Beijing: China is famous for making new and unique records in the world. Now China has done a new miracle of producing paddy in space. China has named the rice grown in space as ‘Space Rice’. China has cultivated rice on Earth from space-travelling seeds. In fact, China also sent paddy to space during its lunar mission last year. Now 1500 paddy seeds have come to earth through spacecraft. Their weight is 40 grams. These will be sown on the South China Agricultural University campus.
The seeds are 1 cm long
In space, these seeds were exposed to cosmic radiation and zero gravity and then brought back to Earth. They weigh about 40 grams and are now about 1 centimeter in length. According to Guo Tao, deputy director of the Space Breeding Research Center of South China Agricultural University in Guangdong, the best seeds will be produced in laboratories and then planted in the fields.
Seeds undergo many changes in the space environment
Significantly, after being in the space environment for some time, the seeds can mutate and produce higher yields and better quality. Such experiments have been done not only with paddy paddy but also with other crops. China has been taking seeds of rice and other crops into space since 1987.
China did such experiments on more than 200 crops
According to a Bloomberg report, China has experimented on more than 200 crops so far. These crops range from cotton to tomatoes. According to Chinese media reports, in the year 2018, seeds from space were used for cultivation in more than 2.4 million hectares of land in China. Social media users in China are also calling it ‘Space Rice’ i.e. Rice of Heaven. China also plans to set up a research station on the Moon.
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