In a 100 year's rice breeding, Chinese scientists bred a series of high yielding, multi-resistant pest or disease and good quality rice varieties, which were extended and adopted at different rice producing regions, basically solve the food problem of the China’s people. A three-decade period of 1919 to 1949 was marked by the first large-area-adopted variety of Zhongdamaozi, the first variety Zhongshan 1 crossed with wild rice, and the improved variety Nantehao with the largest promotion area. During the period from 1950 to 1979, high-yield rice varieties with short stalks and fertilizer tolerance, such as Aijiao Nante, Zhenzhu Ai 11, Guanglu Ai 4, and Guichao 2 were developed. In 1973, the three-line matching of indica hybrid rice was successfully realized, a high-yield hybrid rice variety Nanyou 2 was developed, and the industrial application of hybrid rice began. In 1978, the promotion area of hybrid rice reached 2.98 million hm2. After 1980, high-yielding varieties such as the conventional rice variety Zhefu 802, the hybrid rice variety Shanyou 63, the two-line hybrid rice variety Liangyoupeijiu have been bred. Entering the 21st century, high-quality, high-yield and multifunctional rice represented by Zhongjiazao 17, Yongyou series varieties has become the dominant variety in China. Looking forward to the future, with the improvement of people's living standards, cultivating high-quality, high-yield and multi-functional varieties with health and environment kindly characteristics will become the main direction of rice breeding.
