China Agriculture news, info, updates

[JSCh]

Across China: Freezing saline water irrigation may reclaim saline land
Source: Xinhua| 2019-11-11 17:32:26|Editor: Li Xia

BEIJING, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese researchers have discovered that saline land may be reclaimed by the irrigation method of freezing saline water over the soil in winter. In addition, they found that the desalination depth of saline ice meltwater into the saline-alkali soil was greater than that of salt-free ice, according to a recent study paper published in the European Journal of Soil Science.

China has about 1.5 billion mu (about 100 million hectares) of saline-alkali land that lacks enough freshwater resources. This type of land restricts agricultural production and vegetation growth. Scientists have been trying to figure out how to turn barren, salty soil into arable land.

Researchers from the Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences evaluated infiltration and soil desalination under melting saline ice into saline soil. They found that the infiltration of saline ice meltwater went deeper into the saline soil than fresh ice meltwater.

Previously, the researchers developed a saltwater irrigation method to improve cotton yield in saline soils, based on the separation of saline and freshwater by melting saline ice.

They used salty water with less than 15 grams per liter concentration to irrigate the saline-alkali land in winter.

The saline water was frozen into ice on the top of the soil. When spring season came, the saline ice melted and infiltrated into the saline soil gradually.

The continuous infiltration of the meltwater with higher salinity was followed by meltwater with lower salinity.

The following infiltrated rainwater washed the soil salt further, allowing the crop roots to avoid the influence of the salt. Thus, a great desalination effect was received in coastal saline soil.

The soil salt content was reduced to lower than 0.3 percent during the entire season, while the cotton yield reached 200 kg per mu.

The research aims to provide support for improving soil desalting efficiency by using saline ice irrigation.

 

[JSCh]

Chinese researchers develop purple tomato with more anthocyanins
Source: Xinhua| 2019-11-12 14:31:09|Editor: Liu

Purple-fleshed tomatoes which have high anthocyanins accumulation in both the peel and flesh. (Photo provided to Xinhua)

BEIJING, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese researchers have developed a genetically modified purple tomato rich in anthocyanins, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Anthocyanins are a group of antioxidant-boosting pigments that also provide the purple, red or blue colors of many fruits and vegetables. Some studies suggest dietary consumption of anthocyanins may lower the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Although most tomato cultivars do not produce anthocyanins in fruit, the purple tomato variety Indigo Rose exhibits light-dependent anthocyanin accumulation in the skin.

Researchers from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology under the CAS studied the mechanisms of anthocyanin biosynthesis in Indigo Rose, identified the genes related to the process and generated purple-fleshed tomatoes which accumulate anthocyanins in both the peel and flesh.

The research provided important target genes for the production of anthocyanin-rich tomatoes. Through unveiling the anthocyanin synthesis mechanism, it also provided new ideas and technical approaches for enhancement of anthocyanin content in crops, according to Li Chuanyou, the leading researcher.

The research was published in the journal Molecular Plant.

 

[JSCh]

China reaps record bumper harvest in 2019
Source: Xinhua| 2019-12-06 16:35:51|Editor: huaxia

BEIJING, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday that China has achieved another year of bumper harvest in 2019 with its grain output hitting record high.

The grain output stood at 663.84 million tonnes, up by 5.94 million tonnes or 0.9 percent from last year, the NBS said in a statement on its website.

The country registered higher per unit yield despite slight decrease in planting area, said NBS statistician Huang Bingxin.

Grain output reached 5,715 kg per hectare, up 1.8 percent from last year, NBS data showed.

While ensuring the grain production capacity, the planting scale of quality and efficient crops such as soybeans and coarse cereals saw steady expansion, said Huang.

Huang attributed the harvest to optimization of the country's planting structure, favorable weather conditions and effective disaster control.

The bumper harvest of grains is conducive to further stabilizing the market and the economy, said Huang.

 

[JSCh]

China to establish 100 quality schools for training rural talent
Source: Xinhua| 2019-12-07 16:42:51|Editor: huaxia

Kids take a break at school in Danuohei Village of Guishan Township in Shilin Yi Autonomous County, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Nov. 28, 2019. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao)

The government aims to spend five years to train one million high caliber farmers who have received vocational education, have a sense of market exploration, can promote the development of agriculture and rural areas and lead fellow farmers to increase their incomes.

BEIJING, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- China launched a program to establish 100 quality schools for training talent for its rural vitalization within two years.

These schools will cover various resources such as higher vocational colleges, agricultural radio and television schools and county-level vocational education centers, according to China Education Daily.

