Most
Central Asian strains are of the type - 1 variety, whereas type 2 predominates in Ethiopia, type 3 in Europe, North Africa, and the Americas, and type 4 in West Africa and the Caribbean.
Looking to fortify vegetables with iron, scientists at the
Central Research Institute Electric Power Industry in Japan hit on the idea of putting the gene for ferritin, a protein that collects iron, into a common
strain of
Asian rice.