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Food is the most fundamental demand for human beings and the key factor that determines social development. In the future, world food security is still facing challenges. Molecular design breeding is an important approach to solving the problem of future food security. However, there are still many bottlenecks and problems in the theory, technology and standardization of molecular design breeding. To face the demand of future agriculture and food safety production, we summarized the food security problems that China and the world are facing, the development course of breeding technology and the achievements of molecular design breeding in China. We also pointed out the development trend of molecular design breeding in the future, and discussed the bottlenecks and countermeasures faced by molecular design breeding in China. In the end, focusing on the key questions in the scientific and technological innovation in future molecular design breeding, we laid out suggestions on the strategic planning of molecular design breeding towards 2035. The review provides important insights for future agricultural science and technology development.

Red leaves are common in trees but rare in cereal crops. Red leaves can be used as raw materials for anthocyanin extraction and may have some adaptive significance for plants. In this study, we discovered a red leaf phenotype in the F

Grassland has critically important ecological efficiency as well as economic values. While overgrazing and climate change have been reported to lead to the deterioration of grassland ecosystem functions and ecological efficiency, the implementation of a rational policy may mitigate such effects. The ‘Forage-Livestock Balance’ policy refers to balancing the relationship between forage productivity and grazing capacity of grasslands, and has been implemented in northern grassland areas in China since the year of 2000. In this study, we firstly examined spatio-temporal changes in the ecological efficiency of grass-based livestock husbandry in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia, China, using the Super-efficiency Data Envelopment Analysis method, and then analyzed the effects of the ‘Forage-Livestock Balance’ policy on the ecological efficiency. The Difference-in-Difference (DiD) approach was applied to investigate the differences of ecological efficiency in county-level outcomes between prior to and after the implementation of policy. The results showed that the county-level ecological efficiency in Hulunbuir was low in the year of 2000, thereafter it displayed an increasing trend from year of 2000–2015, though no significant differences were occurred in each of counties of Hulunbuir. Among the counties, Yakeshi county and Zhalantun county had the highest ecological efficiency, and Chen County had the lowest. The DiD analysis suggested that the ‘Forage-Livestock Balance’ policy had a remarkable effect on the ecological efficiency of grass-based livestock husbandry. Compared to traditional pasture management, the policy has greatly improved the ecological efficiency of grasslands. Our research results provide a useful reference for the sustainable development of grassland livestock management, which is an important countermeasure to improve the efficiency of grassland livestock husbandry, alleviate the pressure on grassland ecosystems, and ensure the living standards of residents in the context of climate change and the risk of recurring disasters.

Grassland is the largest area of territorial ecosystems in China, and accounts for more than 30% of the total national land area. Primarily located in the north part and as the homeland of most ethnic minorities, the grassland region is critical for ecological safety and the national security of the country. Furthermore, grassland provides nearly one-third of the country total red meat and dairy products, respectively, and is important for national healthy food supply. Yet, it is believed that a large proportion of China’s grasslands has been degraded or desertified at various degrees because of overgrazing, increased population, mining, farming activities, and climate change. To achieve grassland sustainable development, new concepts and technological advancement are required to tackle the degradation challenges and to balance the relationships between “ecological civilization, sustainable production and better living standard”. For this purpose, we proposed the concept of “Grass-based Livestock Husbandry” (abbreviated as GLiH concept), which defines ecologically-sound management of grass-fed livestock and includes three production systems: forage cultivation, forage processing, and livestock management and processing. This paper documents contents and significance of the GLiH concept, and discusses key scientific and technical issues in the development of grass-based livestock husbandry and their possible solutions. The key of the concept is the coupling and coherent development of an inter-dependent “grass-livestock relationship”. In the GLiH concept, “grasses” (including various perennial and annual grass and shrub species) are considered as the foundation of “livestock” and provides an explanation for the long-standing frustration in China’s livestock farming industry, in which for years forage production has been totally neglected. GLiH also emphasizes the dual (productional and ecological) function of the grassland and proposes to manage the grassland regions according to the “small vs. big” theory, i.e., to allocate a small area of resources-rich land for cultivation of forage crops with high biomass and high quality to protect the vast but fragile grasslands away from over-grazing and over-exploitation, as such to secure the demand of the animal feed supplies as well as to allow the grassland to make its ecological functioning. We also propose eight principles for the development of grass-based livestock husbandry, including grass breeding, artificial grassland farming, conservation and better use of natural grassland, rational allocation between grass production and ecological functioning, efficient harvesting and processing, efficient feeding of livestock, efficient use of natural resources, and systems development. To verify the GLiH concept, a large scale pilot project of “Development of Experimental Zone for Sustainable Management of Grass-based Livestock Systems” has been implemented, in collaboration with Hulun Buir State Farm Conglomerate, and the project has achieved a big success ecologically and economically.

