TRADITIONAL farming methods scored a point against high-tech monoculture this
week. Christopher Mundt of Oregon State University, Corvallis, and his
colleagues in China and the Philippines persuaded farmers in Yunnan Province in
China to plant different rice varieties side by side in the same fields,
alongside plots that contained only one strain.
The most sought-after variety of rice in China is the “sticky” rice, but this
is highly susceptible to a fungal disease called blast and so is only planted in
small areas. But when sticky rice was planted alongside other more resistant
varieties in the trial, the yield was…
