The Silk Road Journal – by Mahika Ming

Nearly 50 years ago the American Apollo and Soviet Luna missions brought lunar soil samples to earth. In 2020 China’s Chang-e 5 not only got lunar soil samples but also brought back rice seeds taken to be exposed to outer space environment. Chinese scientists are at present experimenting on how to produce bumper harvests from such grains. Other than the 40 grams of rice seeds, the Chang'e-5 carried various plant seeds as well. All seeds traveled through the Van Allen belts, encountered violent sunspot activity and it was for the first time that Chinese researchers conducted mutation breeding experiments in outer space according to Chinese scientists. After the seeds successfully returned, they are being planted in labs and soil at South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou in the south of the PRC.

The Space Breeding Innovation Alliance reports that its space breeding program includes rice, orchids, alfalfa and oats were also included in the round trip to the moon. Space breeding in PRC was launched in the 1980s and it is believed by some agricultural scientists that seeds exposed to cosmic radiation and zero gravity etc. can mutate and produce higher yields of improved quality when planted on Earth. In 1987, the first batch of seeds was send to orbit via satellites and returned after five days. Then in 1996, seeds of 51 crops (more than 300 varieties) were launched into space. In 2006, Shijian-8 satellite successfully returned 215 kg of seeds of various crops and it was the largest load after 1987. Since then many crops developed with space-bred seeds have been planted in PRC. The long term plan of PRC is believed to be to increase production and depend less on food imports. Since 2009, the PRC has sent 38 batches of seeds into space in seven trips in the Shenzhou series spacecrafts, the Tiangong-1 space lab, Shijian-10 and Chang'e-5 being the latest.

In the early 1950s Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was known then) faced a severe shortage of rice. The right wing government of Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake signed the Rubber Rice Pact with the Socialist Peoples Republic of China (PRC) where Sri Lanka traded Natural Rubber in return for Rice from the PRC. In 1970 Prime Ministerial candidate Sirima Bandaranaike told the people that if necessary rice will be imported from the moon to provide free rice if she was elected to office. People did and then were eating rice only on selected days of the week.  Those young ones in her political camp realized the complicated process in importing rice from the moon and ventured into other means from 1977 and now we talk about the mega men of rice trading in Sri Lanka. China came to learn from us about the economic system we implemented in 1977 and has developed to a level where they test rice cultivation on the moon.

Caption: Minister R.G. Senanayake signing of the Rubber Rice pact between Ceylon and the Peoples Republic of China. Standing behind the minister in specs is Mr. Edward Stephen de Silva, Ministry Secretary. 

The writer is an analyst with interests in the financial and sustainable development sectors with postgraduate exposure in the Far East (mahika.ming@gmail.com).