China Turning To Non-Paddy Rice - Needs 50 - 70% Less Water, 30% Lower Yield - Reuters

[hatrack]

BEIJING - China, the world's top consumer and producer of rice, is turning to a new kind of rice that can grow on dry soil like wheat as the country faces a serious water shortage due to industrialisation and the global warming.

China, a pioneer in aerobic rice, plans to expand acreage for such rice to about 30 percent from about 1 percent now as the water shortage limits expansion of traditional water-flooded rice, or lowland rice, said Wang Huaqi, aerobic rice breeder at China Agricultural University. Together with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the university has been working on aerobic rice that is grown like an upland crop such as wheat and corn in soil which is not flooded or paddled. (Ed. - sic)

Aerobic rice requires 50-70 percent less water, although its yields are about 30 percent less than hybrid rice -- a strain that brought about the Green Revolution in the 1960s, Wang told Reuters on the sidelines of a workshop in Beijing.

"Our objective is to help farmers cope with decreasing water availability. Water is getting scarce," said Bas Bouman, a senior scientist at IRRI.




EDIT

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/44974/story.htm

[kestrel91316]

1. Upland rice has been around a while. It's gonna get real popular,

I suspect.