At time of printing, US$1 = 7.52 Chinese yuan. (Photo: IRRI) Between 1979 and 2005, rice area in China decreased from 32.4 to 28.8 million hectares. At the same time, average yields went up from 4.2 tons per hectare in 1979 to about 6.3 tons per hectare in 1997 and thereafter. Because of these opposite trends,...