Red rice is reportedly a serious weed in rice fields of north and south America.
It is very difficult to control and crosses with rice approximately two per cent - a proportion supposed to be very high by plan breeding standards. A herbicide resistant gene has been introduced into a rice variety. The international donor agency which funded the research did not allow this rice to be released for production in US due to the risk of gene transfer to the weed. The weed would have also become resistant to herbi cide. Another scientist at an international research agency learnt about this rice and got some seed for commercial produc tion.