Economy

Experimental base for 'space-bred' crops opens in NW China

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-05-13 15:43

XI'AN -- An experimental base for growing "space-bred" eco-friendly crops has opened in Yulin city, northwest China's Shaanxi province.

The base was jointly developed by the Aerospace Breeding Research Center and an agricultural cooperative in Yulin, which is on the edge of China's loess plateau and Mu Us Desert.

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With the support of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, agricultural experts will grow cash crops from seeds that have mutated in space, said an official with the corporation.

The Aerospace Breeding Research Center will select one or two superior cash crop strains each year to be grown at the base, said Qin Tianjun, deputy director of the aerospace breeding industry department with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

The crops are expected to make the sandy soil in the region more productive and thus boost the development of the local agriculture sector, he said.

China has been sending seeds into space on recoverable satellites since 1987, as the seeds may undergone beneficial mutations due to high-radiation and low-gravity there.