South China's Hainan Province has decided to set up five natural reserves to protect the shrinking area of wild rice areas.  

The Hainan agricultural department, the land and resources department and the provincial academy of agricultural sciences, will jointly set up a leading team to carry out the plan.

They will launch an overall survey on the current situation of the wild rice across the province, providing information for the establishment of the reserves and the later research.

Each of the reserves will be approximately 6.7 hectares, and buffer zones will also be built to ensure the original environment from being ruined.

A special expert team will be formed to provide technical support to the protection measures and monitor the environment changes that might affect the wild rice resources.

Being able to provide useful genes for improving rice's quality, wild rice was taken as a "gene bank" for future rice production.

Due to the expansion of human activities and ecological changes to the environment, the wild rice grown acreage has been shrunk in the past years. Wild rice, now called "Giant Panda of the botanical world," has been listed under state protection in China.

Tropical Hainan island is the major habitat of wild rice, having found all the three varieties of wild rice.

Last century, China cultivated the world's first hybrid rice after wild rice was found on the island. The hybrid rice led to a worldwide boon for rice producers since the per-unit yield of hybrid rice is far higher than traditional rice.

(Xinhua New Agency April 15, 2004)