Developing crops in space

Photo: AFP/Nurphoto/Cfoto

Domokos Zováthi 24/01/2024 11:51

Sending seeds on short space missions will help scientists develop new crop varieties that thrive in changing climates. China is at the forefront of this research, and more resilient food is a vital part of the supply chain in a world plagued by global warming and overpopulation.

The wheat variety known as Luyuan 502 is China's second most widely cultivated cereal. However, it has a very important and special feature: it is grown not on Earth but in space, at an altitude of nearly 340 kilometres. The aim of space-induced mutation of seeds, known as space mutagenesis, is to find new varieties that can adapt to changing terrestrial conditions associated with climate change.

This is possible because in the unique low-gravity environment, changes in their DNA were detected that gave them new traits, such as better tolerance to drought and resistance to certain diseases. Other positive effects include making plants tougher, able to withstand more extreme conditions, grow faster or require less water. When they are brought back to Earth, the seeds of these space-bred plants are carefully filtered and further bred to produce viable varieties of the most popular and important plants.

Liu Luxiang, China's leading expert on space mutagenesis, told the BBC earlier that Luyuan 502 is a real success story, with very high yield potential and adaptability, yielding 11 per cent higher than the standard wheat variety grown in China, and also more resistant to pests. It can also be grown in a wide range of areas under different conditions.

According to Liu, it is just one of more than 200 varieties of space mutants that have been created in China in the past 30 years. In addition to wheat, Chinese scientists have produced space-grown rice, corn, soybeans, alfalfa, sesame, cotton, watermelon, tomatoes, sweet peppers and more. Vegetable varieties.

China's emergence as a global space power in recent decades has enabled it to send thousands of seeds into orbit. In 2006, in the mid-2000s, the country launched its largest-ever batch of seeds - more than 250 kilograms of seeds from 152 species - on board a satellite, including several types of grass, oats, alfalfa and mushrooms.

The area under space-bred cereals, vegetables, fruit and other crops has now exceeded 4 million hectares and generated economic benefits of more than 200 billion yuan - $30.51 billion. Research is not stopping, and seeds need further improvement, especially in disease resistance, using conventional seeds.

The author is a journalist and editor

Sweet pepper from the sky

China has been experimenting with space mutagenesis since 1987, and is the only country in the world to use the technique consistently. Since then, it has carried out dozens of missions to deliver seeds into orbit. Chinese scientists released the first space-bred crop - a sweet pepper variety called Yujiao 1 - in 1990. Compared to conventional sweet pepper varieties grown in China, Yujiao 1 produces much larger fruit and is more disease resistant.

#agriculture #space

Developing crops in space

Sending seeds on short space missions will help scientists develop new crop varieties that thrive in changing climates. China is at the forefront of this research, and more resilient food is a vital part of the supply chain in a world plagued by global warming and overpopulation.

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