CAAS has provided major contributions to the industry

National agriculture germplasm banks

The crop germplasm lays a solid foundation for the development of modern seed industry and innovation of agricultural science and technology. They serve as a strategic resource to guarantee food security, ecological civilization and sustainable agriculture development. The 18 affiliated institutes of CAAS, including Institute of Crop Sciences, Institute of Cotton Research, Institute of Vegetables and Flowers and Institute of Plant Protection, have carried out many instances of collection and investigation on resources of crop germplasm, domesticated animal species and microorganism strains.

Technological innovation in wheat genetic improvement and its application in varieties development

Wheat is one of the most important crops in northern China. In the 1950s, a group of pioneer scientists such as Jin Shanbao, Dai Song'en, Zhuang Qiaosheng, and Dong Yuchen, established the wheat improvement program at CAAS. During the last 60 years, significant achievements have been made in improving breeding technologies and variety development. In total, 95 invention patents and plant protection rights of new varieties have been granted. More than 500 publications in peer-reviewed international journals have been published, ranking second globally in wheat genetic improvement.

Hybrid rice and super rice series varieties

Rice is an important crop in China. It is of great significance for the country in innovating rice breeding technologies and cultivating high-quality, high-yield and multiresistant rice varieties. CAAS' China National Rice Research Institute and Institute of Crop Sciences have conducted researches on Chinese super-hybrid rice and global green super rice, respectively. They have cultivated a large number of super rice varieties, preliminarily solving the contradiction between fine quality and high disease resistant capability.

CCRI-series cotton varieties

Cotton is a strategic supply that bears on national economy and people's livelihood. Innovating cotton breeding technologies and cultivating high-quality, high-yield and multi-resistant cotton varieties are important to increase farmers' income, meet the needs of textile, increase international competitiveness and guarantee cotton security. CAAS' Institute of Cotton Research and Biotechnology Research Institute have organized about 300 major scientific projects for the research and cultivation of new cotton varieties featuring precocity, fine quality and transgenesis.

Vegetable varieties of Institute of Vegetables and Flowers

Vegetables are indispensable in people's daily diet as they provide diversified nutrition such as vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber that are necessary for the human body. Vegetable production is an important component of China's agricultural production and new vegetable varieties are the foundation of the industrial development. CAAS' Institute of Vegetables and Flowers has organized many major scientific research projects centered around vegetable breeding. It has innovated the main vegetable cell engineering breeding and molecular marker-assisted selection breeding technologies, cultivating more than 200 new cabbage, pepper, Chinese cabbage and cucumber hybrid varieties. It took the lead in China in studying advantages of main vegetable hybrid seeds, analyzing qualities of main vegetable varieties and their genetic characteristics of disease resistance, and discovering a third cell genetic mechanism of potato 2n gametes.

Animal nutrition standards and green animal farming

Livestock and poultry production is a pillar sector of China's agriculture. It is of great importance in guaranteeing food security, solving farmers' employment and promoting the development of food processing industry. The feed industry lays a substantial foundation for the development of modern animal production and aquiculture, and also serves as an important value-added channel for crop production and by-product processing industries. With growing demand for improved quality and efficiency, livestock and poultry production has been transforming from high consumption, high pollution and low output to security, ecology and high efficiency.

Vaccine against avian influenza

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) could lead to a 100 percent death of chicken and is the top infectious disease for chicken industry. Its outbreak in China in 2004 seriously harmed the healthy development of China's chicken industry. Avian influenza severely harms the healthy development of the chicken raising sector. Incidents of avian influenza viruses infecting human also made it a focus in the public health security field.

FMD vaccines

FMD is listed the top one animal infectious disease in China. A wide epidemic of the disease not only harms husbandry production but also brings big influence to market circulation of animals and animal by-products, people's life and economic development. The Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute at the CAAS led some other organizations to create the only foot-and-mouth strain library domestically. It drew the first molecular evolution tree in Chinese research history of animal epidemic disease and epidemiology, revealing the causes and laws related to the foot-and-mouth animal epidemic diseases.

Plant diseases and insect pests management for cereal crops

Plant diseases and insect pests are major biological disasters that influence the safe production of cereals in China. The Institute of Plant Protection, Institute of Crop Sciences and China National Rice Research Institute at the CAAS have led several organizations to launch large projects mainly studying comprehensive solutions to wheat-related plant diseases and insect pests. They worked out key technologies for monitoring, early warning and integrated management of the wheat diseases and insect pests and formed technological systems that can be applied to different wheat areas.

Medium and low-yield fields management and regional development

Soil fertility is the basis of agricultural production and guarantees food safety. The Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture and Farmland Irrigation Research Institute at the CAAS have started several national projects and studied the improvement of medium and low-yield fields, digital soil and the efficient use of fertilizers. The organizations have launched studies about saline-alkali soil in northern China as well as the improvement and use of low-yield rice soil in southern China since the 1960s. They systematically researched technologies for applying fertilizers in the 1980s and made great achievements related to proportioning and application. amount and time, as well as ways of different fertilizers.

(China Daily 05/26/2017 page6)