An experimental field of super hybrid rice covering a hundred mu (15 mu= 1 hectare) in the Tianduzhen Village, Sanya City of south China's Hainan Province passed expert appraisal on May 13. Examination by a group of agricultural experts from nationwide showed that the per mu yield of this batch of rice reached 833.23 kg.

The "super hybrid rice" project is led by Yuan Longping, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, who is called "father of hybrid rice". The successful development of the super hybrid rice with a unit yield exceeding 800 kg has kept China in the world frontier of hybrid rice theory and new breed fostering.

Sowed in the pilot field this time was a new combination P88S/0293, according to Huang Liguang, president of Hainan Research Institute of Agricultural Science. The experience began on December 17, 2003 and lasted 134 days. The breed yielded very much despite lingering cold weather which was rarely seen in Hainan. Even in second-class field, whose soil conditions were not so good, the breed yielded 702.59 kg per mu.

P88S/0293 is one of the latest hybrid rice achievements by the State Hybrid Rice Engineering Research Center. It's unit output reached 817.3 kg in Hunan Province in September 2002 and 826.7 kg in another pilot field of Sanya in May 2003. Its output exceeded 800 kg again this time, a mark that the breed has become basically mature and will be soon promoted in large scale after passing a series tests by the state.

China launched its hybrid rice breeding project led by Yuan Longping in 1997, and by now has achieved 16 new combinations, with all their unit yield reaching or exceeding 800kg, some even nearing 1000 kg.

The latest achievement will help China to further select out hybrid rice breeds suitable for tropical areas such as in Southeast Asia; it is also of great significance for the grain production in Hainan where grain output has remained low.

(People's Daily May 15, 2004)