Space-bred vegetable seeds debut at Yangling Agricultural High-Tech Fair, sowing new hope for farmers to get rich
Yangling Agricultural High-Tech Fair: Space-bred vegetable seeds "sow" new hope for farmers to get rich
Pumpkins as big as millstones, loofahs more than one meter long, eggplants the size of volleyballs... At the 17th Yangling Agricultural High-Tech Fair, these space-bred vegetables, cultivated from seeds that "cruised" through space aboard spacecraft, became the favorite of many participating farmers. Some farmers said they hoped to learn space-bred vegetable cultivation techniques as soon as possible, to have one more path to wealth.
According to reporters, these giant, oddly shaped space-bred vegetables were all cultivated through space breeding technology. Relevant experts explained that space breeding technology is a method of carrying selected crop seeds aboard spacecraft or recoverable satellites, where they undergo mutagenic treatment in the special environment of outer space, including heavy particles, alternating magnetic fields, microgravity, and high vacuum, causing the seeds' own genes to undergo breakage, deletion, translocation, and recombination. After returning to the ground, they are rigorously selected and bred to produce new crop varieties.
Mr. Xiao from Tongchuan, Shaanxi, purchased more than 500 yuan worth of space-bred vegetable seeds in one go on the 3rd. He told reporters that his family runs an agritainment business, and he bought some space-bred gourd and toy pumpkin seeds to try, to add some color to the courtyard.
Gao Yanhui, a researcher at the Gansu Provincial Engineering Research Center for Space Breeding Engineering Technology, told reporters that new vegetable varieties bred through space breeding technology have yields 15%-20% higher than the main varieties in suitable growing areas, and in some regions can increase by 30%-50%. At the same time, space-bred vegetables have good disease resistance, tolerance to low temperatures and weak light, and strong growth vigor. Their content of nutrients such as vitamin C and soluble solids is also 10%-183% higher than ordinary vegetables. Gao Yanhui said that some oddly shaped space-bred vegetables can also be used for ornamental purposes.
According to the organizers, space-bred vegetable seeds such as Hangjiao No. 4 and Hangqie No. 5 were warmly welcomed by participating farmers. In the first 3 days of the Agricultural High-Tech Fair, sales had already reached more than 120,000 yuan.
Gao Yanhui said that after several years of trial demonstration and achievement transformation, new space-bred vegetable varieties have now been extended to 25 provinces and regions including Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, **, Sichuan, Guizhou, Fujian, and Hebei. Among them, Hangjiao No. 4, as a main cultivated variety, has been promoted and planted on a large scale in major pepper-producing areas such as Shaanxi, **, and Inner Mongolia. As of the end of 2009, the cumulative promotion area of new space-bred vegetable varieties reached 960,000 mu, achieving agricultural value-added of more than 700 million yuan.