"One seed changes the world" - A record of the "light chasers" at the 18th parallel north

Sunshine, beaches, coconut groves... Places like Sanya, Hainan, and others in the 18° north latitude region of my country have long become well-known tourist resorts due to their unique climatic conditions.

However, in this hot land, the story of a group of southern breeding researchers chasing their dreams is little known. Since the end of 2020, the reporter has visited the southern breeding base seven times and had in-depth contact with these unknown and hard-working people in the fields. He found that they not only hold up the solid foundation of "China's rice bowl", but also erect monuments on the spiritual high ground.

From Yuan Longping's discovery of the miraculous wild rice that opened the way for hybrid rice research, to the "migratory bird" research and breeding of thousands of breeders, each seed has absorbed the sunshine and rain here, crossed the Strait, and "spread" across the country after thousands of trials and tribulations. Through the southern breeding, my country's major crops have completed 6 to 7 generations, and the yield increase of each variety update is more than 10%.

“A seed can change the world, and a variety can benefit a nation.” It is another year of southern breeding season. As promised, new and old southern breeders have arrived to start a new journey of “chasing light”: promoting the revitalization of the seed industry and firmly grasping the agricultural “chip” in their own hands.

A magical wild rice plant opens up the dream of "enjoying the cool under the rice leaves"

More than 40 kilometers west of downtown Sanya, the ancient city of Yazhou stands on the sea. History has left mottled traces here, and nature has also filled the alluvial plain at 18° north latitude with light and heat.

On October 26, good news came from this field of hope: the per-acre yield of double-season rice at the Baotou South Breeding Public Experimental Base in Yazhou District exceeded 1,500 kilograms, fulfilling the last wish of Yuan Longping, the "Father of Hybrid Rice."

In December last year, Yuan Longping, who was already ill, still insisted on presiding over the research meeting and earnestly urged everyone to "implement" the goal of 1,500 kilograms per mu of double-season rice. "We have lived up to Mr. Yuan's trust." Cao Bing, vice president of Hainan University, recalled that at the beginning of this year, after seeing the photos of early rice taken by researchers in Sanya, Yuan Longping said, "I am very satisfied" and "If my physical condition allows, I would like to see it on site."

A magical wild rice plant made Yuan Longping inseparable from southern breeding. According to the "three-line matching" theory of hybrid rice designed by Yuan Longping, it is necessary to find seeds of male sterile lines. However, Yuan Longping and his team members conducted more than 3,000 hybrid combination experiments, but none of them could achieve 100% sterility every year.

In 1968, Yuan Longping first set foot on Hainan Island to conduct breeding research and tried to find wild rice for distant hybridization. Two years later, his student Li Bihu found a male sterile wild rice with pollen abortion at Sanya Nanhong Farm, which opened a breakthrough for hybrid rice research.

Since then, from the three-line hybrid rice method to the two-line method, and then to the super hybrid rice yield per mu record, Yuan Longping has come to Hainan every year like a migratory bird. He said many times during his lifetime: "Half of the credit for the success of hybrid rice should be attributed to the southern breeding."

More than 70% of the new crop varieties developed in China have been cultivated in the southern breeding base. Since the 1950s, a total of 600,000 people have come to Hainan to carry out southern breeding research and breeding, building a solid foundation for the "Chinese Rice Bowl".

It is hard to give up the dream of breeding and the love for southern breeding. For a budding seed, some people in southern breeding spent the last moments of their lives on this beloved land. In February 2004, Chen Xueqiu, a southern breeding expert at Jilin Agricultural University, suffered from liver cirrhosis, liver cancer, sepsis and other diseases, but he still insisted on working in southern breeding and eventually died on the front line of scientific research. Half of his ashes were scattered in the sea near Sanya, and the other half were buried in the southern breeding base for which he had fought all his life.

On December 18, Sanya rice breeding expert Yuan Jingtian passed away. He devoted himself to the research of new hybrid rice varieties, rooted in farmland for more than ten years, and was committed to transforming scientific research results into farmers' hands. As early as February 2020, his body showed abnormalities. Not only did his vision become narrower, but he also had symptoms of numbness in his hands. At first he thought it was caused by working too hard in the fields, but his condition continued to worsen, and he was diagnosed with a pituitary tumor in the hospital. After full treatment, he unfortunately passed away.

For breeders, the best variety is always the next one. With the dream of "enjoying the shade under the rice plants", Yuan Longping still presided over the research on the yield per mu of hybrid rice in single and double seasons, as well as the research on salt-alkali tolerant rice in his later years.

"Chinese people have little arable land per capita, and Academician Yuan Longping repeatedly emphasized during his lifetime that 'the pursuit of high yields is the eternal theme.'" Li Jianwu, director of the cultivation room of Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Center, said that under the inspiration and encouragement of Yuan Longping, a large number of scientific researchers continued to strive for higher yields and focused on cultivating rice varieties with stronger resistance and better quality, helping farmers in various places to increase production and income.

