The prestigious Second Class of National Science and Technology Awards was presented to the “Tropical and subtropical high-quality, highyield germplasm: innovation research and application” maize project led by Fan Xingming, a CIMMYT partner from the Institute of Food Crops (IFC) at the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences (YAAS), on 18 January 2013 in Beijing, China.
The project, coordinated by the national maize innovation team, has achieved great results in tropical and subtropical maize germplasm improvement, combining ability analysis and heterosis classification, establishing new methods to classify heterotic groups, and developing and registering 25 high-yielding maize hybrids, including Yunrui 8, Yunrui 1, and Yunyou 19. This has helped to resolve the long-lasting problem with the lack of tropical and subtropical superior maize hybrids in China. The hybrids have been planted on a cumulative area of 11 million hectares in the provinces of Yunnan, Guangxi, and Guizhou in southwestern China, and contributed to the provision of resources for poor farmers in the mountainous areas and among minority groups.
Besides the above stated, the project has also received the Science and Technology Progress Award from the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation, three first and nine second prizes at the Provincial Sciences and Technology Award ceremony, and the Golden Prize at the 14th National Invention Exhibition. Dai Jingrui and other scientists from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences praised the project for its domestically established methods, advanced global techniques, and extensive application of outputs benefiting farmers both economically and socially.
This is the first time in the history of YAAS that the Academy has received a national science and technology award, which reflects the importance and success of the collaboration between CIMMYT and YAAS in the sphere of maize germplasm improvement. Congratulations!
Capacity development 