This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
Rice is the world’s most important crop. Much has been done toincrease its productivity. Modern genetic science has tried tochange the genes of rice to improve it. However, traditional methodsfor growing rice also have been very successful. Today, we show thatboth methods for improving crops are needed.
Recently, Ray Wu of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York andother researchers tried to create a kind of rice that is able togrow in difficult conditions. They discovered genes from the e-colibacterium that help plants make a special sugar called trehalose(TREE-hal-ohs). The sugar is believed to help organisms remainhealthy in difficult or dry conditions.
The Cornell team engineered genes of basmati rice to accept thegene that helps form the special sugar. The team reported that thegenetically engineered basmati rice was able to survive in saltysoil, at low temperatures and during dry periods.
The scientists say the new rice will be able to feed people evenduring periods of dry weather and in areas with increasingly saltywater.
However, not all genetic change is produced by combining genesfrom very different organisms. Olga Linares of the SmithsonianTropical Research Institute has shown that traditional agriculturalmethods remain important. She reported to the National Academy ofSciences that a new rice would have been impossible withouttraditionally grown African rice.
There are two kinds of rice in the world – Asian rice and Africanrice. Mizz Linares notes that about eighty percent of the rice grownin Africa is Asian rice. Only fifteen percent is native Africanrice. However, researchers at the West African Rice DevelopmentAssociation in Ivory Coast were able to combine African rice withAsian rice to create what is called a hybrid. The new rice plant iscalled NERICA, or “New Rice for Africa.” The new rice is able tosurvive difficult conditions, like long periods of dry weather.
The plants also produce more rice and can help increase foodproduction. In southern African countries, food production hasdecreased since the nineteen-sixties. Many experts see NERICA riceas a way to solve that problem. Yet, NERICA would not have beenpossible if farmers in Senegal had not continued growing theirtraditional crops.
This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by MarioRitter.