Recently, the plant factory innovation team of the Urban Agriculture Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences cooperated with the Qian Qian team of the China Rice Research Institute to successfully achieve an important breakthrough in harvesting rice in about 60 days under the plant factory environment, reducing the rice growth cycle of more than 120 days under the traditional field environment by half. This provides a new technical approach for accelerating crop breeding.

The picture shows rice heading

According to Yang Qichang, the chief scientist of the team and researcher of the Metropolitan Institute, the rice in this experiment is a dwarf variety provided by Qian Qian's team. Its plant type is relatively short and its space utilization rate is high, so it is suitable for multi-layer stereoscopic cultivation in the plant factory environment.
It is understood that this rice planting experiment was conducted in an all artificial light plant factory with four layers of cultivation racks. The customized spectrum LED light source was used to provide the best light environment for different growth periods of rice. The rice was planted in a nutrient solution cultivation tank to accurately supply nutrients according to the nutrient requirements of different periods. At the same time, the internal environmental elements of the plant factory, such as light, temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide concentration, are precisely controlled to provide the best growth environment for each growth stage.
Among the 6 dwarf varieties tested, 2 varieties showed high yield potential. After 45 days of planting and 63 days of harvest, the number of tillers per plant reached 89, and the comprehensive yield of single layer cultivation frame was 0.98 kg per square meter, equivalent to more than 650 kg per mu.
Qian Qian, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the Institute of Crop Science of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that efficient breeding industry is the key to ensuring national food security. Using traditional breeding methods, usually only one to two generations can be produced a year, and even in greenhouse or tropical areas, only two to three generations can be produced a year.
"For most crops, it takes years or even decades to breed new and excellent germplasm through several generations of reproduction. Relying on plant factory technology, this space-time bottleneck has been broken." Qian said before.
It is reported that in the plant factory, by regulating the environment and nutrients, it can significantly improve the photosynthesis rate of crops, induce early flowering and promote rapid crop growth, significantly shorten the growth cycle of crops, and achieve "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 be used for additional generation breeding throughout the year.
Yang Qichang said that in the future, it is expected to achieve "rapid breeding" of more than 6 crops per year, and the number of cultivation layers can reach more than 10. The breakthrough of this technology provides a new idea for the addition 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, and we expect that rice can achieve precise nutrition supply and light temperature regulation in the future, sterile space and three-dimensional cultivation, and full mechanization, and farmers can operate in factories." Qian Qian said that this research not only changed the traditional breeding and cultivation methods, but also laid the foundation for future factory cultivation.

Source: Xinhua News Agency