HAIKOU, May 22. /TASS/. Yazhouvan innovation zone in Hainan's Sanya announced the creation of the first state research institute on its territory - the Research Center for Plant Breeding at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, reported the Sanya Daily.
According to the newspaper, the new organization will work on improving the quality of seeds, molecular modeling and the creation of new plant varieties. The head of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Tang Huajun and the secretary of Sanya's party committee Zhou Hongbo attended the scientific center's founding ceremony.
As the local authorities clarified, this facility was created in accordance with an important strategic program of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for the development of breeding in the south of the country. It should play a key role in the formation of a "valuable state scientific and technical platform in the field of agriculture," the need for which was announced three years ago by the Chinese President Xi Jinping.
According to the government's plan, the new research institute should boost the development of the so-called breeding Silicon Valley, which on a national scale will meet the demand of agricultural farms in seeds and will become part of a project that provides not only research for the cultivation of high-quality agricultural products, but also active international scientific and technical cooperation, including the commercialization of inventions.
Hainan plays a key role in China's seed production program. Breeding projects carried out in the province annually draw the attention of several hundred research organizations, leading universities and enterprises. They are attended by thousands of specialists from various regions of China, as well as from other countries.
According to the plans of the Chinese government, a top-notch research and production complex should be set up on the island in the coming years, capable of stimulating the intensive development of agriculture country-wide. It is assumed that thanks to the facilities located on the territory of the Yazhouwan innovation zone, the authorities will be able to significantly enhance China's food security.