Recently, the plant factory innovation team of the Institute of urban agriculture of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences cooperated with Qian Qian team of the China Rice Research Institute to successfully achieve an important breakthrough in the harvest of rice in about 60 days under the plant factory environment, shortening the rice growth cycle of more than 120 days under the traditional field environment by half. This provides a new technical way to accelerate crop breeding.

According to Yang Qichang, chief scientist of the team and researcher of the Urban Institute, the rice in this experiment is a dwarf variety provided by Qian Qian's team. Its plant type is short and its space utilization rate is high. It is suitable for multi-layer three-dimensional cultivation in the plant factory environment.

It is understood that the rice planting experiment was carried out in the full artificial light plant factory with four layers of cultivation racks. The LED light source with customized spectrum was used to provide the best light environment for different growth periods of rice. The rice was planted in the nutrient solution cultivation tank to accurately supply nutrients according to the nutritional needs of different periods. At the same time, the environmental elements inside the plant factory, such as light, temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide concentration, are accurately regulated to provide the best growth environment for each growth stage.

Among the six dwarf varieties tested, two varieties showed high yield potential. They were heading 45 days after planting and harvested 63 days. The number of tillers per plant reached 89. The comprehensive yield of single-layer cultivation frame was 0.98 kg per square meter, equivalent to more than 650 kg per mu.

Photo source: paixin genuine Gallery

Qian Qian, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the Institute of Crop Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that an efficient breeding industry is the key to ensuring national food security. Using traditional breeding methods, usually only one to two generations can be produced in a year. Even in greenhouse or tropical areas, only two to three generations can be produced in a year.

"For most crops, it takes several generations of reproduction, usually years or even decades, to cultivate new and excellent germplasm. Relying on plant factory technology has broken this time-space bottleneck." Qian Qian said.

In the plant factory, by regulating the environment and nutrient elements, it can significantly improve the photosynthetic rate of crops, induce early flowering and promote the rapid growth of crops, greatly shorten the crop growth cycle and realize "rapid breeding". The plant factory breeding acceleration system can be built near the experimental building or breeding unit without the constraints of land, space and climate conditions, and can carry out additive breeding all year round.

Yang Qichang said that in the future, it is expected to achieve "rapid breeding" of more than 6 crops a year, and the number of cultivation layers can reach more than 10. The breakthrough of this technology provides a new idea for the additive breeding and efficient cultivation of rice and other crops. Next, the research team will select rice varieties suitable for plant factory planting according to the characteristics of controllable plant factory environment and multi-layer three-dimensional cultivation, so as to improve the yield level.

"At present, this research has just started. We expect that in the future, rice can achieve accurate nutrition supply and light and temperature regulation, sterile space and three-dimensional cultivation, and mechanization of the whole process. Farmers can operate in factories." Qian Qian said that this research has not only changed the traditional breeding and cultivation methods, but also laid the foundation for factory cultivation in the future. (source: Xinhua News Agency)