Huaihua is the global birthplace of hybrid rice and a favorable place for bio-mutation. It is an important base for the purification, rejuvenation, reproduction and seed production of the parent plants of two-line and three-line hybrid rice and one of the three major hybrid rice seed production bases in China. The city boasts a seed production area of 186,000 mu (12,400 hectares), accounting for 45% and 10% of the total seed production area and output of Hunan Province and the nation, respectively. Huaihua is home to 3,716 plant species, with 32 species under special state protection, ranking second in the country. It is home to 16 seed production and breeding platforms, including the Western Hunan Regional Center of Yuelu Mountain Seed Industry Innovation Center, Huaihua Sub-center of Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Center, National Regional New Crop Variety Certification Test Station, and Liu Shaojun Fish Breeding Studio. The city has 15 national geographical indication products and nine products recognized as famous, quality, special and new agricultural products in China. Huaihua produces over 70% of the country’s sugar oranges and Poria cocos and leads the country in terms of the space breeding technology for waxberry and sealwort. The city has rolled out a large number of regional characteristic products including Qianyang sugar orange, Jinhe sugar orange, and Huaihua sealwort.
Key enterprises: Hunan OPULENT Technology, Huitong Tianxin Seed Industry, Huitong Muyeshan Rabbit Industry, Hunan Cloud Feel Phoenix Agriculture, Hunan Bestcome Traditional Medicine Co., Ltd., Mayang Blue Phoenix Agricultural Development, Jingzhou Jiahe Hongyun Breeding Stock, Jingzhou Hunan-Guizhou-Guangxi Edible and Medicinal Fungi Research Institute, and Huaihua Tianling Nature Conservation Company.
Development priorities: Hybrid rice seed production, fruit breeding, livestock, poultry and aquatic breeding, and breeding of Chinese medicinal materials and forest trees; developing regional characteristic products; and striving to build Huaihua into an “international city of seed industry”.
Large-scale hybrid rice cultivation and seed production demonstration base in Hongjiang City
（Translated by Professor Yu Jie）