Pingtech responds to the query about the failure of super rice harvest: Rice blast caused by historical low temperature

Academician Yuan Longping inspects the growth of super hybrid rice in Shucheng County, Anhui Province on July 30, 2013. Figure / CFP

Recently, Liangyou 0293, a super rice of Longping Hi-Tech Company, lost a large area of harvest in Anhui, a major agricultural province, due to blast. The affected farmers questioned that Longping Tech, a seed production company, was suspected of false propaganda and concealed variety defects.

Why did a kind of super rice fail in a large area?

Response: the lowest temperature in the same period in history caused rice blast; there are many and scattered farmers, and the after-sales service is not ideal.

Longping Hi-Tech responded that "Liangyou 0293", which was approved by the National Variety approval Committee in 2006, has the characteristics of lodging resistance and high yield. In the seven years since it was popularized in Anhui Province in 2008, due to the trust of farmers, it has sold a total of 140000 jin in Bengbu area of Anhui Province, during which there has been no large-scale death caused by rice blast.

Longping Hi-Tech responded that from July to August 2014, the average temperature in Anhui province was 26.2 degrees Celsius, the lowest since 1994, and the lowest in Bengbu in half a century, causing rice blast. Because the disease was greatly affected by climate, the local varieties in Anhui, including "Liangyou 0293", which were easily infected with rice blast, had reduced yield or lost harvest, and also led to a sharp decline in hybrid rice seed production in the country that year.

In response to questions about suspected false propaganda, Longping Hi-Tech said that the company had marked the variety's susceptibility to rice blast on both internal and external packaging, and also provided certain technical services for field production, including SMS reminders of abnormal weather, APP push planting knowledge, etc., but because of the high degree of danger of rice blast, these measures could not completely prevent the occurrence of rice blast. At the same time, due to the large and scattered number of farmers, the effect of relevant after-sales service provided by the company is not ideal. After the incident, Longping Hi-Tech has sent special personnel to inspect the affected area, verify the affected area, coordinate the local government to make insurance claims, and at the same time take measures such as providing free seeds to help affected farmers resume reproduction and negotiate compensation plans with affected farmers.

2 Why is there a big yield gap between the field and the experimental field?

Response: subject to the planting level and conditions, the gap is inevitable.

With regard to the large gap between the yield of super hybrid rice in farmers' field and that of experimental fields, Cheng Shihua, director of China Rice Research Institute, said in an interview that first of all, cultivating high-yielding varieties does not mean that you can enjoy high yield once and for all. Walking from the experimental field to the field of ordinary farmers will not only lag in time, but also have a difference in yield. Subject to the difference of planting level and planting conditions, this gap is inevitable. "at present, the research of super hybrid rice in China has developed in the direction of 'high yield, high quality and wide range of resistance', and the phenomenon of 'partial family' will be less and less." Cheng Shihua said.

"as early as 2008, scientific research institutions and enterprises led by experts such as Yuan Longping, Xie Huaan and Zhu Ying were actively promoting the research of 'wide-adapted hybrid rice'." Deng Qiyun, an expert at the State key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice and the breeding person for the third and fourth phases of super hybrid rice varieties in China, told reporters that the so-called wide adaptability is the "civilian version" of super rice, which has extensive adaptability to soil fertility, temperature, diseases and insect pests. This means that even the average farmer can get a yield about 10% higher than that of conventional varieties in medium-and low-yield fields. At present, a number of wide-adapted super hybrid rice varieties cultivated in China have been fully popularized in the Yangtze River Basin and South China.

(3) what is the quality of super hybrid rice?

Response: Super hybrid rice contains hundreds of varieties, which is generally unscientific.

As for the low quality of super hybrid rice, Fu Xiangjin, director of the National Engineering Laboratory for Deep processing of Rice and by-products, told reporters that super hybrid rice is a very broad concept, including hundreds of varieties. generally speaking, super rice with low quality and poor taste is not scientific. "each variety has different characteristics and uses, ranging from high yield to good taste. There are not only suitable for eating, but also suitable for feed and wine-making. " Fu Xiangjin told reporters that among the super hybrid rice varieties, including Y Liangyou 1 and Y Liangyou 2, their rice quality has reached the national third or even first class standard.

Ding Xincai, chairman of Hunan Hope seed Technology Co., Ltd., believes that there is no contradiction between high yield and high quality, and they are only two of the many characteristics of rice. In fact, most of the super rice currently used for large-scale production in China is as good as conventional rice.

The difficulty of popularization does not lie in the variety itself, but under the premise of decentralized management, the comparative efficiency of agriculture is too low, resulting in farmers are not willing to invest too much financial resources and energy.

The reporter learned in the interview that since "Liangyou 0293" has been available for seven or eight years, it has long been replaced by updated and better varieties in Hunan, and basically no one has planted it again. Yangyueqiu, a major grain grower in Quyuan Guanli District, Yueyang City, Hunan Province, transferred 8000 mu of rice and planted four varieties of super rice, including early rice varieties Lingliangyou 211,Lingliangyou 674 and Zhuliangyou 819, and late rice variety Hyou518. "I have been growing these varieties for three to five years, and the average yield per mu in the field is more than 1000 jin, which is quite satisfactory." Yang Yueqiu said.

According to Xinhua News Agency