RICE RESEARCH AND PRODUCTION IN CHINA; AN IRRI TEAM"S VIEW

The team included a plant breeder, a plant pathologist, an entomologist, a plant physiologist, and agricultural economist, and two soil scientist-agronomists. The major geographic areas included in the itinerary of the team were the Peking area, the Yangtze River valley, and Kwangtung province. In each geographic area the scientists visited four general types of institutions: academies, institutes, and universities; field experiment stations; production fields in communes; and historical and cultural institutions. Areas of rice research and production that most impressed the team are the excellence of Chinese farming; the close association between research, education, and farm production; the effective resource use and management, including waste recycling; the refinement of crop intensification as a means of increasing food production; the excellence of pest management systems; and the broad diversity of rice genetics resources. The report notes the mutual benefit that would come from scientific exchange between China and research and educational institutions in other countries. As many as three crops a year are grown in some areas of southern China and in all regions a crop in addition to rice is commonly grown in the winter months. The principles governing China"s rice cropping systems could be helpful in developing similar means of crop intensification in other countries.