Nanfan： once ＂difficult and annoying＂ and now ＂cradle of talents＂
Southern propagation refers to the method of taking breeding materials of summer crops to the tropical areas of southern China for breeding and breeding in winter. It can be said that Nanfan is the innovative highland of agricultural science and technology, the cradle of cultivating scientific research talents and the engine of transforming scientific research achievements.
Yuan Longping, the "father of hybrid rice", Yang Zhenyu, the founder of northern hybrid japonica rice, Cheng Xiangwen, a corn breeder, Guo Sandui, an inventor of domestic insect-resistant cotton, Wu Mingzhu, the "king of northwest melons", Zhou Kaida and Xie Huaan … … These breeders who have made outstanding contributions to China’s agricultural development are engaged in different professions, but they all have a common experience: they spent hard years in Nanfan and created breeding miracles.
What is Nanfan? Nanfan refers to the activities of basic agricultural research, variety selection and seed identification by using the tropical climate and environmental conditions around Sanya, Hainan, which can meet the annual growth and reproduction of plants. It can be said that Nanfan is the innovative base of China rice bowl, the innovative highland of agricultural science and technology, the cradle of cultivating scientific research talents and the engine of transforming scientific research achievements.
A Jiazi’s years in the south have changed the scientific research materials and varieties that come and go, and what remains unchanged is the persistence and dedication of scientists. From living without a fixed place and finding land every year, to improving infrastructure and ensuring scientific research land, Nanfan’s entrepreneurial and innovative environment is not what it used to be; From making more than 800 million people "eat enough" to making nearly 1.4 billion people "eat well", generations of breeding experts have never stopped in their pursuit of food security. They have used persistent scientific research and innovation to make the wings of agricultural science and technology harder and make Chinese’s rice bowl more secure.
Scientific research and breeding highland
When I met Huang Tingjun at Nanfan Base of Jilin Seed Station in Sanya, he was engaged in irrigation in the field. In 1983, after graduating from college, he came to work in Jilin Seed Station, and immediately began to work in Nanfan. Talking about his first experience in Nanfan, he still remembers it vividly. "I walked from Changchun to Sanya for seven days for the first time. At that time, it was difficult to find a suitable scientific research base, the accommodation conditions were poor, and chemical fertilizer and pesticide machinery were lacking. " Slowly, the conditions of Nanfan became better. "For irrigation, at first, two people carried water, then there was a small pump, then there was furrow irrigation, and now there are sprinkler irrigation and drip irrigation." In recent years, Huang Tingjun has stayed in Hainan for about 130 days every year, and kapok is the time to go back. At this time, he returned to Jilin with the cultivated materials to continue the field experiment.
In recent years, Huang Tingjun is mainly engaged in maize seed identification. Every winter, he and his team have to identify 480 seed samples, which will involve the safety of 50 million kilograms of seeds. Hainan has unique climatic resources. In winter, we can identify the purity of the seeds harvested in the same year in the field, monitor the seed quality in advance, and prevent inferior seeds from entering the market. Since 1995, the former Ministry of Agriculture has sent the seeds of hybrid rice, corn and cotton to Hainan for field identification every year. Huang Tingjun and others carry out seed field purity identification here every year to ensure that qualified seeds enter the market.
Nanfan has a history of over 60 years. According to Cheng Xiangwen, a maize breeder, in the 1950s, Liaoning Academy of Agricultural Sciences took the lead in sending personnel to Yaxian County (now Sanya) in Hainan Province to carry out rice and maize breeding, which opened the prelude to China’s southern breeding. In 1966, the former Ministry of Agriculture held a conference on maize parent breeding in Hainan, and then the number of units that propagated in Hainan increased rapidly. By the end of 1960s, 3,500 people from 21 provinces had propagated in Hainan, with an area of 82,000 mu.
Lin Jingshan, executive deputy director of Hainan Nanfan Administration, told the Economic Daily reporter that through Nanfan, China’s main crops have been updated six to seven times, and the yield increase of each variety update is above 10%. The data show that in the last 10 years, among the main crops, 1345 varieties approved by the state came from Nanfan, accounting for 86% of the total; Of the 12,599 varieties approved at the provincial level, 91% were bred from Nanfan. Nanfan has become an important base for applied research and basic research of crop breeding in China.
Seed industry talent cradle
"It’s difficult and annoying to be complicated in the south." This sentence, which once circulated in Nanfan base, tells the dilemma faced by researchers. In the final analysis, it is the lack of unified planning, the unstable land for scientific research and the inability to keep up with the living security, which has brought trouble to the management and service of Nanfan Base. Since then, with the continuous development of tourism resources and urban construction in Hainan, the contradiction between various construction land and Nanfan scientific research land has become more and more prominent.
