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Technology Improving Crops' Photosynthesis Efficiency
A Chinese scientist has developed a kind of technology which can greatly improve crops' photosynthesis efficiency, and helps upgrade crops' quality and raise their output.
The Gene Phenotype Induction Technique (GPIT) was developed by Na Zhongyuan, director of Yunnan Provincial Research Institute for Ecological Agriculture, who spent 10 years on related experiments.
Trial use of this technology in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, shows that the per unit output of cucumber is doubled and its quality markedly improved.
Experts from the Dongbei (Northeast China) Agriculture University confirmed that the cucumber's photosynthesis efficiency is increased by 409 percent, vitamin rose by 28.7 percent and amino acid up by 9.5 percent. Improving the photosynthesis efficiency is one of the methods used to raise the grain output. Field crops in China, such as rice and wheat, have a very low efficiency for absorbing light energy, said experts.
Many countries have experimented with the development of techniques for improving the crops' photosynthesis efficiency, and none of them is successful.
Chinese government plans to invest 50 million yuan (US$6.02 million) in a project which is aimed at unveiling the secrets how green plants effectively transfer the solar energy within five to ten years.
The GPIT technology has for the first time in the world solved the problem of how to improve plants' photosynthesis efficiency, according to experts.
Reports coming from Tibet Autonomous Region, and provinces of Yunnan, Shandong, Heilongjiang and Jilin show that the photosynthesis efficiency of different crops has risen by 50 percent to over 400 percent respectively.
Trial use of the technique also shows that it can greatly improve crops' capability against low and high temperature, diseases and insects.
In highlands and places with low temperature, the technology can shorten the growth duration of crops, for example, wheat by seven to 15 days, rice by 10 to 20 days, and maize by 30 to 40 days, experiments show.
It is estimated that by 2030, China has to increase its grain output by one-third of its current quota to feed its huge population. About two-thirds of the country's total land area are highlands and places with cool and low temperatures.
In 1999, a total of 1.4 million hectares of crops were planted with the GPIT technique, and the acreage is expected to be expanded to more than two million hectares this year.
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