China
April 17, 2009
Source:
Xinhua via
China Daily
Chinese scientists announced
Thursday that they have bred rapeseeds with a record high oil
content up to 60 percent, which experts said is a "major
breakthrough" to increase the country's cooking oil output and
farmers' income.
The 20 new rapeseed species, with
an oil content of 55 to 60 percent, have been planted on a trial
basis in six Chinese localities including Tibet, Xinjiang,
Qinghai, Gansu, Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang since last year,
said Prof. Fu Tingdong, a renowned botanist from
Huazhong Agricultural
University in Wuhan.
Fu and a group of other scientists attended an academic meeting
Thursday in Xi'an, capital of northwestern Shaanxi Province, to
evaluate the new seeds, cultivated by researcher Li Dianrong, a
renowned hybrid rape specialist based in Xi'an.
The seeds, crossbred from existing oil-rich rapeseed species,
contain 12 to 17 percent more oil than the previous generation,
said Li.
Lab analysis found two of the seeds, harvested in the
northwestern Gansu Province, contained 60 percent oil, he said.
"Most of the other seeds contained 55 percent."
The new seeds are expected to raise China's per hectare
vegetable oil output by nearly 30 percent, he said.
"That's equivalent to an additional 2 million hectares of
rapeseed harvest," Li said.
China relies on import for about 60 percent of all its cooking
oil consumption. Forty percent of domestic cooking oil comes
from rapeseed while the remaining 60 percent from sesame,
soybean and nuts. |
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