China's newly developed rapeseed variety sets yield record

WUHAN -- A newly developed rapeseed strain has set a yield record in China, amid the country's efforts to advance the expansion of oil crop planting.

The new rapeseed variety "Zhongyouza 501" achieved a yield of 419.95 kg per mu (about 0.07 hectares) in Xiangyang city, Central China's Hubei province.

With an oil content exceeding 50 percent, the strain produces 211.57 kg of rapeseed oil per mu.

Rapeseed oil is a major cooking oil in China.

The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences invited experts to conduct the yield measurement of the new strain in Hubei.

Li Jiana, head of the expert group and professor of the College of Agronomy and Biotechnology of Southwest University, said that at present, the average per-mu yield of rapeseed in China is 138.5 kg with an average oil-bearing rate of 43 percent.

Besides its high yield, Zhongyouza 501 is also resistant to disease and suitable for dense planting and mechanized harvesting.

The new strain was developed by a team led by Wang Hanzhong, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and vice president of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, through years of research and experiments.