Past Successes 301In China rice yields gained an extra boost from the development of hybrid rice.
Rice, like wheat, is self-pollinating but the Chinese developed an inexpensive tech-
nique permitting cross-pollination on a large scale. The resulting hybrid rices have
the same qualities of hybrid vigour as the hybrid maizes: yields are some 20 per
cent, or about a ton, greater than the semi-dwarf rices. The first hybrid rice was
distributed in 1974 and within a few years it was being planted on 15 per cent of
Chinese riceland. China also introduced new high-yielding wheats from Mexico
and crossed them with local varieties. Grain yields grew steadily in the 1970s and
then accelerated after 1978, following the break-up of the communes, the re-estab-
lishment of the household as the unit of production and the encouragement of
local markets (Figure 13.7).^25
By the 1980s the Green Revolution and new Chinese varieties were dominat-
ing the grain lands of the developing world (Figure 13.8).^26
Inevitably, there were many ‘teething problems’ in the early years. Govern-
ments were unprepared for the rapid rise in production. The land planted to IR8
in Pakistan increased a hundredfold, to over 400,000 hectares, in only a year. Stor-
age, transport and marketing systems were sometimes overwhelmed. The 1968
Indian wheat harvest was one-third greater than the previous record and schools
had to be closed in order to store the grain.^27 A huge harvest in Kalimantan, on the
island of Borneo, went to waste because there was insufficient transport to get it to
the centres of demand in Java. But these were the problems of success and they
were quickly overcome.
Another early problem was the poor acceptability of some of the new varieties.
Even poor, undernourished people retain a pride in eating good-quality grain.
There was preference in India and Pakistan for chapatis made from the traditional
Figure 13.7 Growth of rice and wheat yields in China