Abstract: A large number of new varieties, especially hybrid rice, have been developed and released in China since 1998. The yield potential and grain quality of hybrid rice have also been improved significantly both for three-line and two-line hybrid rice including indica and japonica types as well. The trends on extension of rice varieties in China since 1986 has been marked by the increasing number of new varieties, decreasing annual planting area per variety, decreasing number of varieties with a large-scale extension area, while both the renewal rate and the proportion of core varieties with cross-provincial extension have remained unchanged. This current major problems and future goals of rice breeding and extension in China were also discussed.

Key words: national rice variety regional trial, southern China, breeding, variety extension, rice