A Note on the Reform and Innovation of China's Ethnic Seed Industry

Editor's note: grain is the foundation of the state, and seed industry is the foundation of grain. China's seed industry started from the blank at the beginning of the founding of the people's Republic of China. After decades of unremitting efforts, China's seed industry continues to grow in the process of building together. Especially since the beginning of the new century, under the pressure of international competition and the challenge of structural adjustment, China's seed industry has constantly reformed and innovated, pushed forward to the deep areas, gradually broke through the shackles of the system and mechanism, and glowed with new vitality and light. An in-depth analysis of the course of the reform and development of the seed industry not only profoundly reflects the great process of China's agricultural modernization, but also embodies the hardships and efforts of comprehensively deepening reform in our country, which has unique typical significance and distinct value of the times.

One seed can change a world. In the long course of time, from the first seed was sown, human beings began to move from gathering to farming. Since then, mulberry farming has become the most important production activity.

The world changes, the years change, and the weight of seeds becomes more and more obvious. No matter looking at the arduous development course of China's seed industry over the past few decades, or looking across the brilliant history of the seed industry in western developed countries, the seed industry has become the carrier of advanced agricultural science and technology and the starting point of the value chain. become an advanced representative of the development level of a country's agricultural science and technology.

The CPC Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to the development of the seed industry and have continuously issued major policies and measures to promote the reform of the seed industry. The leading comrades of the CPC Central Committee have also pointed out the direction for the reform and development of the seed industry on different occasions. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: we must be determined to develop the national seed industry and step up efforts to cultivate excellent varieties with independent intellectual property rights, so as to ensure the country's food security from the source.

With great trust and expectation, the national seed industry has made great efforts to move forward in the tide of comprehensively deepening reform in various fields, and has made one remarkable achievement after another. Over the past few years, China's breeding ability has improved significantly, and independent breeding of varieties has supported the country's food security; over the past few years, the seed industry has become a "sunrise" industry in the development of the national economy, and funds, talents, and other factors have poured in one after another; over the past few years, good varieties have been emerging, farmers have been beating more grain on the same land, and the Chinese people have secured their rice bowls. Over the past few months, the reporter has gone deep into the enterprise workshop, walked into the scientific research institute, stepped into the field farmhouse, listened to expert officials talk about the reform of the seed industry, saw the achievements of breeding R & D personnel in tackling key problems of varieties, and the joy of a bumper harvest in which product farmers made good use of planting more grain. A clearly visible "dream of a strong country in the seed industry" spread out at the end of the reporter's pen.

Resolve deep contradictions, release greater dividends, and promote the reform of the seed industry in depth

The great task of stabilizing grain security, the requirements of changing ways, and the pressure of international competition. The national seed industry has reached a critical juncture of transformation and upgrading, not to advance or to fall behind, and is in urgent need of a brand-new reform

"We have the world's largest population, the largest scale of agriculture, the most abundant germplasm resources, the highest level of agricultural science and technology in the world, and the most competitive modern breeding industry." The requirements of Premier Li Keqiang of the State Council are very clear.

In fact, after the founding of New China, the seed industry has gone through a process from scratch and from small to large. Over the past 30 years of reform and opening up, the development history of China's seed industry is a history of reform, which has gone through the historical stages of farmers' own seed retention, planned unified seed supply, industrialization development and modernization, and gradually realized the historical leap from seed to seed industry. In particular, the implementation of the seed Law in 2000 has brought fundamental changes to the development of China's seed industry, indicating that the seed industry has really begun to move towards marketization and industrialization.

However, with the rapid development of the national seed industry, the pressure of international competition is also increasing. Since the beginning of this century, the American corn variety "Xianyu 335" has swept in. Why is the foreign seed industry so strong? How to improve the innovation ability of national seed industry? "the breeding of a variety takes nearly 10 years, and now it is the result of scientific and technological support 10 years ago. if we do not expand and strengthen the national seed industry now, what will we do in 10 years' time?" Chen Wenfu, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, was once full of worries.

At that time, the core problem faced by the seed industry was that the variety innovation ability was not strong. The breeding science and technology of the transnational seed industry has entered the "molecular era" in an all-round way, and most of our countries are still in the traditional breeding stage of "staring at the eyes, kicking them with feet, and weighing a ruler and a bar." the foreign breeding mode has already been "industrial", and new varieties have been bred in batches. China is still produced by "research groups" and "small workshops", and the research and development of new varieties is more like "buying lottery tickets".

However, contrary to it, China has the largest breeding team in the world, and the level and quantity of achievements are close to the world-class level, but many of these achievements are put on the shelf after publishing papers and evaluating professional titles, which are called "achievements in tin cabinets".

At the same time, the pressure to ensure national food security is increasing day by day, and the requirement of changing the mode and structure is becoming more and more urgent, which have put forward higher requirements for agriculture, especially for the seed industry. Vice Premier Wang Yang stressed that under the conditions of China's increasing resources and environmental constraints and the increasingly fierce international competition, it is necessary to earnestly highlight the basic strategic core industry status of the seed industry and build a powerful country in the seed industry.

The national seed industry has reached a critical juncture of seeking opportunities in the midst of crisis, and there is an urgent need for a new reform to resolve deeper contradictions and disputes and release greater reform dividends. It is urgent to deepen the reform of the system and mechanism of the seed industry and improve the innovation ability of the seed industry.

In 2011, the State Council issued the "opinions on accelerating the Development of Modern crop seed Industry", which is known as "document No. 8" in the industry, which has become the most important programmatic and guiding document for the development of seed industry in recent years. Subsequently, in 2012 and 2020, the General Office of the State Council successively issued the National Development Plan of Modern crop seed Industry (2012-2013), the opinions on deepening the system Reform of seed Industry and improving the ability of Innovation, etc., and a series of important documents were issued intensively and powerfully on paper back. the curtain of deepening the reform of the seed industry opened.

