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Crop caution

By Fu Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-19 14:35

In the early 1980s, farmers were distributed plots through a household contract system. The reform rekindled their enthusiasm for farming and resulted in another steady increase in yield to 400 million tons of grain within six years. Since the 1980s, scientists say they have played a big part in boosting yields.

"I believe science and technology have played a huge role in increasing the grain yield since the 1980s," says Zhai Huqu, president of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Zhai, who heads a team of 10,000 scientists, says breakthroughs in hybrid rice, high-yield wheat, corn and cotton have helped feed the most populous nation.

Scientists have developed 15,000 new crops in the past 50 years, especially in the past two decades. Hybrid rice was one of the biggest successes. The hybrid rice first developed in the early 1970s boosted output by 400 million tons over the next 25 years. That's equal to the entire food output in a whole year in the 80s.

Yuan Longping, Chinese agriculturalist and the father of hybrid rice, realized the 700-kg-per-mu (0.066 hectare) and 800-kg targets in 2000 and 2004.

"I hope hybrid rice with a per-mu yield of over 900 kg will be grown nationwide by 2010," Yuan, 78, says at his experimental paddy field in Hainan province. Yuan's "super rice" is now grown in more than half of China's paddy fields as well as more than 20 other countries.

Apart from hybrid rice, China has also made a breakthrough in wheat. The country plans to sow 33.5 million hectares of super-high-yield wheat by 2020, which could help increase harvests by 30 percent. Wheat harvests in main pilot areas are expected to hit 10.45 tons per hectare, compared with the current national annual average yield of 4.25 tons.

"The yield increase is vital to feeding the country's growing population," says Wang Ren, who hopes hybrid rice and wheat will be spread to many more regions in China.

Another field in which China can contribute a lot is biotechnology. The government boasts it can become an international biotech powerhouse in 15 years, saying China is already a heavyweight in the area.

"We are only behind the United States by just five to 10 years in terms of overall research and development capacity," says Zhai.

China has almost 200 major biotech laboratories funded by governments at various levels, with more than 40,000 technical and research personnel. It also has some of the richest and most diverse biological resources in the world, with about 260,000 varieties of animals, plants and microbes. "By using these resources, we have already made breakthroughs in some fields in the past two decades," says Zhai.

China has contributed to the international human genome project aChina must not rest on its laurelsnd has independently completed the sequencing for gene groups of hybrid rice. To continue the momentum, Wang says, China will focus its research on biotech-based agriculture. "Support for scientific research in agricultural development should never be neglected," says Wang.

The CGIAR director says the country should not repeat the mistakes of the previous decade. In mid-1990s, when China enjoyed record harvests and its grain yield surpassed 500 million tons for the first time, the government's focus on grain security and agricultural and rural input began to waver. As a result, grain output dropped for seven consecutive years, and in 2003 fell to as low as 430 million tons.

"China's grain security was in danger then because of its growing dependence on imports," warns Wang. "It's a lesson the policymakers should not forget."

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