China trials more resilient crop varieties

In China's northeastern black soil belt, scientists and agricultural companies are stepping up efforts to restore degraded farmland and develop higher-yielding, more resilient crop varieties, as Beijing seeks to safeguard the fertile region's role in national food security.

At the heart of these efforts is the Hailun Experimental Station of Agricultural Ecology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences — the country's only national-level field station dedicated to the long-term, fixed-site observation, research and demonstration of black soil agricultural ecosystems.

The station focuses on black soil conservation and sustainable agricultural development, with research spanning the long-term monitoring of black soil farmland ecosystems, the development of technologies for soil conservation and sustainable utilization, the assessment and diagnosis of farmland ecosystem health, and the breeding of high-quality, high-yield soybean varieties.

Researchers at the station conduct systematic, long-term monitoring of water, soil, weather and biological conditions. More than 20 fixed-site experiments have been established across its 21-hectare experimental fields, covering areas including nutrient balance, soil organic matter dynamics, cropping systems and the ecological restoration of degraded farmland.

Over the past five years, the station has undertaken 119 national — and provincial-level research projects. Several technologies for improving black soil fertility and promoting ecological agriculture have been designated by China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs as key technologies for nationwide promotion.

"We are now integrating our technologies with information technology and space-air-ground integrated technologies, carrying out large-scale demonstrations and promotions in this region to accelerate the commercialization and implementation of our technologies," said Sui Yueyu, a researcher at the Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the Hailun Experimental Station.

"In addition, every year we provide training to farmers and agricultural technicians in Heilongjiang province. This year alone, we have trained more than 20,000 people to enhance the implementation of our technologies," said Sui.

The station has systematically studied the mechanisms underlying black soil layer degradation, soil conservation and rapid fertility enhancement, and has developed a key technological system centered on building fertile cultivated soil layers.

With straw crushing and deep incorporation into the soil, organic fertilizer application, and corn-soybean rotation as its key technologies, the station has established a black soil conservation and cultivation system tailored to local conditions.

Li Yanhua, an engineer at the Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, has worked at the Hailun Experimental Station for many years. She has led a team that has bred 23 soybean varieties, 15 of which have received national approval.

The Dongsheng soybean varieties bred by Li are characterized by broad adaptability, high yields, high quality, and round, yellow, uniform and glossy grains. With their superior processing quality and high market prices, they have been widely popular among growers and processors.

The cumulative area planted with Dongsheng soybeans across the second through fifth accumulated-temperature zones of Heilongjiang has exceeded 120 million mu (8 million hectares). Fees from the transfer of production and commercialization rights for these varieties have exceeded 70 million yuan ($10.43 million).

In 2025, the high-protein soybean variety Beisheng 23 — also developed by Li's team — received approval in Heilongjiang. Farmers who planted the variety last year were able to sell their soybeans for about 0.7 yuan more per kilogram than those growing other varieties. The quality of the new variety has attracted the attention of grain traders, who are now seeking out farms growing Beisheng 23 on a large scale.

The emphasis on advanced breeding is not limited to Hailun. Across Heilongjiang, research institutions, local governments and seed companies are forging partnerships to accelerate the development of higher-quality and more productive crop varieties.

On May 24, the Suihua municipal and Beilin district governments, Shengchang Seed Breeding Co, based in Suihua, and the Yazhouwan National Laboratory, based in Sanya, Hainan province, signed a cooperation agreement on biological breeding innovation. The partners will jointly establish a germplasm innovation platform for grain and oil crops, with a focus on rice, soybeans and corn.

Through the Yazhouwan National Laboratory's grain and oil crop innovation platform in Suihua, Shengchang Seed Breeding Co has already begun cultivating a range of experimental and demonstration materials and varieties in collaboration with the laboratory. These include 3,680 corn breeding materials, 1,035 rice breeding materials and three soybean demonstration varieties.

Li Lianwen, director of the Agricultural Technology Extension Center in Beilin district, Suihua, said traditional crossbreeding often involves trade-offs among yield, disease resistance and taste in rice varieties. A variety with superior taste, for example, may have lower yields or weaker resistance, while varieties bred for high yields and strong resistance may compromise on eating quality.

Through its partnership with the Yazhouwan National Laboratory, Suihua aims to overcome these trade-offs by developing rice varieties that combine high yields, strong resistance and good taste.

"The Yazhouwan National Laboratory will provide us with support in breeding methods, seed resources and other areas, including new technologies such as molecular breeding," Li Lianwen said. "We look forward to the arrival of experts from the laboratory, who will use genetic and biological breeding methods to introduce genes for traits such as lodging resistance, thereby developing a new variety that not only yields high economic returns and excellent quality, but is also resistant to lodging and disease. This will transform the landscape of rice breeding in Heilongjiang."

Suihua is located in a cold-climate black soil region, whereas much of the breeding work previously conducted by the Yazhouwan National Laboratory took place in southern China. As cold-region rice breeding technologies have continued to gain influence, experts at the laboratory have also recognized the strong potential of cold-region breeding.

"We have now entered the field-testing stage," Li Lianwen said. "Suihua has become an important northern research base for the Yazhouwan National Laboratory in corn, soybean and rice breeding. Through our cooperation with the laboratory, we have enhanced Suihua's breeding capabilities and technological expertise, further consolidating Heilongjiang's position in China's national food security system."

Even before partnering with the Yazhouwan National Laboratory, Shengchang Seed Breeding Co had built collaborations with major agricultural research institutions, including the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Winall Hi-tech Seed Co, Northeast Agricultural University and the Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

One of the company's flagship varieties to emerge from these partnerships is Suijing 18, a fragrant rice variety bred by Nie Shoujun, a specialist in cold-climate rice breeding. The variety was jointly developed by Shengchang Seed Breeding Co and the Suihua branch of the Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Since its introduction, Suijing 18 has been planted on a cumulative area of more than 80 million mu, helping drive the growth of Heilongjiang's fragrant rice industry.

Lin Lihua, sales manager of Shengchang Seed Breeding Co, said Suijing 18 is known for its high yield, strong nutritional value, high milling yield and excellent resistance to lodging and disease. These qualities have earned the variety widespread recognition among rice processors and grain traders, and it has also received the First Prize of the Heilongjiang Science and Technology Progress Award.

Each year, Shengchang Seed Breeding Co supplies approximately 55,000 metric tons of high-quality rice seeds to Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces, as well as the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. The company's seeds are planted on about 10 million mu of farmland in Heilongjiang annually, Lin said.

jiangxueqing@chinadaily.com.cn