SANYA /China/, March 3. /TASS/. The resort city of Sanya in the southern Chinese province of Hainan is promoting the construction of a national wild rice germplasm base, the Hainan Daily reported.

The base will be located in Sanya's Yazhou district. The total area will reach about 11.1 hectares with 10.6 hectares allotted for the storage of samples.

According to the article, the construction of the base is planned to be completed within two years. The project includes agricultural works, the purchase of tools and equipment, the design and construction of agro-facilities, including storage of germplasm, demonstration nursery, objects for ecological modeling.

When completed, the storage facility will have a capacity of 40,000 samples. According to the newspaper, the base will become an important research platform for Hainan Province.

According to Peng Jun, head of the South Subtropical Crops Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, a plan to cultivate 10,000 wild rice samples is being gradually implemented. As of the end of February, four thousand specimens have been planted. The collection of foreign samples of wild rice germplasm is progressing in an orderly manner.