Wearing large rubber boots, Nadine Mitschunas joyfully handled mature rice plants peeking through the water of her small plot growing in the fertile soil of eastern England.

Growing rice "has not been done before in the UK", said Mitschunas, a field ecologist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH).

Originally published on doc.afp.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.