Sustained efforts to develop resources called key to achieving food security

President Xi Jinping has emphasized the importance of independence in seed sources in order to ensure China's food security, calling for sustained efforts in developing the country's seed industry.

He made the remark on Sunday as he inspected Hainan Yazhou Bay Seed Laboratory in Sanya, Hainan province, where a major seed breeding base is located.

Due to Sanya's location at 18 degrees north latitude, the breeding cycle of seeds can be greatly shortened, thus providing superior conditions for agricultural scientific research. Since the 1950s, more than 70 percent of the nation's new crop varieties have been bred at the base there.

China's food security can only be achieved when seed resources are tightly held in Chinese hands, Xi said, adding that the country's seed sources must be independent and controllable, and technologies related to the seed industry must be self-reliant.

This is a matter of strategic significance, he said, calling for efforts to carry forward the spirit of scientists and researchers of the older generations, such as Yuan Longping, the late agronomist known as the "father of hybrid rice".

The president has stressed the importance of food security on many occasions since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012.

Last month, while meeting national political advisers from the agriculture and welfare and social security sectors in Beijing, he said that food security is among a country's most fundamental interests, and China cannot rely solely on the international market for food.

On Sunday afternoon, Xi also visited a research institute of Ocean University of China to learn about the development of marine science and technology.

It was the third inspection tour that Xi has made in the southern island province since he was elected general secretary of the CPC Central Committee in 2012.