Meizhou Bamboo Rice Scientific Research Base Cultivates New Varieties

A few days ago, the author learned from the bamboo rice research base of Meizhou Agricultural School in Guangdong Province that various tests on drought resistance, disease resistance and regeneration of bamboo rice will be carried out here this year, and scientific research on new varieties of special bamboo rice, such as bamboo rice, will also be carried out. At the same time, bamboo rice 966 and bamboo rice 989 continue to conduct regional trials throughout the province. Meizhou has also set up 6 sites with a total of 300 mu in Jiaoling, Meixian, Xingning and Wuhua counties and cities to experiment and demonstrate the cultivation techniques of bamboo rice.

The agricultural school opened up an experimental base to test the drought resistance of bamboo rice 966, disease resistance of bamboo rice 989 and regeneration of bamboo rice 963. The most prominent characteristics of bamboo rice are drought resistance, disease resistance, lodging resistance, non-threshing, strong regeneration and so on. In addition to the high yield effect brought by excellent resistance, the characteristics of lodging resistance and non-threshing can also reduce losses in production, that is, it also has a good ability to "resist disasters", which is more meaningful in Guangdong and other areas with more typhoons and floods. In addition to the experiment, the research group also carried out breeding research. According to reports, on the one hand, they intend to breed new rice varieties with high yield, high quality and high resistance through bamboo rice cross breeding, and on the other hand, through systematic breeding, mutants are selected from the field to cultivate special bamboo rice varieties such as bamboo purple rice and bamboo glutinous rice. The research is expected to take more than 5 years to produce results, and Meizhou Agricultural School has given great support to the research group.

Last year, Zhong Zhangmei, the father of bamboo rice, was encouraged by the trial planting of half an mu of recycled bamboo rice in Huiling Village, Jiaoling County, with a yield of 561kg per mu in early cropping and 436.2 kg in ratooning season (late cropping). This year, he planted more than 40 mu of recycled bamboo rice 963 in Jiaoling Xinpu, Xuxi, Jiaocheng and Baidu of Meixian County. The author saw in Huiling Village that although it was sown more than 20 days late in order to stagger the florescence with other rice, the regenerated bamboo rice 963 was still growing happily and was as good as the other rice around it. It is reported that when there was a drought in spring ploughing this year, and there was no water in some experimental fields, Zhong Zhangmei and his son had to use the method of on-demand sowing, burying seeds of recycled bamboo rice 963 directly into dry soil, and planting rice into "upland rice." More than 10 days later, after a rain, all these seeds grew out, which also reflects that bamboo rice has a strong ability to tolerate drought.

Ratooning rice can save labor and cost, and reduce the labor intensity of summer harvest and summer planting, which has a certain value of popularization. The enthusiasm of local farmers for ratooning rice has strengthened Zhong Zhangmei's confidence. He believes that by exploring more scientific planting techniques and strengthening management, the yield of regenerated bamboo rice 963 this year will certainly be higher than that of last year's extensive management.