OREANDA-NEWS. September 19, 2012. Lvhan I, an upland rice variety developed by Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences, has become the top brand in China both by the planting area and the yield.

The breed has been grown in fields that cover a combined area of 12.84 million mu (856,000 hectares), generating 7.37 billion yuan(USD 1.17 billion) in profit, the academy said at a meeting held in Hefei, capital of Anhui province, on Tuesday.

As early as 2005, the Lvhan I was designated by the National Approval Committee for Agricultural Varieties as a strain of hybrid rice, following a decade's efforts made by the Hefei-based agricultural academy.

The institute had shifted DNA to a common rice breed imported from abroad with the help of Anhui Association for International Exchange of Personnel from alligator weed, a plant with high resistance to drought and flood, in the way of soaking embryos since 1995.

The variety, upon being successfully developed, was extended into more than a dozen provinces in the country as well as foreign countries including Laos, Cameroon and Angola.

The Lvhan I can be grown either on dry soil or in flooded paddies, with planting costs down by 200 yuan per mu compared with common rice varieties, Li Zefu, head of the Office of Rice Study under the academy said in an interview with Anhui Daily.

The breed is particularly popular in arid hilly areas between the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River, together with drought-prone low-lying regions along the latter.

In a mass cropping on Longkang Farm by the Huiahe River, the breed achieved a yield of 500 kg per mu and a net profit of 804 yuan per mu, in spite of being hit by natural disasters, according to the agricultural scientist.