Hybrid Rice: A Cure to Food Crises

Erick Yax-Vidal

Green Class

2/3/2012

Hybrid Rice: A Cure to Food Crises

 

 

Hybrid rice was invented in China during the Cultural Revolution. Hybrid rice is a type of rice made by crossbreeding different types of rice. Hybrid rice usually produces 30 percent more rice than normal rice. Hybrid rice is very important to the world because since it produces 30 percent more rice it helps combating world food crises. Such as the ones in countries with extreme  poverty such as Ethiopia which has huge food crises.

            In 1964, Yuan Long ping first put forward the idea of utilizing the heterosis in rice and started the research on hybrid rice in China. This idea soon became reality in 1974 when Chinese stores started selling the hybrid rice with strong heterosis which means it produces more than normal rice. Hybrid Rice was first used outside of China in 1994 in the Philippines. There they developed further technology for creating hybrid rice. Yuan won the 2004 Wolf Prize in agriculture for his work.

            Hybrid rice has not only changed peoples lives it has changed the world. Across the globe it has helped people in poverty and with food crises. In countries such as India the population of people suffering of starvation has gone down because of hybrid rice. Not only has it helped with food crises it has also helped with the economy in some countries. In some countries it has created rural employment opportunities and increased farmers’ incomes. Hybrid rice seed production requires about 30 percent more labour than the seed production

of improved varieties. Because of its yield advantages, hybrid rice technology is very important for the food security of rice consuming countries where farming land is becoming scarce, population is steadily increasing and labour is cheap. If it was not for the invention of hybrid rice so many people around the globe would still today be in food crises and poverty.