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How the good earth yields more

By Chong Zi (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-26 10:12

Good news from Yuan Longping, whose brilliant innovations in hybridization make it possible for the country to grow more rice on less paddy field.

On Thursday Yuan and his colleagues gathered in a village in Hunan province, where he is entitled to a parcel of land for experiment. They expected 900 kilograms from one mu (0.07 hectare) of land there next month. Hunan is one of the country's biggest rice growers. If the forecast of Yuan, director-general of the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center, and his colleagues comes true, China will produce more rice.

In late 2006 Yuan initiated a project to produce through hybridization the amount of rice from 3 mu that would earlier take 4 mu. Given that the arable land decreases, his experiment is one stone that can kill two birds - farmers will garner more proceeds, and the government will set its mind at ease with the food security. Eighteen of the 20 counties that have taken to Yuan's experiment garnered 33 percent more rice last year. Hunan province has decided to give 20 more counties to Yuan's hands. And some rice-growing counties in Anhui, Sichuan and Henan provinces are applying to join the experiment.

A national team of researchers under Yuan developed in 1974 the "three-line hybridization system," capable of producing high-yield hybrid seeds on a commercial scale. China's rice production rose by 47.5 percent by the 1990s, even as some parts of erstwhile paddy land were shifted to cash crops. Today, half of China's rice land is planted with Yuan's hybrids.

These days Yuan is perfecting what he calls super-hybrid rice, to yield 25-30 percent more than current hybrids. "If this materializes," he says, "we can feed 100 million more people."

Yuan's job is phenomenal as it can help ease the world's food shortages. He has opened his research center to the world, training scientists from 25 countries.