China's rice cannot sacrifice yield in pursuit of quality
"Across the country there are over a billion mu of saline-alkali land not planted with crops, plus tens of millions of mu of tidal flats. If we put them to use and promote one hundred million mu of seawater rice nationwide, at 300 kg per mu, that would add 30 billion kg of income, equivalent to Hunan Province's rice output." Yuan Longping, the "father of hybrid rice" and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said while attending the 2016 World Life Science Conference in Beijing that seawater rice has great prospects for development.
A small goal: seawater rice at 300 kg per mu
According to media reports, the "Qingdao Seawater Rice Research and Development Center" was recently established at the International Academicians' Port in Licang District, Qingdao. This first national-level seawater rice research and development center in China, with Yuan Longping serving as director and chief scientist, plans to achieve the goal of exceeding 200 kg per mu in seawater rice cultivation within 3 years.
However, Yuan Longping's "small goal" is 300 kg. He said that growing rice requires fertilizing, irrigating and controlling pests and diseases. At present, semi-wild seawater rice has a low yield, only about 100 kg per mu, and farmers cannot even recover their costs by growing it, so their enthusiasm is not high. But if it can be raised to 300 kg per mu, the benefits will appear. The key to promoting seawater rice is to increase its salt resistance, and there are two routes in breeding: one is conventional breeding, transferring the salt-resistant trait onto high-yield varieties; the other is molecular technology, cloning the salt-resistant gene and transferring it onto high-yield varieties.
A major premise: do not seek quality at the expense of yield
Yuan Longping is the "father of hybrid rice", but some people believe hybrid rice is not high quality, and quite a few consumers prefer foreign rice.
"Some people used to have a one-sided view of hybrid rice, believing that high yield meant low quality, and indeed some hybrid rice used to be of average quality. But we must see that in the last century, the first thing to solve was the problem of food and clothing, and yield had to be given priority." Yuan Longping said that now living standards have improved, and the people are not satisfied with just having enough to eat, but also want to eat well. We have also changed our strategy to seek both high yield and high quality, but there is a premise: do not seek quality at the expense of yield.
Yuan Longping stressed that China has a large population and little arable land per capita. We need high yield and high quality, not low yield and high quality, otherwise everyone will go hungry.
A wish already fulfilled: super rice at 1,000 kg per mu before age 90
In 2012, Yuan Longping said he would strive to achieve the goal of 1,000 kg per mu for super hybrid rice before he turned 90. Now 86 years old, how far is he from the goal?
Yuan Longping said the goal of 1,000 kg per mu was achieved in 2014. Now the goal of the fifth-phase super rice is a yield of 16 tons per hectare, that is, 1,067 kg per mu.