|
|
During the past 20 years, the author has watch China move from being a developing country into an industrial superpower
Money Moves, 5/24: Chocomize Co-Founder Fabian Kaempfer talks with Bloomberg’s Deirdre Bolton about the business of customizing chocolate
The president's campaign has a new rule—no cell phones allowed
In honor of remote control inventor Eugene Polley, we recognize other influential but neglected inventors who have felt the sting of stolen glory
Forget Adderall. Traders now pop chia seeds to stay focused and energized
The Italian automaker and others are adding hybrid technology to elite cars
The storied bridge that links San Francisco and Marin County changed the face of California
Schools cultivate ties with startups before they're big successes
Dave McClure's traveling venture capital show scours the world for promising startups
Get Four
|  | AUGUST 9, 2004
Yield of Dreams Hunger can be banished from the world with smarter, more productive grains, says Yuan Longping, who pioneered hybrid rice technology Yuan Longping is one of China's most renowned scientists. For 40 years, the pioneer in hybrid rice technology has been at the forefront of efforts to improve the productivity of Chinese farmers, which would help the world's largest country feed itself. Today, Yuan is the director-general of China's National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center in Changsha, a sleepy provincial capital best known as the city where the young Mao Zedong first made his mark as a Communist Party radical. Yuan, who runs an office of 55 scientists, collaborates with researchers such as Cornell University's Stephen D. Tanksley, with whom he shared Israel's Wolf Prize in 2003. This year he was co-winner of the World Food Prize. Seventy-four years old and a dedicated swimmer and volleyball player, Yuan believes in hands-on experience and spends about two hours a day among the experimental crops in the fields near his office. He recently spoke to BusinessWeek's Bruce Einhorn about innovative ways to feed the world's hungry. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow: Q: You've played a key role in efforts to address global food shortages. What still needs to be done? A: Food security in the whole world is still a very serious problem because of the growth of the world's population and the reduction of arable land, especially in China. Some experts estimate that in the year 2030, the world population will be 8 billion. Now it is about 7 billion. In China, the situation will be even worse. In 2030, our population will reach 1.6 billion. And the agricultural land, per capita, now averages about 0.1, less than 0.1 hectares. By 2030, it will be down to about 0.07 hectares. So we are facing a very serious food problem -- how to feed the world, how to feed China. Q: What's the answer? A: The only way to solve the food-shortage problem is to increase the yield of the grain crop per land area through the advancement of science and technology. That's the only way. Rice still possesses huge yield potential yet to be tapped. According to some scholars' estimation....the yield potential for rice per hectare could be as high as 22 to 23 metric tons per hectare. The worldwide average yield of rice now is only 3.8 tons per hectare. Q: How does China compare? A: The country with the No. 1 yield in the world is Australia -- 10 tons per hectare. China is 6.4 tons per hectare, the same as Japan. Sixty percent of the rice in China is hybrid, the other 40% is conventional rice. The average yield of hybrid rice in China is 7 tons per hectare. Last year, we released what we call the Pioneer Super Hybrid Rice for commercial production. The average yield is 9 tons per hectare. Now we are focusing our efforts on developing the Phase 2 of Super Hybrid Rice, and very good progress has been made. The yield target is 12 tons. In 2002, in a trial, the yield was above 12 tons. Last year, there were five locations in our province with 6.7 hectares each, where the average yield was above 12 tons. So we have confidence. Q: What new innovations must you put into practice in order to reach such targets? A: The big change, I think, is the use of biotechnology. We must incorporate this approach into our breeding program. In the materials we need to use in [hybrid] rice, their potential is almost tapped. So we must find a new source, other than rice, with new genes. But if you want to use new genes from another species, other than rice, you cannot use conventional methods. We must use biotechnology. Q: For instance, what can you do? A: The first is utilization of favorable genes from wild rice. Wild rice has many, many disadvantageous genes. But there are many useful genes, favorable genes, hiding. We cannot see them by the naked gene. But through biotechnology, molecular genetics, we can find some. We have found two yield-enhancing genes in wild rice, through our cooperative research with Cornell University. We transferred these genes into a line, the Q611, and the hybrid's yield is much higher. Another is the genetic DNA from barnyard grass. Barnyard grass is a very common weed in the field.... The yield is over 15 tons per hectare. Another way is to use the C4 genes from maize....These genes from maize have been transferred into rice. The yield potential can be increased by more than 30%. So yields of 13.5 tons per hectare will be fulfilled by 2010. I have confidence.
  | | |
 Copyright 2004, Bloomberg L.P.Terms of Use | Privacy Notice |
Printer-Friendly Version