The expansion of higher vocational colleges this year has opened the door of higher education to farmers, an official from the Ministry of Education was quoted as saying, hailing the move as a major measure to vitalize vocational education related to agriculture and improve the quality of farmers' lives.

Around 35,000 farmers and more than 6,000 members from village Party branches and village committees were enrolled in agriculture-related vocational colleges as a result, figures from the newspaper show.

The government aims to spend five years to train one million high caliber farmers who have received vocational education, have a sense of market exploration, can promote the development of agriculture and rural areas and lead fellow farmers to increase their incomes.

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[JSCh]

Chinese technology, experts help Madagascar triple rice yield
By Zhang Dan and Chi Jingyi Source:Global Times Published: 2019/12/10 20:38:41

Yuan Longping (2nd R) , the "father of hybrid rice", inspects a demonstration field with other experts at Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Center in Changsha, capital of Hunan Province, Oct. 22, 2019. The third-generation hybrid rice developed by Yuan Longping, the "father of hybrid rice," and his team underwent its first public yield monitoring from Monday to Tuesday and achieved high output. The final yield of the tested variety, G3-1S/P19, came to 1,046.3 kg per mu (about 667 square meters), based on two plots of land in Qingzhu Village under the city of Hengyang in Hunan. (Xinhua/Chen Zeguo)

As the world pioneer in hybrid rice technology, China has helped the Republic of Madagascar grow the grain for 13 years with remarkable results - yields have tripled in the African country, the head of a leading Chinese hybrid rice firm in Madagascar told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Even though Madagascar has a 400-year history of growing rice, yields were less than 2.5 tons per hectare in the past. But they soared to 7.5 tons per hectare under instruction of Chinese agricultural experts and companies, Zhang Lijun, manager of the Madagascar agricultural industrial park of Hunan Province-based Yuan Longping High-Tech Agriculture Co, told the Global Times.

Chinese agronomist Yuan Longping, known for developing the first hybrid rice strains, is praised as the "father of hybrid rice."

"The highest yield of the hybrid rice could reach 10.8 tons per hectare in Madagascar," he noted, adding that hybrid rice seeds and sowing methods from China made this happen on 20,000 hectares of rice paddies.

"Our sowing method of hybrid rice doesn't require transplanting as the Madagascar farmers used to do. One farmer could only transplant rice seedlings on less than 0.1 hectares per day, but now the farmer could seed 0.2 to 0.3 hectares per day using our method," Zhang said.

He noted that about 20 Chinese experts and staff now work in the agricultural industrial park.

Chinese hybrid rice technology helped local farmers increase their incomes by $300 - $400 per hectare per year, according to Zhang.

Now, Madagascar has become the country with the largest planting area and the highest yield of hybrid rice in Africa, and the first African country to realize the development of the entire industrial chain of hybrid rice breeding, seed production, planting, processing and sales, China Radio International reported.

On Monday, the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center and Guangdong Province-based property company Country Garden's agriculture division signed a cooperation deal with Madagascar's Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, to help the African country realize rice self-sufficiency by 2024.

From 2000 to 2018, China-Africa trade in farm products increased from $650 million to $6.92 billion, with an average annual growth rate of 14 percent, said Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Han Changfu.

By the end of 2018, Chinese enterprises had invested more than 15 billion yuan ($2.13 billion) in Africa, with 115 agricultural projects worth more than 5 million yuan, covering more than two-thirds of African countries, according to the ministry.

"China is willing to share its experience and practices in food production and vows to support Africa in achieving food security by 2030," said Han.

In the next three years, China will hold training courses to train another 10,000 agricultural experts in Africa.

The value of agricultural trade between China and Africa is expected to exceed $10 billion within 10 years, chinanews.com reported on Monday.

Chinese companies will invest $50 million to build an agricultural industrial park in Madagascar, with an annual production of 4,000 tons of hybrid rice, the report said.

 

[JSCh]

China's farm mechanization rate exceeds 70 pct in 2019
Xinhua, January 12, 2020

BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- China has seen an outstanding shift in its farming sector with the mechanization rate exceeding 70 percent in 2019, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said.

The production of three staple crops including wheat, rice and corn is now mainly completed with farming machines, according to the ministry.

China has been promoting complete mechanization in the agriculture sector. In 2019, the country established 153 new model counties for complete mechanization in agricultural production.

