South China's Hainan Province plans to set up a nature reserve to protect a newly-found wild rice area in the province's Wenchang City, according to the provincial agricultural department.

The 6.7 hectares of wild rice was found in Donglu Town this April by an expert team from the provincial agricultural department, the land and resources department and the provincial academy of agricultural sciences while carrying out an overall survey on the current situation of the wild rice across Hainan.

The wild rice land has also been included into the wild plants protection list issued by the Ministry of Agriculture in 2004 and it will enjoy a special fund to prevent its original environment from being ruined.

In addition, 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 quality, wild rice is considered a "gene bank" for future rice production and it is also of great significance for scientists to study the origin and evolution of rice and to cultivate new species through crossbreeding.

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

Due to the expansion of human activities and ecological changes to the environment, however, the wild rice-grown acreage has shrunk in the past years and now it can only be found at some mountainous villages and several cities, like Sanya, Qionghai and Wenchang.

At the town's Hulu Village, villagers pointed at a piece of field growing wild rice and told Xinhua that such "grass" can be seen frequently by the ditches and the low-lying areas at the village and local villagers used to feed the cattle and poultry with it.

Dubbed as the "Giant Panda of the botanical world", wild rice has been put under state protection in China.

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.

Source: Xinhua