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Ma Cunfa investigates research samples in Jiaxing. [Photo/Tide News]

A groundbreaking study on cabbage gene editing, published in Horticulture Research in 2019, heralded a new era for China's vegetable genomics. Author Ma Cunfa, however, surprised peers by leaving academia to join Zhejiang Mitsuo Seed in Xiuzhou, Jiaxing, East China's Zhejiang province, bringing his research from the lab to the field.

As a vegetable science graduate from Southwest University, Ma had long been fascinated by cruciferous vegetables. In 2018, he began working on molecular breeding of broccoli at Mitsuo, opting to remain in agriculture while many peers shifted careers or sought public-sector jobs. "I truly love agriculture," Ma says, "I want to see my knowledge applied in real-world practice."

At Mitsuo, Ma and his team apply advanced biotechnology and molecular marker-assisted breeding to reduce the broccoli breeding cycle from 10 years to just two or three. The broccoli varieties developed by them have been planted on over 23,333 hectares of farmland nationwide, generating over 1.2 billion yuan ($167 million) in added economic value.

Now mentoring the next generation of agri-tech talent, Ma sees himself not only as a scientist but also as a torchbearer for agricultural innovation.