Trial planting of new red-lotus hybrid rice variety succeeds

The autumn harvest has just ended, and news has come from Jiangjin District, Chongqing: a new type of rice variety, the red-lotus-type Luoyou 10 hybrid rice, has recently been successfully trial-planted in the district. Without applying any pesticide, this variety achieved an average yield of 600 kg per mu across three zones - at altitudes of 400 m and below, 400 to 600 m, and above 600 m - and no rice blast, rice false smut, sheath blight or bacterial leaf blight occurred.

The red-lotus-type Luoyou hybrid rice is the latest research achievement of Professor Zhu Yingguo, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and of the College of Life Sciences at Wuhan University. It is a robust ecological variety that is broadly adaptable, multi-resistant, heat-tolerant, nitrogen-efficient, highly selenium-absorbing, economically efficient and environmentally friendly, and is suitable for mechanized and simplified cultivation. Unlike other hybrid rice varieties, this variety can also achieve high-yield targets under special ecological and climatic conditions through intensive cultivation. In 2016, the variety passed variety approval in Hubei Province and applied for plant variety right protection. According to Professor Zhu Yingguo, the variety was developed by combining molecular marker-assisted selection with conventional breeding, together with directional selection under high temperature and low nitrogen. It features fertilizer savings, reduced pesticide use, environmental friendliness and ecological efficiency, is suitable for simplified cultivation, and is the preferred variety for producing selenium-enriched, ecological and organic rice, with good economic benefits and favorable social benefits. (Tao Dawei, reporter Feng Jing)