China Focus: Farmers, seed producer clash over slashed rice yields

A strain of hybrid rice that promises strong yields saw plunging output last year, prompting farmers to question if the distributor has falsely advertised the strain's resilience against disease.

"Liangyou 0293", a hybrid rice variety developed by Yuan Longping High-Tech Agriculture Co., Ltd. (Longping High-Tech) and grown around six cities of east China's Anhui Province has been reported to suffer massive crop failure after being infected with rice blast, a serious disease caused by the imperfect fungus.

More than 10,000 mu (about 667 hectares) of rice had low yield or even outright crop failure last October, said an investigation released by the provincial seed management station.

Longping Hi-Tech, which distributes hybrid rice seeds and engages in research of hybrid rice, was established by Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences in 1999. Yuan Longping, China's "father of hybrid rice" is its honorary chairman and shareholder, said the company's official website.

Liu Gen, deputy head of Anhui's seed management station, told Xinhua that the province planted around 40 million mu of rice last year, including 180,000 mu of "Liangyou 0293".

"The variety I grew was infected with the disease. I saw them dying," said Chang Xiuliang, a farmer from Wuhe County in Bengbu City. He added that each mu cost him more than 800 yuan (about 129 U.S. dollars).

Farmers like Chang alleged that the company was involved in false advertising and concealing the defects of the breed.

A leaflet distributed by Longping High-Tech says production of "Liangyou 0293" would stay intact even in bad years. Each mu will produce more than 800 kilograms of rice, said Chang.

The "Liangyou 0293" strain of hybrid rice boasts a less than 25 percent average probability of being infected by rice blast, according to promotional language used on the seeds' label. However, an instruction tucked inside the package suggests the highest probability of infection, at more than 50 percent, Chang told Xinhua.

Yet Longping High-Tech says low temperatures in the rice-growing region, which led to a far more adverse outbreak of the disease, is to blame for the crop failure.

Average temperature at Anhui dropped to a 20 year low during July and August of 2014, a main trigger for the rice blast disease that has plagued rice planted in the region. Temperature even dropped to a half-a-century low in Bengbu, the company told Xinhua.

The outbreak of rice disease led to massive failure of hybrids vulnerable to the rice blast, including "Liangyou 0293" in Anhui, the company said.

"Liangyou 0293", a lodging-resistant and high yield variety approved in 2006, has been very well received in Anhui, with sales in Bengbu region at 70,000 kg in the past seven years it has been marketed there, Longping High-Tech said, adding that there has never been massive crop failure for this variety due to rice blast infections.

The company said it has informed farmers of "Liangyou 0293"'s susceptibility to rice blast and has provided assistance including adverse weather alerts and breeding guidance for large farms, but the advice failed to help farmers ward off the disease this time.

The company also said that the unconsolidated pattern of rice production has hampered the the company's ability to deliver its after-sale service.

The company and farmers in Anhui are far from reaching a consensus over compensation. Chang Xiuliang said farmers claimed compensation of no less than 700 yuan per mu, whereas Longping High-Tech only agreed to pay 20 yuan to 30 yuan per mu.

The Anhui provincial agriculture committee asked experts from several universities and institutes to investigate this hybrid rice disease last September. They found that the slashed yields or even failure resulted from rice blast, which was caused by low temperature and rains, the breed's high susceptibility to the disease and poor prevention and control measures.

Bao Wenxin, chief of this investigation team and an agronomist told Xinhua that disease resistance, weather and human factors all affect the growth of a breed. "Liangyou 0293" is no longer suitable to be planted in Huaihe River region.

"Liangyou 0293" has been marketed in China for eight years. In Hunan, where Longping High Tech is headquartered, it has long been replaced by more resilient varieties. Endi