Farmer's hybrid research yields bumper harvest

Fifty years after starting experiments on hybrid wheat, Wang Zhen was happy to see a bumper harvest this year.

The 80-year-old farmer from Linzhang county, Hebei province, rode his tricycle to the fields to watch machines reap a hectare of wheat over the past week.

The average yield of the hybridized wheat, a combination of wheat and couch grass, is 6.78 metric tons a hectare, 2.25 tons more than that of local varieties, Wang said, adding that peers think he is crazy.