What is biological breeding technology？ This year, 24 new undergraduate majors were enrolled.

　　The results of the college entrance examination will be announced one after another, and the work of volunteering will also be started. This year, 24 new undergraduate majors were enrolled in the 2024 college entrance examination, and today I will show you — — Major in biological breeding technology.

　　Seed is the "chip" of modern agriculture, and seed industry is the national strategic core industry. At present, China is facing the problem of "sticking its neck" in seed industry, and it is the key to break through the bottleneck of seed sources and win the turnaround of seed industry.

　　This year, the specialty of biological breeding technology was officially listed in the new specialty list of undergraduate specialty catalogue of ordinary colleges and universities. Beijing Agricultural College, Dalian Ocean University and Xinjiang Agricultural University will offer this major. Holding the future, biological breeding has become a new hope to cultivate green and high yield.

　　A good seed, a thousand good grains. Cultivating a seed with excellent characters is related to abundant grain, people’s security and national wealth. With the development of science and technology, modern breeding is accelerating from traditional cross breeding to biological breeding. With the help of genetic technology, what wonderful journey does it take for an ordinary seed selected from thousands of germplasm resources to become a fine variety?

　　If you are interested in this, I hope you can explore the "growth code" of modern breeding in the future. You might as well enter the specialty of biological breeding technology. As a new interdisciplinary subject, biological breeding combines the knowledge of crop science, animal husbandry, biology, genetics and other fields, cultivates innovative animal and plant varieties through modern biological information technology, and promotes the transformation of agricultural biological breeding from traditional "experience breeding" to efficient "precision breeding".

　　The specialty of biological breeding technology pays attention to the cultivation of practical ability and innovative spirit, and strives to consolidate the theoretical basis and cutting-edge technologies of modern breeding such as molecular design breeding and gene editing, so as to provide core technical support and inexhaustible motive force for ensuring national food security and realizing green and high-quality development.

　　What are the specialties of plant production in agronomy?

　　Today’s agriculture is no longer the traditional agriculture in the past, but the modern agriculture "armed" with biotechnology and information technology. There are still many specialties to secure China’s rice bowl and protect food security, such as plant production, animal production, aquatic products, etc. Among them, there are 17 specialties in plant production, including agronomy, horticulture, plant protection, plant science and technology, accounting for about 1/3 of the specialties in agronomy.

　　According to the data of Sunshine College Entrance Examination Information Platform, the employment rate of undergraduate students majoring in agriculture has been 80%— 90% range, in a state of above average. According to the forecast of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, among the eight categories of talents urgently needed in the future, agricultural science and technology talents are among them.

　　As a new interdisciplinary subject, biological breeding technology adds new courses such as biological intelligence breeding and molecular design breeding, as well as interdisciplinary courses such as big data and artificial intelligence on the basis of genetic breeding professional courses.

　　Where to go after graduation? Listen to the industry

　　It can be seen that the new agriculture is no longer the traditional way of facing the loess and facing the sky. In the past, breeding and improvement of new varieties were basically based on artificial hybridization, but now insect-resistant cotton, herbicide-resistant soybeans and so on can be obtained by genetic engineering. Next, we will take the candidates to understand the real working conditions of these industries through two young practitioners in the front line of biological breeding.

　　Li Shubin, an expert in Chinese rose genetics and breeding:My name is Li Shubin, and I am a researcher at the Flower Research Institute of Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences. I studied plant breeding at the university. From the first day of work, I entered a "world of flowers and flowers". So, do you think this job is both beautiful and relaxed?

　　If I told you that we have to sow 500,000 seeds and screen hundreds of varieties every year just to cultivate a satisfactory Chinese rose, would you back down? In fact, really entering the field of flower breeding is like opening a brand-new door in front of you. As a saying goes, "One flower is one world", then our job is to beautify a world with a seed.

　　Rose is the largest flower in the world. 1000 years ago, we in Chinese cultivated an ancient rose variety that can blossom all the year round. However, in modern flower breeding, 90% of Chinese rose varieties on the market need to be imported, and all of them have to pay patent fees. It is the dream of every horticulture and flower scientist that every florist can plant Chinese-cultivated rose varieties.

　　In the past nine years, we have traveled all over China, collected a large number of rose germplasm resources, and established a rose gene bank of more than 100,000 breeding materials through repeated hybridization to select offspring. This 2-meter-high rose is our newly cultivated variety, and it is the offspring cultivated by distant miscellaneous family. You don’t need to send a bunch of flowers to your girlfriend in the future, just carry this one.

　　With the help of a series of new technologies, such as digital breeding and molecular breeding, we are accelerating the decoding of the genetic code of China ancient rose. Isn’t this breeding experiment of chasing the light and chasing the heat a bit like a foolish old man moving mountains in the micro-world? Repeated defeats and wars are our normal state. I always clearly remember the scene when I first entered this field. When people were still asleep, the Chinese rose covered with dew was quietly blooming, just like dreaming, waking up and blooming. If you are interested in biological breeding and willing to engage in flower breeding, welcome to join us to create the "Chinese core" of Chinese rose seeds!

　　Wu Guiqin, a poultry breeding researcher:I’m Wu Guiqin, a poultry breeding researcher. Look, these two chickens in my hand are so cute! This one is only a laying hen, and this one is only a broiler. But it is these two little guys that have kept us under the control of others for a long time. Why? Because they are produced in Europe and America, they once occupied more than 80% of our market.

　　I’m sure you’ll say, then let’s raise it ourselves. Breeding is not a simple matter. In order to control the core technology, chickens sold to us abroad cannot be directly used for breeding, just like seedless watermelons. They not only control the pricing power, but also decide the number of seeds supplied and the delivery time. Once there is an epidemic or trade barrier, we can’t eat chicken freely. You know, we are a gourmet country. Chinese eats more than 6 billion white broilers and more than 400 billion eggs every year.

　　In order not to be controlled by others, I began to "compete with this chicken" when I was a graduate student in 2003, and I continued to "smell the chicken dancing" when I graduated from my doctor’s job. For twenty years, breeding was like opening a black box with countless keys, exploring millions of chickens with the professional knowledge I learned, and designing nearly 100 combinations. Finally, we cultivated five layers and three broilers, broke the blockade and put our own eggs in Chinese’s rice bowl.

　　In the process of breaking through the provenance from scratch, we have also encountered numerous difficulties, but the continuous innovation and iterative biotechnology is accelerating the process of our breeding breakthrough. Now every day of my work is not only interesting, but also more meaningful. How’s it going? After hearing this, are you excited about the students who are going to enter the university?

　　My teacher, Mr. Zhang Yuan, once said: "Breeding is a science, but also an art." If you have the creativity of a scientist and the imagination of an artist, come and activate your potential in the ocean of animal breeding with us, and witness the high-quality development of seed industry in China!