| Being the No.1 grain in China, rice ranks foremost among all the grains in China in terms of the total growing areas, the total output and grain yield per unit area. The production of rice has long been of crucial and strategic importance in China's grain cultivation and agricultural growth. The rapid increase of rice production could help solve the grain problem of the country. Breeding technology is the fundamental means of the yield increase of rice. The advancement of breeding technology in the past three decades has laid a solid foundation for China's rice breeding technology and rice yield since the 1950s. Breeding technology, in particular the breeding of rice, plays a central role in the agricultural achievements of the recent decades. To sum up the merits and demerits of the contemporary breeding technology of rice and analyze the reasons and historical value behind its development could help with the understanding of the entire development trend of rice breeding technology in the 20th century. It could also help grasp the development rules and shed light on the motivation and conditions that promotes the transition from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture so as to provide insights into future development of the agricultural technology.Based on the layout of the breeding technology for rice, the theoretical research of genetic breeding, the advancement of the breeding technology, the selection of quality seeds and its popularization, Chapter One divides the development of breeding technology in contemporary China into three stages. The first stage goes from the end of the 19th century to 1919 when contemporary agriculture had been spread in China and innovative farms and farming schools had been set up to signal the initial pace of agricultural reform but western breeding theories were yet to be publicized in China and the scientific system of breeding were yet to take root. Professional breeding organizations and personnel were yet to be trained and quality rice varieties were yet to be selected on the basis of the contemporary technology. The second stage lasts from 1919 till 1930 when foreign breeding experts and returned Chinese students helped to introduce advanced breeding theories and technology into China. Pure variety breeding technology were spread gradually and hybrid breeding technology was also applied to the practices of rice breeding to make China's rice breeding march forward on a systematic, intentional and procedural track. The colleges of agriculture with the Central University and Dr. Sun Yat-sen's University became the source and center for rice breeding in China. Quality varieties, however, were rare and scarce then with the only exception of mass growing areas of rice by the college of agriculture with the Central University. The third stage goes from 1930 to 1949. In the 1930s, breeding organizations such as the central agricultural experiment institute and the national wheat and rice reform institute were set up to indicate that China's breeding experts had grasped the breeding theories and methods of contemporary science to enable them carry out independent research and boost the independent development of China's breeding technology. This stage is the harvest period in China's contemporary rice breeding with more than 300 quality rice varieties selected and 90% of them were bred between 1930 and 1945.Chapter Three analyzes the theoretical and technological development of rice breeding. Theoretically, starting from the total blank period of the early 20th century to the 1930s when China was integrated with the international genetic breeding community, Chinese scholars conducted profound and systematic research on rice breeding, rice genetics, physiology, ecology and cytology. Some of the research findings, such as the one done by Zhao Lianfang on the chain genetic effects of rice, measured up to international standard of the day. In terms of the breeding technology, western techniques and methods were introduced into China to be grasped by China's breeding experts who would later apply them into practice and reform them in practice. Variety appraisal and pure variety breeding were applied on a wide scale to become the most important breeding technology of the day while cross-breeding and mutation breeding were tested and applied gradually. Contemporary rice breeding technology therefore makes much difference with traditional approach in theory and technology.Chapter Four makes a systematic summary of the breeding organizations and the popularization of quality varieties in contemporary China. Based on the contemporary breeding theory, Chinese breeding experts overcame difficulties to come up with more than 300 new rice varieties in 30 years. The achievements of rice breeding surpassed all other grains in terms of the number of quality varieties cultivated. These varieties were fundamentally cultivated after 1930s and most of them were of pure breed, including the first generation of hybrid Ding Ying nurtured on the basis of the wild rice and cultivated rice. Important breeding organizations of the day include the agricultural college of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's University, Zhejiang provincial rice and wheat reform institute, Jiangxi agricultural institute, Hunan experimental farms, Sichuan rice and wheat reform institute and the central agricultural experiment institute. Most of the quality varieties were promoted after the breakout of the Anti-Japanese War with the only exception of the 200000 mu of rice growing area done by the Central University. The Nante variety was the one that