On April 16, 2022, the return capsule of the Shenzhou-13 manned spaceship landed successfully at the Dongfeng landing site, carrying astronauts and a batch of konjak seeds from Fuyuan County, Qujing City, Yunnan Province. Currently, this batch of konjak seeds has been sent back to Fuyuan County for sowing and breeding by scientific researchers.

Konjak space-borne breeding is a science and technology project designated by China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) to help Fuyuan County. This batch of 300 seeds, weighing 33 grams, is a locally bred variety of Fuyuan konjak.

After space-induced mutation breeding, the problems of breed degeneration and serious diseases of konjak can be improved. In the following months, researchers from Fuyuan Konjak Research Institute of Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences will carefully cultivate these experimental konjak plants following relevant standards.

"We have sowed all the seeds returned from Shenzhou 13 this year. In the future, we will observe its biological properties in the laboratory. We will select the better seeds. The seed is like the 'chip' in agriculture, and breeding excellent seeds will boost the development of Fuyuan konjak," said Dong Kun, deputy director of Fuyuan konjak Research Institute of Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Fuyuan, the largest konjak planting base in Yunnan Province, has the largest konjak trading market in China. The konjak planting area in the county is nearly 10,000 hectares, worthing nearly a billion yuan a year.

People have planted konjak for a hundred years in Fuyuan. They use fresh konjak to make konjak chips or konjak tofu, which are delicacies people all like.

With the increasing development and expansion of konjak industry, many well-known konjak enterprises have emerged. Various series of konjak products of Fuyuan brand have been launched successively, such as snack food, instant food, pastry, etc. With the help of the development of e-commerce, konjak series products from Fuyuan have been sold at home and abroad.

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(Editors: Rachel, Lexi)