Chongqing- One of the must-see attractions for visitors to Chongqing in spring is the 300-mu-large canola flower field on Guangyang Island. Almost all varieties of canola in Chongqing are cultivated by the team led by a female researcher - Huang Taocui, the deputy director of the Rice Research Institute of Chongqing Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the founder of the "Qingyou" series of canola with extra-high oil content.

Huang Taocui, the founder of the "Qingyou" series of canola with extra-high oil content. (Photo provided to iChongqing)

A turning point in life road

"I've been obsessed with biology since middle school." After graduating from college, Huang Taocui became a biology teacher as she wished. It was 2006 when Huang Taocui came across the crucial article, which introduced a party-member teacher who, with 20 years of hard work, successfully cultivated the world-leading canola breed "Yuhuang No. 1".

To follow in the hero's footsteps in the news - professor Li Jiana of the Institute of Modern Agricultural Sciences of Southwest University - Huang Taocui, applied for a master's degree in agronomy at Southwest University. She eventually managed to become a student of Li Jiana, majoring in canola haploid breeding research later that same year.

She then came to the Chongqing Academy of Agricultural Sciences and engaged in canola genetics and breeding. "Changing agriculture with science and technology, benefiting farmers with fruits." That's what her life creed says.

Huang Taocui (right) checks the varieties of orange-colored canola in the Yufu Industrial Park in Liangjiang New Area. (Photo provided to iChongqing)

Research seeds with high oil content

The main goal of canola breeding is to aggregate more excellent traits in the same variety. High yield and oil content are undoubtedly the most critical elements.

"The problem is that the two indicators, oilseed canola yield and oil content, are difficult to unify." Huang Taocui has no idea whether the team will make it, but she struggles with the needs of farmers all along. So she collected various canola germplasm resources all over the country while traveling between the laboratory and the field to conduct research and record data.

Huang Taocui works in the laboratory. (Photo provided to iChongqing)

In 2014, Huang produced the first high-yielding oilseed canola variety in the "Qingyou" series, "Qingyou No. 1". In 2016, a new oilseed canola variety with an oil content of 49%, "Qingyou No. 3", was produced by Huang's team. In 2019, she set a new record by making "Qingyou No. 8," with an oil content of 51.54%.

Shift the research emphasis

The 2022 Central Document No. 1 proposed vigorously implementing the soybean and oilseed production capacity improvement. "This is a guide for us oilseed canola research workers." Huang Taocui said winter canola has a long growth cycle of roughly 210 days, generally harvested in early May of the following year when rice is to be sown. Advancing the harvest date by half a month will contribute to the large-scale promotion of the rice and oil crop rotation model.

Therefore, Huang Taocui shifted the focus of her research to early-maturing canola varieties. Her team successfully screened out and sowed a batch of early-maturing materials with a growth period of 180 days, which is expected to bring forward the canola harvest to mid-April next year.

"Applied agriculture can't be half-hearted." Aiming at farmers' needs, Huang Taocui has taken on a new challenge for herself - to breed varieties with high yield, high oil, early maturity, and suitable for machine harvesting.

(Chen Lu, as an intern, also contributed to the report.)