The issue of dressing is equally important as the issue of eating. In recent years, “cotton seeds”, which mainly solve people’s clothing problems, have repeatedly brought surprises.
In June last year, “China Cotton 113” embarked on a space journey on the Shenzhou 12 manned spacecraft, kicking off my country’s independent space station space breeding; and before that, in January 2019, “China Cotton Research Institute 41” took aboard the Shenzhou 12 manned spacecraft Chang’e 4 planted the “first green” on the moon, attracting the attention of the world… Many people may not know that from “China Cotton Institute 41” to “China Cotton 113”, the cotton seeds that entered space were all produced in Anyang Cotton Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Why is a small seed so often chosen by the aerospace industry? Cotton is known as a “pioneer crop” on land. It is salt-alkali tolerant and resistant to drought and floods. “Under extraordinary adversity conditions, they still stand out and fully demonstrate their characteristics.” On March 18, Ma Xiongfeng, deputy director of the China Cotton Research Institute, said in an interview with reporters, “Seeds that have been tested in space have better germination rates, Characteristics such as resistance to diseases and insect pests may change, and new varieties bred from this may be more productive and of higher quality.”
The surprises brought by China Cotton are far more than just “god to heaven”. In the early 1990s, cotton bollworm outbreaks occurred year after year, and my country’s cotton production was on the verge of extinction. China Cotton Research Institute has successfully cultivated two important varieties, “China Cotton Research Institute 29” and “China Cotton Research Institute 41”, through joint research with advantageous units. Among them, “China Cotton Research Institute 41” is my country’s first bivalent transgenic insect-resistant cotton variety with independent intellectual property rights. Driven by these two varieties, the market share of domestic insect-resistant cotton rose rapidly from 5% in 1999 to 98% in 2012, completely defeating the monopoly of foreign varieties.
Nowadays, with the adjustment of my country’s cotton regional pattern and the transformation of planting methods, how to grow good cotton so that domestic cotton can surpass “American cotton” and catch up with “Australian cotton” has become a new topic of the China Cotton Institute. “Just as we were able to develop our own genetically modified insect-resistant cotton varieties back then, now we must use domestically produced high-quality cotton to withstand the impact of imported cotton,” Ma Xiongfeng said.
What is high-quality cotton? At the Cotton Quality Supervision, Inspection and Testing Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs located at the China Cotton Research Institute, senior laboratory engineer Meng Junting took out a ball of cotton, sorted it out into a neat bundle by pulling lengths with her hands, and then pulled it apart with force, “Look, the fiber The length is a full 31 mm, the strength is 32 cN/tex, and the length and strength reach double 30, which are important indicators for measuring high-quality cotton.”
What Meng Junting is holding is “China Cotton 113”, a high-quality cotton variety that has just been approved in 2019. “‘Zhongmian 113’ has successfully broken through the technical bottleneck of early maturity, high yield, and high quality that are difficult to improve collaboratively, achieved a double improvement in yield and fiber quality, filled the vacancy in cotton planting varieties in low accumulated temperature and cool areas, and has become the key to ensuring high-quality cotton in northern Xinjiang. Stable supply of ‘chip varieties’ that exceed ‘Australian cotton’ quality standards.” Ma Xiongfeng said.
According to statistics, in 2021, the planting area of ”Zhongmian 113″ in northern Xinjiang will reach 1.406 million acres, and it is expected that more than 10 million acres will be promoted in the next three years. At the same time, “China Cotton 113” has also entered countries along the “One Belt and One Road” and conducted regional trials in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and other countries.
Cotton is an important cash crop and a national strategic material. Currently, Xinjiang is my country’s main cotton-producing area, with cotton output accounting for nearly 90% of the total domestic output. The No. 1 Central Document of 2022 proposed that cultivated land is mainly used for the production of grain, cotton, oil, sugar, vegetables and other agricultural products, as well as forage and feed. Industry insiders believe that ranking cotton behind food and taking priority over other agricultural products shows the important position of cotton production in domestic agriculture. The “14th Five-Year Plan” National Planting Industry Development Plan also clearly states that cotton areas in the Yellow River Basin and Yangtze River Basin should be moderately restored, and efforts should be made to restore the area to more than 11 million acres during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period.
“A moderate restoration of the mainland’s cotton industry will be conducive to the long-term and stable development of my country’s textile and cotton industries.” Ma Xiongfeng said, “For us breeders, this is both an opportunity and a challenge. Cotton technology must be used at all times. Firmly in their own hands, the Chinese can solve their own problems of eating and clothing!”
Treasure file
“Zhongmian 113” has successfully broken through the technical bottleneck of early maturity, high yield and high quality that are difficult to improve collaboratively, achieved double growth in output and quality, filled the vacancy in cotton varieties in cold and low accumulated temperature areas, and has become a quality product that surpasses “Australian cotton” Standard “chip variety”.
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