New Exploration of Modern Agriculture with Chinese Characteristics Space Breeding Scope is Expected to Expand

"Space mutation breeding is a way to cultivate many new crop varieties, plays an important role in agricultural production, and makes a certain contribution to solving food safety problems in the country. Space breeding is a research direction with Chinese characteristics, because there is not much research in this area in other countries. " Jiang Xingcun, the first person in China's space breeding and researcher of the Institute of Genetics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in a speech at the Summit Forum on the privatization of China's Aerospace Scientific and technological achievements and the Development of Aerospace Agriculture held a few days ago.

With the theme of the civilian use of space scientific and technological achievements and the development of space agriculture, this forum aims to discuss the far-reaching significance of space agriculture to future agriculture and the effective promotion of space science and technology achievements to the social economy. As a new attempt of modern agricultural breeding, the development direction of space breeding has become the focus of attention.

The cumulative extension area of space breeding has reached 680000 mu.

"China has bred 28 new vegetable varieties through space breeding technology and passed provincial identification, of which 15 varieties have been approved by the provincial variety approval committee." Yang Kai, a researcher at the Tianshui Space breeding Base of the Chinese Academy of Space Technology, revealed at the forum.

According to reports, space breeding, also known as space breeding, refers to putting crop seeds or branches and buds on a space return vehicle, and then traveling in the space of microgravity, high vacuum, ultra-clean, strong radiation and large temperature difference for a certain period of time to cause genetic variation in the seed gene. after returning to the earth and breeding for 4 to 8 generations, we can select and obtain stable, high-yield, high-quality, early-maturing and disease-resistant crop varieties-- space varieties. As a result, the yield, quality and taste of crops are significantly improved. China began to carry vegetable seeds into the sky in 1987.

Yang Kai told reporters that China's space scientists and agricultural scientists use space mutagenesis technology to carry out crop breeding in order to speed up the pace of breeding and improve the quality of breeding in our country. it is of great significance to explore new breeding research fields with Chinese characteristics. By the end of 2014, the cumulative extension area of space breeding in 25 provinces (regions) across the country had reached 680000 mu, and the agricultural added value had reached 3 billion yuan. Wheat, corn and soybeans bred in space in 2015 will enter regional trials and are expected to occupy at least 10% of the market within three years. " He said.

The scope of space breeding is expected to expand.

Mao Hongwei, vice president of Beijing Shenfei Aerospace Applied Technology Research Institute, told reporters that China's space agriculture has been developed for 28 years and has made achievements that have attracted worldwide attention. The application of aerospace science and technology to modern agriculture can not only increase crop yield, but also increase the nutritional composition of fruits, which is more conducive to building a green and safe food industry.

"Fine varieties are the decisive factor in agricultural development and play an irreplaceable role in increasing crop yield and improving crop quality." Yang Kai said. According to him, the annual trade volume of vegetable seeds in China is about 600 million yuan, of which imported seeds account for more than 60%. It is urgent to replace seeds with domestic independent intellectual property rights.

According to relevant experts, many years of experiments have proved that seeds treated in space have the advantages of increasing yield, disease resistance and lodging resistance. For example, space green pepper can increase production by 25% and vitamin C content by 20%. And the space fruit and vegetable series is pure green, does not contain various chemicals and additives and hormones, is rich in nutrition and tastes better.

Jiang Xingcun, an old expert, has more far-reaching thoughts on space breeding. He told reporters that the main direction of our space breeding is grain and vegetables, and future breeding should consider not only yield and quality, but also nutritional and environmental values. Moreover, the scope of mutation breeding can be expanded, such as making more efforts in space breeding and improving the quality of Chinese herbal medicine, as well as through space breeding, the yield of spices can be greatly increased. Mr. Jiang began to think about the exploration of processing seeds on the moon again. "some units came to me and asked if they could launch the seeds to the moon." He said happily.

Let Aerospace Food enter the homes of ordinary people

"relying on space breeding science and technology, we have been committed to producing safe space food, not only reducing the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, but also developing a series of green and healthy fruit and vegetable nutrition products. We should rely on Beijing Shenfei Aerospace Applied Technology Research Institute to build China Aerospace Ecological Health Industry Alliance. " Mao Hongwei said.

He believes that the popularization of space science and technology for civilian use must be transformed into products, otherwise high technology will be shelved and far from the common people, so it is necessary to advocate the deep processing of vegetables bred in space and put them on the market. "We should closely integrate the breeding of aerospace science and technology with the building of agricultural parks and the deep processing of aerospace science and technology agricultural products, and integrate them with commercial channels, so as to create a perfect industrial chain." Mao Hongwei told reporters.

It is reported that in order to absorb more useful social forces and promote the civilian use of aerospace science and technology better and faster, China Aerospace Science and Technology Group has joined hands with Shanghai Qinjian Enterprise Management Consulting Service Co., Ltd. to promote aerospace scientific and technological achievements. Beijing Shenfei Aerospace Applied Technology Research Institute authorized Shanghai Shenfei Enterprise Management Consulting Service Co., Ltd. to be the Shanghai Branch of Beijing Shenfei Aerospace Applied Technology Research Institute. At the same time, Dr. Zhang Biao, Chief Executive Officer of Shanghai Shenfei Enterprise Management Consulting Service Co., Ltd. was appointed as the director of the Shanghai Branch of Beijing Shenfei Aerospace Applied Technology Research Institute.

"Today, the civilian use of China's space scientific and technological achievements and the development of space agriculture provide a new way to solve the problem of food safety, that is, the research and development of space science and technology takes the lead, enterprises popularize, and complement each other through cooperation between research and enterprises. rapidly promote the civilian use of aerospace scientific and technological achievements in the mode of industrialization, and create an efficient and safe green food industry chain from source to terminal. Let safer and more nutritious space food enter the homes of ordinary people, and let space agriculture achieve a bumper harvest of both social value and commercial value. " Zhang Biao said.