At the invitation of American Cotton Incorporated, Prof. Zhu Shuijin and Associate Prof. Chen Jinhong from the Institute of Crop Science attended 2015 Cotton Breeder’s Tour in America on September 10th to 20th.
During the inspection, Prof. Zhu and Associate Prof. Chen attended two lectures entitled with Bridging genomics & breeding given by Professor Andy Paterson, and Fiber development in Gh and Gb cotton given by Candace Haigler. They inspected joint test and regional test in southeast cotton belt of new varieties and lines of cotton bred by relevant universities, agricultural research centers, private seed companies and other units in America .Also, they visited a number of major test stations including NCSU Central Crops Research Station in North Carolina, Coker Farms National Historic Landmark at Hartwell of South Carolina State, Monsanto cotton Experimental Station, Cotton Breeding Experimental Station of Clemson University, Pee Dee Research & Education Center, Dow/Phytogen cotton breeding base, conventional cotton farms of Devon Williams test station in Georgia, Cotton Breeding Experimental Station of Dawson Bayer Company, University of Georgia at Tifton and so on. At the same time, they visited the fiber testing; the spinning, weaving and dyeing laboratories of Cotton Company’s corporate headquarter located on city of Cary, North Carolina and the demonstration of cotton by-products for housing construction in Georgia. Meanwhile, they surveyed some breeding bases where planted new lines of corn, peanuts, soybeans, sweet potatoes, sorghum, tobacco, turf grass, pecans , grapes and other crops. Totally, there are 120 cotton breeders from different countries; for instance, China, India, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Mexico, America, etc. attended this activity.
During the inspection, delegation led by Prof. Zhu exchanged views with an alumnus of agronomy department, Dr. Xie Jiahua from NC Central University, and reached a cooperation intention regarding to genetically modified cotton cooperative research,.
Currently, cotton industry in China is in the doldrums. Hence, for its development, Achieving full mechanization has become an inevitable trend, as well as breeding suitable cotton varieties for mechanized operation. Through the investigation, members of delegation gained further understanding of the latest progress on American southeast cotton breeding, expanded the knowledge and broadened the horizons. More importantly, all the information and technology found during this scientific tour will be significant reference and inspiration for the development of cotton varieties suitable for mechanization in China.
