KUNMING, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- China has started building the largest field gene bank for plateau wild rice in the southwestern province of Yunnan to resist latent extinction.

The construction of the project will last for two years, according to the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

China has the largest rice cultivation areas and consumption in the world. In recent years, the country's wild rice has been facing the risk of resource depletion and extinction because of human activities.

At present, there are two field gene banks for wild rice in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Guangdong Province, which primarily preserve wild rice species of low latitude and low altitude groups.

The new field gene bank will mainly contain wild rice species from the plateau to ensure the diversity of relevant species.