Boiled or fried, pudding, paella, risotto, sushi ... how often do you eat it? 2004 was the International Year of Rice.

Rice for life: this grain has fed more people for longer than any other crop, and today nourishes around half the world.

Rice is deeply respected in many cultures. We see a man in the moon. In Vietnam they look at the moon and see the Rice Goddess, stacking her freshly harvested rice in the shade of a Bo tree.

The Shinto religion pays great respect to nature, promoting harmony between humans, plants, animals and the landscape. The Rice Goddess watches over the many rice landraces (ancient types of crop plants, whose genetic diversity helps them adapt to their growing environment), one or more of which may be the parent of the 'rice of the future'.

In the 1960s Future Harvest's International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) was set up in the Philippines and in the next thirty years the global rice harvest doubled. Different rice landraces were crossed to produce high-yielding semi-dwarf varieties. IR8, released in 1966, was one of the first 'miracle rices'.

An Indian farmer called Ganesan was so impressed with his bumper IR8 rice harvest that he named his son after it. The increased income from the crop later enabled Ganesan to send IR8 (IR-ettu in Tamil) to college.

IRRI scientists are looking to some of the hundred thousand rice landraces for assistance in future breeding programmes. Scientists have recently crossed Asian and African rices to create 'New Rice for Africa' to bring hope to the hungry.

John Dyer was resident artist for the International Rice Research Institute in April 2004.

Information kindly provided by The Eden Project. Text copyright the Eden Project 2003