Researchers from China and the University of Arizona in the United States have set up a joint program in order to find some higher yielding rice Varieties for the future.

The Shennong Center for Crop Functional Genomics, a new collaboration between the University of Arizona and the Huazhong Agricultural University are working to grow more rice per acre under more environmentally friendly conditions and using less land and water and poorer soils.

The director of the Arizona Genomics Institute and a BIO5 Institute, Rod Wing has said that he believes that the world's rice consumers could see benefits from the current project within the next five years.
 
scientists are currently cultivating, replicating and analyzing rice DNA to identify and isolate the genetic traits that can lead to better crops.