Workers for a branch of Doneed Seed, a production company based in Beijing, sort corn seeds in Zhangye, Gansu province, on Saturday, in preparation for spring planting. [Photo by Wang Jiang/for chinadaily.com.cn]

Workers at a branch of Doneed Seed, a seed development and production company based in Beijing, were busy on Saturday drying seed corn in preparation for spring planting.

The drying process is taking place on 660 hectares in Mingyong town in the Ganzhou district of Zhangye, Gansu province.

Other local seed enterprises including Tianyu Seed, were also producing high-quality seeds - corn, vegetables and flowers - at full capacity to serve 26 provincial areas.

With 6,667 hectares of corn cultivation, Zhangye serves as a national-level corn seed production base, annually producing 450 million kilograms of high-quality hybrid corn seeds of more than 800 varieties. Corn seeds from Zhangye represent 46 percent of the total field corn seed used nationwide.

The seed industry has evolved into a leading local industry in Gansu, which features high industrialization and extensive connections with local farmers.