Institute of Bast Fiber Crops CAAS

The Institute of Bast Fiber Crops (IBFC) is the only national comprehensive research institute engaging in research on bast fiber crops. Now it has a working staff of 175, including 1 national expert, 2 young and middle-aged experts with great contribution of the Ministry of Agriculture, and 14 people awarded special allowance by the Chinese State Council.

IBFC covers six subject areas and ten research areas: resources and evaluation of bast fiber crops, breeding of annual and perennial bast fiber crops in the field of resources and breeding of bast fiber crops; cultivation of annual and perennial bast fiber crops in the field of cultivation of bast fiber crops; resources and utilization of southern horticultural crops and forage crops in the field of southern special economic crops; degumming microorganism and enzyme preparations in the field of agricultural microbiology; cultivation of edible fungi in the field of resources and utilization of microorganism; multipurpose bast fiber mulching film and fiber products in the field of comprehensive processing of bast fiber crops.

IBFC covers a land area of 43 hectares, including floor area of 40,000 m2, with total investment of 120 million yuan. It has established 11 technological innovation platforms of bast fiber crops industry including National Breeding Center for Bast Fiber Crops, 1 key laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture, 1 key provincial laboratory, 1 provincial engineering center, 1 varieties of plants and animals improvement center, 1 quality control center of the Ministry of Agriculture, 2 national crops repositories, 1 research center for risk assessment on quality safety of crops at academic level.

Since establishment of the IBFC, it has undertaken 485 projects and made 187 scientific research achievements, 21 patents. 73 achievements have won awards, including 10 National Invention Prizes and National Awards for Scientific and Technological Progress. It has released 46 varieties, compiled 102 works, and published more than 1200 scientific papers and articles in domestic and foreign journals and seminars. With over 50 years’ efforts, the IBFC has gained advantage in special-purpose breed, biological degumming, bast fiber mulching film and cellulosic ethanol.

In terms of breeding new varieties of bast fiber crops, the IBFC has selected and cultivated new varieties of ramie: “Zhongzhu No.1”, “Zhongsizhu No.1”, “Zhongzhu No.2”, “Zhonghongma NO.1” etc., which play an important role in production. In terms of promoting machinery of bast fiber crops, IBFC has developed 631 and 72 bast fiber scraping machines, 6BZ-400, 6BM-350 and 4BM-260 ramie flax decorticator and HB-500 barking machine, HX-380 bast fiber washing machine, 4BM-480 barking machine. Among these, 1.5 million simple bast fiber scraping machines were sold in ramie production areas around the country, 3,500 flax decorticators were used in production and exported to such countries as Malaysia and Indonesia. More than 1,000 jute and kenaf flax decorticators were used in production and exported to India, Bengal, Indonesia, Nepal, Japan and other countries.