  An important approach to studying high-energy cosmic rays is the
investigation of the properties of extensive air showers; however, the lateral
distribution of particles in simulations of such showers strongly depends on
the applied model of low-energy hadronic interactions. It has been shown that
many constraints to be applied to these models can be obtained by studying
identified-particle spectra from accelerator collisions, in the energy range of
the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron. Here we present measurements of the pion
production cross-section obtained by the NA61/SHINE experiment at the SPS, in
proton-carbon collisions at the beam energy of 31 GeV from the year 2007.
Further analyses of identified-particle yields in SHINE, in particular with a
pion beam, are in preparation.
