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By Paul M. Icamina, Special Reports Editor
Here comes Golden Rice, slated for field-testing this year and
hopefully on your table soon after.
Golden Rice, one of the parents of the 3-in-1
rice, is genetically modified since it has 23 times more carotenoid
(pro-Vitamin A). Two genes from other organisms were inserted to
provide beta-carotene production, giving the rice grain its yellow
color—and name.
The new variety is called the 3-in-1 rice,
because, together with beta-carotene, it also contains genes
resistant to tungro (a plant virus) and bacterial leaf blight
infections.
It is the first of its kind as it will contain
three important traits never before found at the same time in a rice
variety, according to the Philippine Rice Research Institute
(PhilRice), which is developing the new variety.
The seven-year Golden Rice breeding project
started in 2004 when PhilRice received genetically modified Golden
Rice grains donated by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Field-testing is required because Golden Rice is
a japonica variety that thrives in temperate climates, but not in
tropical settings.
If it proves suitable, researchers said it would
help prevent Vitamin A deficiency, which affects four out of 10
Filipino children 6 months to 5 years old. According to the 2003
Food and Nutrition Research Council survey, two of every 10 pregnant
and lactating Filipino mothers also suffer from Vitamin A
deficiency.
The rice plant produces beta-carotene in its
leaves and stems under normal conditions but not in its grains. A
rice-based diet contributes to the high prevalence of Vitamin A
deficiency, particularly among the poor who cannot afford to include
vegetables, meat and other foods rich in Vitamin A in their meals on
a daily basis.
The deficiency weakens the immune system and
causes night blindness, corneal ulcerations and blindness.
Stored in the liver, Vitamin A is important in
vision, bone growth, the immune system, reproduction lactation among
women and formation and maintenance of healthy teeth, skeletal and
soft tissue, the mucous membrane and skin.
A PhilRice study concluded that it would cost
P149 million from research and development to commercialization.
Benefits in improved health and increased rice production will
outweigh the expenses, the agency reported.
According to Von Mark Cruz of the International
Service for the Acquisition of Agricultural Biotech Applications
(ISAAA), Filipinos will consume 33,000 tons of rice a day this year.
Resistance
Golden Rice is expected to help boost rice
production because of its resistance to rice tungro and bacterial
leaf blight.
Tungro rice disease is the most damaging viral
disease of rice in the Philippines, particularly in the major
rice-growing areas like Isabela, Nueva Ecija, Camarines Sur, Albay,
Bohol and North Cotabato.
There is no pesticide against the green
leafhopper, which transmits the infection from diseased to healthy
plants.
Bacterial leaf blight occurs in irrigated
lowlands where farmers in places like Ilocos Norte, Cagayan, Ifugao,
Isabela, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac and Bulacan plant susceptible varieties
like IR64.
Bacterial leaf blight, which is more prevalent
and destructive during the wet season, causes poor and low grain
quality as it increases the number of underdeveloped grains and
reduces weight.
Consumption of Golden Rice would not lead to
Vitamin A overdose because it contains only the Vitamin A precursor
beta-carotene used by the body when it suffers from Vitamin A
deficiency, proponents said.
Beta-carotene is not known to be toxic. Even if
the intake is high, any excess is excreted or stored in the body as
beta-carotene, then converted to Vitamin A only when the body needs
it.
There is no danger of Vitamin A toxicity in
3-in-1 rice as there is no Vitamin A in Golden Rice, only the
nontoxic carotenoid precursors that enable the human body to make
Vitamin A, researchers said.
PhilRice is likely to be one of the first in
Asia to conduct field trials of Golden Rice.
PhilRice and the International Rice Research
Institute (IRRI) are also conducting field trials of genetically
modified rice that is resistant to bacterial blight—the only such
research approved for field trials in the country.
The so-called Bacterial Blight Rice is
genetically designed by inserting into IR72 a gene from a wild rice
variety that is resistant to the bacterial leaf blight.
According to Masipag (Magsasaka at Siyentipiko
para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura), PhilRice is also conducting
research into genetically modified rice that is resistant to
diseases such as tungro and stem borers, although neither PhilRice
nor the rice institute has applied for field-testing for these
genetically modified rice.
The research addresses only one of many problems
faced by rice farmers, the group added, an environmental
organization against the cultivation and commercialization of
genetically modified products.
“Unfortunately, varieties such as IR72 that
are being genetically modified to be resistant to bacterial blight
are also susceptible to many other diseases and pests found in the
Philippines such as sheath blight, golden snail, tungro virus,
etc.,” it said.
“The unresolved safety issue on GM
[genetically modified] products poses a grave threat to the health
of rice consumers,” the group said in a briefing paper.
“This is particularly unnerving for a country
where 88.6 million people are dependent on rice as a staple,” it
said, adding 80 percent of the population spend 60 percent of their
income on food and 40 percent of that amount is spent on buying
rice.
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