Sanya reports record-high rice yields

Rice harvesters reap a new, highly productive hybrid variety of the staple grain in the demonstration fields of Sanya National Paddy Park in Hainan province. [Photo by Wu Wei/For chinadaily.com.cn]

The spring yield of a super hybrid rice in a demonstration field, grown by a team of Yuan Longping, known as the father of hybrid rice, has reached 1,005 kilogram per 1/15 hectare (or mu) at the Sanya National Paddy Park in southern Hainan island — 100 kg more than the goal, according to field-yield measurement experts.

Three plots were randomly selected in the demonstration field and reaped by harvesters simultaneously on May 9. The average output per mu was slightly above 1,005 kg, said Xie Hua'an, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who conducted the yield measurements with a group of scientists from the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Hainan Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Hainan provincial seed station.