Chinese hybrid rice yield hits record

A team led by Yuan Longping, known in China as "the father of hybrid rice" has made a record for hybrid rice production with an average yield of 988.1 kilograms per mu (0.0667 hectares).

Deng Qiyun, a member of the team, told Xinhua Sunday that the new progress has pushed China's hybrid rice study to a new level and greatly boosted the team's confidence to achieve the targeted production of 1,000 kg per mu.

The new record was confirmed by experts from the China National Rice Research Institute, the Wuhan University and the Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, who actually harvested three lots of a farm of 101.2 mu growing the new hybrid rice known as "Y liangyou 900" on Saturday.

The farm is located at Niuxing Village, Longhui county of central China's Hunan province on Saturday.

Officials from the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center confirmed the development.

Yuan Longping, 83, an academic from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, developed the world's first hybrid rice in 1974.

The new progress is approaching the 1,000 kg-per-mu target set by the Chinese Agriculture Ministry in 2013 after the yield of hybrid rice was raised to 963.65 kg per mu in 2012.

The yield of hybrid rice per mu in China surpassed 700 kg in 2000, 800 kg in 2005 and 900 kg in 2011 respectively, according to the Agriculture Ministry.

China, the world's most heavily farmed country, faces problems including limited land and water resources, and rising pollution, making food security a major concern.