Shanghai builds "seed valley" to lead breakthroughs in biological breeding

SHANGHAI, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Shanghai kicked off the construction of the Zhangjiang Seed Valley, also known as Shanghai Sunqiao Agricultural Innovation Center, aiming to revolutionize biological breeding through core technology breakthroughs, driven by artificial intelligence and gene editing.

Scheduled for completion by the end of 2027, the project is set to emerge as a world-class hub for smart seed innovation.

Situated in the Zhangjiang Science City in Pudong New District, the seed valley will feature a total construction area spanning over 86,000 square meters. It is designed to focus on major seed-source agricultural projects, gather leading global seed-source research and development talents and top-notch research institutions, and foster a seed-source technology alliance, said local authorities.

Modern agriculture is reliant on quality seeds. "Through the core platforms of the project, we can share equipment and data, which will significantly improve the efficiency of new seed-source selection," said Sun Bin, deputy director of the rice center at the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

"For example, with corn seeds, we plan to use gene editing to identify the high-protein loci and increase the protein content of corn from the current level of less than 10 percent to between 12 and 15 percent," said Tang Xiaobin, general manager of the industry department of Shanghai Pudong Agricultural Development (Group) Co., Ltd. "This will help China's biological breeding industry leap forward."

Pudong also plans to build two industrial parks and several modern agriculture demonstration sites, to provide bases for the transformation and application of the scientific and technological achievements of the Zhangjiang Seed Valley. ■