China has set a new world record for super hybrid rice yield with 17 tons per hectare at a demonstration base in Gejiu, Southwest China's Yunnan Province.
The rice was planted in 6.67 hectares of a demonstration base in Gejiu, a county-level city located on top of a mountain north of the Red River valley, which flows from Yunnan's Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture to Vietnam.
Researchers harvested 17 tons per hectare of the Xiangliangyou 900 super hybrid rice, Beijing-based newspaper Science and Technology Daily reported on Monday.
Such a yield is "a new world record for large area-planted rice output per hectare," according to a statement released on the website of the rice creator: Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Center, a division of the China National Hybrid Rice R&D Center.
More than 100 officials and scientists from all over China witnessed the harvest on Sunday, in which three smaller fields were chosen randomly and then examined for yield by agriculture experts, the statement said.
"The record shows that China's rice breeding technique continues to improve and that China's rice production potential continues to rise," Li Xinqi, a research fellow at the center, told the Global Times on Monday.
The harvested rice was planted in March, the newspaper reported. The rice grew with plentiful, well-developed seeds and no major diseases or pests were spotted, the report said.
Li said the rice could meet the country's demand for emergency food supplies and help farmers profit.
China's "father of hybrid rice" Yuan Longping has set a goal of reaching a rice yield of 18 tons per hectare by 2020, with other demonstration bases in China also striving to reach the goal, according to the statement.
"The plantation model has shown similar results in other places," Li said.
