Why should China’s scientific and technological development focus on biological breeding？

　　Not long ago, statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that the total national grain output in 2021 was 1,365.7 billion Jin, an increase of 26.7 billion Jin over the previous year, with an increase of 2.0%. The annual grain output reached a new high and remained above 1.3 trillion Jin for seven consecutive years. The harvest in the first year of the "14th Five-Year Plan" was hard-won. According to the data of the third national land survey released in 2021, China’s cultivated land area is 1,917.9 million mu, but the quality of cultivated land is generally not high, of which 1/3 belongs to high-standard farmland, and 2/3 is low-yield farmland that depends on the weather. Therefore, ensuring food security is an eternal topic. Biological breeding technology is an important support for developing modern seed industry and solving food security problems.

　　New focus of international science and technology competition

　　Biological breeding is a process of cultivating new biological varieties by using the methods and principles of genetics, cell biology, modern bioengineering technology, transgenic, gene editing, whole genome selection and synthetic biology. Biological breeding technology embodies the latest achievements and applications of contemporary biological science research. Since the 20th century, biological breeding technology has gone through three leaps, namely, the "first green revolution" in 1950s, the hybrid rice technology in 1970s, and the molecular breeding stage since 1990s. Today, biological breeding has taken another big step forward, and advanced countries in the world have entered the era of intelligent design breeding based on biological big data technology from molecular breeding.

　　At present, seizing the commanding heights of biological breeding technology and its industrial development has become a major strategic choice for all countries in the world to enhance the core competitiveness of agricultural industry. The application of genetically modified crops has been accelerated, which has promoted the transformation of agricultural production mode. Especially since the commercial planting of transgenic crops in 1996, the variety of crops has expanded from 4 kinds of corn, soybean, cotton and rape to 32 kinds of potatoes, alfalfa, eggplant, sugarcane and apples. The planting area increased from 25.5 million mu to 2.86 billion mu, an increase of 112 times. The number of planting countries has increased from 6 to 29, and another 42 countries have approved the import application. The number of countries that have commercialized genetically modified crops in the world has reached 71.

　　In 2019, 74% of soybeans, 31% of corn, 79% of cotton and 27% of rapeseed in the world’s major crop planting area are genetically modified varieties, and 99% are insect-resistant and herbicide-tolerant. It is precisely because of the application of insect-resistant and herbicide-resistant traits that the competitiveness of genetically modified crops such as corn and soybeans in terms of cost, price and quality has been improved, and the trade share of genetically modified agricultural products in the international agricultural products market has been greatly improved. In 2019, the global soybean and corn trade accounted for 95% and 70% respectively.

　　In recent years, with the completion of genome sequencing of many important species, genomics research has developed rapidly, and countries and multinational companies all over the world have stepped up their efforts to carry out basic research on gene function in order to compete for relevant intellectual property rights. In addition, the deep integration of transgenic technology with gene editing, synthetic biology and whole genome selection technology has promoted the development of biological breeding in the direction of systematization and integration of exogenous gene transfer, endogenous gene editing, metabolic pathway reconstruction and even artificial design and synthesis.

　　The development of technology has also promoted the upgrading iteration of biological breeding products. Taking transgenic products as an example, it has expanded from single insect resistance and herbicide tolerance to complex traits. New transgenic crops are resistant to many pests and herbicides, and some of them also have drought resistance, improved quality, high yield and high efficiency. At present, more than 70 kinds of gene editing products, such as high oleic acid soybean, disease-resistant rape and blue ear disease-resistant pig, have been launched all over the world.

　　Included in the strategic plan of China’s major scientific and technological development

　　In the international scientific and technological competition of biological breeding, China has actually begun to lay out its layout very early. As early as the middle and late 1980s, the National High-tech Research and Development Plan (863 Plan) included functional gene cloning, transgenic operation and breeding technology of new varieties of genetically modified organisms. The national key basic research and development plan (973 plan) also gives key support to the safety evaluation and risk control of genetically modified organisms; In 1999, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance jointly launched the "National Special Project on Research and Industrialization of Genetically Modified Plants". In 2006, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council approved the Outline of the National Medium-and Long-term Scientific and Technological Development Plan (2006-2020), which listed the cultivation of new varieties of genetically modified organisms as one of the 16 major national science and technology projects. In 2008, the major transgenic project was officially launched, with the goal of obtaining a number of functional genes with independent intellectual property rights and important application value, cultivating a number of new varieties of major transgenic animals and plants with resistance to pests and diseases, stress resistance, high quality, high yield and high efficiency, and improving the overall level of research and industrialization of agricultural genetically modified organisms.

　　In 2009, the No.1 Document of the Central Committee called for speeding up the major scientific and technological projects for the cultivation of new varieties of genetically modified organisms, integrating scientific research resources, intensifying research and development, cultivating a number of new varieties of genetically modified organisms with disease resistance, stress resistance, high yield, high quality and high efficiency as soon as possible, and promoting industrialization; In the same year, the State Council issued "Several Policies for Accelerating the Development of Bio-industry", which clearly stated that it was necessary to speed up the cultivation of bio-industry into a pillar industry in the high-tech field and a national strategic emerging industry. In 2010, the No.1 Document of the Central Committee requested to continue to implement the major scientific and technological projects for cultivating new varieties of genetically modified organisms, pay close attention to the development of functional genes and new varieties of organisms with important application value and independent intellectual property rights, and promote the industrialization of new varieties of genetically modified organisms on the basis of scientific evaluation and legal management.

