on may 28, china national agrochemical corporation (cnac) signed an agreement with shaanxi yangling agricultural high-tech industry demonstration zone in xi’an to build a world-class r&d and innovation center for the seed industry—syngenta seed breeding technology center. prior to the signing ceremony, yang xingqiang, general manager of chemchina, met with liu guozhong, deputy party secretary of shaanxi provincial cpc committee and governor of shaanxi province. the two sides had in-depth exchanges on the development of the seed breeding technology center and further cooperation. chen hongbo, chairman of cnac, and li jiuhong, deputy secretary of the cpc working committee and executive deputy director of the administrative committee of yangling demonstration zone, on behalf of the two parties, signed an agreement.
syngenta seed breeding technology center has been committed to core technologies for germplasm innovation and r&d of new varieties including gene detection, high-speed trait transfer, double haploid creation, molecular design breeding, and automated agricultural engineering. it is estimated that the breeding r&d base will cover an area of 1,000 mu, including office and experiment areas of 4,852.8 square meters. the phase i project, with a total investment of about us$ 50 million, will be completed by the end of 2020.
the project will recombine syngenta’s global high-quality resources and china’s local resources to build a world-class r&d and engineering technology center for the seed industry, promote efficient germplasm innovation, accelerate the creation of new varieties, and improve the yield, disease resistance, stress resistance and quality of important crop seeds so as to advance the overall seed industry in china.
after the completion of the project, the center will provide strong technical support for building yangling into a silicon valley for the seed industry in china’s arid regions. by 2025, the center will play a proactive role in building yangling into a core area for innovation and promotion of agricultural science and technology in arid and semi-arid regions as well as an important innovation hub for modern agriculture with international influence.
syngenta will also use the center to carry out industry cooperation and services and introduce and train talents. meanwhile, it will utilize the appeal of yangling demonstration zone to have a more profound impact on boosting the development of modern agricultural technologies such as breeding r&d, promotion of new varieties, and innovation of plant protection technologies, so as to continuously facilitate the innovation and development of china’s agricultural science and technology.
