by Xinhua writers Zhang Yuanpei, Luo Jiang and Xu Yushen
SANYA, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- While many parts of China are reeling from bitter cold in December, Sanya, a coastal city in south China's Hainan Province, remains warm as soybean breeding enters a busy season.
Tian Zhixi, chief scientist of the soybean seed innovation team at Yazhouwan National Laboratory in Sanya, has been shuttling between trial fields and laboratories, hoping to increase and stabilize soybean yields.
"China's soybean yield per unit area still lags behind countries such as the United States and Brazil, and we are working hard to catch up," Tian said.
Tian and his team are now developing new soybean varieties with higher and more stable yields tailored to the distinct conditions of China's major soybean-producing regions.
China has sustained nearly 20 percent of the world's population utilizing just 9 percent of the world's arable land, and quality seeds, the agricultural "chips," are central to that achievement. As an ideal location for scientific breeding, Nanfan breeding base in Hainan has witnessed the birth of many improved varieties.
"Nanfan" refers to the practice of using the warm southern climate to grow multiple generations of seed per year, thereby shortening the breeding cycle. Since the 1950s, researchers from across China have traveled to places such as Sanya, Lingshui and Ledong in Hainan to conduct seed breeding work, as these areas are around 18 degrees north of the equator.
"Most areas in China can grow only one season of soybean crops a year. Growing an extra one or two seasons in Hainan drastically accelerated the breeding process," Tian said.
To stabilize desired traits after soybean hybridization, it typically requires seven to eight generations of propagation and selection. Tian's team has already begun multi-location soybean planting trials combining multiple desirable traits across more than a dozen provinces.
Tian and his team have now developed more than ten high-yield, high-quality soybean varieties. One notable success came in September in Dongying, east China's Shandong Province. On formerly salt-crusted coastal fields, the new salt-tolerant variety "Guochuangdou 78" produced a record 369.15 kilograms per mu (about 5,537.25 kg per hectare), the highest yield ever recorded for salt-tolerant soybean in China.
Since 2021, China has been implementing a seed industry vitalization drive to strengthen seed breeding through joint research and to ensure self-sufficiency in seed sources. Today, more than 95 percent of crop varieties planted in China are independently bred. In 2024, for the first time, China's seed export volume exceeded its import volume.
During the rollout of the seed industry vitalization campaign, Nanfan has become ever more prominent. Hainan is building a Nanfan "Silicon Valley," and top research institutes and leading seed companies have established bases here, spurring a wave of cutting-edge breeding technologies and accelerating the development of new varieties.
At Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City, China's first electron accelerator dedicated to agricultural mutagenesis breeding is now in operation.
Xu Dechun, chief engineer of the electron accelerator mutagenesis breeding laboratory at Sanya, said the facility has processed roughly 600,000 seeds and seedlings for nearly 200 institutions nationwide, creating a batch of early-maturing, high-yielding, and high-quality new germplasm resources.
The Nanfan "Silicon Valley" has attracted more than 3,100 enterprises in the seed industry. Last year, Hainan's Nanfan seed industry output value exceeded 18 billion yuan (2.6 billion U.S. dollars).
In 2021, China National Seed Group moved its headquarters to Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City in Sanya. Through collaboration with research teams, the group has filed 28 patents, applied for 12 plant variety rights, and had 14 field crop varieties approved.
"Ensuring food security must rely on scientific and technological progress and innovation," said Qian Qian, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and deputy director of the Yazhouwan National Laboratory. "The Nanfan 'Silicon Valley' will continue to support the high-quality development of the seed industry in the future." ■
