"Field testing is currently going on in China and in the Philippines," Khush said adding the super rice is expected to be in the fields by 2003.

Khush was addressing a press conference after signing an agreement between IRRI and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for collaboration in rice research.

"IRRI has developed about 400 different varieties of super rice. They will be tested in India in association with ICAR within the next two years to find out which one suits the Indian soil and climatic conditions best," he said.

The super rice, developed through cross hybridisation oftwo aptly chosen parent plants, has a plant architecture that is completely different from all previous plants, Khush said.

It has fewer but sturdier stems, all of them bearing panicles with panicle housing 200-250 more grains than previous rices. It takes 100-130 days for growth and maturation, Khush said. The dark green coloured plant has erect leafs to increase photosynthetic effectiveness.

It has an organised root system that does not allow wastage of water and micro-nutrients, needed for plant growth, Khush said.

IRRI scientists are currently working to make it disease resistant by hybridising it with other rice varieties that can resist many of the common plant virus and other insects.

"We are now improving the super rice by building multiple pest and disease resistance into it," Khush said.

In normal paddy varieties, cereal to biomass ratio is 30:70. But super rice is capable of giving a cereal to biomass ratio of 50:50, which means a significant increase in rice productivity.

"With everincreasing population and decrease in land availability and water, rice productivity needs to be increased by 40-50 per cent by the middle of the next century," he said. IRRI will release the super rice to national rice research centres in collaborating countries.

Apart from the super rice, IRRI is also working on a rice that can thrive on low water. Another variety that can compete with weeds and therefore needs no weed killing chemicals is also being developed by the IRRI scientists.