Rice yields need to increase in order to keep pace with the growing population of Asia and to alleviate hunger and poverty. There appears, however, to be a biophysical limit associated with conventional photosynthetic pathways. The research presented in this book aims at understanding how the rice plant's photosynthetic pathway could be redesigned to overcome current yield limits. The factors controlling yield are discussed from the agronomic to the molecular level. Prospects for improving rice photosynthesis include using genetic engineering to convert rice into a C4 plant.

The various chapters in this book deal with photosynthesis; a comparison of C3 and C4 pathways; genes physiology and function, and also discuss this in the broader context of economic consequences of yield improvements for poverty, the molecular genetics of photosynthesis, and ecophysiological and evolutionary perspectives of photosynthesis in wetlands.

Researchers on rice, photosynthesis, agronomy, genetic engineering, and food policy will find much of interest in this book.