Hunan Yueyang expert tackles cotton breeding world problems

Three years of cotton breeding, domestic and foreign experts 80 years of unsuccessful research, Yueyang City experts have worked hard to break through eight years. If it is actually promoted, it will bring 22 billion yuan of economic benefits to the country each year.

After eight years of research and screening, the scientific research team led by the research fellow Li Haiping of the Institute of Agricultural Sciences, successfully developed the male sterile line of cotton 6001A, which solved the problem of the time spent in artificial seeding and pollination, the high cost, and the difficulty in seed quality. Guaranteed, unable to apply a large area and other technical problems.

The expert group formed by the Cotton Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences said in an assessment: “We think that this kind of research is almost impossible and you have studied it.”

Because cotton is a male and female compatriot, hybrid seeding is commonly used to produce hybrid seed by artificial emasculation at home and abroad. However, this method is costly and the seed quality is difficult to guarantee. Since the 30s of last century, the United States and China began to study the breeding of three cotton lines (CMS line, maintainer line, restorer line). However, the output of seeds produced is still lower than that of ordinary hybrid seeds and cannot be applied in practice. The 6001A cultivated by experts of the city can guarantee 100% infertility of cotton and restore the recovery rate of 100%, ensuring the absolute purity of the hybrid cotton seeds produced, and high pest resistance, making Datian production absolutely safe and feasible.

The annual cotton planting area of ​​China is about 75 million mu and the total output is about 6 million tons. The country needs 12 million tons of cotton each year, and nearly 50% is dependent on imports. The issue of cotton safety has become increasingly prominent. Because the current hybrid cotton seed production is subject to labor and cost constraints, China's application of insect-resistant hybrid cotton accounts for only about 25% of the total area (19 million mu), and the rest are conventional cotton varieties. The use of male sterile lines for seed production reduces the cost, improves the quality of seeds, and ensures the need for cotton production in China. According to experts, the general insect-resistant hybrid cotton yields about 30% more than conventional cotton, and 20 kg of lint per mu increase 20 yuan per kilogram, and 5600 million mu of cotton fields can realize social and economic benefits of 22 billion yuan.