The atrium of a research building at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Beijing features a wall of patents, showcasing 192 certificates in neat rows and tastefully lit from behind. Behind a velvet rope at ground level, glass jars contain the innovations that the patents protect—seeds.
CAS, the world’s largest research organization, along with institutions throughout China, conducts extensive research on the biology of food crops. Chinese scientists have made significant discoveries in recent years, including a gene that, when removed, enhances the length and weight of wheat grains, another that improves the growth of crops like sorghum and millet in salty soils, and one that can increase maize yields by 10%. Last autumn, farmers in Guizhou completed the second harvest of genetically modified giant rice developed by CAS scientists.