New bamboo-rice varieties successfully bred at the Meizhou research base

Recently, the author learned from the bamboo-rice research base of the Meizhou Agricultural School in Meizhou City, Guangdong Province that various experiments on drought resistance, disease resistance and ratooning ability of bamboo rice will be carried out here this year, and scientific research on new varieties such as the special bamboo rice "bamboo purple rice" will also be launched. At the same time, bamboo rice 966 and bamboo rice 989 will continue regional trials across the province. Meizhou City has also set up 6 sites in Jiaoling, Meixian, Xingning and Wuhua counties and cities, totaling 300 mu, for trial demonstration planting of bamboo-rice cultivation techniques.

The agricultural school has opened a test base to conduct drought-resistance tests on bamboo rice 966, disease-resistance tests on bamboo rice 989, and ratooning tests on bamboo rice 963. The most prominent characteristics of bamboo rice are its stress resistance, including drought resistance, disease resistance and lodging resistance, as well as traits such as not shattering and strong ratooning ability. In addition to the high-yield effect brought by excellent stress resistance, the traits of lodging resistance and non-shattering can also reduce losses in production, meaning it also has good "disaster resistance" ability, which is even more significant in regions such as Guangdong where typhoons and floods are frequent. Besides experiments, the research group has also carried out breeding research. According to reports, they plan, on the one hand, to breed new rice varieties with high yield, high quality and high resistance through bamboo-rice crossbreeding, and on the other hand, through systematic selection, to select variant plants from the field to breed special bamboo-rice varieties such as bamboo purple rice and bamboo glutinous rice. This research is expected to take more than 5 years to produce results, and the Meizhou Agricultural School has given great support to the research group's work.

Last year, half a mu of ratooning bamboo rice 963 was trial-planted in Ailing Village, Jiaoling County, achieving an excellent result of 561 kg per mu in the early season and 436.2 kg per mu in the ratoon season (late season), greatly encouraging the "father of bamboo rice," Zhong Zhangmei. This year, he rented fields in Xinpu, Xuxi, Jiaocheng in Jiaoling and Baidu in Meixian and planted more than 40 mu of ratooning bamboo rice 963 for variety trials. The author saw in Ailing Village that although it was sown more than 20 days late in order to stagger its flowering period from other rice, ratooning bamboo rice 963 still grew impressively, not inferior at all to the surrounding rice. It is reported that during spring plowing this year there was a drought, and some trial fields had no water, so Zhong Zhangmei and his son had to use dibbling, burying the seeds of ratooning bamboo rice 963 one by one directly into the dry soil, turning the rice into "dry rice." More than 10 days later, after a rain, these seeds all sprouted, which also reflects the extremely strong drought tolerance of bamboo rice.

Ratoon rice saves labor and costs and reduces the labor intensity of summer harvest and summer planting, so it has a certain value for promotion. Local farmers' enthusiasm for ratoon rice strengthened Zhong Zhangmei's confidence. He believes that by exploring more scientific planting techniques and strengthening management, the yield of ratooning bamboo rice 963 this year can certainly be higher than last year under extensive management.