Chinese scientists find gene that improves rice yields by 20 per cent

Chinese scientists have discovered a new “dwarf” gene in rice, which could increase the yield of the most productive hybrid rice in China by a further 20 per cent.

By reducing the rice plant’s height, the gene reduced the incidence of stem collapse prior to harvest and increased the number of tillers per plant, enabling a significant increase in grain yield.

The study, led by professor Wu Yuejin with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Hefei Institute Physicial Science and professor Fu Xiangdong of the CAS Institute of Genetics and Development Biology, was detailed in the journal Plos One earlier this month.

To feed the world’s largest population, China launched an ambitious project to develop high-yielding “super rice” in the mid 1990s. Over time scientists had significantly improved the productivity of hybrid rice, and by last year the yield of “super rice” plants had exceeded 15 tons per hectare, nearly three times the global average.

But the yield increase came with a problem. Farmers complained that the super rice plants, with their heavy heads of grains, were prone to snapping, especially in windy days before harvest.