On 18 September 2011, in Yangguao township, Longhui county, Hunan province, an expert group from the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) made on-the-spot check of the output of the new hybrid rice variety (Y two superior No. 2) developed by Yuan Longping and his team. Rice was collected from three plots that were taken out randomly in the trial field by following a scientific procedure. Collections from the three plots weighted 901.1kg, 938.2kg, and 940.5kg respectively, after being cleaned and dried out and taking into account the standard moisture content. On 19 September, MOA experts declared, after careful calculation, that the output of the new variety is 926.6 kg per mu, indicating that China has realized the third phase’s goal of the super rice program four years ahead of the schedule. On the same day, MOA sent a letter of congratulation to Mr. Yuan.
MOA said in the letter that “Your team and you have long engaged in the research of hybrid rice. Especially in recent years, your efforts, team work, conscientiousness and explorations in super rice have been translated into many breakthroughs, making contribution to ensuring national food security.” “Breaking the record of 900kg per mu is another achievement that your team and you have made for super rice program in our country, which will elevate the research and demonstration of super rice to a new high."
MOA also mentioned in the letter that the ministry started the super rice program in 1996, and the program on breeding and demonstration of new super rice varieties in 2006. Supported by allocations from the central government, rice experts countrywide worked together to make innovations over the past 15 years to develop large number of new materials and super rice varieties, realizing goals set for the first and second phase of the program. Over the past two years, the country has built super rice demonstration plots of more than 100 million mu, realizing the goal of increasing output per mu by 50kg and benefits per mu by 100 yuan.
The letter noted that in the future, the development of super rice will continue to find new ways to breed varieties with focus on raising yield. More efforts will be made in accelerating breeding, improving qualities, cutting costs, and increasing benefits. Large-scale production and standardization will also help more varieties to realize the goal of the third phase of the program.