A total of 191 agricultural wild plant species are at risk of extinction, Chinese experts have warned, calling for more protective measures to be taken.

A report in yesterday's People's Daily said that agricultural wild plants, such as wild rice, wild bean and wild fruits, not only provide people with food, nutrition and medicine, but also help conserve water and soil.

More importantly, agricultural wild plants are an essential research material in genetic breeding and biotechnology.

However, statistics show agricultural wild plant species are decreasing at a surprisingly rapid rate, the report said.

For example, in 1978, there were nine wild paddy fields in Dongxiang, in East China's Jiangxi Province, while only two of them now remain.

More than 70 per cent of wild paddies in China have been destroyed, the report quoted Pang Hanhua, a paddy expert with the China Academy of Agricultural Sciences, as saying.

Pang said although wild paddies were listed by the government in 1992 as an endangered species, people still attach insufficient importance to it and the country has not established any conservation areas for wild paddies.

Fang Jiahe, another expert at the academy, was quoted as saying the protection of wild plant species in China is in its initial stages and the current situation is not satisfactory.

Fang said the country is short of funds for a nationally coordinated campaign to protect wild plant species, adding that China also lacks relevant polices and regulations in the field.

To counteract the looming crisis, the State Forestry Administration last year launched a project to build conservation areas for wild animals and plants, the report said.

The report called for public awareness to be raised to protect wild plants.

Under the project, 90 per cent of key wild plants in China will be effectively protected by 2010.

In another development earlier this year, the Ministry of Agriculture started a special plan for the protection of agricultural wild plants, which includes the issuing of a list of key wild plants that must be protected.

(China Daily December 13, 2002)