Longping Hi-Tech responds to three questions about the large-scale failure of rice harvest in Anhui Province.

Chinanews.com, Changsha, April 11 (Reporter Li Junjie Xu Zhixiong) the "Liangyou 0293" produced by Yuan Longping Agricultural Hi-Tech Co., Ltd. (Longping Hi-Tech for short) was reported by the media after a large-scale production reduction or even no harvest occurred in Anhui Province. immediately aroused widespread social concern.

People's attention is mainly focused on three aspects: what are the main reasons for the large-scale reduction and failure of production in Anhui caused by "Liangyou 0293"? Does super rice focus only on yield rather than quality? How to compensate for the losses of the affected farmers?

What are the main reasons for the failure of harvest in a large area?

"Liangyou 0293" was selected by Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Center, and its seeds were produced by "Longping Hi-Tech". It is a key variety of super rice in the second stage.

According to a notice issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, the variety has moderate ripening period, high yield, medium susceptibility to bacterial blight, high susceptibility to rice blast and average rice quality. It is suitable for planting one-season middle rice in the rice areas of the Yangtze River valley (except Wuling Mountain area) in Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Zhejiang and Jiangsu, as well as in the areas with light incidence of rice blast in the south of Henan Province.

Longping Hi-Tech revealed that the media reported that the Bengbu area in Anhui Province, which had reduced production in a large area, was suitable for planting. "Liangyou 0293", which has the characteristics of lodging resistance and high yield, has been popularized in Anhui since 2008. Because of its stable and high yield, it is well received by local growers. After nearly ten years of popularization, farmers have been very clear about the characteristics of this variety. Since 2008, more than 140000 jin of seeds have been popularized in Bengbu, Anhui Province, and there has been no large-scale death caused by rice blast.

Deng Qiyun, chief scientist of the State key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, said that rice blast is one of the most important diseases of rice, which can cause a substantial reduction in yield, with a yield reduction of 40% to 50% in severe cases, or even no grain harvest, which occurs in all rice regions of the world. The disease is greatly affected by climate and is easy to occur under the conditions of long-term overcast and rain, long-term irrigation of deep water, series irrigation of heavy water, lack of sunshine, sunny and rainy, foggy, re-dew and so on.

According to Longping Hi-Tech, according to data released by the Anhui Meteorological Center, the average temperature in Anhui from July to August 2014 was 26.2 degrees Celsius, the lowest since 1994, and the temperature in Bengbu was the lowest in half a century. The extremely abnormal climate in Anhui caused rice varieties susceptible to rice blast, including "Liangyou 0293", to be infected with rice blast, resulting in a substantial reduction in yield or even no harvest, and at the same time led to a sharp decline in hybrid rice seed production in the country that year.

Longping Hi-Tech said that after the "Liangyou 0293" incident, Chang Xiuliang and other farmers asked Wuhe County Agricultural Committee and Huaishang District seed Management Station to organize experts to carry out two field identification of crop seed quality correction in the field. the identification conclusions are as follows: the abnormal situation in the field is caused by rice blast, mainly due to low temperature and continuous rain during pregnancy and heading, which infects rice blast and leads to the outbreak of the disease.

Deng Qiyun said in an interview with reporters that "rice blast" is a worldwide problem in the rice field. Up to now, many scientists in this field around the world are committed to the study of rice blast, but the best way to completely solve the problem of prevention and control of the disease has not been found.

As for the causes of the outbreak of rice blast, a number of interviewed experts said that it is not only related to the disease resistance of rice varieties, but also more directly related to external climatic conditions and the level of field management.

Does super rice focus only on yield rather than quality?

According to media reports, the yield of super rice trials has increased by leaps and bounds over the past 19 years, while China's total rice yield and per unit yield have not increased significantly. In 2013, the average rice yield per mu in China was only 447.8 kg, a far cry from the experimental level of 1000 kg.

Combined with the large-scale failure of Longping Tech's "Liangyou 0293" in Anhui, some media reports believe that this should trigger a reflection in the agricultural community on "focusing on output rather than quality".

