A GRAND ceremony was held in Beijing yesterday to mark the opening of the First International Rice Congress.

　　President Jiang Zemin addressed delegates cautioning that the world’s agricultural industry was facing new challenges. He acknowledged that food safety remained a worldwide problem with a total of 790 million people still lacking adequate nutrition.

　　A team of Chinese scientists recently became the first to publish rice genome sequencing maps as a result of their own efforts.

　　These results should be used to benefit the earth’s entire population. Equal opportunity and equal access in the application of these results should therefore be guaranteed, especially for developing countries, Jiang said.

　　He outlined China’s achievements in rice research over the past half century since the founding of New China and its contribution to world food production and food safety.

　　China encouraged its scientists and agro-technicians to cooperate with their foreign counterparts, he said.

　　The five-day congress is being co-sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the State Development Planning Commission, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the International Rice Research Institute.

　　More than 1,200 representatives from China and overseas attended the ceremony.

　　According to organizers, the objective of the congress is to focus the attention of Asia and the international community on rice production.

　　It would also urge the international community to continue to recognize the importance of impoverished rice farmers and consumers, promote the second green revolution of rice and further protect the ecological environment. (Xinhua)