Seeding the future of food

"These rice seeds were collected by my father Duan Chuanjia's generation of resource workers in the 1970s and kept in the warehouse in the 1990s. Now we have to take them out to check their traits and prepare for renewal and reproduction to maintain the vitality of the seeds," says Duan Yonghong, the person in charge of the resource bank.

The germplasm resource bank not only provides basic materials for researchers to create new varieties (such as new hybrid rice varieties), but also provides convenience for the purification and rejuvenation of dominant local varieties, with significant social and economic benefits. For example, the fragrance of Jiangyong Fragrant Rice, for various reasons, diminishes when farmers plant a range of varieties at the same time. The Jiangyong Fragrant Rice resources preserved in the germplasm resource bank have recovered the fragrance by purifying and rejuvenating the preserved seeds.