The reporter learned that super hybrid rice is the result of the super hybrid rice cultivation program of the Ministry of Agriculture, which was put forward in 1996 and was presided over by Academician Yuan Longping, the "father of hybrid rice". In 2000, 2004 and 2011, super hybrid rice achieved the goals of 700kg per mu in the first stage, 800kg per mu in the second stage and 900kg per mu in the third stage. And completed the fourth phase of scientific research with a yield of 1000 kg per mu in October 2014.

In response to questions, Academician Yuan Longping, who participated in the fifth phase of super rice research in Hainan, responded in an interview with the media that the state's requirements for super rice, in addition to high yield, also required rice quality to reach the second grade issued by the Ministry. To resist the two major local rice diseases and insect pests, "you can't completely deny super rice because there is something wrong with individual varieties."

According to the data of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the average rice yield in the world is about 4.3 tons per hectare, while the average rice yield per mu in China is about 6.6 tons per hectare. The annual cultivation area of hybrid rice in China is 17 million hectares, accounting for 58 percent of the total area of rice cultivation. The average yield of hybrid rice is 7.5t / ha, and that of conventional rice is 6.1t / ha. The average yield of hybrid rice is 10-20% higher than that of conventional rice. The contribution of hybrid rice to rice production in China is self-evident. The first phase of super rice was applied to large-scale popularization in 2001. in the first few years of this century, the annual yield was about 1 million hectares, with an average yield of 8.3 tons per hectare. The second stage of super rice planted an area of about 1 million hectares in 2013, with an average yield of about 9 tons per hectare.

Longping Hi-Tech said that since 2000, researchers represented by Yuan Longping have been improving the quality of hybrid rice through variety improvement. In the breeding of super hybrid rice, after more than 10 years of efforts, more gratifying achievements have been made: a considerable number of 111 super rice varieties have been identified in the country, a considerable number of them have both high yield and high quality. For example, the well-known Y Liangyou 1, Y Liangyou 2 and Y Liangyou 900 all reached the national standard for high quality rice above grade 3. YLiangyou 900 set a new global record for high yield last year, and the rice quality reached the first grade high quality rice standard of the Ministry of Agriculture. "with the improvement of breeding level, it cannot be ruled out that there will be more hybrid rice varieties that can reach the first grade of high-quality rice or even more advanced to the market in the future."

Longping Hi-Tech also said that after years of continuous research and development by domestic breeding experts, some super hybrid rice have shown special advantages in lodging resistance and blast resistance. For example, Y Liangyou 1, Y Liangyou 2, Y Liangyou 900 and other varieties that have been popularized are all wide-adapted hybrid rice varieties, which have strong adaptability to fertility, temperature, diseases and insect pests. If the above varieties are planted in rice fields with medium and low fertility levels, the yield can be 9-10% higher than that of ordinary conventional varieties, and ultra-high yields can be obtained when planted in medium and high fertility rice fields.

In addition, because super rice has great potential to increase yield, under the premise of obtaining the same total rice yield, the amount of chemical fertilizer required by planting super rice is less than that of ordinary rice varieties, so it is necessary to increase per unit yield in daily planting. It won't increase the burden on farmers.

How to compensate for farmers' losses?

At present, what the disaster-stricken farmers in Anhui are most concerned about is how their losses will be compensated.

Longping Hi-Tech said that after the disaster of "Liangyou 0293", the company appointed special people to inspect the affected area, verify the affected area, coordinate the local government to make insurance claims, and at the same time provide free seeds to the affected farmers. it has given some help to the affected farmers to restore reproduction, and the farmers with the greatest living difficulties and losses are also working with the local government to help. At the same time, in the spirit of humanitarianism, we actively negotiate a compensation plan with the affected people.

Peng Guangjian, chief executive of Longping Hi-Tech, said that because this is caused by natural disasters, the local government has given farmers a certain amount of compensation through insurance, but because the amount of national agricultural insurance is low, in order to make farmers suffer less losses, they are studying more practical ways. (end)