Others News
- Lotus king keeps his eye on heavens
Date: 13-Nov-2007 Sources: (People's Daily)
Luo Dengqiang is a man of royal ambitions - he wants nothing more than to become the king of lotuses.
Luo grows some 520 varieties of the flower at his farm near the Dazu Rock Carvings in Chongqing Municipality. Only a farm in France has more types of lotus.
'I am overtaking it. I've got lotus seeds from 16 countries, and export my flowers to 23 countries,' Luo said.
However, the possessions of which he is most proud are his so-called 'space seeds'.
Luo signed an agreement with the Beijing Space Satellite Application Company in June 2005 to send lotus seeds into orbit.
Under the agreement, Luo will send 3,000 seeds, taken from 300 varieties of lotus, into space in the hope that the flight will genetically transform them.
The 55-year-old farmer has already sent 200 seeds into space aboard the Shenzhou VI manned spacecraft, and the 21st and 22nd recoverable satellites.
'The space flowers bloom for 320 days instead of the usual three months. The trip to space also changes the shape and color of the flower,' Luo said.
The space-breeding program cost him 4 million yuan ($516,000), including shipment fees and the cost of building a breeding base in Dazu County, Chongqing.
He said he will present space-flowers in 12 vases adorned with Dazu Rock Carvings to the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games to show 'the world that China has the most advanced technology for breeding lotuses'.
Luo got into flowers industry in 1997, when he got out of the taxi business, and rented an 80 mu pond near the Dazu Rock Carvings. His plan was to open a small restaurant.
'In the summer, customers queued to sit beside the lotuses while eating my wife's Lotus Fish dish. However, after the flowers withered in autumn, my business went downhill,' Luo said.
He said he got the idea to send lotus seeds into space in 2000, when he learned from a newspaper report that the absence of gravity wrought genetic changes on the flowers.
He started saving his money by selling lotus-related products. His lotus leaf tea, lotus root starch and lotus snacks brought in more than 20 million yuan.
He has expanded his lotus pond into a huge holiday resort with flower gardens and recreational facilities.
'I will continue to raise lotuses, especially space-lotuses, to be the world number one in lotus-breeding,' Luo said.
He has recruited three undergraduates to research space-breeding technology and has also cooperated with two experts from the China Flower Association.
'Luo's lotus business has spurred the development of the whole village,' Ao Tiancai, director of the organization department of Dazu County, said.
Luo has hired more than 100 villagers to plant lotuses for him.
'Our earnings have tripled over what we earned planting rice. Thanks to the lotus, I can afford to send my two children to university,' Zhou Zhikui, a farmer at the village, said.
'My daughter wants to go to Southwest Agricultural University to learn about flower breeding in the hope that she can return to Lotus Villa to help Luo.'
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