grown from 48.2 billion yuan in 2014 to 55.2 billion yuan in 2020, ranking second in the world, second only to the United States. It is estimated that by 2025, the size of China's seed industry market will grow to 73.2 billion yuan, with an average annual compound growth rate of about 5.8%. The mainland seed industry has a lot of potential.
In terms of classification, the varieties commonly used in agricultural production mainly include conventional species and hybrids. Among the three major grain crops in the mainland, corn varieties are basically hybrids, which are also the main areas of seed commercialization on the mainland, containing huge commercial opportunities, and have produced listed companies such as Denghai Seed Industry; wheat is basically a conventional species, and wheat breeding in Henan and other grain-rich areas is leading the country, but wheat varieties have not produced large companies, rice is hybrids, conventional varieties basically account for half of each, many excellent varieties used as rations, are conventional varieties, and the yield of hybrids will be higher, mainly planted in the south. In terms of rice breeding, the mainland has great advantages, and has also exported products overseas, and listed companies such as Longping Hi-Tech and Tsuen Yin Hi-Tech have emerged. In addition, soybeans are also a major variety, because the sown area and yield are limited, farmers' planting income is not high, and domestic enterprises are not active in research and development.
Because mainland law stipulates that seed breeding must be in China, even the best varieties selected by overseas companies must be localized in order to be sold in China, so the seeds of local grain crops are basically 100% controlled by Chinese companies. It can be said that there is no "card neck" situation in China's seed industry at the level of application technology, but there are still huge challenges in the competition of future science and technology.
At the same time, the mainland seed industry is fiercely competitive, still in a state of chaotic competition, with low investment in research and development, inefficient and repetitive labor, and the survival of the industry is not easy.
After years of excavation, the space that can be excavated in traditional breeding is relatively limited, the yield has reached the stage high limit, and the space for increasing production and income is limited.
Dilemma
After the founding of New China, many agricultural colleges and universities were established, breeding is a very important part of them, and most of the excellent varieties are selected and bred by these colleges. The government has always attached importance to the breeding and promotion of good seeds, and the use of good seeds is also in the interests of farmers, and farmers have the enthusiasm to use them. Because there are many scientific research institutes, there are more than 7,000 seed companies, resulting in scattered research and development, imitation prevails, many research and development is just to take scientific research funds, win the name, a lot of scientific research resources wasted.
In overseas mature markets, a few companies provide the vast majority of seeds, while in China, it is still in a highly decentralized stage, most seed companies do not have research and development capabilities, and counterfeit decks are serious.
Traditional breeding is basically a high-yield route, after the yield is increased to a certain extent, it is difficult to have high-quality varieties appear, for example, in the field of corn, the fist products are Zhengdan 958 and Xianyu 335, the former national trial in 2000, the latter national trial in 2004, after many years of new varieties, are imitations of these two products, its yield and stress resistance did not exceed the level of Zhengdan 958 and Xianyu 335.
Excellent seeds should consider comprehensive traits, and achieve high yields under laboratory conditions, which does not necessarily have promotion value; seeds should also be resistant to lodging, disease, and have certain environmental adaptability, otherwise it is easy to reduce yields; even if the yield is high, it may also be because of the high moisture content, downstream processing enterprises do not like it.
In addition, there are some factors that are not concerned by the outside world, such as the germination rate increased to 95%, and the original multi-grain sowing can be changed to single grain. If the seed germination rate does not reach a certain height, it is necessary to sow multiple seeds and spend labor on inter-seedlings.
"Direct grain harvest" has become an important goal of corn variety breeding in recent years, because under the requirements of agricultural mechanization, the new requirements for corn varieties, like the previous small farmer economy of weaving corn ears and hanging them on trees and slowly peeling them in winter, have become obsolete.
The ancients knew the basic law of breeding, giving priority to selecting plants with good performance to keep seeds, and selecting the best among the best from generation to generation. The principle of breeding continues to this day.
