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Rice grown in China also has better texture now, Chinese researchers say in note for Nature after article flags climate change impact

The taste of rice in China has improved over the past decade or so, Chinese researchers have discovered.

Their findings indicate that increasing yields to meet food security does not have to come at the cost of quality.

Taste tests by the China National Rice Research Institute found that the quality of the Asian rice grown in China - including its appearance and texture - had improved since 2009.

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"Measures such as genetic improvement and monitoring of planting environments have contributed to this advance," the researchers said in a correspondence article published in the journal Nature on December 30.

The improvement had "occurred alongside a marked increase in the efficiency of rice production as measured by total factor productivity", they wrote.

Lu Lin, first author of the note and an associate researcher at the institute, shared that China's rice taste score soared from 74.9 points in 2009 to 80.3 points in 2022.

"I think that at present, rice yield and quality can be developed in parallel," Lu said.

The rice taste score is based on a national standard updated in 2008, which assesses the crop in terms of appearance, odour, palatability, taste, and cold rice texture for a cumulative rating.

Lu said that before the standards took taste into account, the amount of rice produced "was the most important thing for the survival of the Chinese people".

"After solving the basic problem of food and clothing for the people, quantity gradually moved closer to quality, and whether rice tastes good or not became the quality indicator of most concern."

Indica and japonica are the main subspecies of the Oryza sativa L. rice cultivated in China. The research team found that while japonica rice used to taste significantly better, genetic improvement and other measures had improved the taste of indica in recent years so much that it could even rival japonica.

China is the world's largest producer of rice, accounting for 28 per cent of global production of the grain last year, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

The research team's correspondence note was a response to another article posted in the same journal, which indicated that the quality of rice in China and Japan had declined as a result of climate change.

The impact of climate change, including rising temperatures and extreme weather like droughts and flooding, pose a risk to agriculture worldwide.

Studies have also suggested that the nutrient quality of crops has declined over the years, potentially due to different soil management practices and climate change, according to the US-based Institute for Functional Medicine.

"China's rice total factor productivity has increased year by year ... and its changing trend is basically consistent with the trend of rice taste score results," Lu said.

Source : msn