China Agri news #3, 2021

Circular economy gets 5-year regulator boost

On the 7^th of July China's top economic regulator unveiled a new development plan to spur the circular economy in the next five years.

The plan's goal is to increase efficiency of utilization of resources and foster high-quality development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), the National Development and Reform Commission said.

By 2025, a resource recycling industry will be established and a resource recycling system covering the entire society will be completed. By then, the resource utilization efficiency will be substantially improved, and the replacement ratio of renewable resources to primary resources will be further increased.

In particular, the productivity of major resources, which quantifies the relations between economic activity and the consumption of major material resources, is set to increase by about 20 percent compared with 2020.

The NDRC said in the plan document that it will step up efforts to promote green design of key products, boost clean production in key industries, promote recycling development of parks, improve the recycling network of waste materials and improve the level of processing and utilization of renewable resources. Source: chinadaily.com

Protect the intellectual property rights of the seed industry

On July 6, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs held a video conference on the special rectification action to protect the intellectual property rights of the seed industry.

The meeting pointed out that strengthening the protection of IPR in the seed industry is the core interests of seed industry innovators, and with the greatest incentive to enhance the competitiveness of China’s seed industry, and be the greatest support for the turnaround of the seed industry. At present, more than 70% of the leading varieties of the country’s main crops are protected varieties, and the contribution rate of improved varieties to China’s grain production is exceeded 45%. It is necessary to continue to promote the protection of intellectual property rights in the entire chain of resource protection, variety research, enterprise cultivation, and base construction. Source: farmer.com.cn (Chinese only)

Short news

• In order to effectively enhance the emergency supply capacity of the central reserve pork and play a better role of government pork reserve regulation, MOFCOM, together with NDRC and MoF, recently launched the 2021 central reserve pork purchasing and storage work, and the public bidding is scheduled for July 7. The first batch of central reserve frozen pork of 20,000 tons was purchased and stored this year. Source: weixin (Chinese only)
• Chinese scientists have cultivated the first generation of hybrid potato seeds and applied the concept of "genome design" to potato breeding for the first time, solving the problems in cultivation. The results were published in Academic Magazine "Cell". R&D scientific team from Shenzhen Agricultural Genomics Institute, operated by China Academy of Agricultural Sciences, used genomic design methods to develop alternative hybrid seeds for potato chunks to improve potato breeding speed and reproductive efficiency. Source: sohu (Chinese only)
• Northwest A&F University and Haisheng Group Co., Ltd. Recently signed a licensing contract for the production and management of new apple variety "Qincui" seedlings, and set a new high for 12 million yuan transfer fees. According to the breeding team of this new variety, "Qincui" has passed the Shaanxi Provincial Fruit Variety Approval Committee in 2016, and got approval to obtain the right of new plant varieties from MARA in 2020. The average fruit weight of this variety is 270 grams. Gao Liang, chairman of Haisheng Group, said that the signing of the "Qin Kui" license agreement is a milestone for Haisheng Group to explore the development of modern agriculture, promote the branding of the apple industry, and also align the national strategy. Source: chinadaily