In the hot land of Nanfan, the four seasons present a vivid picture of sowing, farming and harvesting. Scientific research continues. In the base of the Batou Nanfan Public Experimental Base, where the rice has just been harvested, the newly planted rice seedlings are full of green. Researchers from universities such as China Agricultural University, Nanjing Agricultural University, and Hainan University shuttled through the fields, leading farmers to sow and transplant breeding materials.

In addition to continuing to strive for new high-yield targets, the base is also responsible for the screening and evaluation of rice and soybean varieties. Researchers planted different varieties of rice and soybeans, conducted comprehensive evaluation and analysis, and selected varieties that are suitable for planting in tropical areas, are high-yielding and highly resistant, and cooperated with foreign agricultural departments, scientific research institutions and enterprises to carry out demonstration planting and promotion.

"In the first half of this year, five high-yield varieties were selected from 1,000 varieties here, with an average yield of 500 kilograms per mu, far exceeding the yield of less than 300 kilograms per mu of soybeans planted in tropical regions." Cao Bing introduced that the next step will be to rely on the advantages of varieties and technology, combined with the superior land resources and climatic conditions of relevant countries, to help the other party increase grain production while importing agricultural products from each other to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.

A stack of field notebooks engraved with nearly sixty years of original intention

His family lives in the north, but he moves south every year like a migratory bird. He should have been enjoying his old age with his children and grandchildren, but he spent all his time on corn.

On November 19, Cheng Xiangwen, a corn breeding expert at the Hebi Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Henan Province, celebrated his 86th birthday. His birthday wish was to do his best to breed more good varieties. After eating the corn-shaped cake that his colleagues customized for him, he hurriedly embarked on a journey to Sanya.

At the Nanbin Farm in Sanya City, the Nanfan Base of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Hebi City, Henan Province, Cheng Xiangwen lives in a prefabricated house next to a corn field. He gave the two-story building to the young people, hoping to be closer to the corn: "It's convenient to live here, and the corn field is right outside the door." A simple wooden bed and a set of tables and chairs are all his belongings, and his scientific research notebooks are always neatly placed on the table.

"A seed can change the world, and a variety can benefit a nation." Cheng Xiangwen always writes this sentence on the title page of his notebook. He said that he has been working with corn and thinking about corn for decades, and he can't live without corn for a day. He can never forget this sentence in his heart.

After graduating from college in 1963, Cheng Xiangwen worked as an agricultural technician in Jun County, Hebi City, Henan Province. Corn is the main crop in the area, but the yield per mu is only 100 kilograms. Once when he was in the village to learn about the growth of corn, an old lady said to him with tears in her eyes: "You are a college student, can you think of a way to get more kilograms of corn per mu of land? There will be enough steamed corn bread, and the children will not suffer from hunger."

The farmers' request touched him, and he found his life goal - to breed high-yield corn seeds for his fellow villagers. In the north, corn is planted once a year, and in Hainan Island, it is planted once more. One year is equivalent to two years, which greatly shortens the breeding cycle. In 1964, he came to Hainan Island to breed corn seeds. The first batch of hybrid seeds he harvested was taken back to his hometown for farmers to plant, and the yield per mu reached 500 to 600 kilograms. The villagers all said: "Xiao Cheng brought back 'golden beans'!"

"Southern breeding, southern breeding, difficult and annoying". Although Hainan has beautiful island scenery, in the early days of southern breeding, the local economy was very backward and living conditions were extremely difficult. "Three mice in a sack, ten mosquitoes in a plate of food, three leeches as a belt, and poisonous snakes jumping on the body", this widely circulated jingle is a true portrayal of the harsh environment of southern breeding at that time.

However, with the simple wish of ensuring that the people have enough food, thousands of breeders overcame numerous difficulties to carry out southern breeding. At first, transportation was inconvenient, and Cheng Xiangwen had to walk for half a month to Hainan. He found land, planted crops, and conducted research by himself, and he had to go back and forth more than ten miles to the public toilet to pick up manure and apply fertilizer. He lived in a fellow villager's home for more than 20 years, and in his early years he had to go up the mountain to chop firewood for cooking. It can be said that he was a farmer while doing scientific research.

Determined to do one thing well for his whole life, Cheng has traveled back and forth for decades, and the black-haired young Cheng has become the old Cheng with gray hair. He has bred 14 new high-yield corn varieties that have passed the review, among which the "Jundan" series has been promoted over 300 million mu of land in the country.

