New green super rice expected in 10 years

Super rice has been widely grown in China.

New green super rice is being bred in the Super Rice Engineering Center headquartered in Hubei Province and is believed to have potentials to overcome ecological challenges faced by Chinese agriculture industry.
The overuse of pesticide and fertilizers in rice planting has resulted in great assumption of water resources and environment pollution which in turn has hindered the sustainable development in agriculture and environment.
The new super rice variety basically does not need pesticides, and with little need of fertilizer, it could greatly reduce the demand of irrigation, therefore posing no threat to environment,according to Zhang Qifa, director of the Engineering Center and an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences. The research now focuses on basic research in rice's biological characteristics and its gene mining. By combining germplasm research, conventional genetic analysis and molecular breeding technology, the new green super rice will be attained in three phases, that is, pesticide-independent, fertilizer-efficient and drought-resistant. If everything goes well, researchers expect to see the first Green Super Rice in 10 years.
Docking with the Big GM Breeding Project, the newly-established Super Rice Engineering Center will focus both on nurturing new rice variety and its industrialization. The research and development of the new rice variety will be centered in the middle and lower Yantze River and be spread to the neighboring provinces.