The national transgenic cotton experiment and industrialization base in China has been built recently in the Cotton Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Anyang in Central China's Henan Province, which marks that transgenic cotton research and industrialization in China has reached the internationally advanced level. As a result, China has evidently strengthened its competitiveness in the fields of the research and production, reports People's Daily on August 16.

According to introduction, China has consolidated its internationally advanced position in its unique pollen tube way for transgenic cotton in the fields of transgenic technical research and development, and the advantageous status in transgenic hybridization and precocious cotton. This has increased China's anti-insect cotton market share from about 5 per cent in 1995 to 62 per cent in 2004.

China is the biggest cotton producer in the world. Its cotton growing area accounts for nearly 20 per cent of the world's total in China's highest growing years. There is an agricultural population of more than 300 million in China's cotton-growing areas. At present, the base has built five platforms, including transgenic cotton technologies, biological technical breeding, industrialization system, domestic and foreign talent exchanges and training, and transgenic cotton safety assessment. As a result, a solid foundation has been laid for the sustainable development in the research of transgenic cotton.

By People's Daily Online