Agriculture is essentially, the process of plant growth, through the chlorophyll conversion of solar energy, the formation of carbohydrates, on the one hand, the plant to grow thick, on the other hand, the need to precipitate more nutrients in the fruit. Traditional seeds waste nutrients on straw when the land is fertile. Breeding experts can grow more crops per unit area of land through dwarfing, dense planting and other methods, so that more photosynthetic results can be transformed into fruits.
Traditional breeding technology has reached a bottleneck, the understanding of complex phenomena is limited, can only rely on continuous trial and error to select the best, yield or quality has been difficult to improve. Breeding cycle generally takes about 8-10 years, the genetic diversity between varieties is narrow, there are blindness and empirical problems, agricultural science and technology workers have become more and more difficult to breed breakthrough excellent varieties, excellent varieties can not be sought.
Biological breeding gives a better approach and can be more selective.
The rapid development of emerging disciplines such as genomics, computational biology, systems biology, and synthetic biology in recent years has brought new hopes for the innovation of breeding technology. At present, gene editing is relatively hot in the industry, and this technical means is gradually maturing. Gene editing is to knock out some genes and highlight certain plant characteristics, but the professionals interviewed by reporters believe that gene editing is a micro-innovation, suitable for small steps and fast running, because the threshold is low, many scientific research institutes are doing, convenient for writing papers to catch the eye. Relatively speaking, the threshold of genetic modification is relatively high, and the road is relatively narrow, but it can bring significant benefits after success.
Biological breeding
At the forefront of mainland biological breeding is Hangzhou Ruifeng and Beijing Dabeinong Biotechnology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Dabeinong, which completed the capital increase last year and Hangzhou Ruifeng in January this year.
In January this year, Hangzhou Ruifeng completed a new round of financing, with a pre-investment valuation of 2.035 billion yuan, Longping Hi-Tech received 4.1% of the equity held by Chengtong CITIC Agricultural Structural Adjustment Investment Fund for 62.976 million yuan, and the shareholding ratio was changed from 22.97% to 23.20%; the central enterprise Rural Industry Investment Fund Co., Ltd. invested in Hangzhou Ruifeng through capital increase, and the total shareholding ratio of the central enterprise fund reached 20%.
Shen Zhicheng, chairman of Hangzhou Ruifeng, told the Securities Times e company reporter that this time the financing of 400 million yuan, the purpose is to expand the scale of research, to prepare for industrialization, industrialization needs a certain amount of capital reserves, the company expects that this part of the funds can support 5 years, is expected to achieve profitability within 5 years.
Hangzhou Ruifeng has been doing research and development reserves, and last year built a Moganshan transgenic research and development base. Zhejiang because the rainy season affects corn pollination, the open environment can only be planted for one season, Moganshan base built a greenhouse, In August can also block the sun, can plant two seasons of corn, which is more convenient for research and development. In addition, Hangzhou Ruifeng also has a Nanfan base in Hainan, which is still in the breeding stage. Seed production is still under consideration and there is no substantial progress.
In January last year, Ruifeng 125 (formerly known as "Dual Antibody 125") expressed two insect-resistant proteins and herbicide-resistant proteins that had not been used in any genetically modified products before, and obtained new resistance genes safely approved by the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection (EPA). Shen Zhicheng said that it is not easy to obtain this approval, which means that the company can sell in the United States, and production also needs approval from the Ministry of Agriculture. Among them, insect-resistant protein is treated as a pesticide, and there is no dose limit on insect-resistant protein, that is, any dose is safe, and anti-glyphosate protein does not require a residue limit in any plant (unlimited corn). This product will provide farmers with new genetic options for insect resistance and herbicide resistance.
When Hangzhou Ruifeng communicated with the US certification party, the other party said that similar applications had been submitted by the United States or us branches before, and Hangzhou Ruifeng was a relatively rare applicant for an overseas registration place.
Shen Zhicheng, a part-time entrepreneur at Zhejiang University, said that the students cultivated in this way have direct contact with the industry and are more grounded.
