Home>>China
Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, January 09, 2004

Father of hybrid rice: Chinese grain output can sustain its population

On January 6 while attending International Seed Technology and Industrialization Forum Father of Hybrid Rice Mr. Yuan Longping claimed that China can feed itself and Chinese grain output can sustain the population.


PRINT DISCUSSION CHINESE SEND TO FRIEND


On January 6 while at International Seed Technology and Industrialization Forum Father of Hybrid Rice Mr. Yuan Longping claimed that China can feed itself and Chinese grain output can sustain the population.

He said, while Chinese population is increasing all the time and cultivated area is decreasing the per-unit yield is rapidly raised thanks to scientific and technological improvement. The breeding of super hybrid rice is oriented toward high yield and superior quality so that it can satisfy the increasing need of the people for high quality foodstuff, he emphasized.

Academician Yuan said the per-unit yield of Chinese hybrid rice grows steadily during the last decades. Per-unit yield from the 3-line hybrid rice successfully bred in the 1970s is 20 percent higher than that from regular rice. Moreover per unit area yield from the 2-line hybrid rice bred in the 90s is, in turn, 5 to 10 percent higher than that of the 3-line hybrid rice. The average increase for each Mu (1 Mu equals 2000/3 square meters) is 50 to 100 kilograms. The first-stage objective to increase per-unit area yield of Indica rice to 700 kilograms was fulfilled in 2000. The second-stage objective to increase to 800 kilograms was to be fulfilled by 2005. Hopefully it can be realized this year, one year earlier than had been expected. Last year five hundred-Mu trial areas have reached this objective. The third-stage objective to yield 900 kilograms per-unit area is expected to become true in 2010.

Another Chinese expert on hybrid Japonica rice at the meeting Professor Yang Zhenyu agreed with Yuan. For years Professor Yang conducted successful experiments in such northern regions as Xinjiang, Ningxia and Heilongjiang. Last year the per unit area yield from these experiments reached 750 kilograms. The highest yield was more than 1,000 kilograms/mu, 10 to 15 percent higher than that from regular Japonica rice. He is currently conducting experiments on Indica/Japonica hybrid rice in the hope to beat the south and north limits of high-yield hybrid rice in geological preferenc.

By People's Daily Online


Questions?Comments? Click here
    Advanced






Noted Chinese Rice Expert Mulls Producing Ethyl Alcohol with Rice

China makes breakthrough in developing super hybrid rice  



 


Exploration rover "Spirit" lands safely on Mars ( 9 Messages)

Two major state banks to pilot joint-stock system ( 3 Messages)

China pondering its own "green card" system ( 16 Messages)

Roaring BMW: Was it "road rage" or an accident? ( 2 Messages)

Beijing's traffic no longer a headache by year 2008 ( 5 Messages)



Copyright by People's Daily Online, all rights reserved