Dr. Xu Lijun from the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning (IARRP) of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences(CAAS) completed a project titled "Cold and Drought Tolerance, Saline Alkali Tolerance, and Barren Tolerant Forage New Variety Selection and Breeding Technology and Application", which won second prize in the 2020-2021 Shennong China Agricultural Science and Technology Awards by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

In response to the lack of suitable forage species for cold and drought in China, backward cultivation techniques, and low quality and yield, the project aims to create a resistance breeding technology system, resistant varieties, and establish high-efficiency cultivation techniques.

The project has created a technology system for the breeding of cold and drought-resistant, salt-alkali-tolerant, or barren-tolerant varieties, and developed a space-borne forage RAPD, ISSR, and SSR molecular marker platform, enriched the country's forage breeding technology and methods, and breeded eight new varieties of forages that are resistant to cold and drought, tolerant to saline and alkali, and tolerant to barren forage, which solved the technical bottleneck of the lack of resource variety and the difficulty of seed production.

In addition, the project has also established a high-quality standardized cultivation technology system for new pasture varieties, established a new integrated production technology model for breeding, reproduction and promotion, promoted the overwintering rate of alfalfa in the demonstration area to over 92.0 percent, and increased the output of alfalfa from 25 percent to 35 percent. The yield of forage grass in saline-alkali land increased by more than 65 percent, and the productivity of improved grassland increased by 1-1.5 times, which significantly improved the quality and yield of forage in cold and arid areas.