In April last year, Dabeinong held 70% of The Great Beinong Biological Financing, introduced the Modern Seed Industry Development Fund Co., Ltd. and the Central Enterprise Poverty Area Industrial Investment Fund, the two companies invested a total of 400 million yuan in Dabeinong Biological according to the pre-investment valuation of 3.922 billion yuan, and obtained 9.26% of the equity of Dabeinong Biologics after the capital increase, with an investment of 200 million yuan each.
Dabeinong Bio currently operates in South America, with revenue of less than 10 million yuan, because the domestic production of genetically modified crops such as corn and soybeans is not allowed, and Dabei Nong Bio has been in a state of input.
Dabeinong said at that time that the capital increase of Dabeinong Bio is to actively seek external strategic cooperation and resource support, which not only enhances the capital strength of Dabeinong Biology, but also helps to aggregate external resources to jointly promote the industrialization of biological breeding, which helps Dabeinong Biology to attract more high-level professionals to join the career development, which will lay a solid foundation for the development strategy of biotechnology companies in the next decade, and also create conditions for the coordinated development of other crop technology industries of the company.
Liu Shi, executive vice president of Dabeinong Group and president of crop technology industry, told the Securities Times e Company reporter that Dabeinong Biology has completely possessed relevant technical reserves and has commercial advantages.
Breeding third-party service companies are also making efforts, Huazhi Biological Chairman Tian Bingbing told the Securities Times e Company reporter that Huazhi Biology will face the whole industry to "unveil the leader", and make every effort to accelerate the research of biological breeding leading core underlying technology, and play an important supporting role for the mainland in the accurate identification and evaluation of germplasm resources, key technologies of seed sources, and industrialization of biological breeding.
He said that through biotechnology and data technology (BT + DT), Huazhi Bio provides molecular breeding, biological information analysis, germplasm resource creation, variety testing and evaluation, third-party detection, and blockchain and big data intelligent applications for customers at all levels, scientific research institutes, colleges and universities, leading enterprises at home and abroad, focusing on the key common technical needs in the life science fields such as crops, livestock, poultry and aquatic products, forest fruits, flowers and grasses, and microorganisms.
Huazhi Biology provides solutions for breeding companies, helps mainland seed industry leaders to rush into the world-class seed industry echelon, participate in key research projects of national and provincial germplasm resources, undertake the task of accurate identification of germplasm resources, develop multi-species biological breeding chips and low-cost and high-efficiency genotyping systems for rice, wheat, beans, livestock and poultry, aquatic products, etc., develop the industry's leading breeding information management system - Huazhi Breeding Steward System, and carry out seed industry informatization services for more than 40 cooperative units, covering rice, corn, Wheat, cotton, soybeans, peppers, edible mushrooms, goji berries, rapeseed, strawberries, etc., provide an important guarantee for intelligent breeding.
Economic benefits
The current use of GM technology is not intended to increase yields in itself, but to solve two external challenges in the plant production process: one is a pest and the other is a weed. Pests can destroy fruit or plant growth, while weeds compete with crops for nutrients and sunlight.
In order to prevent pests, pesticides should be used, which may have pesticide residues, and the effect of controlling corn borers is not ideal. The herbicide used to grow corn and soybeans is different, and herbicide residues in the soil have an effect on the next stubble.
To get rid of weeds and can not hurt corn seedlings, it takes a certain time window, early will hurt seedlings late weeding effect is not good, in addition to the climate also has requirements, rainy days and soil too dry effect are not good.
After the introduction of genetically modified organisms, glyphosate can be used to weed, the role of glyphosate is to kill all green plants, glyphosate sprayed into the foliage of the plant to absorb into the roots, inhibit the formation of amino acids, the plant begins to bloom in a week, and the roots will die in two weeks. The role of transgenes is to build the channels for amino acid synthesis. In addition to selective herbicides, there is generally a 7-10 day spraying window period, and glyphosate has a 20-day window period. A farmer spraying pesticides, because the length of time is increased, a farm machine that can spray 1,000 acres of medicine, the workload can be increased to 2,500 acres, and the weeding effect is better.