 

[JSCh]

Guizhou to promote smart vegetable farms
Xinhua | Updated: 2020-01-15 13:31

A farmer operates a drone to spray and fertilize his field in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, on May 31, 2018. [Photo/VCG]

GUIYANG - Southwest China's Guizhou province will promote intelligent vegetable bases in high-altitude areas by using big data and artificial intelligence (AI), the Provincial Department of Science and Technology said.

5G, drones and multi-spectral imaging will replace human labor in inspection and crop growth monitoring. AI interpretation systems can manage fields through sensors that automatically record soil moisture and meteorological conditions.

Meanwhile, machines will be applied from land preparation, fertilization, irrigation, cultivation and harvesting in the farms.

The pilot project will be first launched in vegetable bases covering 333 hectares in Weining Yi, Hui and Miao Autonomous County at an average altitude of more than 2,200 meters.

In the future, the technologies will be applied in all vegetable bases of Weining, which cover a total area of 26,666 hectares.

With a favorable climate, Weining positions itself as a winter vegetable supply base. Vegetables including cabbages and white carrots are sold to big Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai, and some are exported to foreign countries.

 

[Stranagor]

China unveils 'No. 1 central document' on agricultural, rural work for 2020

CGTN
05-Feb-2020

China released its "No. 1 central document" for 2020 on Wednesday, outlining guidelines for agricultural and rural work in 2020.

The country will finish building a moderately prosperous society in all respects this year, the document said, calling for efforts to lift all people out of poverty and to improve rural infrastructure and people's living.

It urged efforts on two main tasks – winning the battle against poverty and strengthening areas of weakness concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers as the country strives to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects this year.

(Cover: A farmer walks in the field in Rongjiang County of Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Guizhou Province, February 17, 2019. /Xinhua Photo)

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-02-...ultural-issues-for-2020-NQ0THuzpzW/index.html

 

[JSCh]

China Focus: China starts planting 6,667 hectares of rice in saline-alkali soil
Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-05 21:13:38|Editor: huaxia

QINGDAO, June 5 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese research team on Friday launched an ambitious program of planting 100,000 mu (about 6,667 hectares) of rice in saline-alkali soil across the country.

The program, led by Yuan Longping, a renowned agronomist dubbed China's "father of hybrid rice," includes about 60,000 mu of rice to be planted in three cities in east China's Shandong Province, and about 40,000 mu in seven bases in regions of Shaanxi, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and Zhejiang.

On Friday, workers started planting rice seedlings in saline-alkali soil in Qingdao and Weifang in Shandong, Wenzhou in east China's Zhejiang Province, and in Golmud in northwest China's Qinghai Province.

"Other places will soon begin planting rice seedlings as well," said Zhang Guodong, deputy director of Qingdao's saline-alkali tolerant rice research and development center, which is led by Yuan.

Yuan's team successfully developed types of saline-alkali tolerant rice in 2017 and the highest yield reached 620.95 kg per mu.

Last year, the researchers piloted growing rice in saline-alkali soil in six bases across China, with the total testing areas amounting to 20,000 mu and the average yield reaching over 500 kg per mu.

"We expect the average yield could reach 400 kg per mu this year, given that we can't implement fine management in such large areas," said Zhang.

"If we succeed, the 100,000 mu of saline-alkali soil, which used to be barren land, will produce 40,000 tonnes of rice for Chinese people," he added.

Last year, the team planted rice on 1,000 mu of saline-alkali soil in Qingdao, and the ecological environment has been greatly improved there.

"We spotted some water birds this year and the area even started to draw tourists," said Zhang Xue, a researcher in the team.

This year, the team will try intelligent agriculture on 10,000 mu of saline land in Qingdao. Aided by data from smart sensors and cameras, the artificial intelligence agricultural system will provide accurate amounts of water and fertilizer for the rice.

The team has also selected suitable hybrid rice strains for all major types of saline-alkali soil in China, except for the one in Golmud.

"Golmud is located at 2,780 meters above sea level. It is the first time for us to plant the saline-alkali tolerant rice in cold and plateau areas," said Zhang Xue. "We will plant about 200 types of rice this year and see which specific types of rice are the most suitable for such areas."

"Yuan's team has made some remarkable achievements, many of which reached a leading level at home and abroad," said Peng Jiming, an expert at the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center.

"This year, we will plant 100,000 mu of saline-alkali tolerant rice and transform one million mu of saline-alkali soil. We will also strive to launch a 10-million-mu program," Yuan said in a video message.

In the long run, the team aims to turn 100 million mu of saline land into arable land, and to increase rice production to feed 80 million more people.

