Genetic modification way of future

Duan Ziyuan, professor at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, CAS agreed that the key to food security lies in biological breeding technology. Statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN show that 80 percent of the world's total grain output increase is dependent on improving yield per unit.

"Biological breeding really made a great contribution to our food security. The use of a semi-dwarf gene by Yuan increased the crop yield by 20 to 30 percent. Application of heterosis in breeding also increased the yield by more than 20 percent," Duan said.

"In fact, the contribution rate of biological technology to crop yield is 53 percent. It also applies to meat supply. For example, crossbred pig technology enabled a full-grown pig to have a ketone body weighing 92 kg in 2011, an increase of 61.4 percent from the 57 kg in 1931. Breeding technology has proven more effective than simply improving soil fertility."

Duan believed a switch from the traditional crossbreeding to transgenic molecular-scale seed breeding technology is crucial. He said crossbreeding is experiencing a bottleneck, because after years of experiments, genetic diversity is very narrow among crossbred seeds, and it usually takes more than a decade to cross out the bad traits. Molecular breeding has a better control over the seeds' genome information, such as the Bt gene for anti-pest crops. The Bt gene has the resistance gene inserted into plant cells, so that scientists can effectively realize the desired trait.

In 2012, the world's cultivation of GM crops hit 172 million hectares, and GM acreage was bigger in developing countries than in developed countries. The top four crops are corn, soybeans, cotton and rape. Of all the farmers who plant GM crops, 90 percent are small farmers in developing countries with limited resources. This in turn shows the value of transgenic technology.

The value of the world's entire transgenic industry reached $15 billion, and according to Martina Newell-McGloughlin, director of International Biotechnology, University of California, Davis, it still maintains a very rapid growth.

China last year planted almost 4 million hectares of GM pest-resistant cotton. The variety has many perks, one being the capability to increase production per unit by 10 percent, and a reduction of 60 percent in insecticide use.

Traditional cotton is prone to suffer from pests. This variety is expected to bring along economic benefits of $1 billion, which is a major contribution to China's national economy. Farmers are immune from the hazard of inhaling pesticides when they misuse the spraying equipment. Newell-McGloughlin estimated that the total value of such cotton variety should reach $13 billion this year worldwide. Another advantage of the GM cotton is the improvement of the quality of cotton fiber.

GM papaya is the second crop China allowed commercialization within its territory, because traditional papaya is quite vulnerable to ringspot virus. So far there is no single natural way to kill worms that carry such a virus. But with the use of RNA interference technology, scientists can effectively solve this problem. China in 2013 cultivated more than 6,000 hectares of GM papaya.

As for the staple food of the Chinese, rice has yet to be approved by the government for nationwide commercialization, although two varieties of GM rice have been given safety certificates by the Ministry of Agriculture.

If commercialized, Newell-McGloughlin said it is expected to bring $40 billion in potential gains to China. "Not only can the insect-resistant rice reduce 80 percent use of pesticides, in the Davis campus we isolated the gene Xa21 to be able to effectively resist the blight of rice. The gene is isolated from cassava. If it can be inserted into Chinese indica rice, it will enhance 10 times the ability of insect-resistance," she said.

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