Chinese farmers agitated over failure of hybrid rice variety

A strain of hybrid rice in China that promised strong yields saw plunging output last year, angering farmers who clashed with the distributors for falsely advertising its 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.
Over 1648 acres of rice had low yield or even outright crop failure last October, said an investigation released by the provincial seed management station, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

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.
Liu Gen, deputy head of Anhui's seed management station, said that the province planted around 40 million mu of rice last year, including 29,652 acre 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 USD 129).

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

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 kilogrammes of rice, said Chang.
However, an instruction tucked inside the package suggests the highest probability of infection, at more than 50 per cent, Chang said.
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.

The outbreak of rice disease led to massive failure of hybrids vulnerable to the rice blast, including "Liangyou 0293" in Anhui, the company said.
The company and farmers in Anhui are far from reaching a consensus over compensation. Chang 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.