 

[JSCh]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1270558029683978240

China Science✔@ChinaScience

Some 5,200 mu (about 31,565.4 acres) of rice are planted in the Ulanbuh Desert in N China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the country’s 8th largest desert. The field is expected to harvest 450 kg of rice per mu and will also be used for sand control.


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11:26 AM - Jun 10, 2020

 

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https://twitter.com/x/status/1272891685832458243

https://twitter.com/x/status/1273148374233964544

 

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https://twitter.com/x/status/1279973342280208384

 

[JSCh]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=158211675788368

NEWS RELEASE 8-JUL-2020
CRISPR enables one-step hybrid seed production in crops
CELL PRESS

This chart summarizes the workflow of the next-generation hybrid seed production in industrial practices. CREDIT: Chuanxiao Xie

Crop hybrid technologies have contributed to the significant yield improvement worldwide in the past decades. However, designing and maintaining a hybrid production line has always been complex and laborious. Now, researchers in China have developed a new system combining CRISPR-mediated genome editing with other approaches that could produce better seeds compared with conventional hybrid methods and shorten the production timeline by 5 to 10 years. The study appears July 8 in the journal Molecular Plant.

Hybrids are preferred over purebreds in crop production. Crossing two genetically distant plant varieties often gives rise to progeny with superior traits compared with the parents. The offspring tend to have higher yields and better disease tolerance. This phenomenon is called heterosis, or hybrid vigor.

"But current hybrid methods are very time consuming and cumbersome," says senior author Chuanxiao Xie at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

For example, the first step to produce a hybrid is to find or make a type of parent plant carrying a mutation, so that it does not produce viable pollen. This is to avoid self-crossing and ensure most of the parent plants become fertilized by a different variety. But the progeny needs to be fertile in order to self-cross to produce more of itself and plants to be used as the parent. Scientists would cross the sterile plant with another that is genetically fertile to restore the plant's sterility and make hybrid seeds. Constructing a production cycle like this is vital in building an efficient seed production line in the field.

These approaches have very specific requirements of plants' genotypes, and establishing stable infertile and fertile breeds can take years.

"These limitations have restricted them from being applied more widely in commercial agriculture," Xie says. "But our new system using CRISPR/Cas9 can significantly streamline the process. Now, one single transformation is enough."

Xie and his colleagues first constructed a Cas9 vector that targets MS26, a fertility gene in maize. They also prepared a second vector, called MGM. The first vector works by cutting out a segment of the MS26, which would make the plant genetically infertile. The MGM vector carries three functional parts: a working MS26 gene coding sequence to restore fertility, an enzyme to inactive pollen, and a red color marker that would show in seeds.

The team introduced both vectors into an agrobacterium and used it to transform maize embryos. Because maize is diploid--meaning it has two copies of each gene--these edited embryos would carry two copies of mutated MS26, in addition to a single copy of MGM gene that was introduced.

When these plants self-crossed, they produce two types of offspring with a 1 to 1 ratio according to the rule of meiosis: one with a mutated MS26 and MGM, and one with mutated MS26 without MGM.

The MGM-absent progeny is infertile, so it can be used as a parent for hybrid seed production. Because these parents do not have carry the exogenous MGM gene, their offspring--if crossed with a non-genetically engineered variety--are not transgenic.

The other half of the offspring carries the MGM and MGM-present offspring are fertile, and essentially the same as their parents. These plants--called the maintainers--can be self-crossed to make more infertile plants to produce hybrids and more maintainers.

The maintainers also carry a red fluorescent marker expressed from the MGM vector, so they can be easily distinguished and sorted from the sterile seeds.

"Our system significantly reduces the resources needed to construct stable hybrid seed production lines. So the inputs and costs of seeds would be much lower," Xie says.

Besides maize, many other major crops also have MS26, including rice, millet, wheat, and sorghum. Therefore, the new approach can be readily applied to other crops, or even other fertility-determining genes in crops, he adds.

"Technology-wise, we are not far from large-scale applications. But there is a procedure we need to go through before getting approved for commercial production," Xie says.


CRISPR enables one-step hybrid seed production in crops | EurekAlert! Science News

 

[JSCh]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1309386690096590850

CTG @CTG_1993

CTG helps #InnerMongolian farmers increase income with advanced agri-tech. The village has begun to apply the technique of whole plastic film mulching on double ridges since 2018, which has increased their income by nearly one million yuan so far.





2:58 PM · Sep 25, 2020

 

[JSCh]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1323150346512990210