China has a long history of agricultural civilization and has experienced 5,000 years of agricultural development.
In modern times, Academician Yuan Longping's agricultural technology achievements such as hybrid rice have attracted the attention of the world. However, it is undeniable that there is a certain gap between China and some developed agricultural countries in terms of modern agricultural technology. This gap is mainly reflected in pesticide research and development technology, modern agricultural machinery, and the breeding of crop varieties that are considered agricultural chips.
For example, most of the strawberry varieties currently commercially cultivated in China, such as Hongyan and Zhangji, originate from JapanVegetable varieties such as tomatoes have mainly benefited from research in Israel;In cotton cultivation, the milestone in insect-resistant cotton technology comes from the United States.
Even in the soybean industry, the impact of genetically modified soybeans in the United States has led to a significant contraction in China's soybean industry. Behind this phenomenon, it is directly reflected that the foundation of modern agricultural scientific research in China is relatively weak, the start is late, and the level of economic development restricts the progress of agricultural scientific research.
However, it is gratifying to note that China's current economic level has reached an unprecedented height, and its national strength has increased significantly. R&D investment in various scientific research projects has increased year by year, and remarkable achievements have been made in some high-tech fields, such as aerospace. Agriculture has always been the foundation of the national economy and people's livelihood, and the first document of each year takes agriculture as the theme. Since last year, there has been an unprecedented increase in the research and development of grain chips - seeds. This determination to concentrate on overcoming difficulties and making up for shortcomings will certainly provide important opportunities for the protection and research and development of new crop varieties in China in the future.
The traditional breeding method has problems such as long cycle, high cost, and large accidentality, and the overall efficiency is low. As an epoch-making technology, transgenic technology can achieve the precision of breeding, thereby greatly shortening the breeding cycle and improving breeding efficiency. In addition, transgenic technology can break through the limitations of traditional breeding methods on the genetic relationship of crop germplasm, realize the integration of cross-species genetic resources and complement each other's advantages, so as to achieve breakthroughs in yield, disease and pest resistance, drought resistance, herbicide resistance, etc.
Obviously, transgenic technology has many advantages that cannot be matched by traditional breeding methods, and has great application prospects for the transformation of agricultural breeding technology and the future agricultural revolution.
However, for a long time, there has been controversy at home and abroad about the safety of GMOs. In 2011, I personally experienced an academic seminar on genetically modified rice held at Huazhong Agricultural University, which was "noisy" by members of Greenpeace.
This is just a microcosm of the GMO controversy, and the debate about the safety of GM has never stopped. However, looking back at the debate over the years, the arguments and evidence of the opponents have always appeared "unfounded", and some of the circulating negative effects of GM have ultimately been unconvincing, either perjury or a poor chain of evidence.
On the contrary, almost all the top universities in the field related to breeding are sparing no effort to carry out research in genetically modified breeding around the world. This is also the reason why some well-known foreign breeding companies such as Syngenta are leading the world in the research and development of genetically modified varieties, and why genetically modified insect-resistant cotton is recognized by farmers.
Relatively speaking, China's research in this area started late, the scientific research team is relatively weak, and faces layers of resistance, such as the genetically modified rice research and development research group led by Academician Zhang Qiqi, although it has made a lot of achievements in research and development, but it has repeatedly suffered setbacks in promotion.
I remember when I was a student, I heard Academician Zhang Qiqi say: "The debate on the safety of genetically modified organisms is not a scientific issue, but an international political issue. "Now it looks like a smokescreen and a tactic. If we insist that traditional breeding methods are safe and reliable, it is equivalent to pushing the old ox to break the car while others are driving the high-speed train, and we are suspiciously saying that it is safer to walk.
Fortunately, on February 18 this year, the General Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued a notice on encouraging the original innovation of agricultural genetically modified organisms and standardizing the transfer, transfer and breeding of biological materials. This circular clearly emphasizes the need to strengthen the cultivation of the main body and give full play to the leading role of enterprises. Support enterprises to form innovation consortia and promote the mutual integration and promotion of innovation resources. Guide the R&D results of high-quality agricultural genetically modified products to gather in enterprises in accordance with the market mechanism.
Promote the cooperation between science and technology, encourage enterprises, enterprises and institutes and universities to jointly declare production and application safety certificates, and truly make enterprises the main force of research and development, application and development. The introduction of this policy will provide strong support for China's scientific researchers to promote the application of transgenic technology in the field of breeding, lay the foundation for the realization of "agricultural chips" to be independent and avoid being controlled by others, and at the same time escort future food security.