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A team of scientists in the Philippines has launched
an ambitious project to alter the way rice grows and greatly
increase yields of the crop, a daily staple for almost half the
world’s people.
With prices soaring and
population increasing, experts say increasing the yield—the amount
of rice that can be produced from a fixed amount of land—will be
crucial to feeding the planet’s poor in the years to come.
“This is a long-term, complex
project that will take a decade or more to complete,” said John
Sheehy, the scientist leading the work at the International Rice
Research Institute (IRRI).
“The result of this strategic
research has the potential to benefit billions of poor people,” he
said.
Sheehy said up to 50 percent more
rice could be produced, while using less water and fertilizer, by
altering the way the plant turns sunlight into the energy it needs
to grow.
Rice uses a relatively
inefficient form of photosynthesis, the process of turning light
into the “fuel” for growth, known as C3.
Sheehy’s team hopes to turn
rice into a plant that uses the C4 variety of photosynthesis, like
that of maize and sorghum, which is 50 percent more efficient.
That would mean more rice grown
with fewer resources—which would help to ease the soaring price of
the crop, selling last year for more than $1,000 per ton.
“The benefits of such an
improvement in the face of increasing world population, increasing
food prices, and decreasing natural resources would be immense,”
Sheehy said.
Past and future
The IRRI was instrumental in
developing the modern variety of high-yield rice in Asia in the
1960s, credited with keeping countless numbers alive and providing
the foundation for the region’s economic transformation.
Now the institute says yields
will have to be increased again in the face of rising prices, less
available water and land, and the growing number of mouths to feed
around the world.
It plans to use “modern
molecular tools” to develop a more efficient and higher-yielding
form of rice.
The institute said the project
involves molecular biologists, geneticists, physiologists,
biochemists and mathematicians, and that it has received an
$11-million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
--AFP
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