Ear seed, awn seed, busy harvest.

On June 6, the reporter came to the Yuwan Family Farm in Hai'an City, Jiangsu Province. The farmer Yu Qingrong was busy with transplanting rice seedlings. Behind him was a 1600 mu rice field.

"This Nanjing 9108 is the most suitable rice variety for us to grow in Hai'an." Yu Qingrong grabbed a handful of seedlings and showed it to the reporter

On June 9, at the provincial science and technology award conference held in Nanjing, the "Creation and Application of High-yielding and High-quality Japonica Rice Nanjing 46, Nanjing 5055 and Nanjing 9108" hosted by researcher Wang Cailin of Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences won the second prize of Jiangsu Science and Technology Award.

Since the 1990s, Wang Cailin has devoted himself to cultivating both delicious and high-yield rice, and has successively bred several varieties of rice with good taste. At present, the rice planting area in Jiangsu is about 33 million mu, of which 40% of the "South Japonica" series varieties developed and cultivated by Wang Cailin's team have become the backbone of the revitalization of the rice industry.

Looking for genes that make rice delicious

Jiangsu has been a land of fish and rice since ancient times. The Taihu Lake basin has a history of rice cultivation for more than 8000 years. It is a famous rice producing area in China and an important origin center of japonica rice.

However, for a long time, the high-end high-quality rice sold in the Jiangsu market was basically imported, including Northeast rice, Thai fragrant rice and Japanese rice, but there was no Jiangsu rice.

In 1991, Wang Cailin was sent to the Department of Agriculture of Miyazaki University for further study at his own expense. In his first month in Japan, the teacher ordered a sashimi bento for him. Wang Cailin, who ate sashimi for the first time, was "stunned" by the rice. "I can't eat sashimi, but rice is especially delicious." Wang Cailin asked the teacher, "What kind of rice is this? Why is it so delicious?"

"You don't know that! This is' Yueguang ', the best rice in Japan." The teacher's proud expression on his face made Wang Cailin unforgettable. Wang Cailin also went to the Japanese supermarket, "Akita Kocho", "Love at first sight", "Sunlight", and even "Thunderbolt"... The rice in the Japanese supermarket is not only diverse, but also beautifully packaged, and the name is also good.

Inspired by this, Wang Cailin firmly believes that with the improvement of people's living standards, high-quality rice will also be favored in China, and quality breeding is an inevitable trend.

In the 1990s, Wang Cailin went to Japan twice to study for a doctor's degree and engage in post-doctoral research. After finishing his studies, he declined the repeated retention of his tutor, gave up the preferential conditions in Japan and resolutely returned home. At this time, he had a goal in his heart and decided to pursue it all his life: "Let the Chinese eat the most delicious rice."

In order to cultivate high yield and delicious rice, Wang Cailin's team collected thousands of japonica rice varieties, including "Kantong 194", from which the key gene Wx-mp controlling the taste quality of rice was found. After more than ten years of cultivation, "Nanjing 46" suitable for planting in the Taihu Lake basin was cultivated, and its quality was comparable to that of Japanese "Yueguang" rice. Subsequently, it continued to develop a series of high-quality soft rice varieties such as "Nanjing 5055" and "Nanjing 9108". Among them, "Nanjing 9108" is one of the largest japonica rice varieties in China.

"Three products and one standard" helps revive the rice industry

One family cooks rice with a hundred fragrance, and one mu of rice has a fragrance of ten li. After the promotion of Nanjing rice series, it was soon launched in the domestic rice market.

"Taking Nanjing 46 as an example, it reaches the national standard of second-grade high-quality rice. The cooked rice is crystal clear, fragrant, soft and smooth, elastic, cold but not hard, and has excellent taste quality. It is known as the 'best rice' in Jiangsu Province," Wang Cailin told reporters.

In 2016, at the Sino-Japanese Symposium on the Selection and Taste Evaluation of Japonica Rice Varieties with Good Taste held in Hiroshima, Japan, "Nanjing 46" defeated the Japanese ace rice variety "Yueguang" and won the "Best Award".

At the same time, the South Japonica rice series also has the characteristics of resistance to stripe leaf blight and high yield, with an average yield of 600~700 kg per mu. Seven varieties were identified as super rice by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, realizing the unity of high quality, disease resistance and high yield.

Yu Qingrong told reporters that when he first planted Nanjing 9108 in 2016, he was also skeptical. He planted more than 200 mu with the idea of trying. Unexpectedly, the rice was mature and listed, and the purchase price per kilogram was 0.2 yuan higher than that of other varieties. The next year, he eliminated other varieties and switched to Nanjing 9108.

In response to the realistic dilemma of "strong rice and weak rice" in Jiangsu Province, Wang Cailin, who is more than 60 years old, continues to run in the fields of hope.

How should Jiangsu Rice make its own brand? Wang Cailin told reporters that the weakness of the rice industry chain in Jiangsu is an important factor affecting the revitalization of rice in Jiangsu. "Our rice processing enterprises rarely have their own production bases. On the other hand, our farmers have grown good rice and do not know where to sell it. For this reason, the South Japonica Rice Production and Marketing Alliance came into being. We build a bridge for large farmers and processing enterprises to realize the standardization of the whole industrial chain 'order planting'."

At the end of 2020, Jiangsu Shuiyun Sumi Industry Research Institute Co., Ltd. was established. Wang Cailin endorsed his rice and provided "three products and one standard" technical services for large farmers: providing good varieties, cultivating good quality and creating a good brand through standardized planting technology throughout the industry chain.

At present, the South Japonica rice series has become the outstanding representative of the fine taste rice varieties in Jiangsu Province and the leading variety for the establishment of the high-quality rice brand, and has made great contributions to the revitalization of the "Sumi" brand. "Shuiyun Sumi", "Jinling Rice", "Jiangnan Rice", "Sheyang Rice", "Xinghua Rice" and other provincial, municipal and county public brands, the vast majority of which are South Japonica varieties. Among them, "Nanjing 9108" was listed as the leading variety in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. At present, although Wang Cailin has retired, his successor Zhang Yadong continues to lead the team to cultivate new varieties such as "Nanjing 5718", "Nanjing 3908" and "Nanjing 9308". The planting area covers southern Jiangsu, central Jiangsu, northern Jiangsu and neighboring provinces such as Shanghai, Anhui, Zhejiang, Shandong and Henan, with a total promotion area of more than 90 million mu, an increase of 2.8 million tons of rice and an increase of more than 25 billion yuan.