In order to produce more food for its growing population, China has decided to expanded the acreage of super high yield rice by almost 14 % to 5.33 million hectares this year.

China plans to speed up cultivation of new super rice varieties in the next 15 years to raise rice yields to 13.5 MT a hectare as early as possible.

The Chinese government started the "super rice" project in 1996 to improve the production and quality of rice, which accounts for 40 % of the country's total grain consumption and is the staple food of more than 60 % of its 1.3 billion population.