Why does water-saving and drought-resistant rice have the tendency to "burn the plain"?

Golden autumn, the fields of the hinterland of Jianghuai are rich in autumn colors, and the air is filled with the joy
of harvest.
On the morning of September 28, in the Huaixi Modern Agricultural Ecological Park in Niuzhai Village, Gangji Town, Changfeng County, Hefei, Anhui Province, the Fengda Water-saving and Drought-resistant Rice Experimental Base welcomed political, industry, academia and research colleagues from all over the country who promoted the "blue revolution" of water-saving and drought-resistant rice
.
Everyone shuttled through the rice fields of more than 60 mature water-saving and drought-resistant rice varieties and more than 500 water-saving and drought-resistant rice strains, and their joy and excitement were full of words
.
Learning and observing at the Fengda Water-saving and Drought-resistant Rice Experimental Base kicked off the first scene
of the 2022 National Water-saving and Drought-resistant Rice On-site Observation and Technical Seminar.

This summer, some parts of southern China suffered from continuous high temperature and drought weather, and water-saving and drought-resistant rice attracted more attention
with its good performance.
The reporter followed the whole process of observation and discussion activities and found that the "blue revolution" of rice set off by water-saving and drought-resistant rice has become a fire, and the sense of mission of government, industry, academia and research to jointly promote water-saving and drought-resistant rice to contribute to food security has continued to increase
.

Dry seeds and dry pipes save fertilizer and reduce carbon

The production performance is eye-catching

In August this year, the scientific research team of Shanghai Agricultural Biogene Center published an article in the international authoritative journal of botany "Molec?ularPlant", proposing a "blue revolution" of rice, that is, through the innovative cultivation of water-saving and drought-resistant rice, the realization of the rice production mode of dry planting and drought pipe, so that rice production can get rid of excessive dependence on water, greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in rice fields, and promote the transformation
of rice production to resource-saving and environmentally friendly sustainable production methods.

In the past 20 years, especially in the past 10 years, government, industry, academia and research institutes, including the scientific research team of the Shanghai Agricultural Biogene Center, have launched the "blue revolution"
of rice in China 。 At the government level, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has included "Drought Excellent 73" as the leading variety of grain and oil production in 2022, and mainly promoted water-saving and drought-resistant rice direct broadcast water-saving cultivation technology; At the level of variety research and development, more than 60 mature varieties have been promoted to the market, forming more than 500 water-saving and drought-resistant strains; At the level of application and promotion, there are seed enterprises specializing in water-saving and drought-resistant rice seeds, such as Shanghai Tiangu Biotechnology Co.
, Ltd.
and Anhui Fengda Seed Industry Co.
, Ltd.
, which have planted nearly 3 million mu in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and southwest China this year, and Southeast Asian countries such as Bangladesh and African countries such as Botswana are also actively planting water-saving and drought-resistant rice
in China.

This year, some areas in southern China have encountered high temperature and drought weather, and the yield and quality of some varieties of rice have been severely challenged, while water-saving and drought-resistant rice distributed in paddy fields, dry lands and hilly slopes throughout the country has performed quite well, the yield and quality of mu are guaranteed, and the effect of saving water, fertilizer, reducing costs and increasing efficiency is also very good
.
Luo Lijun, inventor of water-saving and drought-resistant rice and chief scientist of Shanghai Agricultural Bio-Gene Center, was quite emotional: "The various varieties of water-saving, drought-resistant and easy-to-plant water-saving and drought-resistant rice have withstood the test of high temperature and drought extreme weather, and have made due contributions to national food security and stable production and income of growers
.
”

Compared with ordinary rice, water-saving and drought-resistant rice has a water-saving capacity of more than 50%, a fertilizer-saving capacity of more than 30%, and a reduction of carbon emissions of more than 90%.

Seed enterprises quickly intervened in the industry

Good momentum for marketing

In May this year, Luo Lijun proposed the "1522" new development goal of water-saving and drought-resistant rice, that is, to increase the planting area of water-saving and drought-resistant rice by 100 million mu, increase rice production by 50 billion kilograms, reduce rice production water by 20 billion tons, and reduce carbon emissions
by 20 billion kilograms.
As we all know, China's rice has a reputation for high yield, combining the goal of increasing area and yield with the goal of reducing water use and carbon emissions, in addition to relying on the performance of water-saving and drought-resistant rice to save water and lose weight and easy planting, but also depends on far-sighted seed enterprises and seed dealers everywhere to be optimistic about the huge market space and efficient promotion
of water-saving and drought-resistant rice.

Anhui Fengda Seed Industry Co.
, Ltd.
, established in 2015, has established a management system with corn and water-saving and drought-resistant rice as the core through several years of efforts, which is highly related to the enterprise becoming an integrated seed industry enterprise of water-saving and drought-resistant rice breeding and promotion in just three years.

