Dedication sees growth of 'super rice' yields

While Yuan Longping and his "super hybrid rice" may be household names in China, Wang Huayong is less well known. But without the efforts made by Wang and his colleagues, record-breaking rice yields might have been no more than a theory.

Wang, 47, is the director of a rice yield research project in his native Yangguao village in Shaoyang, Hunan province. This year, he is expecting the rice yield in his field to reach a record 17,000 kilograms per hectare.

"Yangguao has an agreeable environment for rice growing, and in 1996 it was selected by the Ministry of Science and Technology as a national experimental base," Wang said. "But when I took over the task in 2009, the village had failed to meet the target set by the ministry for four consecutive years."