Third-generation hybrid rice achieves high yield

Photo taken on Nov. 2, 2020 shows the third-generation hybrid rice at an experimental demonstration field in Hengnan County, central China's Hunan Province. (Xinhua/Chen Zeguo)

The third-generation hybrid rice developed by Yuan Longping, the "father of hybrid rice," and his team achieved a new record of yield in rice fields in central China's Hunan Province.

The new record of the hybrid rice planted in Qingzhu Village, Hengyang City, one of the hybrid rice's experimental fields, reached 1,603.9 kg per mu (about 667 square meters).

Hunan is one of the major rice producers in China, where farmers plant double-cropping rice. Among the output of the hybrid rice, the yield of early rice came to 667.8 kg per mu in the test fields, and that of late-season rice stood at 936.1 kg per mu.

Last year, the same hybrid rice variety made a double-cropping yield of 1,530.76 kg per mu in a year on the same plot.

"Surpassing a yield of 1,500 kg per mu in a year on the same plot means that the target set by Professor Yuan Longping has been realized," said Li Jianwu, a researcher at Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Center.

The high yield under unfavorable conditions of the earlier continuous high temperature has shown that the variety has strong adaptability and has laid a good foundation for future promotion, he said.