Progress Report on Independent Innovation of Hybrid Rice Projects in China

On September 18, 2011, the Ministry of Agriculture super-hybrid rice acceptance expert team made a special trip to Longhui County, Hunan Province, and took on-site sampling and acceptance of the 107.9-mu "Y Liangyou 2" super rice experimental field in Leifeng Village, Yanggu Township. On the next day, the acceptance results were announced: The average yield per mu of experimental fields was 926.6 kg!

According to the national plan, the average target yield of 900 kilograms per mu of experimental plots for the third phase of super hybrid rice is to be completed between 2011 and 2015. The year 2011 is not over. The target has achieved a major breakthrough, four years ahead of schedule! Academician Yuan Longping and his research team have won a glorious victory in the battle against human hunger.

The scientific research of super hybrid rice has won the people's excitement over and over again. Behind the achievements of the global audience, the scientific research team has relentlessly pursued independent innovation for decades.

“The cultivation of superior hybrid rice varieties promotes the use of technological achievements in large areas to solve the technical problems of lodging resistance and nitrogen saving in hybrid rice cultivation, and to increase the yield per acre of rice...” The scientific research work on hybrid rice can be summarized in a few sentences. It was a battle that started from the beginning, never stopped, and will continue.

Variety Breeding: "Y Liangyou No. 2" spare tires turn positive "Y58S" hit new heights

In 2005, the National Hybrid Rice Engineering Technology Research Center (hereinafter referred to as “the Center”) began to organize the implementation of a super-hybrid rice third-phase 100-mu demonstration plot in Hunan with an average yield of 900 kilograms per year. It is planned to select 2 or more new super hybrid rice annually. In combination, select suitable ecological areas in 5 different counties (6 acre pieces) and explore high-yielding cultivation techniques that are compatible with the combination of ecological areas.

According to Peng Mingming, a researcher at the center, from 2008 onwards, for two consecutive years, they selected the key strain “Kechao 3218,” which had an average yield of more than 800 kilograms a year. This breed has the potential to sprint an average of 900 kilograms per mu. However, due to high plant height, it is easy to fall down and eventually give up.

In 2011, the center determined that the key combination was "Liuyou 1128" and "Y Liangyou 2". "'Liangyou 1128' is a two-line late-maturing hybrid rice variety with moderate plant height, excellent leaf morphology, high lodging resistance, cold and high temperature tolerance; 'Y Liangyou 2' has a moderately loose plant shape, with the upper three leaves upright. Microscopic process, high utilization of light energy, strong force of delivery, strong resistance to fall, high yield, and wide adaptability.” Peng Zhiming introduced their characteristics, but also quipped, “We originally focused on nurturing 'Liuyou 1128' 'Troubleshooter, did not expect 'Y Liangyou 2' spare tire to be positive, the first to achieve the third phase of research objectives."

The high-yielding, high-efficiency propagation technology of the center hybrid rice sterile line has also achieved remarkable success. The star seed “Y58S” has scored new records. In April of last year, the center's “Y58S” in Sanya City, Hainan Province, produced 438.96 kilograms of high-yield and high-quality probiotics, which was double the historical level of the same period. In September, the center measured the production of 210 acres of “Y58S” breeding field organized by Shuichang Village, Shidian County, Baoshan City, Yunnan Province. The average yield was 618.7 kilograms, and the high-yielding field yielded a yield of 743.8 kilograms per mu. The world's highest record for the dual-use rice genic male sterile line.

In the last year alone, the center had four new hybrid rice varieties, “Yliangyou 2”, “Liyou 1128”, “C Liangyou 277” and “Jianyou 7”, which were approved by crop varieties in Hunan Province. In addition, the center has also made important progress in the study of intersubspecific heterosis, cultivated eight strong hybrid rice parents, selected nine new strong combinations, obtained 16 new varieties, and applied for 15 national invention patents. , To promote a new combination of superior strength of 5 million mu and increase rice production by 5 billion kilograms.

"Three kinds of four species": Hunan 1 billion kilograms of new rice in 2011

Super hybrid rice has a target of 900 kilograms per mu for scientific research and is only implemented in the area of ​​100 acres of experimental plots. In the current situation where more than half of the world’s population is dependent on rice as a staple food, increasing grain yield per unit area has always been the goal of all countries. How to popularize large-scale varieties of super hybrid rice that has been selected and cultivated has always been the direction of central scientific research workers.

In order to give full play to the potential for increasing the yield of super hybrid rice, Yuan Longping proposed five years ago that in the southern rice region, the super hybrid rice “three-four-produce” high-yield project will be implemented. That is, using the results of the super hybrid rice technology, there will be four acres of land with three acres of real estate. Grain, which substantially increases the existing rice yield and total production, and emphasizes the need for "three good" support for "good seed, good farm, and good law."

The project was first implemented in Hunan in 2007. Today, it has been rapidly promoted to Henan, Anhui, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, Hubei, and Sichuan provinces.

