Hybrid wheat brings good harvests even to medium- and low-yield fields

As the Dragon Boat Festival approaches, after a passing shower the wheat fields of Shunyi on the outskirts of Beijing are waving with plump ears of grain, and a bumper harvest is in sight. What is growing in the modern agriculture ten-thousand-mu demonstration zone in Zhaoquanying Town, Shunyi District, Beijing, is not conventional wheat but two-line hybrid wheat displayed by China Seed Hybrid Wheat Seed Industry (Beijing) Co., Ltd.

Large ears, many grains, strong adaptability - the potential to become a major variety

"Jingmai No. 9," planted in the Zhaoquanying modern agriculture ten-thousand-mu demonstration zone in Shunyi, passed Beijing's variety approval last year and has been introduced and trial-planted in Shandong, Hebei, Tianjin and other places.

"'Jingmai No. 9' is a second-generation hybrid wheat, with a yield increase about 10% higher than the previous generation," Zhao Changping, breeder of "Jingmai No. 9" and director of the Hybrid Wheat Engineering Technology Research Center of the Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, told reporters beside the demonstration field. "For a long time, the problem of large ears in wheat has been a difficult issue breeders have wanted to overcome. One of the biggest features of 'Jingmai No. 9' is that it breaks the contradiction between large ears and maturity period. At some demonstration sites, the maturity period of 'Jingmai No. 9' is even earlier than that of local varieties."

Besides field performance, the promotion area of a variety is also the most intuitive standard for measuring its quality. Setting aside seed companies' demonstration, promotion, sales and operations, varieties promoted on a large scale often share common characteristics.

"According to statistics, wheat varieties with a promotion area exceeding ten million mu are often not the highest-yielding varieties, but those with the best adaptability and stable yield," Zhao Changping said. "Adaptability and stable yield are the most important factors determining whether a variety can become a major variety. Hybrid wheat can be planted from Karachi, Pakistan, at 25 degrees north latitude to Beijing, China, at 40 degrees north latitude, with a planting range spanning nearly two thousand kilometers, so its adaptability can be imagined."

As the critical wheat harvest season was about to arrive, on the night of June 6, heavy rain and strong winds hit Shunyi District, Beijing. If large areas of the soon-to-be-harvested wheat fields lodged, grain output would be seriously affected. However, the next morning, farmers growing hybrid wheat in the Shunyi area of Beijing all reported that no lodging had occurred in their fields.

Thin sowing but broad harvest - 15 jin sown per mu can still yield over a thousand jin per mu

What is the biggest difference between growing hybrid wheat and conventional wheat? "Some people first think of the problem that seed cannot be saved, but more important is the issue of seed quantity per mu," Chen Zhaobo, general manager of China Seed Hybrid Wheat Seed Industry (Beijing) Co., Ltd., told reporters. "The seed quantity for hybrid wheat is only half that of conventional wheat."

"If you sow less, what if the harvest drops?" This is a question almost every farmer growing hybrid wheat asks.

"Low seed quantity is a major feature of hybrid wheat varieties. In this demonstration field in Zhaoquanying, the sowing quantity is half that of conventional wheat," Zhao Changping said. "Because it is a hybrid variety, its water-saving and stress-resistance characteristics are self-evident."

Beijing Shuofenglei Professional Cooperative, located in Shunyi District, Beijing, has agricultural machinery operations covering more than ten thousand mu of surrounding farmland. Xue Xinying, both chairman of the cooperative and a large-scale grower, together with her father, set aside 500 mu of land in 2015 to trial-plant hybrid wheat "Jingmai No. 6" and "Jingmai No. 8."

Xue Xinying's father had farmed all his life, but had never grown hybrid wheat, and this time he also trial-planted hybrid wheat with a try-it-and-see attitude. "The first time growing hybrid wheat, I felt very uncertain," Xue Xinying told reporters. "Due to delayed sowing time, poor soil moisture, poor soil quality and other problems, the sowing effect was not ideal. The basic seedlings were only 150,000, and the early growth did not meet expectations." After looking at the seedling emergence in the field, Old Xue shook his head. "This hybrid wheat seems hard to grow too. Don't plant it next year."

But by the spring of 2016, the scene in the field made Old Xue's eyes light up. "After turning green, the hybrid wheat showed a very strong self-regulating ability. Its rapid greening, strong tillering and high ear-setting rate were very obvious," Xue Xinying said. "At present, our wheat field is growing very well. Compared with conventional wheat sown at last year's autumn equinox, the ears are larger, the grains per ear are more, and the stems are thick and strong." As the advantages of hybrid wheat became more and more obvious, Old Xue recognized hybrid wheat more and more. "This wheat field is flat and smooth, looking just like a lawn. If only seed could be saved! It would even save the need for roguing!"

Liang Yibao, a senior agronomist in Hancheng Town, Lubei District, Tangshan City, Hebei Province, began growing hybrid wheat in the autumn of 2014, and it has now been two years. "At the initial sowing stage, the seed quantity per mu was much less than that of conventional wheat, which also made us very worried. Could it grow well? Would it really work?" When sowing, Liang Yibao, like Old Xue, had doubts in his heart. By the time the wheat turned green in 2015, Liang Yibao discovered something unusual about hybrid wheat: "Strong tillering, sturdy seedlings, many secondary roots. The wheat seedlings looked thick and strong, and everyone who saw them said this wheat was growing well."

"The promotion of hybrid wheat will change farmers' wheat-growing habits and concepts, and a lower sowing quantity can also achieve a good harvest," Chen Zhaobo said.

Drought-tolerant, salt-alkali-tolerant, barren-tolerant - a good helper for getting rich on medium- and low-yield fields

A large part of China's cultivated land is medium- and low-yield farmland. Transforming and developing medium- and low-yield farmland is one of the important guarantees for food security and also one of the important ways to improve food quality. Chen Zhaobo told reporters: "Medium- and low-yield farmland areas are the main battlefield for hybrid wheat at the current stage."

Last year, Zhou Ruxiang, chairman of Shuntian Agricultural Cooperative in Qingxian County, Hebei Province, also with a try-it-and-see attitude, planted hybrid wheat "Jingmai No. 6." "Our county's land has three characteristics: alkaline, poor, and dry. The water pumped from shallow wells is all salt water, and the state controls deep well drilling, so we can only rely on the weather," Zhou Ruxiang said with a troubled look when speaking of the land in Qingxian County.