Chinese scientists develop high-yield, yummy new rice variety

(File photo)

Chinese scientists have developed a new rice variety that tastes good and produces high yields by combining the genes in different rice varieties that determine those two qualities, China News Agency reported on Jan. 18.

After analyzing the key genes in two foreign rice varieties, the scientists hybridized the high-efficiency genes and then used ion-beam irradiation to cause a gene mutation in them to create a new rice variety called Kefugeng 9.

The new variety is expected to satisfy the need for high yields and good taste, said Liu Binmei, with the Department of Chemistry at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, eastern China.

The Kefugeng 9 could be widely planted in places south of the Huaihe River, including Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and Shanghai, after three-plus-years of trials and preliminary tests in the market.

About 20,000 mu (1,333 hectares) of land will be used to grow such rice, according to a five-year plan set for the new variety.