Agriculture fastest-growing research in China

Agricultural research is booming in China. (Photo credit: Flickr/Harry Taiwan / Harry Huang Photography)

Agricultural science is China's fastest-growing research field, according to a study released this month.

Between 1999 and 2008 the growth in agricultural science papers outpaced growth in all other topics, according to 'Global Research Report: China', released on 2 November by Thomson Reuters.

And from 2004 to 2008, researchers produced four times more scientific papers on agriculture than between 1999 and 2003.

China's world share of publications in agricultural science also grew from 1.5 per cent to 5 per cent over the same period, according to the report, which is based on data found in Web of Science, the world's largest database of scholarly literature.

Read the whole story: SciDev Net