Before 2020, Fengda Seeds had gone through a period of twists and turns
before operating water-saving and drought-resistant rice.
After learning about water-saving and drought-resistant rice, they quickly reached a consensus with the Shanghai Agricultural Biological Gene Center to specialize in water-saving and drought-resistant rice varieties, and established the Fengda Biological Water-saving and Drought-resistant Rice Research Institute, and won five water-saving and drought-resistant rice varieties from the gene center, such as "Drought Excellent 3015" and "Drought Two Excellent 8200", and carried out the integrated practice
of breeding, breeding and promotion 。 With the increasingly perfect variety system construction, the pace of development of Fengda water-saving and drought-resistant rice industry has also been accelerating, tens of thousands of jin of seeds were tested and demonstrated in 2021, and in 2022, Fengda water-saving and drought-resistant rice varieties sold nearly 4 million jin, and went abroad to plant
in Southeast Asian countries such as Bangladesh and Myanmar and parts of Africa.

Wu Zhiyong, general manager of Fengda Seeds, clearly put forward the goal of the "14th Five-Year Plan" - to promote water-saving and drought-resistant rice for 10 million mu
.
He said: "It is incumbent upon us to vigorously promote water-saving and drought-resistant rice, adjust the traditional rice planting structure, and realize the modernization, transformation and development of resource-saving and environment-friendly agriculture!" ”

Seed companies are working hard for the "1522" goal of water-saving and drought-resistant rice, and seed dealers are also joining the "Blue Revolution" team
with the belief of "making farmers feel like treasures".

Wang Jincheng, head of Jiangsu Lianshui Sulun Agricultural Technical Service Center, has been engaged in the promotion and application of grain seeds after graduating from agricultural school, and mainly promoted hybrid rice
until 2017.
In 2016, by chance, he heard that Dongtai, Jiangsu Province planted water-saving and drought-resistant rice, so he tried to plant 2 mu of "Drought Excellent 73", and found that water-saving and drought-resistant rice can solve the problem of 150,000 mu of low-lying dryland in Huaibei area of Huai'an City, which is prone to flooding and difficult to access water, and has since specially promoted water-saving and drought-resistant rice
.
In 2022, the planting area mainly of "Drought You 3015" varieties will reach 50,000 mu, and 39 townships suitable for water-saving and drought-resistant rice will be planted
by large households.

Face the problem head-on to find the gap

Technology applications need to work together

After the Luo Lijun team won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award and the first prize of the Shanghai Science Popularization Award for the series of science and education films on water-saving and drought-resistant rice, the water-saving and drought-resistant rice was even more radiant
.
Seed enterprises such as Fengda Seeds that pursue social responsibility have consciously become a new force in the "blue revolution" of water-saving and drought-resistant rice, and widely disseminate the value of
water-saving and drought-resistant rice.

The National Agricultural Technology Extension Service Center is the organizer of this on-site observation and technical seminar on water-saving and drought-resistant rice
.
In the technical seminar session, Liu Xin, deputy director of the center, pointed out in his concluding speech that the government, industry, academia and research institute should promote the water-saving and drought-resistant rice industry in their own ways, which is of great
significance to firmly hold the "Chinese rice bowl".
The research and development and marketing of water-saving and drought-resistant rice varieties face many favorable conditions, but to achieve the "1522" goal, we still have to face many practical problems
.

With 26 water-saving and drought-resistant rice varieties, the Luolijun team and other R&D teams found their own gaps, put pressure on themselves in response to the problems of insufficient high temperature resistance and many weeds in drought-prone pipes, and strived to further improve the yield potential of water-saving and drought-resistant rice, further increase the adaptability of varieties to adverse environments, solve the harm of weeds and weed rice, and strengthen the popularization
of science and technology of water-saving and drought-resistant rice.

Wu Zhiyong said that broadening publicity channels, increasing publicity efforts, innovating publicity methods, and letting the majority of growers understand and master the technical application of water-saving and drought-resistant rice under different cultivation modes is the top priority
of future promotion.
Many representatives of seed enterprises and distributors have also expressed the same demand, which reflects that some local governments are not sensitive enough to the new category of water-saving and drought-resistant rice that can change the traditional planting structure, increase yield, efficiency and ecology, or do not pay enough attention
to it.

Wang Jincheng said that he hopes for more policy support and hardware investment, hopes that the municipal and county agricultural and rural departments will pay attention, hopes to connect with agriculture-related machinery enterprises, and hopes that technical services will reach a new level
.

Water-saving and drought-resistant rice has gone through a long road of 20 years, breaking through many difficulties and ushering in historical opportunities
.
At this event, the participants reached a consensus: they expected decision-makers and implementers at all levels of the agricultural industry to work together with rice variety research and development and marketing professionals to jointly create a better future
for water-saving and drought-resistant rice.
(Editor Li Chuang)