Dutch test crops to save peatlands

Oud Ade (Netherlands) Oct.4: In a soggy field between Amsterdam and The Hague, farmer Sander Roeleveld ploughs a small white combine harvester into his crops, gathering a grain never before harvested in the Netherlands: rice.

The surroundings could scarcely be more Dutch. Canals criss-cross polders lying two metres below sea level. Windmills grace the horizon as cows -- for centuries the country's agricultural staple -- graze in the nearby grassland. But the warming climate is allowing Dutch farmers to produce wine and now even experiment with rice, previously unthinkable in such a wet, temperate country.

And researchers behind the scheme hope rice cultivation could help address one of the country's most pressing environmental challenges: peat soils that are sinking as they dry out, pushing parts of the low-lying Netherlands ever lower. "It's extraordinary," said Philippe Terheggen, chairman of the Land van Ons association that has provided the fields for the rice harvest.

"We would never have thought maybe 20 years ago that we would be able to grow rice in the Netherlands," the 68-year-old told AFP as the harvester whirred behind him. "But it's also scary because it tells you what is possible... now the climate has changed," he said.

For now, the project is a pilot scheme, consisting of just 0.6 hectares (1.5 acres), with organisers hoping to produce around three tonnes of short-grain rice suitable for sushi or risotto. The team is working with around 30 different rice cultivars from as far afield as Russia, China, Japan and Uzbekistan, to see which grows best in the Dutch climate.