These reform documents give clear guidance to the development direction and realization ways of the national seed industry in the future, put forward the strategic idea of building a "powerful country in the seed industry" for the first time, and take a clear-cut stand to "take the enterprise as the main body". Play a leading role in commercial breeding, scientific research institutions will gradually transform to basic, frontier and public welfare research, give full play to their advantages and realize two-wheel drive.

"in order to deepen the structural reform of the seed industry, we must adhere to the problem orientation, break down the" barriers "hindering the development of the seed industry, strive to solve the problem of" two skins "between seed industry innovation and agricultural production, and speed up the cultivation of breakthrough new varieties that are urgently needed." Han Changfu, Minister of Agriculture, pointed out.

The reform has become a consensus, and a set of cross-departmental and cross-disciplinary policy support system and organizational system have been constructed. Finance at all levels will increase investment to support the capacity-building of resource exploration, variety cultivation, technology research and development, seed production and management departments, and the financial and tax departments have issued loans and preferential tax policies to support the development of enterprises. At the same time, an inter-ministerial coordination group for the development of modern seed industry has been established at the national level, which combs the task of seed industry reform into 51 specific measures, which are divided into 19 relevant ministries and units for concrete implementation, monthly analysis and bimonthly dispatch. to ensure that all policies and measures are in place and progress is made.

The national seed industry, bearing the weight of national security of grain, taking advantage of the trend of reform to attack the key problems, is marching forward to a new historical journey in depth.

Scientific research institutions should do addition and subtraction to solve the "two skins" of innovation and production.

Through the reform of the proportion of rights and interests and the trading platform for scientific research achievements, we can stimulate the enthusiasm for innovation, enhance its ability and level of basic public welfare services, weaken its fair intervention in the market through "decoupling between business and enterprises", and withdraw from the field of commercialization.

"Scientific research institutions should strive to improve the ability and level of basic public welfare services in the seed industry, consolidate the foundation of innovation in the seed industry, and provide an inexhaustible source of science and technology for enterprise innovation and breeding." Yu Xinrong, vice minister of agriculture, said.

Centering on this goal, on the one hand, scientific research units do addition to strengthen their basic, frontier, and public welfare research; on the other hand, they do subtraction to return commercial and competitive areas to the market and to enterprises.

The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences is a national agricultural research institution with the largest scale, the most complete discipline and the strongest comprehensive research strength. "the level of basic research determines the future height of the seed industry." Chen Mengshan, secretary of the party leading group of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said: "big data, information technology, biomics technology, and so on, many major needs in scientific research are cross-regional and interdisciplinary, which require strong technical force and stable input. Must be borne by the state."

One day in August last year, in an ordinary small courtyard of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, a special "trade fair" wrote down a heavy stroke in the history of the development of the seed industry: the national seed industry scientific and technological achievements property rights trading platform was launched, and on the same day, nine transactions were signed, including the transfer of the hybrid seed production method of "Jingke 968" three-line matching, the development and utilization of corn 3KSNP markers, and the transfer of management licenses, with a total transaction value of more than 30 million yuan.

If the achievements of scientific research can be "realized", it is also necessary to "confirm the power". Since last year, three ministries, including the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Finance, have implemented a pilot project to reform the proportion of rights and interests in scientific research achievements in the seed industry in four central scientific research institutions. The core is that individual researchers will receive direct returns from the achievements, and the proportion will not be less than 40%.

The Institute of crop Science of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences is one of the four pilot units, they have issued a detailed plan to implement and promote, and the specific proportion of rights and interests are classified according to the source of funds, which is more fair. For example, individuals account for 50% of the achievements supported by state financial funds, while individuals account for up to 70% of the achievements funded by individuals. At the same time, it is clearly stipulated that the rights and interests related to intellectual property rights enjoyed by researchers will not be lost as a result of changes in work units and posts.

"the reform of the proportion of rights and interests in the seed industry has fundamentally aroused the innovative enthusiasm of scientific research personnel, and also guided the combination of scientific research achievements with market demand to make them more approachable." Wan Jianmin, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, told reporters. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture, the four pilot units have sorted out 635 scientific research achievements in the seed industry, confirming the rights of 391 achievements to scientific and technological personnel, of which a total of 17 scientific research achievements have been traded, with a transaction volume of 77.37 million yuan. China Rice Research Institute produced a total of 90 patents, variety rights and other achievements in 2014, double that of the previous year.

While doing a good job in addition, the reform also requires scientific research institutions to subtract from the commercial sector, requiring them to "decouple from their seed enterprises by the end of 2015."

The "time limit" of decoupling is coming, and many enterprises run by scientific research institutions are experiencing this kind of "labor pains". However, for Xiangtan Agricultural Science Research Institute, which is the first Xiangtan Agricultural Science Research Institute in Hunan Province to complete the decoupling of enterprises after the publication of "opinions on deepening the Reform of seed Industry system and improving Innovation ability", it is a win-win start. "the financial funding is less than 1/3." Director Liu Weiying said that the company now evaluates the fixed assets of subordinate enterprises and rice varieties with exclusive development rights, attracting external funds to set up a new company, "eating through property rights and stock transformation, so that the original asset effect is magnified."

"the original enterprises run by scientific research institutions are like green apples wrapped around trees. Decoupling will face shrinkage for a short time, but only after labor pains will there be new hope." Zhang Jianyong, deputy director of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of Agriculture, said, "it is a directional problem for enterprises to be small and weak for enterprises to be run by public welfare scientific research institutes. It will also hinder the fundamental improvement of the order of the seed market. "