Nitrogen (N) is a major driving force for crop yield improvement, but application of high levels of N delays flowering, prolonging maturation and thus increasing the risk of yield losses. Therefore, traits that enable utilization of high levels of N without delaying maturation will be highly desirable for crop breeding. Here, we show that OsNRT1.1A (OsNPF6.3), a member of the rice (Oryza sativa) nitrate transporter 1/peptide transporter family, is involved in regulating N utilization and flowering, providing a target to produce high yield and early maturation simultaneously. OsNRT.1A has functionally diverged from previously reported NRT1.1 genes in plants and functions in upregulating the expression of N utilization-related genes not only for nitrate but also for ammonium, as well as flowering-related genes. Relative to the wild type, osnrt1.1a mutants exhibited reduced N utilization and late flowering. By contrast, overexpression of OsNRT1.1A in rice greatly improved N utilization and grain yield, and maturation time was also significantly shortened. These effects were further confirmed in different rice backgrounds and also in Arabidopsis thaliana Our study paves a path for the use of a single gene to dramatically increase yield and shorten maturation time for crops, outcomes that promise to substantially increase world food security.

The annual double-cropping system of winter wheat and summer maize requires a large amount of irrigation which has led to the rapid depletion of groundwater resources in the North China Plain (NCP). Alternate cropping systems and limited irrigation strategies should be developed for the purposes of maintaining sustainable groundwater use now and in the future. In this study, the water use and crop production of seven cropping systems under three irrigation strategies were assessed using the Agricultural Production Systems SIMulator (APSIM) during 1987–2017 as a baseline and in 2040, 2060, and 2080 under climate change conditions at a typical site in the NCP. The APSIM was calibrated and validated using field experimental data collected during 2007–2016. The seven cropping systems included the current double annual cropping system (2C/1Y) and six other reduced cropping-intensity systems with either three crops every two years (3C/2Y) or one crop per year (1C/1Y). The three irrigation strategies were full irrigation (FI), minimum irrigation (MI, only one irrigation at sowing for seedling establishment) and critical stage irrigation (CI, adding one more irrigation at the critical stage based on MI). The results showed that under current growing conditions, sustainable groundwater use could be achieved with 2C/1Y under MI, 3C/2Y and 1C/1Y under FI. However, the annual yield production was reduced by 9–22% under 3C/2Y and 54–79% under 1C/1Y compared with that under 2C/1Y. The results indicated that 2C/1Y was a better choice for crop production under similar water use. The simulated yield for future scenarios was lower than that during the baseline period; and the reduction rate varied from 2 to 11% under FI; 6–9% under CI; and 10–21% under MI, suggesting that crop production would be more negatively affected under water-limited conditions than that under full water supply condition. The annual water use of the reduced cropping systems was projected to increase because of relative high soil evaporation during the fallow period (Ef). Water use efficiency (WUE) was reduced partly due to the increased Ef. The traditional 2C/1Y under MI had the potential to sustain the groundwater balance in the region and concurrently resulted in higher grain production and WUE than that of the systems with reduced cropping intensity, both now and under climate change, and therefore, this system should be prioritized in this region.

