Tropical oases are the last thing you would expect to find at the end of November in Norfolk frost-bitten countryside.

But at a research centre in Norwich, £1.3 million has been spent creating three 18 square metre slices of South East Asia.

Inside it will be 90 degrees in the shade, 95 per cent humid and so bright scientists will be sporting black sunglasses as well as white coats.

Perfect conditions for a crop not normally associated with East Anglia – rice. Rice is the staple diet of an estimated three billion people in developing countries, almost half the world's population.

By the year 2020 demand will increase by 70 per cent as the population mushrooms.

Like "rice researchers" across the world, scientists at the John Innes Centre, based at the Norwich Research Park, Colney, want to create the perfect rice plant, one with a greater chance of survival.

Failure could increase the chance of future famines in poverty-stricken countries, where much of the current rice crop falls prey to pests and disease.

In future, workers toiling in Asian paddy fields half a world away could be harvesting genetically modified rice first grown in Norwich.

Until now, sabotaged by the Norfolk climate, the John Innes Centre could only grow rice in the summer in greenhouses.

The "controlled environments" – monitored by computers to ensure conditions mimic a typical day in the tropics – mean they can grow it all year round, increasing the chance of discovering the perfect formula.

Dr. Steve Rawsthorne said: "For ideal conditions to grow rice you need as much light as on the sunniest day possible in the UK, temperatures of around 28 degrees and high humidity.

"That's what we'll be able to recreate. Stepping into these rooms will be like stepping off a plane in a tropical country.

"Some of the scientists will be wearing sunglasses when they go in. It'll be like walking into a tropical rainforest.

"We won't be creating genetically modified monsters, we'll be able to test the best ways of modifying rice plants so that they're more resistant to pests and disease.

"They won't have to be given as much fertiliser and pesticides."

Nothing has been left to chance.

In the specially adapted rooms, which scientists will start to use toda, rice seedlings will be placed in trays of water that empty and fill themselves, replicating water flow in a real paddy field.

The results of the research carried out in Norfolk's very own "paddy fields" could be used closer to home.

Rice is similar genetically to cereals grown in the UK, including maize, wheat and rye.

Modification techniques that prove successful for rice may also work for homegrown crops.

Dr. Rawsthorne added: "It's terrifically exciting. It's all about providing new opportunities for agriculture in the future."

But as winter deepens, he joked that special patrols would be mounted to make sure no sun-loving scientists intent on a tropical siesta sneak in with a beer and a deckchair.