At present, Cheng Xiangwen is still working on breeding high-yield varieties that are more resistant to stress and easy to harvest by machine. To this end, he still insists on going to the fields every day. Every morning at dawn, he picks up his research notebook and dives into the fields to observe and record the characteristics of crops. At noon, he simply eats a bowl of noodles, takes a short rest, and then returns to the fields. He said: "Breeding is like raising a child. Only by doing it yourself can you become familiar with its advantages and disadvantages, and constantly improve it to make it 'talented'."

Soon, Cheng Xiangwen will spend his 57th "Southern Breeding Spring Festival" at the base. Now, he is no longer alone during the festival and can eat hot dumplings like at home. From Cheng Xiangwen alone, renting 8 mu of land from farmers, to a research team of more than 10 people and 150 mu of high-standard farmland, Hebi Academy of Agricultural Sciences now has a southern breeding base with complete facilities and convenient living.

With the accelerated construction of the National Southern Breeding Research and Breeding Base (Hainan), people in the southern breeding field have said goodbye to difficult working and living conditions. In order to implement the national southern breeding plan, Sanya and other places have designated 268,000 mu of national southern breeding research and breeding protection areas and carried out high-standard farmland construction. Laboratories, apartments, schools, hospitals, etc. are constantly improving, saying goodbye to the "difficult" and "troublesome" southern breeding research, and are transforming from seasonal research to year-round research.

A bug triggers a major scientific research battle

Hainan has a tropical and subtropical climate and is one of the earliest regions in my country to grow cotton. There are many types of cotton plants. More than 700 years ago, Huang Daopo, who was revered as the ancestor of the textile industry, came to Yazhou and learned cotton spinning technology from the local Li people and carried it forward. The reputation of "clothing the world" was born.

More than 60 years ago, breeders came here to explore winter cotton breeding in the south, and by the early 1980s, it had become a large-scale operation. So far, the hot land of southern breeding has bred hundreds of new cotton varieties. It is another southern breeding season, and Guo Sandui, a cotton breeding expert from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, arrived as scheduled and came to Nanbin Farm in Yazhou District to carry out cotton biological breeding.

This hot land once witnessed a "major battle" led by Guo Sandui to tackle the scientific research of insect-resistant cotton. "The birth of insect-resistant cotton in China was forced out." Guo Sandui recalled that in the early 1990s, there was a major outbreak of cotton bollworms in my country, and ordinary pesticides were no longer effective. Severe insect pests caused a "cotton shortage", and the textile industry, as an important channel for my country's export and foreign exchange earnings at the time, was also hit hard by the shortage of raw materials. At that time, Monsanto Company of the United States had developed Bt insect-resistant cotton in 1991. The relevant departments of my country negotiated with the other party several times, but ultimately failed to introduce it due to harsh conditions.

Facing the country's concerns, the desire of cotton farmers, and the pressure from foreign seed companies, the country launched a research project on insect-resistant cotton, and Guo Sandui was selected as the project leader. A "major battle" to tackle insect-resistant cotton that spanned the north and south and connected the entire scientific research chain was launched.

Working day and night in the laboratory and the field, Guo Sandui's team succeeded in 1994, making China the second country to have insect-resistant cotton with independent intellectual property rights. In 1996, in order to accelerate the breeding of insect-resistant cotton in China, Guo Sandui's team came to Hainan to carry out southern breeding. By the winter of 1998, the cotton professional group of the National Variety Approval Committee held a meeting in Sanya and approved four insect-resistant cotton varieties, becoming the earliest batch of national insect-resistant cotton varieties in my country.

Although he is known as the "Father of Chinese Insect-Resistant Cotton", Guo Sandui said that the successful development of insect-resistant cotton in my country is the result of "cooperative efforts". "The whole country works together, and the upstream, midstream and downstream cooperate closely, climbing to the top for each other." Guo Sandui introduced that his team is the first echelon responsible for the development of insect-resistant genes; the second echelon of scientific research units is responsible for introducing insect-resistant genes into cotton; the third echelon is breeding units across the country, which use insect-resistant germplasm materials and local production varieties to crossbreed and cultivate new varieties suitable for local planting; the seed industry enterprises are the fourth echelon, which promotes the industrialization of new varieties.

Today, collaborative innovation of the entire industry chain is constantly taking place here. "The platform is built, the project is in motion, and the talents stay." Peng Jun, director of the National South China Seedling Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences is accelerating the construction of South China Seedling Research entities, and has established 7 South China Seedling Research and Innovation Teams and 10 Achievement Transformation Teams. This year, the new South China Seedling Research Funding has reached 40 million yuan.

The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences is connecting the upstream, midstream and downstream of southern breeding research: the National Germplasm Sanya Wild Cotton Nursery has been built, and the World Wild Rice Germplasm Resource Nursery is being built to strengthen the protection and utilization of germplasm resources; the National Southern Breeding Crop Phenotyping Research Facility has been built to reveal the relationship between crop genes and traits to improve breeding efficiency; and a seed industry innovation laboratory has been built to carry out variety creation and industry incubation...

