Rice seed failure calls for official investigation

The quarrel between rural villagers who say they have harvested little with super hybrid rice seeds and the seed provider Longping Hightech has a lot to do with not only the reputation of China's hybrid rice but also the credibility of the government.

In October 2014, more than 600 hectares of rice fields in East China's Anhui province planted with super hybrid rice seed Liangyou 0923 witnessed a sharp decline in harvest or had no harvest at all. Local villagers accused the seed provider of concealing the fact that this type of seed has poor resistance against rice blast disease. The seed provider denied the seeds were at fault and claimed poor weather was to blame.

The local seed management authorities responded to this by saying this type of rice seed suffered the most from rice blast under the same weather conditions.