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Head down in embarrassment (Image: Pascal Deloche/Godong / Panos)

IT鈥橲 food for climate conscious consumers. A strain of rice has been genetically engineered to produce less methane.

Rice agriculture is responsible for between 7 and 17 per cent of human-induced methane emissions. Sugars produced during photosynthesis leak into the soil via the roots, where they are used up by methane-producing soil microorganisms.

from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala and his colleagues have now engineered rice that stores more sugar in its grains and stems. In a three-year-long trial, the rice grew well and led to drops in paddy field methane emissions (Nature, ).

of Kansas State University in Manhattan.

This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淩ice鈥檚 gas problem gets muted鈥