On May 26, Qian Qian, Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Director of the Institute of Crop Science of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and alumnus of Nankai University, visited his alma mater and gave the Led by masters general education course on Ensuring Absolute Food Security - A Review and Prospect of the Green Revolution.

Using the first green revolution as the lead-in, Member Qian shared the story of the high-yielding semi-dwarf rice; it was a cross of Peta, a high yield rice variety from Indonesia, and Dee-geo-woo-gen (DGWG), a dwarf variety from China, as a result the miracle rice IR8 was developed and it also led to the first green revolution. China is at the forefront of international research in rice breeding, as Qian mentioned: China has achieved semi-dwarf rice breeding 8-9 years ahead of the rest of world. Thanks to the efforts of crop breeding research scientists, represented by Mr. Yuan Longping, China's food security could be therefore ensured.

Till today, rice breeding has never ceased to march forward. The development of molecular breeding technology has brought breakthroughs that the target varieties can be obtained through the mutation of different loci of rice genes such as the green revolution gene sd1 and the superior combinations of different alleles based on phenotypic results. For TTP varieties with strong resistance to magnaporthe oryzae and bacterial bright resistance, the sd1+se5 gene can be modified to change the tall pole to a short pole to advance the tassel stage. The Huazhan phenomenon, known as the wonder in the history of rice breeding in China, in which a new allelic form of HTD1^HZ was discovered based on the study of the molecular mechanism of its strain. It has proved effective in increasing the number of rice tillers and improving rice yield.

Every industry has its way as if rice has its. As long as you are self-aware of what you want at the beginning and strive to make breakthroughs, success will wave at you. This is the message from Member Qian to all the young students.

(Reported by Jinming Liu, translated by Meixu Wu, edited by Davide Francolino and JianjingYun)