China's super rice project has realized an output of 800 kilograms per mu on a large-scale of demonstration land in the second phase in 2004, and is currently making efforts to meet the target of the third-phase project, expecting to achieve an output of 900 kilograms per mu around 2012, said Yuan Longping, who is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and known as "the Father of Hybrid Rice" .

Yuan said this at the first international Hemudu cultural festival recently held in Yuzhao, Zhejiang Province.

Even though the further growth of China's grain output is facing various constraints, Chinese people are completely capable of addressing the issue to feed a population of over 1.3 billion as long as particularly close attention can be paid to the works involving land, policy and technology, said Yuan.

Presently there are 2.2 billion mu of rice paddy fields across the world. If half of these fields are planted with hybrid rice and each mu of these fields is assumed to produce an extra 150 kilograms of rice, the additional output would be able to feed 450 million people. Given the current situation that food shortage has become a worldwide challenge, the promotion of super-yield hybrid rice is particularly significant.

By People's Daily Online

http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2009-06/03/content_266269.htm