With increasing environmental pressure and soil pollution, sustainable energy and food production for a steadily growing world population is a grand challenge. Globally, nearly 12 million hectares of croplands are contaminated by cadmium (Cd), and how to develop a production system for the cleaning and utilisation of such contaminated land is essential for sustainability. Herein, a diverse panel of 166 sorghum accessions was grown in typical Cd-contaminated fields in two consecutive years, and the effect of different accessions and organs on the phytoremediation potential was evaluated by analysing the Cd concentrations of stems, leaves and grains at maturity. Both the bioaccumulation factors (BCFs) and the aboveground Cd accumulation varied substantially and the differences were up to 13–24 fold. The aboveground Cd accumulation was positively associated with important bioenergy traits including biomass, stem Brix, internode numbers and plant height, as envisaged by the high Cd concentration in sweet sorghum accessions, while BCF was significantly negatively correlated with relevant agronomic traits except Brix. The genetic regulation of Cd concentration in grains is different from those in leaves and stems, which allowed us to screen for three types of sorghum resources with the potential to couple soil phytoremediation with the production of bioethanol, safe grains and forage. A sorghum farming system was further proposed, which could reduce soil Cd concentration below the safe level within 12 years and obtain economic returns of about 70.5–169.5 million Chinese Yuan (CNY) by producing bioethanol, safe grains and forage in one season in 30% of the Cd-contaminated soil in China.

Closing the gap between yields currently achieved on farms and those that can potentially be achieved with best practice and current technology (the yield gap) is a key strategy to intensify grain production without expanding cropland. Much research has been done to quantify the yield gap of wheat, maize and rice globally and of wheat, barley, canola, sorghum and pulse crops in Australia. However, crops are grown in rotations (recurring crop sequences) that vary in their cropping intensities and in the diversity of their species. Little is known about yield gaps at the cropping system level, especially in regions where there are many possible combinations of crop types and fallow periods. This prompted us to investigate crop rotations in Australia's subtropical grains region where current crop rotations include winter and summer cropping with cereal, pulse and oilseed crops interspersed with fallow periods ranging from nil to 18 months duration. To determine the system level yield gaps, we simulated the water-limited yield potential of 26 locally practiced crop rotations for over 800 weather stations by up to 3 soil types per station. We captured the impact of climate variability with 30–35 years by 2–7 fields per rotation for each site. We expressed the results in terms of energy, protein and revenue per hectare per year and mapped the results of the optimal rotations over the cropping zone. Surprisingly, a single rotation (sorghum/fallow/mungbean/wheat/fallow/chickpea rotation; with 4 crops in 3 years, balanced between summer and winter crops and between cereal and pulse crops) was optimal for revenue over almost the whole subtropical grain zone. Using revenue as the metric for yield gaps at statistical local area scale we found, over the whole subtropical zone, a mean revenue gap of 970 $/ha/yr. This represents a relative revenue (Revenue% = 100 x (actual revenue/water-limited revenue)) of 34% which is much lower than expected from the 40–60% relative yields achieved by individual crops. We investigated whether growers may select rotations that have lower revenue than the optimal rotation in response to economic factors such as profit and risk. We found that for much of the area the same rotation that optimised revenue also optimised profit. However, for some of the cropping zone, particularly in the south western portion, a different, less intensive and more winter dominant, rotation was most profitable. Similarly, risk averse farmers may choose less productive and profitable rotations with less risk.

Nitrogen (N) is a major driving force for crop yield improvement, but application of high levels of N delays flowering, prolonging maturation and thus increasing the risk of yield losses. Therefore, traits that enable utilization of high levels of N without delaying maturation will be highly desirable for crop breeding. Here, we show that OsNRT1.1A (OsNPF6.3), a member of the rice (

With the growing population and the reducing arable land, breeding has been considered as an effective way to solve the food crisis. As an important part in breeding, high-throughput phenotyping can accelerate the breeding process effectively. Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) is an active remote sensing technology that is capable of acquiring three-dimensional (3D) data accurately, and has a great potential in crop phenotyping. Given that crop phenotyping based on LiDAR technology is not common in China, we developed a high-throughput crop phenotyping platform, named Crop 3D, which integrated LiDAR sensor, high-resolution camera, thermal camera and hyperspectral imager. Compared with traditional crop phenotyping techniques, Crop 3D can acquire multi-source phenotypic data in the whole crop growing period and extract plant height, plant width, leaf length, leaf width, leaf area, leaf inclination angle and other parameters for plant biology and genomics analysis. In this paper, we described the designs, functions and testing results of the Crop 3D platform, and briefly discussed the potential applications and future development of the platform in phenotyping. We concluded that platforms integrating LiDAR and traditional remote sensing techniques might be the future trend of crop high-throughput phenotyping.