In 2011, 47 counties and urban areas in Hunan participated in the project, totaling an area of ​​more than 7.16 million mu, and the total production of rice was 1,037 million kg. The pilot demonstration of “three kinds of production and four types of production” conducted outside the province by the center also performed well. Guizhou Province's hybrid rice "three-produce four" high-yield project, demonstration planting area of ​​211 acres, measured in the field test of the selected three representative fields, Jinyou 785 varieties yield 967.3 kg, Y Liangyou The 5,845 varieties produced 980,66 kilograms and the Shanyou 88 produced 962.8 kilograms, with an average yield of 970.25 kilograms.

"One year's output of grain is equal to 4 acres of field production. We succeeded." Yuan Longping was happy as a child. He expressed with confidence: "We will strive to achieve 6,000 kinds of tertiary production and four projects" by 2020. Millions of mu, yielding 80 million mu of food."

Nitrogen resistance: new progress in high-yield and high-efficiency cultivation techniques

Ma Guohui, deputy director of the center, is an expert on nitrogen and lodging resistance in super hybrid rice. Speaking of the study, we must return to the year 2000. In that year, the center achieved a goal of producing 700 kilograms per mu of super-hybrid rice.

Ma Guohui told reporters that super hybrid rice was a new thing that year and the yield per mu was much higher than that of ordinary rice varieties. However, farmers of super-hybrid rice said that they would not plant super rice in the next year, because the amount of nitrogen fertilizer is excessive, the cultivation techniques are difficult, and the efficiency is not high. In the same year, he returned to his alma mater at the China Agricultural University to do academic reports. He also encountered sharp questions from his alma mater's teacher: Super hybrid rice, “ultra-high fat” (need to consume 1.2-1.5 kilograms of pure nitrogen for every 100 kilograms of rice produced) Not only increase production costs, but also pollute the environment. How do you solve this problem?

After several investigations and reflections, Ma Guohui formally submitted a report to Yuan Longping in 2005, proposing to promote the cultivation of super rice in large areas. Is it possible to achieve the goal of high yield and super-high yield by reducing the amount of nitrogen and establishing suitable super high-yield technology? The concept of "super high-yielding and nitrogen-saving cultivation" came into being. The center officially launched research on nitrogen-saving technologies for super hybrid rice.

In recent years, the rice production in the south of China has undergone four important changes: the promotion and application of super hybrid rice has promoted important changes in super high yield cultivation techniques; the production area of ​​high quality rice has continued to expand; the early rice direct seeding has become the main streamlined cultivation method; and the rural mechanized harvesting is increasing Adopted by farmers. These changes have made lodging problems a major technical issue in rice production.

"The occurrence of rice lodging on a large scale and the intensification of lodging in super rice cultivation will increase the difficulty of high yield," Ma Guohui told reporters. With the direct support of Yuan Longping, from 2007, the center began to implement the research on lodging resistance of super high-yield rice.

In the past few years, the center has achieved good results. Ma Guohui said with joy: China has successfully mastered the hybrid high-yield cultivation techniques for nitrogen in hybrid rice, and gradually got rid of the "high nitrogen cultivation" model and entered the era of "six-saving high-yield cultivation."

Ma Guohui summed up the "three methods" of nitrogen conservation: through genetic digging and potential nitrogen-saving, cultivate nitrogen-efficient varieties. At present, the center has developed a high-yielding late-season hybrid rice variety Fengyou 358, which has also grown a wide-adapted super hybrid rice such as Y Liangyou No. 1 under the condition of halving the amount of nitrogen fertilizer, and achieved high-yield nitrogen production through physical and chemical technology. The combination of quick-acting fertilizers and long-acting fertilizers has resulted in the development of high-efficiency fertilizers and rice-specific fertilizers based on slow/controlled release fertilizers. Studies have shown that slow-release fertilizers can reduce or even slightly increase yields compared to conventional nitrogen fertilizers at a reduction of 30%. For example, in the common ecological area of ​​Liuyang City in Hunan Province, “Yliangyou No. 1” was planted for 2 consecutive years under experimental conditions. 800 kilograms per mu have been realized; through the optimization of cultivation and management techniques, nitrogen has been appropriately managed by comprehensive management measures such as increasing basic seedlings, scientific management of fertilizer and water, and preventing and controlling pests.

At present, the center has initially formed a crossbreed of “integrated nitrogen management methods, early seeding and breeding, one-time application of coated slow/controlled release fertilizers, increased seedling and nitrogen reduction, scientific management of water, and timely control of pests and diseases, etc.” Rice nitrogen-efficient cultivation technology system.

In the research of anti-leaning cultivation techniques, the center focused on the research of the biological characteristics of the resistant varieties and the supporting technologies for the transformation of the materials, and cooperated with a number of companies to develop inhibitory technology-based chemical products that can significantly reduce the lodging index (such as “Lifeng”. Spirit "), and promotion of technology and physical products (such as "liquid silicon potassium fertilizer"). The center has initially formed a high-yielding cultivation technology system for hybrid rice that is characterized by “selection of lodging-resistant varieties, wide and narrow row planting, whole-course water-saving management, stable growth of slow-release fertilizer, and control of new anti-dropping agents”.

These two technologies were demonstrated in four key regions and eight demonstration bases in Hunan, Hubei and other places last year. Altogether, 66 nitrogen-saving lodging-resistant cultivation studies were completed, and both received significant yield increase and income increase.