Rice yield improvements through plant breeding are offset by inherent yield declines over time

Meeting the challenge of feeding a growing population with limited resources will require increasing the yield potential of staple crops, such as rice. Yet many high-yielding, intensive production systems have experienced slow rates of yield improvement in recent years despite a demonstrated increase in the yield potential of new crop cultivars. We analyzed experimental data from one such cropping system, i.e., California (CA) rice, in order to...