More frequent droughts, extreme heat and erratic weather in Asia, where 90 per cent of the world’s rice is grown, have damaged crops and reduced yields, sending prices soaring and creating a global crisis. … But there is hope yet for the world’s favourite grain. In recent years, a revolution has begun to bear fruit, with new technologies emerging to make rice production more resilient and more sustainable.

Prof Julie Gray, Professor of Plant Cell Signalling at the University of Sheffield, is developing drought- and heat-resistant rice crops for the UK Rice Research Consortium. She and her colleagues are producing rice plants with fewer stomata – the tiny pores through which carbon dioxide enters, and water leaves, to make them more resilient in arid conditions.

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A method called direct seeded rice (DSR) moves away from the traditional method of rice production – flooding fields and then transplanting seedlings into the water – and instead sews the seeds directly into the field. This reduces methane emissions, water usage, and damage to the soil.

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