According to He Chungui, a professor at Gansu Agricultural University, space breeding is to use recoverable satellites to carry crop seeds into space, and use space cosmic radiation, high vacuum, ultra-low temperature, alternating magnetic field of the earth and other factors to mutate the seeds, from which we can obtain mutations that are difficult to obtain and may occur in ground radiation mutagenesis. After screening and cultivation, we can get agricultural products with many characteristics such as high yield, early maturity, high yield, wide adaptability and high content of effective components. At present, tomatoes, cucumbers, cowpeas, peppers, potatoes and other vegetables have been successfully introduced by space breeding in our province. Among them, the promotion speed and value of black potatoes are higher.
Zheng Xinghu, director of Lanzhou Longshen Aerospace Breeding Institute, told reporters that the potatoes successfully cultivated by aerospace breeding are purple and black inside and outside. Compared with common potatoes, the content of protein per 100 grams of black potatoes is 2.45 grams, vitamin C2 1.7 mg, and reducing sugar is 3.49 grams. Because of its rich anthocyanins, black potatoes also have anti-cancer, beauty and anti-aging effects. At present, our province has established a black potato embryo breeding base in Panzhihua City, and promoted the planting of 700 mu in Pingliang, Longnan, Dingxi and Lanzhou. By 2009, it can plant 20,000 mu.
According to the reporter's understanding, the yield per mu of black potatoes can reach 2,500 kilograms, and the price per kilogram in Lanzhou and Shanghai is 3 yuan, and the price per kilogram in Beijing is 4.5 yuan, which is nearly 10 times that of ordinary potatoes. Experts predict that due to its many "selling points" and a certain scale of potato industrial processing in our province, black potatoes are expected to form the earliest industrial production among many "aerospace vegetables".