Recently, the new high-yielding, high-oil, multi-resistant and short-term Chinese rapeseed variety “Zhongyou Zao No. 1” selected by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences was measured on site at the demonstration venue in Wan’an County, Jiangxi Province. The yield of rapeseed reached 175.7 kg per mu (0.165 acres) while oil content was 44.16%. The fertility period was about 169 days, which is shorter than for the main rape varieties locally. The fertility period was 5 days earlier than normal and the yield increased by 26.5%, creating a record of high yields under the “three-maturity model” with a short fertility period.  This performance provided a breakthrough variety support to break the bottleneck of three-maturity production in southern winter fields.

At present, the self-sufficiency rate of vegetable oil in China is only about 30%. Using the idle winter fields in the south to develop the production of rice oil is an important way to stabilize grain and increase oil supply. In 2023, the Central Government’s Document No. 1 proposed to promote rice oil tankers and vigorously develop and use  idle winter fields to grow rapeseed. However, the continuous delay of the late rice harvest period leads to the tight stubble of harvested rice and coincides with the low temperature of the sowing period. The contradiction between the existing early-maturing rape varieties with their high oil yield and the short fertility period plants is prominent. The low temperature of the flowering period promotes poor fruition, and the fertility period is often more than 190 days in areas with insufficient light temperature resources. Therefore, the lack of new varieties of short-term rapeseed with the characteristics of cold resistance during winter sowing and early maturing has become a prominent shortcoming that restricts the effective development and utilization of idle winter fields in China.

In response to the above problems, after six years of technical research, the Wang Hanzhong academician team of the Oil Institute, with the support of the modern national agricultural industry technology system, selected and bred a new variety of  short-term rapeseed, dubbed”China Oil No. 1″ The team did this via the national key research and development plan, with reference to the innovation project of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and other projects. This variety overcomes the contradiction between high yield/high oil and short fertility. It has the characteristics of affinity to late sowing and strong growth in the lower seedling stage: It does not take to early flowering before winter, shows stable growth after winter, commands strong resistance to collapse, has ample disease resistance, undergoes consistent maturity and is suitable for mechanized harvesting. The fertility period at 27 degrees north latitude is about 170 days, and the shorter fertility period is in the south. The  shortest fertility period at the demonstration site in Liunan District, Liuzhou City, Guangxi Province is only 156 days.

As the largest oil crop in China, rapeseed accounts for half of the oil production of domestic oil crops. There are more than 64 million mu of idle winter fields that can grow rape after rice in the Yangtze River Basin of China. There is great potential for expanding the area under rapeseed (canola), increase production and ensure supply. According to expert estimates, the output per mu is 175.7 kg and the oil content is 44.16%. Promoting the application of short-term rape varieties such as “China Oil No. 1” in the  idle winter fields of China can increase the annual yield of rapeseed by about 11.245 million tons. It can also increase the supply of rapeseed oil by about 4.966 million tons. Therefore, the self-sufficiency rate of oil will have increased by about 12 percentage points. In addition, the cultivation of rape can also enrich the ground and promote the doubly raise the quantity and quality of staple grain rice.

Source: Agri.cn