The first rice forum in China will be held in late September in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, according to sources with China's Grain Wholesale Market in Zhengzhou, capital of the central province of Henan.

During the forum, a national rice association will be set up under the Chinese Crop Association and a fine rice exhibition will be staged.

Rice is the largest food crop in China, but there has been no national academic association for rice experts for a long time, limiting exchanges between rice experts and technicians and also curtailing the development of new species breeding, cultivation and processing technologies.

After years of preparation, the Rice Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science launched an initiative to found the rice association.

Zhai Huqu, a rice expert and the president of the academy, is expected to chair the rice association.

(Xinhua News Agency August 2, 2003)