October 3, 2006

China aims for 33.5 million hectares of "super wheat" by 2020

China plans to sow 33.5 million hectares of super-high-yield wheat by 2020 if its scientists can overcome technical problems barring the way to mass production.

China, one of the world's largest wheat producers, now plans to produce super-high-yield wheat variety to improve grain yield. If successful, this could reportedly help increase harvests by 30 percent.

It is expected that wheat harvests in main demonstration areas could hit 10.45 tonnes a hectare, more than double national average annual yield of 4.25 tonnes in 2004.

Though super-high-yield wheat has been grown in a number of provinces for a number of years, the seeds still need to get better, said Zhai Huqu, president of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science.

Scientific research needs to solve a number of problems to allow the wheat to adapt to areas outside the current demonstration zones, said Zhai.

Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture show China  harvested 91.95 million tonnes of wheat in 2004. The country's total consumption stands at 105 million tonnes a year, or 20 percent of the world's harvest.