China’s new hybrid rice breed is set to create a world record with an output of 66kg per ha this year, according to a report released

Longliangyou 1813 was developed by Yuan Long Ping High-Tech Agriculture Company Limited. (Image source: HRDC)

After supervised harvesting in April 2014, rice breed Longliangyou 1813 produced a harvest of 62.5kg per ha in the country’s largest southern breeding base at Sanya in Hainan Province.

The record yield is the achievement of the fourth phase of China’s hybrid rice development programme and is made possible by a new high-yield breed, advanced cultivation technology and nanotechnology-supported fertiliser, Guo Shoubin, chief breeding instructor of the new breed’s development team, said.

“Given the situation, the goal of achieving a new super rice strain with an expected yield of 66kg per ha will be achieved before 2015,” said Yuan Longping, ‘father’ of hybrid rice.

The new breed will be planted in large-scale breeding bases in other provinces such as Hunan to test its productivity later in 2014 and is expected to achieve a higher yield as other regions enjoy more favourable environment for rice growth than Hainan, Longping added.

Longliangyou 1813 was developed by Liao Cuimeng, executive president of Yuan Long Ping High-Tech Agriculture Company Limited, breeding R&D centre and promotion enterprise.

“The new breed is pest-resistant and highly productive, and we also designed a specific cultivation pattern for the breed to grow more quickly,” Cuimeng said.

Meanwhile, nanotechnology-based fertiliser is being used for the first time in breeding hybrid rice. Xue Helun, inventor of the fertiliser, said it can activate microbes in the soil, not only fertilising the breed, but also the soil itself.

Longping started developing hybrid rice in the 1960s. His research team reached the target unit yield of 46kg per ha, 53kg per ha and 60kg per ha in 1999, 2005 and 2011 respectively, all setting world records.

“Given another five years, a yield of 16 tonnes per ha is achievable,” Longping said.

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