Every winter and spring, tens of thousands of agricultural science and technology workers gather from all over the country to Hainan Island as light and temperature conditions here are ideal for crop breeding.

Every year, more than 200 institutions and around 8,000 scientific research staff from more than 15 provinces come to work at the Nanfan breeding base in Sanya.

This year marks the 30th year that Ding Zhongfang, a senior agronomist from Sichuan province, has come to work in Sanya.

Ding mentions that while it would normally take at least six years to cultivate a new crop variety, at the Nanfan breeding base the time is reduced by half or more.

"Nanfan's breeding environment makes it a paradise for crop breeding researchers," said Dai Zhongren, the leader of a tomato project at the Harbin Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Nanfan's seed industry is one of the three "future industries" that the Hainan Free Trade Port focuses on. In recent years, Hainan has promoted the accelerated construction of the Nanfan breeding base.

Fan Shaozhu, a researcher who has been breeding crops in Nanfan for 15 years, said that the Nanfan breeding base had created a good scientific research environment and provided a learning and exchange platform for researchers.

Hainan Yazhou Bay Seed Laboratory. [Photo/IC]