On Nov. 1, Yuan Longping, China's "father of hybrid rice" and academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, introduced the prospect of sea rice at the 2016 World Life Science Conference in Beijing. Yuan’s target is to increase the yield of sea rice per mu (0.0667 hectares) to 300 kilograms.

Yuan explained that the key element of popularizing sea rice is to increase its salt tolerance. There are two main methods of achieving this change: either by grafting the characteristic of salt tolerance or by transplanting the cloned gene of salt tolerance to an existing high-yield breed.

Yuan said that the current yield of semi-wild sea rice per mu is around 100 kilograms. Farmers are less enthusiastic about this variety of rice, as they are unlikely to get back their energy and capital input in terms of irrigation, fertilization and disease prevention. If the yield per mu can reach 300 kilograms, however, farmers would enjoy far greater economic benefits.

Previously, Yuan's plan was to expand the yield of sea rice to 200 kilograms per mu within three years at the Sea Rice Research and Development Center, headed by Yuan in Qingdao, Shandong province, according to Xinhua.

As for the prejudice some consumers maintain toward hybrid rice, Yuan explained that yield used to be the top priority, as China had to focus on maintaining an adequate food supply. However, with living standards on the rise, rice cultivation needs to prioritize both quality and quantity.