{
  "id": 11721658,
  "title": "The ancient African rice that could help farmers grapple with climate change",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/03/the-ancient-african-rice-that-could-help-farmers-grapple-with-climate",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-03T16:11:15.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "RFI English",
    "slug": "rfi-english",
    "url": "https://www.rfi.fr/en/environment/20261003-ancient-african-rice-could-help-farmers-face-a-hotter-world-oryza-glaberrima-nanjing-agricultural-university"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "Thousands of years ago, farmers in West Africa took a wild ancestor of rice and turned it into a crop of their own. But it was difficult to harvest and, over time, globally dominant Asian rice pushed it aside. Yet African rice survived in some of the region's harshest growing conditions, coping with drought, deep water, poor soil, pests and punishing heat. Now, researchers in China may have found…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}