On October 3rd, Liu Yongbin, Chief Scientist of the National Sheep Industry Technology System and Vice President of our university, was invited to participate in an interview program on CCTV Finance Channel, where he deeply interpreted the current development of China's seed industry and the current status and future trends of the beef and sheep industry.
Recently, seven departments including the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the National Development and Reform Commission issued a notice on promoting stable development of beef and dairy cattle production, making comprehensive arrangements for stabilizing beef and dairy cattle production. As common ingredients on people's dining tables, the production of beef and mutton is closely related to the interests of farmers and industrial competitiveness. Among them, the breeding of beef cattle and sheep, with high-quality breeds, is the "chip" to enhance the competitiveness of breeding, and is at the forefront of international technological and industrial competition. In this context, how to enhance the competitiveness of beef and mutton breeding by cultivating high-quality breeds has become a focus of attention in the industry. How can the seed industry "chip" seek innovation and change to better serve the people's better life? Researcher Liu Yongbin, as a specially invited expert of CCTV Financial Review, provided an interpretation on this matter.
Researcher Liu Yongbin pointed out that in response to the obvious characteristics of regional sheep farming in China, the predominance of local breeds in pastoral areas, and low production efficiency, many regions have proposed solutions to improve the quality and quantity of sheep by utilizing the advantages of hybrid breeding. By introducing breeds and cultivating multi-litter sheep for hybrid production, many regions in China have achieved significant improvements in sheep production efficiency, with meat yield rates basically on par with developed sheep raising countries abroad. This achievement not only demonstrates China's technological innovation capability in the livestock and poultry breeding industry, but also lays a solid foundation for the development of animal husbandry.
Meanwhile, researcher Liu Yongbin also emphasized the fundamental and crucial role of livestock and poultry breeding industry in the development of animal husbandry. He mentioned that besides sheep breeding, the research and development of beef cattle breeding is equally important. Despite being limited by factors such as the late start of the industry, foreign beef cattle breeds still account for a large proportion of beef breeds in China. However, China is actively seeking breakthroughs and striving to enhance the cultivation ability and market competitiveness of independent breeds.
When it comes to the development of breeding technology, researcher Liu Yongbin stated that China has now entered the transitional stage from hybrid breeding to molecular breeding in four stages: traditional breeding, hybrid breeding, molecular breeding, and intelligent design breeding. To break through the long breeding cycle and key technological challenges, market-oriented efforts should be made to strengthen revolutionary technology research and development, cultivate competitive and internationally influential seed industry enterprises, which is an important path for the next step.
The Third Plenary of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China emphasized that further comprehensive deepening of reforms should be based on promoting social fairness and justice, and enhancing people's well-being. The visit of Researcher Liu Yongbin to CCTV Finance Channel not only reflects our school's continuous attention to the development of national agricultural science and technology and people's well-being, but also shows the professional strength of related disciplines. It also provides valuable ideas and directions for people from all walks of life who are concerned about the progress of the industry. We firmly believe that with the support of national policies and continuous technological innovation and breakthroughs, China's sheep and beef cattle industry will embrace a better development prospect and contribute more to the people's better life.