According to China Daily, The Nanfan Breeding Research Center under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences was established on 19 May 2021 in Sanya, South China’s Hainan province, which would be the first national institute within the Nanfan seed breeding base. The center’s focus would be the protection and utilization of seed germ plasm resources, molecular design and variety cultivation.
The center will be jointly operated with CAAS’s Nanfan Institute, which was registered in the Sanya Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City in October 2019 to boost innovation in the seed industry and ensure national food security. A total of 9.86 million yuan ($1.53 million) has already been invested in six research projects and more to come, while 88 experts will settle in the institute. Nanfan Scientific and Research Breeding Base, dubbed as China’s Silicon Valley of agriculture, is home to more than 70 percent of new crop varieties in the country with more 2000 Mu (133 Hectares) of experimental field, according to the Hainan provincial government. The center will have a sub-division for rice, cotton, general crops and fruits where the bottleneck problems in seed science will be studied and researched.
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