Project leads countries to food security

Green Super Rice initiative bringing African, Asian nations high-yield crops

Chinese agricultural researchers have helped plant more than 2 million hectares of superior rice species in more than a dozen Asian and African countries, yielding harvest increases of up to 30 percent per hectare in some, in an international cooperative project over the past 10 years.

The Green Super Rice project, geared at alleviating poverty through cultivation and promotion of a drought and disease resistant rice species, covers 16 Asian and African countries where rice is a staple, said Li Zhikang, a professor and researcher of rice breeding at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and a leading member of the project.