With less than one-tenth of the world's arable land, China faces the major task of feeding one-fifth of the world's population.

Professor Li Zichao of China Agricultural University has spent decades studying rice resources and improving the elite germplasm for rice breeding.

"The main issue of rice breeding is achieving efficient and precise breeding, using efficient genome selection technologies," he told CGTN.

During the winter season, most of the rice is planted in southern China. At a greenhouse of China Agricultural University, researchers have been observing a few plants to learn about their performance in terms of drought resistance.

But drought resistance is only one desirable trait for rice. Professor Li said that rice varieties with multiple traits such as high yield, good quality, disease resistance, and insect resistance could meet the country's rice production and consumption demands.

"This is difficult to achieve with traditional breeding techniques. After these genes are identified and cloned, they can be pyramided together through effective molecular design. We've also established an effective platform for exploring genes of complex quantitative traits, which are valuable and useful for modern molecular design breeding," Professor Li said.

He added that precise and effective breeding also requires strengthening the capabilities of China's seed breeding enterprises. "If seed companies are not strong, they will not be able to invest more manpower and material resources. This will make it difficult to guarantee the effective application of modern breeding technologies based on precise genetic identification," he said.

China has vowed to maintain its 120 million hectares of arable land and cut back on food waste. All of this is to ensure food supply and security for future generations.