　　In 2015, the No.1 Document of the Central Committee called for strengthening the research, safety management and scientific popularization of agricultural genetically modified organisms. In 2016, the No.1 Document of the Central Committee requested to strengthen the research and development and supervision of agricultural genetically modified technology and promote it carefully on the basis of ensuring safety. In 2020, the No.1 Document of the Central Committee called for strengthening agricultural biotechnology research and development. China’s "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan" proposes to implement a number of forward-looking and strategic national major scientific and technological projects aimed at frontier fields such as artificial intelligence, quantum information, integrated circuits, life and health, brain science, biological breeding, aerospace science and technology, and deep sea, which means that the development of biological breeding has risen to the height of national strategy.

　　In 2021, the No.1 Document of the Central Committee once again stressed that it is necessary to respect science, strictly supervise and promote the industrialized application of biological breeding in an orderly manner. The 20th meeting of the Central Committee for Comprehensively Deepening Reform held in the same year also emphasized that the seeds are the foundation of agricultural modernization, so it is necessary to promote the national seed industry, raise the safety of seed sources to a strategic height related to national security, and concentrate on solving problems, filling shortcomings, strengthening advantages and controlling risks, so as to realize the self-reliance and self-reliance of seed industry science and technology and the independent control of seed sources.

　　Realize the national seed industry’s scientific and technological self-reliance

　　Up to now, biological breeding has been included in one of the major strategic directions of China’s scientific and technological development, and has formed an innovative pattern of independent genes, independent technologies and independent varieties, and has bred more than 70,000 main crop varieties, which basically meets the needs of agricultural production.

　　On the one hand, the industrial application of transgenic insect-resistant cotton and disease-resistant papaya in China has achieved remarkable results, especially with the support of major transgenic projects, 197 new varieties of insect-resistant cotton have been bred, with a cumulative promotion of 510 million mu, a reduction of 650,000 tons of pesticides and a cumulative increase of 65 billion yuan.

　　On the other hand, China’s genetically modified soybeans and corn have been industrialized, and four insect-resistant and herbicide-tolerant genetically modified corn have obtained production and application safety certificates. Insect-resistant transgenic maize new strain has an insect-resistant effect of more than 95%, which effectively reduces pesticide consumption and aflatoxin pollution. Three herbicide-resistant transgenic soybeans in China have obtained safety certificates for production and application, and the cultivated new strains can reduce the cost of manual weeding by more than 30 yuan/mu and increase the yield by more than 5% compared with the control varieties.

　　In addition, China’s genetically modified rice, wheat and other products have formed a certain reserve. The research and development of insect-resistant rice is leading in the world, and it has obtained the safety certificate of production and application and the import license of the United States. The insect-resistant effect of this rice is over 95%, the pesticide consumption can be reduced by over 60%, and the yield is increased by over 10% compared with the control rice. The water use efficiency of the new drought-resistant and water-saving transgenic wheat strain is improved by more than 10%, which can greatly reduce irrigation water and effectively alleviate the problem of water shortage.

　　The Research Achievements of Patent Navigation in Biological Breeding Industry released by China National Intellectual Property Administration Intellectual Property Development Research Center shows that at present, the number of patent applications for biological breeding in China ranks first in the world, and the number of patent applications for molecular marker breeding has surpassed that of the United States, making it the country with the largest number of applications. However, on the whole, there is still a big gap between China’s biological breeding and developed countries such as the United States and Europe, and it is still possible to be "stuck".

　　Wan Jianmin, an academician of China Academy of Engineering and vice president of China Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that there is an era gap between China’s biological breeding and foreign advanced level. Some foreign scientists have divided the breeding development into four eras, namely, the era of farmers’ selection, the era of phenotypic selection, the era of molecular breeding, and the era of big data intelligent design breeding. The world-class seed industry has moved towards the 4.0 era of design breeding, while the seed industry in China is still in the process of moving towards the era of molecular breeding.

　　He said that biological breeding is the core of seed industry innovation. Building a modern biological breeding innovation system, strengthening the deep excavation of germplasm resources, breaking through the key technologies of cutting-edge breeding, cultivating strategic new varieties, and realizing self-reliance and self-reliance of seed industry science and technology are the key to solving the "seed source" and winning the seed industry’s turnaround, and the fundamental guarantee for firmly grasping the initiative of food security.

　　Li Jiayang, an academician of China Academy of Sciences and a researcher at the Institute of Genetics and Development of China Academy of Sciences, believes that the future development direction of agriculture is high and stable yield, high-quality nutrition, high efficiency and safety, and agricultural industrialization. China’s agricultural modernization has reached a new stage of accelerating the transformation of development mode, and we must rely more on science and technology to achieve innovation drive, and continuously provide a strong driving force for agricultural development transformation and upgrading, quality improvement and efficiency improvement. Biological breeding is a very important aspect to ensure national food security in the future. In the future, we will further apply biological breeding technology to cultivate more high-yield, high-quality, stress-resistant and efficient seeds through propagating Silicon Valley in the south, so as to ensure national food security and make everyone eat well, eat well and eat healthily.

　　Author: Luo Zhongyun

Source: Guangming Net