On December 4, contiguous plots of “Huahang Xiangyinzhen” rice in Xincun Village, Duhu Town, Taishan City, swayed gracefully in the breeze, forming layers of golden rice waves. In this demonstration field on the verge of harvest, a yield measurement activity for the new rice variety, led by the South Subtropical Crops Research Institute of Guangdong Academy of Sciences, was carried out in an orderly manner, providing crucial actual measurement support for evaluating the promotion value of this high-quality rice variety.
It is reported that “Huahang Xiangyinzhen”, a type of “space rice”, is a fragrant conventional slim-grain rice variety bred through space mutation experiments by the National Center of Space Breeding for Plants at South China Agricultural University using aerospace breeding technology. Approved in 2022, this variety boasts advantages such as superior grain quality, strong fragrance and high stress resistance, and began to be promoted and planted in towns like Duhu and Guanghai in Taishan City this year.
At the yield measurement site, harvesters shuttled through the rice waves for operation; the rice was quickly harvested, threshed and shipped to processing plants for accurate weighing. Chen Diwen, a senior agronomist at the South Subtropical Crops Research Institute of Guangdong Academy of Sciences, stated that despite frequent typhoons and an earlier arrival of cold air this year, with the support of a series of quality and efficiency improvement technologies including soil improvement, nutrient regulation, ecological prevention and control, and integrated drone fertilizer and pesticide application, this variety has demonstrated good stress resistance and yield potential. “The yield measurement results show that the average yield per mu still exceeds 350 kilograms despite the impact of typhoons, and the overall yield performance is impressive.”
As an important grain-producing area in Guangdong Province, the stable and high yield of rice in Taishan is of great significance to regional food security. The successful trial planting of “Huahang Xiangyinzhen” this time not only provides local farmers with a new high-quality and high-yield variety, but also adds scientific and technological impetus to the quality and efficiency improvement of the rice industry and the “100 Counties, 1,000 Towns, 10,000 Villages High-quality Development Project”, vividly demonstrating the important role of invigorating agriculture through science and technology and strengthening agriculture through improved varieties in the development of modern agriculture.