FAO RICE CONFERENCE 04/CRS.21
February 2004
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FAO RICE CONFERENCE Rome, Italy, 12-13 February 2004 HYBRID RICE FOR FOOD SECURITY IN THE WORLD
By: Prof. Yuan Longping Hybrid Rice Specialist and Director-General China National Hybrid Rice Research & Development Center Hunan People Republic of China
The views expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
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HYBRID RICE TECHNOLOGY FOR FOOD SECURITY IN THE WORLD Yuan Longping (China National Hybrid Rice R & d Center) The current world population is over 6 billion and will reach 8 billion in 2030. Meanwhile, the annual loss of land to other use is 10 to 35 million ha, with half of this lost land coming from cropland. Facing such severe situation of population growth pressure plus cropland reduction, it is obvious that the only way to solve food shortage problem is to greatly enhance the yield level of food crops per unit land area through advance of science and technology. Rice is a main food crop. It feeds more than half or world population. It has been estimated that the world will have to produce 60% more rice by 2030 than what it produced in 1995. Therefore, to increase production of rice plays a very important role in food security and poverty alleviation. Theoretically, rice still has great yield potential to be tapped and there are many ways to raise rice yield, such as building of irrigation works, improvement of soil conditions, cultural techniques and breeding of high yielding varieties. Among them, it seems at present that the most effective and economic way available is to develop hybrid varieties based on the successful experience in China. It has been proved practically for many years that hybrid rice has more than 20% yield advantage over improved inbred varieties. In recent years, hybrid rice covers 50% or 15 million ha of the total rice area in China. The nationwide...