Top seeds

Seeds are key to agricultural modernization, experts said.

"Every year, the provincial finance department organizes 300 million yuan for seed industry innovation and development to continue to support its revitalization and development," said Meng Linghui, deputy director of the seed industry management office of Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

"Since 2021, the province has approved, and promoted, 1,710 new varieties of major crops, and built the country's largest cold-region crops and soybean germ-plasm resources bank, providing strong support for continuous and stable grain production and increases."

In recent years, Heilongjiang has carried out a series of initiatives to boost the seed industry, which have had significant success.

Zhang Yu, deputy director of the province's agriculture and rural affairs department, said Heilongjiang is at the forefront of conventional japonica rice and soybean breeding, with 15 varieties included in the national promotion catalog. This plays an important role in increasing yields, he said.

Heilongjiang has 549 crop-breeding enterprises, with seven companies in the top 10 in national soybean seed sales. Five companies are in the top 10 in national rice seed sales.

Zhang said Heilongjiang has established 19 national-level seed production counties and high-quality breeding bases. The total cultivated area of major grain crops exceeds 300,000 hectares, producing 1.4 million tons of high-quality seed crops annually, he said.

"To safeguard the interests of farmers and ensure national food security, the province thoroughly implemented the newly amended Seed Law, achieving the seed quality compliance rate of over 98 percent," Zhang said.