China has achieved a major breakthrough in hybrid rice production, topping 800 kilograms per mu (0.165 acre), according to a local Chinese newspaper.

The Changsha Evening News reported Monday that the second phase of super hybrid rice has yielded 811.8 kilograms on a piece of farmland as big as one mu, according to renowned scientist Yuan Longping.

Yuan, the national academician from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, made the announcement recently at the China rice seminar in Changsha city, capital of the central China's Hunan Province, where China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center is located.

Yuan Longping expressed his confidence at the seminar that his third phase hybrid rice project will achieve a goal of 900 kg per mu by the year 2010.

Also at the center, the provincial rice research team has conducted nine new rice-breeding projects, ready for state-level review by the national crop breeding committee. 

(CRI January 3, 2006)