In Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, elusive ‘ghost rice’ holds key to climate resilience

In Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, elusive ‘ghost rice’ holds key to climate resilience

“It’s been so long I can barely remember. It’s delicious, fragrant, soft but not sticky,” says Trần Văn Lựa, 53, a farmer from Đồng Tháp province, south-west Vietnam, recalling the taste of wild rice. As a child, he would harvest the grain during flood season, when wild rice flowers. Today, however, it is a rare sight. Wild rice, known locally as “ghost rice” (lúa ma), is the common name for Oryza rufipogon, a perennial native to Vietnam’s Mekon…