China National Hybrid Rice R&D Center-Chongqing Subcenter Launched in Dazu

On July 19, the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center-Chongqing sub-center was officially established in Shiwan Town, Dazu District. The integrated R&D platform pilots the development and breeding of hybrid rice and the experimental demonstration of new varieties. In the next five years, it plans to select and breed about eight high-quality varieties and promote them in Chongqing and surrounding areas in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

The sub-center, nestled in Changhong Village, Shiwan Town, was co-built by China National Hybrid Rice R&D Center, People's Government of Dazu District, and the Hunan Yuanpin Agricultural Technology Company. With experts from different disciplines, suitable land, climate, and resources, and a sound foundation for developing cereals and oils, it works on space-induced mutation breeding, breeding of hybrid rice combinations, experimental demonstration of new varieties, and cultivation of super high-yield hybrid rice. The Sub center is designed to help farmers increase grain production and income, making contributions to rural revitalization. Now, it is engaged in conducting research and experimental demonstration of new varieties and building scientific research teaching bases.

Zhang Deyong, an expert of the sub-center, said China National Hybrid Rice R&D Center endeavored to achieve super-high yield and breed the third-generation hybrid rice, saline-alkali tolerant rice, and low-cadmium rice, with the breeding of hybrid rice as the center. With such efforts, it can continue expanding available arable land and improve rice yield. All of these fruits will be shared and applied in the Sub center. China National Hybrid Rice R&D Center is slated to encourage experts and staff of the Sub center to work together in relevant researches.

Dazu District is flat with fertile land and has been reputed as "a town of fish and rice." It is developing a featured regional agricultural product supply center and a famous destination of rural tourism with all its strength, practically growing the cereals, oils, and vegetable industry, aromatic plants industry, and black goats industry — three pillars, and striving to build a "national modern agriculture industrial park" and "national agricultural science and technology park." Yu Huiwen, Secretary of CPC Dazu District Committee, noted that the district would fight for breakthroughs in technologies related to space-induced mutation breeding, super hybrid rice, and physiological ecology and cultivation, growing Dazu into a center for R&D and breeding of hybrid rice and experimental demonstration of new varieties in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

After the launching ceremony, a symposium was held, and attendees discussed the future work of the sub-center. People present included experts and heads with China National Hybrid Rice R&D Center and the sub-center, Hunan Yuanpin Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd.Chongqing Agriculture and Rural Committee, and Chongqing Academy of Agricultural Sciences heads of relevant departments, towns, and subdistricts of Dazu District.