China Harvests First Batch of Space Rice  

 China takes paddy in space. China has named the rice grown in space as 'Space Rice'. Its first crop has been brought to the earth in the form of seeds.

China's Space Rice

Beijing: China is famous in the world for making new and unique records. 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 the earth from the seeds that travelled the space. In fact, China had 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.

Seeds are 1 cm long

In space, these seeds were exposed to cosmic radiation and zero gravity and then they were brought back to earth. They weigh about 40 grams and their length is now about 1 centimeter. According to Guo Tao, deputy director of the Space Breeding Research Center of the South China Agricultural University in Guangdong, the best seeds will be prepared in laboratories and then they will be planted in the fields. 

Seeds undergo many changes in the space environment

Significantly, after staying in the space environment for some time seeds can mutate and produce higher yields and improved quality. Such experiments have been done not only with rice paddy but also with other crops. China has been taking the seeds of rice and other crops into space since 1987. 

China has done such experiments with more than 200 crops

According to a Bloomberg report, China has done experiments with 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 in China. Social media users in China are also calling it the 'Space rice', meaning the rice of heaven. China also plans to set up a research station on the Moon.