Reference News Network, January 12 report: According to the Hong Kong South China Morning Post website, January 7 report, Chinese research teams said that researchers have bred a hybrid rice that can reproduce itself through cloned seeds, allowing high-yield characteristics to be passed down through generations.
Researchers said their breakthrough could change global agriculture and solve a major obstacle in the production of hybrid rice: farmers need to buy new seeds every time they plant.
With hundreds of millions of people worldwide facing severe food insecurity, hybrid rice has the potential to significantly increase yields: in some parts of Africa, the yield of hybrid rice is almost four times that of traditional rice.
However, hybrid rice seeds are relatively expensive. Moreover, the offspring of these high-priced seeds also lose hybrid advantages, forcing farmers to repurchase seeds.
A research team led by Wang Kejian, a researcher at the Institute of Rice Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, cultivated a hybrid rice variety capable of achieving near-perfect clonal reproduction using apomixis technology (which allows seeds to develop without fertilization).
Its newly launched Fix8 series rice achieves a cloning efficiency of over 99.7%, with seed setting rates comparable to conventional hybrid rice, effectively cultivating self-replicating "super rice."
Wang Kejian told a reporter from China Science News at the end of last year: "We first introduced apomixis traits into hybrid rice, successfully achieving the 'from zero to one' breakthrough in apomixis hybrid rice."
"Once promoted, the cost of hybrid rice seeds is expected to drop from the current 20 to 100 yuan per catty to the level of conventional rice (2 to 5 yuan per catty), directly benefiting farmers."
China is a pioneer in hybrid rice. China bred the first commercially viable high-yield hybrid rice varieties, and it remains the world's largest producer and consumer of hybrid rice.
However, hybrid rice is more costly for farmers because they must purchase new seeds after each harvest, unlike conventional self-pollinating rice varieties that can be saved for replanting.
Wang Kejian's team has long been dedicated to researching apomixis technology in hybrid rice. In 2017, Wang Kejian's team used gene-editing technology to knock out four genes related to rice reproduction, allowing hybrid rice to bypass meiosis and fertilization. In January 2019, the research results were published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, marking the first time Chinese scientists successfully obtained clonal seeds of hybrid rice. (Translated by Lu Di)
On May 14, 2025, an African diplomatic delegation visited the Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Center. (Xinhua News Agency)
Original article: toutiao.com/article/7594379397021336074/
Statement: The article represents the views of the author."