China has made remarkable progress in developing its agricultural seed industry, both in terms of variety and quality, amid efforts to enhance self-reliance in seeds, according to a nationwide census.

Additionally, China now leads the world in the number of varieties of pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks, and geese, as well as in both variety and species of aquatic products, Liu Xu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, told a press conference on Tuesday citing the census, the third of its kind since 1949.

The survey, initiated in March 2021, gathered over 63,000 germplasm resources for grain crops, including nearly 10,000 soybean resources, showcasing China's advantage as the country of origin for soybeans, Liu noted.

In recent years, China has been working on strengthening the technical support and improving the identification and storage of germplasm resources to push forward the development of seed industry.

Since the start of the survey, 6,238 resource samples have been applied for breeding innovation, with 1,889 samples used to develop new varieties, Liu Lihua, an official with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said at the press conference.

These efforts have led to significant breakthroughs in seed innovation, Liu added, noting that thanks to the commercial use of China-developed gene editing tools, the market share of domestically-developed white feather broilers exceeds 25 percent, while that of domestically produced white-legged shrimp hits 35 percent.