Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone or WHDZ – located in Wuhan, capital city of Central China's Hubei province – is to grow its seed industry and move to establish what the developers call a China Seed Valley, according to local media reports.
In 2019, the development zone signed an agreement with seed companies Country Garden Agriculture and BGI Agriculture to establish the seed facility. Its task will be to determine the seed genes of high-quality agricultural products and preserve premium seeds, enabling consumers to eat safely and buy top agricultural products.
The project, covering an area of 3,000 mu (200 hectares), is expected to draw an investment of 8 billion yuan ($1.23 billion).
The project's developers plan to build a R&D center for the seed industry, that will provide services such as resource materials evaluations, breeding assembly designs, field screening guidance and breeding information management for seed companies. This will enable them to quickly cultivate top varieties, with independent intellectual property rights.
Under its development plan, after completion the China Seed Valley will serve more than 100 seed projects every year.
Plans are for the WHDZ to attract more than 30 seed companies by 2023. The goal is to build a national modern seed industry industrial park – featuring grain, oil and vegetable breeding – that will generate an annual output value of more than 3 billion yuan.
