The Legendary Journey of the Seeds

In April, Sanya, China's southernmost Hainan province is entering summer with the temperature hits 30 C. At the busiest season for maize breeding in Hainan, agricultural researchers brave the high temperature in every breeding bases on the island.

Maize breeding in Hainan refers to a method of breeding and selection of breeding materials for summer crops such as rice, corn and cotton. After the crops are harvested locally in autumn, they are then taken to the subtropical or tropical regions in China in winter, particularly in Hainan. The method helps to achieve a breeding of two or three generations per year.

While the breeding process is accelerated, the breeding period is thus shortened, and the disease resistance of the breeding materials and their response to moisture and light can be identified, so that their competitiveness can be improved.

Researchers make use of the unique climatic condition and biological resources that can meet the crop cycle growth and reproduction in winter and spring in Hainan to realize crop variety selection and breeding as well as adaptation observation, seed identification evaluation, expansion and production.