Beijing, China
March 27, 2009
Source:
Chinese
Academy of Sciences
China started an international
collaboration project on green super rice in Sanya, Hainan
Province on March 23, 2009. The project received 18 million U.S.
dollars of fund from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The project, titled "Green super rice for the resource poor of
Asia and Africa", aims to develop new varieties of rice that can
stand drought, flooding, cold weather, and toxic minerals such
as salt and iron.
The overall goal is to breed at least 15 rice varieties and
deliver these new, high-yielding varieties to small farmers in
Asia (8 countries including China) and Africa (7 countries),
along with training, said Dr. Li Zhikang, chief scientist of the
project, and researcher from Chinese Academy of Agriculture
(CCA).
Li said they will also seek to build a platform of analysis on
different rice genotypes for molecular breeding currently
conducted in African countries located to the south of Sahara,
and Asia.
This project is the largest joint research program in China in
terms of the amount of input and number of participating
organizations. CCA will be mainly responsible for its
implementation. Its partners include International Rice Research
Institute (IRRI), Africa Rice Center (WARDA), Institute of
Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Shanghai Agrobiological Gene Center (SAGC) and etc.
The project is fully supported by Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation and it will be carried out in three years.
It is estimated that the rice production in these countries
could be increased by 20%, and 20 million poverty-stricken
farmers will benefit from the project, Li said. |
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