In 2015, with the approval of the State Council, the National Nanfan Scientific and Research Breeding Base (Hainan) Construction Plan was officially issued, and the construction of Nanfan base rose to a national strategy in an all-round way. The "Planning" clearly defines 268,000 mu of scientific research and breeding protection areas, of which 53,000 mu is the core area, which is the "red line in the red line" and is permanently protected. With the implementation of the plan, the cause of Nanfan has entered a new stage of standardized development. According to statistics, at present, the scale of Nanfan base is about 200,000 mu, mainly distributed in six cities and counties such as Sanya, Lingshui and Ledong in Hainan Province.
In April this year, Liu Bo, a teacher of China Agricultural University in Hainan Nanfan Base, shuttled pollination among various corn plants. In December, 2012, Liu Bo came to Sanya for the first time to engage in the breeding of southern maize, and now he has got married locally, and his wife is a local, who is engaged in pollination of southern maize with him. From a member of National Maize Improvement Center of China Agricultural University to the head of Nanfan Base of China Agricultural University, he witnessed the development of Nanfan in recent years. "Today’s base has threshing ground and drying equipment, which can be remotely monitored and uploaded with scientific research data. The scientific research facilities of the base are complete and the conditions are greatly improved."
Li Gan ‘an, director of the Institute of Crop Genetics, Leshan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Sichuan Province, has been mainly engaged in the southern propagation of rice in recent years. "It is possible to breed a new variety with more than 10,000 sample combinations, and a new variety has to undergo more than ten generations of breeding to stabilize. Breeding should bear loneliness. Every year, we come with hope. Although there are times when we fail, we will still fight again with hope in the coming year. " Li Gan ‘an has been engaged in rice breeding for 29 years, and has bred 9 new rice varieties, 6 new rice varieties with high yield and 7 new materials. Among them, the combination "Gangyou 188" has been the first in the production area of Sichuan rice varieties for three consecutive years.
There are many agricultural researchers like Liu Bo and Li Gan ‘an in Nanfan base. At present, there are more than 700 agricultural research institutes, colleges and universities, technology extension and seed industry institutions from 29 provinces across the country, and nearly 7,000 scientific and technological personnel are engaged in the work of South China. In the history of more than 60 years of south propagation, the total number of people who came to Hainan to engage in south propagation was nearly 600,000. They worked hard on this hot land and kept growing.
Scientific and technological achievements converter
"The standards for facilities in the province are set by us." Han Xiaoyan, deputy director of Nanfan Crop Protection Center of Sanya Nanfan Science and Technology Research Institute, said that in recent years, the institute has made great efforts in the local promotion and transformation of Nanfan achievements — — Screening high-quality grafted cucumber "Chiyu 505", the new high-quality glossy cucumber variety has been popularized in the whole city for more than 10,000 mu, and the economic benefit created by radiation has exceeded 100 million yuan.
It has been found that the local transformation rate of southern propagation achievements is gradually improving, which has promoted the development of local agricultural industrialization. At present, the coverage rate of rice varieties propagated in the south of Hainan Province is over 95%, and all winter melon and vegetable varieties basically come from the relevant units of the south propagation; In addition, projects such as rice town, Nanfan town and National Nanfan Museum have been initiated to cultivate new formats for the integration and development of rural primary, secondary and tertiary industries and promote the integration and development of Nanfan and tourism.
Ke Yongchun, dean of Sanya Nanfan Science and Technology Research Institute in Hainan, said that Hainan has been exploring ways to change the long-standing Nanfan model of "two heads are outside and the middle is in Qiong", and transform these resources on the spot to help Hainan’s agricultural development and increase farmers’ income. It is necessary to give full play to the advantages of Nanfan, strengthen scientific research, production, life and management services around the national food security and the frontier of global seed industry innovation, plan to build a series of major projects such as China Nanfan Science and Technology City and Nanfan National Laboratory, and strive to build Nanfan Seed Industry "Silicon Valley".
In order to make the Plan not only promote scientific research and breeding, but also benefit Hainan, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs supports the combination of exploring the construction of the core area with the construction of Nanfan Town and the construction of leisure and sightseeing tourist areas. Hunan and Qiong provinces signed a memorandum of agricultural cooperation to cooperate in the construction of Nanfan base, betel nut and other advantageous industries; Shanghai Agriculture Committee and Lingshui County Government signed an agricultural cooperation agreement to promote the development of modern agriculture in Lingshui for mutual benefit and win-win.
Lin Jingshan said that the current breeding in the south has changed from the past generation breeding to scientific research and breeding, seed production and breeding, emergency seed production, purity identification and biological breeding research. In recent years, the area of southern breeding species has remained above 200,000 mu, which is more than five times that of scientific research and breeding. The annual rice seed production area of Nanfan Base is over 200,000 mu, and the annual seed production is about 45 million kilograms, which is equivalent to more than 20% of the national hybrid rice demand, and it plays an irreplaceable role in regulating seed supply.
(Reporter Qiao Jinliang)
