China’s Green Super Rice Promoted in 18 Countries
Led by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), the international agricultural poverty alleviation project of cultivating green super rice for resource-deficient regions in Asia and Africa was launched in 2008. Since then, 78 varieties of rice with high yields, high quality, and ability to resist multiple diseases have been tested, approved, and promoted in 18 African and Asian countries, covering a total area of 6.12 million hectares.
“Green super rice” not only refers to new varieties, but also represents the new concept of resource-saving and environment-friendly breeding, and a cultivation and management mode of high yields, high efficiency, ecological friendliness, and safety.
The project is co-funded by the Chinese government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and is led by Li Zhikang, a researcher at the Institute of Crop Sciences at CAAS. Besides, a total of 58 crop institutes from home and abroad are participating in it.
The 10-year goal of the project is to cultivate and promote new varieties in relevant countries and regions and the five provinces in western China. By doing this, they will increase the average rice production capacity of small farmers by more than 20 percent, and significantly increase the income of over 30 million farmers in the target countries.
Gary Atlin, a senior program officer at the Gates Foundation, revealed that the program has met the expectations and that some rice varieties developed by China are playing a bigger role in tropical countries than expected.
Spain’s Teatro Real (Royal Theater) and China’s National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA) have signed an agreement on exchange of audiovisual content through an online platform, Palco Digital.
The accord will allow consumers to view material on demand. Following the launch of this project, viewers from several countries will be able to view operas, dance dramas, and music dramas on the Internet.
For Garcia-Belenguer, the agreement is another step towards greater collaboration between the two institutions which have enjoyed a close relationship since last year. “Cultures are connected,” said Wang Ning, president of NCPA “We are going to present the classical operas of the world to Chinese audiences, but we also want to introduce some Chinese operas to the world to help integration and exchange between cultures.”
“I think this cooperation is very important, especially under the the Road and Belt framework,” he added. In the future, the two sides will explore more cooperation models in the production of opera and opera film, as well as art education and art popularization.