Farmers go against the grain

Hybrid enemy: The Clearfield strain has cross-bred with the weed-like ‘padi angin’ variety, a pest in the rice fields, making it resistant to the herbicide used by farmers.

The special strain, which took seven years’ research and a grant of RM1.2mil to develop, is now a flop.

Instead of solving the problem, it amplified it, no thanks in part to greedy farmers.