Vertically connected and horizontally linked. The atmosphere of collaborative innovation is gradually growing, and the "scientific research wall" is being broken. So far, more than 20 scientific research institutions and universities, and more than 400 agricultural enterprises have settled in Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City. The construction of scientific and technological innovation platforms such as the National Southern Crop Phenotyping Research Facility, the National Salt-Alkali Tolerant Rice Technology Innovation Center Headquarters Core Scientific Research Base, and the National Salt-Alkali Tolerant Rice International Corn Technology Innovation and Achievement Transformation Center are progressing in an orderly manner, and will coordinate the scientific research forces of all parties to jointly tackle key problems.

A new science and technology city rises on the coast of the South China Sea

In June 2020, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Overall Plan for the Construction of Hainan Free Trade Port", pointing out that it is necessary to give full play to the advantages of the national southern breeding research and breeding base, and build a global tropical agriculture center and a global animal and plant germplasm resources introduction transit base.

In July this year, the 20th meeting of the Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform emphasized the need to tackle key core technologies in seed resources and to steadily advance the construction of innovative bases such as the South China Seed Silicon Valley.

Relying on Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City, a Nanfan Science and Technology City is rising rapidly beside the ancient city of Yazhou. From a barren land to towering cranes, from being deserted to people and cars shuttling, the thousand-year-old city is full of vitality. In Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City, the newly built road "Longping Street" carries the Nanfan people's grief and tribute to Yuan Longping. "Chuanxin Street" and "Longping Street" run parallel to "Zhenxing Road". Promoting the revitalization of the seed industry is the common mission and pursuit of generations of Nanfan people.

"People are like seeds, and we must be good seeds." Yuan Longping's words are like seeds, sprouting in the hearts of young people. In recent days, the Hainan Breeding Base of China Agricultural University has been busy. More than 30 graduate students from the Research Institute of China Agricultural University in Sanya go out early and return late to sow and pollinate corn at the southern breeding base.

Doctoral student Zhu Lin is busy with farm work while recording the growth and characteristics of crops in his notebook. In addition to working in the fields, Zhu Lin also has to do literature research in the study room and do experiments in the laboratory. "The farming season does not wait for anyone. Once you miss it, you can only wait until the next season." Zhu Lin said that compared with the difficult conditions of the older generation of southern breeding, today's scientific research equipment and technology are much more advanced, and we must make good use of the advantages of southern breeding and seize the time to do research.

At present, Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City has introduced 11 well-known universities and has more than 1,100 students in training. Finely decorated single and double dormitories, dozens of laboratories and scientific research platforms are being built one after another... The park provides all-round supporting guarantees for graduate teaching, scientific research and life, deepens the integration of science and education, and lays a solid talent foundation for the construction of South China Silicon Valley.

The library, classrooms, and laboratories are open to all students, and even courses and teachers can be shared. Studying and living here, Wei Yuanhao, a master's student at Nanjing Agricultural University, feels the most about "openness": "Here are gathered the top experts in my country's agricultural research field. Not only can I listen to teachers from other schools, but also academicians often give lectures."

On November 29, the Yazhou Bay Seed Laboratory launched the first batch of "unveiling the list" projects, and various "unveiling heroes" signed "military orders" to launch a general attack on 75 major research projects. "It doesn't matter where a hero comes from. The laboratory has broken the boundaries of various scientific research units." Xia Mian, head of the laboratory's cooperation and exchange department, said that research projects were set up around key common technical problems in seed sources, and the project responsible persons formed their own research teams. There is no upper limit on funding, and "milestone" assessments are adopted in stages to guide the team to conquer the "mountaintops and highlands."

Today, as the whole society pays great attention to seed industry innovation, young people in Nanfan are also gaining more sense of honor and happiness. After more than a year in Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City, Longping Biotechnology (Hainan) Technology Co., Ltd. has grown into a high-tech seed company with a valuation of more than 2.5 billion yuan. In this company, from the R&D team to the field management team, they are all young faces.

"Behind everyone's willingness to endure hardships is the incentive of all employees holding shares," said Di Mengliang, a researcher at the company. Towards the common goal of early results, everyone is pushing the experimental progress forward, with no concept of weekends. "More importantly, here I have a broad space for innovation, and I hope to make a real contribution to the revitalization of the seed industry."

Located in the core area of ​​Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City, the landmark building Industry Promotion Center is magnificent and full of technology. Prefabricated building technology integrates spaces of different forms and functions, just like a chip integrated with precision components. Under the guidance of the Nanfan spirit, generations of Nanfan people have worked together to overcome difficulties, and the dream of firmly grasping the agricultural "chip" is no longer far away. (Liu Changlin, Luo Jiang, Chen Kaizi)

Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph