Li Changping, an outspoken researcher, has sparked debate by writing to famous hybrid rice developer Professor Yuan Longping that he should shift his research to conventional rice seeds, since they are disappearing as more hybrid and transgenic seeds occupy the mainland market.
In a letter published in the Southern Rural News last week, Li asked the respected agricultural scientist to urge the government to pass legislation so that conventional seeds - which he thinks are cheaper, more environmentally friendly, and can also be highly productive and resilient to agricultural disasters - can be planted regularly in certain areas.
'Our national seed strategy has been in disorder in recent years. [We should] have 30 per cent conventional seed, make 10 counties plant such seeds regularly, and set up national seed depots,' wrote Li, who used to be a rural cadre and is now an NGO worker in Beijing.
Li became famous for writing to then premier Zhu Rongji in 2000 about the key problems in rural Hubei, where he served as a grass-roots cadre for 17 years.
Yuan, dubbed the 'father of hybrid rice' in China, has made the country a world leader in hybrid-rice research for his pioneering work in breeding and production techniques of the rice, which he said was 20 per cent higher in yield.
At present, hybrid rice developed by Yuan is planted on farmlands all over China and is considered to have contributed greatly to feeding its large population. But Li said hybrid rice consumed 20 per cent more fertilisers and pesticides.
The rapid spread of hybrid and transgenic rice seeds - the latter of which the government claims are confined to experimental planting due to possible risks to human health and the environment, but which NGOs have proved to have been planted in various areas - has nearly squeezed traditional seeds out of the market in recent years.