Radioisotopes and rice

To stimulate research into problems of rice cultivation, the International Atomic Energy Agency has placed several research contracts with agricultural institutes in some of its Member States. Some of these research projects deal with problems of soil-plant relations and fertilization, and rice is one of the main crops on which studies are being made. A panel of experts convened by the Agency met in Vienna in May this year to discuss some of the outstanding problems in the uses of radioisotopes in soil-plant relations and fertilization studies, and problems concerning rice were among the principal subjects considered. In a paper presented at the panel meeting. Professor S. Mitsui, of the University of Tokyo, reviewed some of the main uses of radioisotopes in studying problems of rice soils and rice cultivation and suggested several specific topics in this field which could be investigated by isotope techniques.