Nanfan off-season crop breeding base – due to its tropical location – has been designated as a seed-producing base for various crops in China. Chief among them, its new varieties of rice and cotton have been feeding and clothing China's huge population over the past few decades. Our reporter Li Jianhua has more.

　　Based on China's southern tip, this crop breeding base – a benchmark of China's crop seed storage – is responsible for producing seeds for multiple Chinese provinces.

　　This year, 12-thousand hectares of land have been used to produce seeds, slightly less than that in previous years.

　　KE YONGCHUN Nanfan Scientific and Research Breeding Base "This is mainly because China paid more attention to agricultural production in 2020, especially crop seed production. Therefore, we can tell that seed storage in the rest of China is sufficient."

　　Hua Zetian, a retired professor, has been in the business for nearly 40 years. He said food supplies were always a problem in his childhood, and now he's striving to boost Chinese yields.

　　HUA ZETIAN Director, China National Japonica Rice Research Center "We used to focus on whether we produce enough food. Now China has become a well-off society. At this stage, we need to incorporate new technologies into traditional farming. Using biotechnology, we can tell the features of a new crop through molecular analysis by taking a leaf sample - including its disease resistance and alkaloid-tolerance."

　　Over the past few decades, the base has also achieved breakthroughs in cotton production.

　　The cotton seeds produced here – whose plants are suitable for mass harvesting - are planted in northwest China's Xinjiang – the country's largest cotton producer.

　　YAN GENTU Researcher, Institute of Cotton Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences "Our new cotton variety is now as good as that of the U.S. and Australia. The cotton's staple length reaches 30 millimeters, its fiber strength is over 30, and its Micronaire is around 4.5. So we no longer have to rely on the U.S. and Australia for cotton."

　　LI JIANHUA Sanya "About 70 percent of new Chinese crop varieties have been cultivated here since the 1950s – thanks to the province's tropical climate and rich biological resources. This is a testbed for Chinese agricultural scientists to produce new crop breeds, aimed at boosting yields and quality, to continue to feed a population of 1.4 billion people. LJH, CGTN, Sanya, Hainan Province."