Chinese agronomists have initially cultivated new species of "super corn" with average per-hectare yield approaching 15,000 kilograms, according to source with the Beijing's grain wholesale market.

The Chinese agro-scientists have developed the new "super corn" strain with their own intellectual property right through repeated experiments for dozens of years.

The high-yield, high-quality new "super corn" strain will be of great significance in boosting China's food grain production, which is regarded as another major breakthrough in the agro-scientific research following the development of "super rice".

According to Zhao Jiuran, director of the Corn Research Center under the Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forest, the center sorted out and cultivated four new species of hybrid maize with per hectare yield up to 13,500 kg in 2004, which boasted indexes much close to the "super corn" and was only a tiny step from the per hectare yield target of 15,000 kg set by the "super corn" standards.

The experts forecast that China will turn out additional 6 billion kg of corn annually if the "super corn" species is spread to 2.66 million hectares of farmland annually.

(People's Daily March 3, 2005)