Developing a new strain of crop is time-consuming, but that doesn't worry 86-year-old Yuan Longping, China's renowned rice scientist, in the least.

Yuan, best known as the country's "father of hybrid rice", has set his eye on his next trophy-a seawater rice for full commercial production in five years.

By that time, a rice strain grown by his research team is expected to yield up to 4.5 metric tons per hectare-around 60 percent of the yield from regular paddies, Yuan said.