Third-generation hybrid rice achieves record high single-cropping yield in Sichuan

The third-generation hybrid rice “Sanyou No. 2” developed by the Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Center achieved a yield of 1085.99 kg per mu (about 667 square meters) in an experiment in southwest China’s Sichuan province. It is the highest unit yield achieved by a third-generation hybrid rice variety to date, Xinhua News Agency reported on Sept. 28.

Staff members measure the yield of the third-generation hybrid rice “Sanyou No.2”on Sept. 28. (Photo courtesy of the Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Center)

In 2019, the same late hybrid rice variety, “Sanyou No. 1”, had a single-cropping yield of 1,046.3 kg per mu in an experimental field in central China’s Hunan province. In 2020, on the same plot, “Sanyou No. 1” achieved a double-cropping yield of more than 1,500 kg per mu.

Apart from Pingshan village in Sichuan province where “Sanyou No. 2” has demonstrated its best performance, the rice variety has also been trial planted in Guangdong, Hunan, Yunnan provinces, and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

"'Sanyou No. 2' can also be planted in saline-alkali soil,” said Li Xinqi, a researcher at the Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Center, the hosting organization for the third-generation hybrid rice project.