Following his field deployment in Xiaxian county, Jing returned to the Yuncheng seed station to oversee wider regional crop diversification, focusing specifically on utilizing the marginal land resources of the Yellow River floodplain. "Seeds are the 'chip' of agriculture. Every quality seed should become the hope of a bountiful harvest," he said.

　　Collaborating with local commercial seed enterprises, Jing's department developed a rice-wheat crop rotation system tailored for the region's saline-alkali soils. The project achieved a localized rice seed yield exceeding 4.5 metric tons per hectare, matching or exceeding the quality metrics of traditional southern Chinese rice production zones.

　　"Conducting rice seed production on the Yellow River floodplain is a practical measure to develop new agricultural productive forces," Jing said. "It further diversifies the seed industry, strengthens the foundation for quality seed breeding, drives local farmers' employment and income growth, empowers village collective economic development, and helps upgrade and improve the efficiency of specialty agriculture."

　　He added: "Today, seed technology and marketization are accelerating. Compound, professional new-type farmers have become the core force for improving the quality of agricultural seeds."

　　Contact the writers at chenliang@chinadaily.com.cn