Rooted in resilience: China’s seed push plants agricultural ‘chips’, grows self-reliance

China is starting to reap the rewards of its food-security push into the seed sector, aggressively making a play for self-reliance with domestically developed varieties dubbed the “chips” of agriculture.This strategic push, authorities say, has seen the nation make substantial progress in developing and deploying its own vital crop and livestock genetics, aiming to reduce dependence amid global uncertainties.In this once innovation-deficient sector, the domestic breeding source market share for livestock and poultry; aquatic products; and vegetables now exceeds 80 per cent, 86 per cent and 91 per cent, respectively, a high-ranking agricultural official announced at a press conference on Thursday.“For some varieties where China’s breeding level used to be relatively low, not only have we developed our own varieties in recent years, but their market share has also increased rapidly,” said Zhang Xingwang, vice-minister of agriculture and rural affairs.The assessment comes five years after China launched a national campaign in 2021 to clean up the seed market – once filled with pirated and counterfeit crop seeds – while safeguarding the industry from geopolitical risks and the effects of climate change on crop production.It also looked to boost the independent research and development of new varieties after President Xi Jinping called for the “revitalisation of the seed industry”.