China completes germplasm resources survey, aims to reduce dependence on imported seeds

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠China has completed a comprehensive survey of agricultural germplasm resources in the first half of 2024, paving the way for its seed and animal germplasm industries to reduce reliance on imports and enhance supplies, with strategic plans to bolster self-reliance and control over germplasm resources by 2025.

Germplasm resources -- genetic material used for animal or plant breeding -- are strategic assets essential for ensuring stable and secure supplies of grain and other important agricultural products. Agricultural germplasm resources primarily encompass crops, livestock, poultry, and aquatic species.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, China has made significant strides this year by prioritizing urgently needed agricultural varieties.

The country has intensified efforts to accurately identify germplasm resources, breed new varieties, support leading seed enterprises, and strengthen intellectual property protection in the seed industry. These initiatives have led to foundational and landmark achievements in revitalizing the seed industry.

In the first half of this year, the protection of germplasm resources achieved historic breakthroughs with the general survey of agricultural germplasm resources completed. The survey collected 139,000 new crop germplasm samples and 1.19 million livestock and aquatic genetic materials. Together with the previously preserved resources, China now holds the world's largest collection of agricultural germplasm resources.          "The new national crop germplasm resource bank and the marine fisheries germplasm resource bank are now fully operational. The new livestock germplasm resource bank and freshwater fisheries germplasm resource bank will be completed next year, further strengthening China's strategic capacity to preserve agricultural germplasm resources, and meeting the nation's development needs for the next 30 to 50 years," said Yang Haisheng, deputy director of the Seed Industry Management Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

Innovations in the animal germplasm industry have also progressed. By the end of June, domestic white feather broiler chickens and Pacific white shrimp had captured more than 25 percent and 35 percent of their respective markets, indicating a gradually reduced reliance on imported sources.

The seeds industry has meanwhile seen rapid progression in a batch of varieties including soybeans with high-oil and high-yield and corn for dense planting, as well as machine-harvestable and salt-tolerant varieties.

The competitiveness of leading enterprises has significantly improved, with a focus on developing 270 key national seed enterprises. These companies now cultivate over 60 percent of newly approved national varieties.

National seed supply capacity has also been enhanced, with the national-level bases having increased their seed supply capacity to over 75 percent across the country, and seed quality consistently maintaining a qualification rate of over 98 percent. Additionally, all 31 provinces in the country have established disaster relief and emergency seed reserves systems.

Progress has also been made in cleaning up the seed market. This year, a special campaign was launched to crack down on the illegal online sale of seeds. For three consecutive years, the number of seed-related disputes nationwide has declined.

"Looking ahead, we will intensify our efforts to achieve self-reliance and innovation in seed industry technology, ensuring the autonomy and control of seed sources. We will accelerate the implementation of the seed industry revitalization plan, aiming for another series of landmark achievements by 2025, and work to shift from isolated breakthroughs to comprehensive advancements in revitalizing the seed industry," Yang concluded.

China completes germplasm resources survey, aims to reduce dependence on imported seeds

China's scientific expedition team on Thursday obtained critical ice cores during their investigation of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, which is known as Asia's "water tower".

The region encompasses "one glacier, two lakes and three rivers". It is home to Purog Kangri Glacier, the world's largest glacier in the mid to low-latitude regions, as well as Siling Lake and Namtso Lake, the largest and second-largest lakes in Xizang, respectively. It is also the birthplace of the Yangtze River, Nujiang River and Yarlung Zangbo River.

The climate in the region is complex and changeable, and its ecosystem is very fragile, and meanwhile it is a pivotal area for Xizang's economic and social development.

During their expedition, the team drilled for ice cores at different depths overnight on Thursday, aiming to capture climate records from different time scales.

Ice core drilling is typically conducted during the night and early morning when the ice temperature is sufficiently low.

Ice cores serve as vital records of global climate and environmental changes. The sediments and bubbles within these cores are clues to understanding the history of Earth's climate. By studying the bubbles captured in ice cores, scientists can analyze atmospheric composition, including carbon dioxide levels, over hundreds of thousands of years.

Yao Tandong, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and leader of the expedition, and Lonnie Thompson, a renowned American glacier expert and foreign academician at CAS, conducted their scientific expedition on the glacier Thursday morning.

Through helicopter observations, thickness-measuring radar, satellite image comparison and other methods, the scientific expedition team has found that the surface area of the Purog Kangri Glacier has shrunk by 10 percent over the past 50 years.

The average altitude of Purog Kangri Glacier is 5,748 meters, with the highest point reaching 6,370 meters. Due to global warming, the glacier is melting rapidly.

"So does the melting of glacier surface -- the higher the altitudes, the less the ablation volume, while at lower altitudes, it accumulates and forms branch-like rivers on the ice surface. Currently, these branches extend up to altitudes of 6,000 meters," said Xu Baiqing, a research fellow of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research under the CAS.

Research indicates that the accelerated retreat of glaciers on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau over the past 40 years reflects a broader trend, and the melting rate of the Purog Kangri Glacier is relatively slow compared to the overall situation of the plateau.

The temperature changes within the glacier also attributed to the great difficulty of drilling, said Xu.

"Due to climate warming, the temperature within the glacier has risen, which suggests that under the same backdrop of temperature variations, the ablation may show abrupt shift with accelerating growth," said Xu.

The expedition was launched on Aug 18, 2024 and is scheduled to continue until October.

Scientists obtain critical ice cores during expedition in Qinghai-Xizang Plateau