The No. 1 Central Document emphasizes winning the turnaround of the seed industry. How do farmers take advantage of this benefit?

Farmers should respond to the country’s call and vigorously develop agriculture without relying on foreign seeds.

In recent years, foreign seeds have rapidly conquered Chinese farmers with their technological advantages. At its peak in 2008, foreign seeds accounted for more than 60% of the market in Shouguang, and prices soared. Originally, seeds were sold in bags, but overseas seeds began to be sold by the grain. In order to change this situation, China National Chemical Corporation completed the acquisition of Swiss company Syngenta three years ago, with the acquisition amount reaching US$43 billion. After the merger and integration, the global seed industry has three pillars: the European Union represented by Bayer, the United States represented by Codi and Huawei, and China represented by Syngenta. The combined global market share of these three companies has reached 50-60. Today, a large number of domestic vegetable breeding R&D institutions are gathered in Shouguang, Shandong. By the end of 2019, China had independently developed 69 vegetable varieties. At a seed sales company in Shouguang, more than 90% of vegetable varieties such as cucumbers and cowpeas are domestically produced seeds, bidding farewell to the monopoly of foreign seeds.

According to the China Seed Industry Association, China’s crop seed import volume in 2018 was 72,700 tons; in 2019, crop seed import volume was 66,000 tons. Liu Luxiang, deputy director of the Institute of Crop Science of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that China's current import of 60,000-70,000 tons of seeds seems to be a lot, but compared with the country's annual grain production area of ??2 billion acres, its proportion is insignificant, less than 0.1. At the same time, data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs show that in the past ten years, my country's annual applications for new plant variety protection have ranked first in the world for four consecutive years; the contribution rate of improved varieties to food production exceeds 40%.

Currently, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has the second largest germplasm resource bank in the world, with a collection of 520,000 germplasm resources, which will be expanded to 1.5 million in the future. At present, the coverage rate of improved crop varieties in my country is more than 96%, and the area of ??self-bred varieties accounts for more than 95%. In particular, the two main staple crops of rice and wheat are completely self-sufficient. China's seed supply is guaranteed, which strongly supports China's food security. Agricultural modernization, seeds are the foundation. Strengthen the protection, development and utilization of agricultural species resources, accelerate the third survey and collection of crop species resources, livestock and poultry species resources, and strengthen the construction of the national crop, livestock, poultry, and marine fishery species resource database. Provide long-term and stable support for basic breeding research and key breeding projects. Accelerate the implementation of major scientific and technological projects in agricultural biological breeding. In-depth implementation of joint research on crops, livestock and poultry species. Implement new livestock and poultry genetic improvement plans and modern breed improvement projects.

Respect science, strictly supervise, and promote the industrial application of biological breeding in an orderly manner. Strengthen intellectual property protection in the field of breeding. Support leading companies in the seed industry to establish and improve commercial breeding systems, accelerate the construction of the Southern Silicon Valley, strengthen the construction of seed production bases and improved seed breeding systems, study subsidy policies after the development and promotion of major varieties, and promote the integrated development of breeding, reproduction, and promotion.