GMOs can also drastically reduce the problem of corn ear mildew – corn borers destroy corn stalks and fruit ears, drill down from the ears to eat the most tender parts, and once it rains, it will form mildew. Mildew persists throughout downstream processing. Corn is mainly used for animal feed, and mildew causes aflatoxin and vomitomycin to exceed the standard, endangering animal health and the yield of meat, eggs and milk. Brewing with this corn is seriously detrimental to liver health and can only be used as alcohol ethanol. Mildew is particularly severe in northern China due to rain during the harvest season. Now Farmers in China, in order to make their poultry and livestock look better, tend to buy genetically modified products because of less mildew and low pesticide residues.
Liu Shi said that compared with other agricultural technologies, GMOs are one-time inputs, such as pesticides, agricultural machinery, and fertilizers, which are consumed, and there are input costs and environmental costs. GM replaces the original seeds, does not consume new resources, will also increase yields, quality will be better, aflatoxin content will be reduced by more than 80%, but also make labor efficiency improved.
GMOs can increase yields by 10-15 percent, and if China can catch up with U.S. corn yields and maintain existing corn acreage, it could increase yields by about 180 million tons of corn.
Cost of safeguarding rights
Regarding the biotechnology research of soybeans, Liu Shi introduced that soybeans belong to conventional breeding, improvement is relatively slow, because of poor economic benefits, so scientific and technological personnel are not active in this research, national investment is also small, the best breeders are concentrated in the corn industry more, which also slows down the speed of soybean variety research and development, and the distance with foreign countries is getting bigger and bigger.
The foreign soybean germplasm resources are from China, the reason why the United States soybeans can have a great development, because after the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, China gave 100 copies of wild soybean information to the United States, the United States screened and cultivated, found a large number of good traits, and solved the problems of soybean cyst nematodes and rust.
This is actually the important role of native resources, the United States corn research is better, because the Americas is the birthplace of corn planting, rich in resources.
Small breeding companies and independent breeders in the United States have also been engaged in soybean breeding research, and although the profit is limited, it is still a very important crop in the United States.
Overseas breeding directions are very different from China: the United States grows soybeans to press oil, and China needs protein; the United States is to press oil, Brazil and Argentina mainly use American technology, China imports soybeans on the one hand for oil, and more importantly, for soybean meal (used to raise pigs) and so on. Imported soybeans are a demand for aquaculture development, and there are alternatives to oil, such as peanut oil, rapeseed oil and palm oil, but there is no other source of protein. Alfalfa can be used to raise cattle, and soybean meal and fish meal can only be used to raise pigs.
In terms of soybeans, there are many listed companies involved, but they are not active. Dabeinong's genetically modified soybeans are now being promoted in Argentina and Brazil, and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Shanghai Jiaotong University are doing similar work.
In terms of policy, on December 24, 2021, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed the amendment of the Seed Law, which will be implemented from March 1, 2022. CITIC Securities pointed out that this revision will have a profound impact on the development of the seed industry. The comprehensive upgrading of the protection of intellectual property rights in the seed industry will promote the substantial purification of the market environment, and it will become inevitable for the industry to be cleared. The living space of seed enterprises that obtain new variety rights through simple modification has been greatly narrowed, or they may be transformed or withdrawn.
Previously, it was difficult to crack down on the package of seeds, because according to the procedures stipulated by the government, to determine whether the seeds are infringing, it is necessary to collect evidence first, and then take the field to be DUS identification by a qualified third party for two years. After two years, if it is found that there is indeed infringement, you can go to court to sue with the result issued by a third party. The cost of rights protection is very high, and it is difficult to combat the package. This is also one of the root causes of chaos in China's seed industry.
With GM technology, it is very easy to combat illegal and encapsulated seeds, and the results can be detected on the day through the leaves. In the future, the rights and interests of traditional breeding companies can be easily protected together through the detection of genetically modified technology.
With GMOs does not mean that traditional breeding can be relaxed, the current GM is not to improve the quality of the seeds themselves, the quality of the seeds themselves also need to be bred to solve, GMOs are just the icing on the cake. In order to better adapt to mechanized farming and pursue economic benefits, key issues such as germination rate, lodging resistance, and "direct grain harvest" need to be solved through breeding. Moreover, seeds will also be degraded due to environmental problems, and better seeds will need to be replaced every once in a while.
Although the seed is the core of agriculture, it is only a link, and the core key to large agriculture is "big" - larger planting scale and high efficiency, which requires large machine farming, more high-tech support, and a higher level of operation and operation. Liu Shi believes that this needs to be improved in supporting links, otherwise it will be difficult for farmers to make money growing grain.
Liu Shi believes that to solve the problem of food security, we must consider the overall situation, and the liberalization of biological breeding only needs to be a foot in the door.
The representatives of the two sessions added their suggestions:
Ma Zhongming, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference: In the selection and breeding of new varieties, we must select and breed major varieties with independent intellectual property rights to ensure that "the rice bowl of the Chinese contains China's grain.", especially we must use modern biotechnology to increase the selection and breeding of new varieties and speed up the process of breeding new varieties.
Huo Xuexi, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference: It is proposed to integrate the national scientific and technological innovation capabilities and scientific and technological innovation resources in the field of biological sciences to form an innovation platform at the national level. In addition, encourage some large platform companies to enter this field and make biotechnology bigger and stronger.
Li Denghai, deputy to the National People's Congress: At present, the problem of the seed industry is how to effectively guarantee and promote the ability of independent scientific and technological innovation, and it is suggested that a law on promoting the seed industry be formulated as soon as possible, so as to effectively guarantee and rapidly promote the development of the national seed industry. Promote the deep integration of seed scientific research units and seed enterprises, and aggregate germplasm resources, breeding talents, promotion technology, and financial support to Chinese-funded enterprises.
Yan Ying, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference: The era of intelligent breeding characterized by the 'deep integration of a new generation of digital technology and biotechnology' is accelerating, and the competition between breeding enterprises in the future will revolve around the ability to develop and utilize digital resources for breeding.
Zhang Zhao'an, deputy to the National People's Congress: Focus on protecting the mainland germplasm resources, focusing on improving the key seed gene bank, focusing on overcoming key seed difficulties, and focusing on strengthening investment in key seed research and development.
Wu Qingping, deputy to the National People's Congress: It is recommended to strengthen the innovation of the microbial seed industry and incorporate the microbial seed industry into the modern seed industry system of the mainland. Microorganisms, together with soil, crops and animals, form the most basic material cycle in the agro-ecosystem, and play an indispensable and important role in the process of material conversion and energy circulation.
Yang Yuanzhong, deputy to the National People's Congress: It is suggested that the state should increase the support of policies and funds in the revitalization of the seed industry, and support some large provinces with seed production to become "strong provinces in seed production".
Shen Yanfen, deputy to the National People's Congress: It is recommended that the national level accelerate the promotion of crop seed quality certification and support the Hongshan Laboratory in Hubei to strive to create a national laboratory for biological seed industry.
Ma Chuanxi, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference: It is recommended to increase cooperation and exchanges between universities, scientific research institutions and relevant enterprises, strengthen government support and encouragement, smooth the flow of innovative elements in the seed industry, promote the development of fine seed technology, and strive to make "Chinese grain" mainly use "Chinese seeds" to ensure China's food security.
Song Chunpeng, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference: It is proposed to create a national seed industry laboratory in the layout of the core grain producing areas of the country, the yield of corn and soybeans on the mainland is only 2/3 of the international advanced level, and the proportion of vegetable varieties such as tomatoes, bell peppers, carrots, and fruit cucumbers is relatively high, and it is difficult to meet the needs of modern agricultural development in the future.