Nature magazine reported the phenomenal success of a joint venture between Yunnan Agricultural University (China) and Oregon State University (US). When a group of farmers in Yunnan province agreed to sow their fields with a mixture of strains of rice, wheat or other crops in the same fields, their yields were 89% higher than those from fields where a single strain was planted. Furthermore, In the case of rice, the incidence of fungal rice blast, the principal scourge, was only 6% of that found in mono-strain fields, drastically reducing pesticide usage.

The results challenge modern farming practices and suggest better ways of feeding less industrially developed countries than genetically modified crops.