Recent Progress in Breeding Super Hybrid Rice in China

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the recent developments in the field of super hybrid rice breeding in China. Facing the grim situation of population growth pressure and reduction of arable land, a super rice breeding program was set up by China Ministry of Agriculture in 1996 to ensure the food security of China in the new century. By way of morphological improvement plus utilization of intersubspecific (indica/japonica) heterosis, several pioneer super hybrid rice varieties were developed, which attained the Phase I yield standard of the single season super rice (10.5 t/ha on a large scale) by 2000. A combination, P64S/E32, created a record yield of 17.1 t/ha in an experimental plot of 720 m2 in 1999. Now, efforts are focused on breeding of the Phase II super hybrid rice where good progresses have been made. In experimental fields, some newly developed hybrid rice varieties showed a yield level of 13 t/ha and had a yield advantage of 6–18% over the existing pioneer super hybrid rice varieties. Among them, the best one yielded as high as 12.3 t/ha averagely on a large area of about 7 ha at Longshan, Hunan in 2002. According to the above progresses, the yield standard of the Phase II super rice (12 t/ha on a large scale) can be achieved by 2005. With the application of molecular technology in rice breeding, the yield potential of rice can be further increased. Based on the latest research results such as the discovery and utilization of yield enhancing QTLs from wild rice, successful introduction of barnyard grass DNA and C4 genes with a higher photosynthetic efficiency into rice, the Phase III super hybrid rice breeding program is proposed, in which the yield target is 13.5 t/ha on a large scale by 2010.