Hybrid Rice: China will build a hybrid rice development centre in Madagascar as part of its effort to help Africa to promote agricultural production

China will build a hybrid rice development centre in Madagascar as part of its effort to help Africa to promote agricultural production
Media Release
Feb. 3, 2007
Source: http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/15399.asp


China will build a hybrid rice development centre in Madagascar as part of its effort to help Africa to promote agricultural production, officials said here Saturday.
The project will involve 10 million yuan ( $ 1.28 million) of government fund and be completed by 2010, according to the Academy of Agricultural Sciences of Hunan Province, which is responsible for the construction and operation of the centre.
This is one of 10 agricultural technology projects China has promised to build in Africa.
The hybrid rice developed by famous Chinese agronomist Yuan Longping is widely grown in China, and the highest yield reached 12,000 kilograms per hectare.
Chinese farmers grow some 15 million hectares of the hybrid rice a year,accounting for 51 percent of the country's total rice paddies.