Chinese farmers getting super high rice yields

For eight years, many rice farmers in Taoyuan township of temperate-climate Yunnan Province, China, have been harvesting 15 or more tons per hectare. The modern variety IR72 easily yields half again more than it does in the tropics.

IRRI scientists Drs. Gurdev S. Khush, Kenneth G. Cassman, and Shaobing Peng, who recently visited Taoyuan, believe the cooler, drier weather and intensive management are the key factors. IR72's growing period is 115 days at IRRI, 160 days in Taoyuan. As a result, it grows taller with thicker stems, is less-tillering with a higher percentage of productive tillers, and produces more spikelets per panicle with heavier grains.

The farmers rotate their rice with high-value vegetable crops, justifying high fertilizer inputs. A key issue, say the IRRI scientists, is whether or not the 15 t/ha yields in Taoyuan can be sustained with less inputs. Scientists of the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences and IRRI are studying the Taoyuan accomplishments, hoping to adapt what they learn to create high-yielding rices for the tropics.

(IRRI news release)