was popularized with the fastest speed and the largest growing area. Since its initial demonstrative popularization in 1938, Nante was grown in many provinces and in 1947 alone the its growing areas in Jiangxi, Fujian and Hunan rose to 2.7 million mu. Between 1938 and 1947, Jiangxi alone recorded 11 million mu of Nante growing areas. In terms of the popularization of quality rice varieties, the most prominent provinces were Hunan, Jiangxi and Guangdong. According to the national grain yield increase report of the ministry of agriculture and forestry, between 1941 and 1946, an accumulative area of 27.89 million mu of quality rice varieties were popularized in Jiangxi, Hunan, Sichuan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, Hebei, Zhejiang, Fujian, Anhui and Shaanxi.Chapter Five is devoted to the significance of the rice breeding technology on China's contemporary economic and social development. Quality varieties were popularized in the aforementioned regions to promote the rice yield per unit and the total grain yield as well. The quality of rice was also improved to contribute to the profit rise of the farmers. Effect was also made on the growing system and areas of the rice. The yield per unit of the reformed rice rose by some 25 kg compared with the traditional one to increase yield by 10%. Between 1941 and 1946 the popularization of quality rice variety contributed to the entire rice yield increase of 13 million kg in Sichuan and 11 other provinces. The popularization of quality rice variety promoted the regional agricultural development, in particular that of the later period of the Anti-Japanese War. The advancement of contemporary breeding technology also laid a solid foundation for modern rice breeding and development. Based on the popularization of quality rice varieties developed since 1950,25 of the varieties were promoted on a growing area of 1 million mu on an annual basis. Nante variety in particular was promoted on a growing area of 10 million mu to exert crucial impact on the rice growing of the 1950s and 1960s. Genetic breeding was used on a wider scale to give rise to 8 generations of rice varieties that added up to 258 in total, In addition, contemporary agricultural colleges and institutes trained many breeding specialists who would later become the backbone in China's rice breeding technology. Without the advancement of contemporary breeding theories and technologies, there would not have been the green revolution on the basis of the short-stalked rice in the 1960s.Chapter Six explores the motivation and conditions that help develop the scientific means of rice breeding on the basis of the technological innovative theory and the mutation theory of agricultural development. Motivation is the key to one breakthrough after another in the development of contemporary science and technology. The breakthroughs in genetics and physiology promoted the advancement of breeding technology. The resourceful social demands of contemporary China also meant that new technology is needed to alleviate the burden of the population on farm land. The inability of the government to invest heftily in agriculture triggered the development of breeding technology with the benefits of saving land and increasing yield. Governments at all levels, who were unable to inject more money into agricultural research, provided systematic guarantee by making systematic reforms in agriculture, drafting regulations and setting up new research institute and popularization organizations. Measures taken by the governments during the Anti-Japanese War period to increase rice yield resulted in the forceful transition of technology. As a brand new technology, breeding technology of contemporary China is also attributable to the introduction, assimilation and localization of the advanced technologies from abroad. Such adaptation and localization has jointly contributed to the breakthroughs in China's rice breeding technology.The conclusion chapter sums up the characteristics of contemporary rice breeding technology. Compared with traditional technology, contemporary rice breeding distinguishes with its scientific theories and methods. Contemporary breeding technology is closely connected with science, in particular such basic sciences as genetics which gives guidance to the scientific research and experiment with clear-cut goals and prudent statistical procedures and field study. Professional organizations and personnel also play an important part in the scientific development of contemporary rice breeding which is further characterized as being large in scale, short in period and efficient in profit. Governments at all levels are also crucial to the development of rice breeding with all the rice varieties selected and nurtured by government-sponsored institutes. The popularization of quality rice varieties also owes a lot to agricultural departments, in particular the efforts made by the governments during the Anti-Japanese War period.The transition of contemporary rice breeding technology is of great significance to the development of modern agricultural science and technology with the following reasons. First, foreign varieties have to be localized to adapt them to the local conditions on the basis of the applicable technology. Second, governments at all levels provides crucial technological guarantee to agricultural research and agricultural technology popularization. Third, technology must go in accordance with the social needs and the society-oriented approach is the ultimate direction of agricultural technology innovation. |
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