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Frequently asked questions
Almost everything you wanted to know about Golden Rice
A number of issues are discussed in a paper which you can view or download by following the following link: «The Golden Rice Project»
; these include a description of the nutritional problem posed by vitamin A deficiency, historical and scientific aspects of
the project, matters of biosafety, and regulatory hurdles.
; these include a description of the nutritional problem posed by vitamin A deficiency, historical and scientific aspects of
the project, matters of biosafety, and regulatory hurdles.
 «Golden Rice» growing in the field and looking like … rice. |
For general information about rice visit IRRI's
Rice Knowledge Bank.
Golden Rice is rice that has been genetically engineered to contain beta-carotene and other carotenoids in the endosperm (the edible part of the grain). This gives the grains a golden colour, as opposed to regular white rice, which is practically devoid of carotenoids. When the rice is consumed, some carotenoids are converted in the body into vitamin A. Carotenoids (including beta-carotene) are natural plant pigments and are widely found in coloured fruits, carrots, and green vegetables. Plants do not contain Vitamin A, but only its precursor, provitamin A (beta-carotene). Animals, including man, synthesise Vitamin A from carotenoids eaten in the diet. Hence, animal meat products contain Vitamin A. People living on a poor diet are at risk of becoming vitamin A deficient, which can lead to life-threatening illnesses. Who invented Golden Rice and how did the project start?
The inventors of Golden Rice are Ingo Potrykus, Professor emeritus of the Institute for Plant Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH, Zurich), and Professor Peter Beyer, of the Centre for Applied Biosciences, University of Freiburg, Germany with co-workers (Ye et al 2002). The search for a Golden Rice started off as a Rockefeller Foundation inititative in 1982. After years of research by various research groups a meeting of experts was convened in New York in 1992. There, Ingo Potrykus and Peter Beyer met for the first time, and subsequently decided to embark on the project that would lead them to the first version of Golden Rice in 1999.
Only some carotenoids have provitamin A activity but beta-carotene is the most common and important among them. Rice is the most important staple food for hundreds of millions of people in developing countries. Hence, delivery of beta-carotene with the help of Golden Rice could contribute to reduce chronic health problems caused by vitamin A deficiency (VAD). VAD is widely acknowledged to cause blindness, but more importantly, VAD exacerbates infections, including HIV-AIDS, measles, and other childhood diseases. This leads to an increased mortality rate, especially amongt children. UNICEF has estimated that 124 million children in the world are deficient in vitamin A. The World Bank has estimated that VAD accounted for about one-quarter of the total global burden of disease from malnutrition (Dawe et al 2002). Carotenoids are also associated with nutritional benefits that include the mitigation of various degenerative diseases in older humans. Diets high in carotenoids have been associated with a reduced risk of age-related macular degeneration (affecting part of the retina of the eye most associated with visual acuity, eventually leading to blindness), skin and prostate cancers and cardiovascular disease.
Golden Rice alone is not expected to solve the problem, but its use could significantly reduce the incidence of the VAD syndrome. Rice provides as much 80 percent or more of the daily caloric intake of 3 billion people—half the world’s population. Many eat little else than rice. But other challenges such as poverty, lack of infrastructure and lack of education remain and should be dealt with by governments and policymakers. Golden Rice is not a replacement for existing efforts to tackle the problem, but could substantially complement them in the future and make them more sustainable, especially in remote rural areas. Critics of thre technology have claimed that children in the developing world will have to eat an unrealistic amount of Golden Rice in order to reduce VAD. The numbers are based on the assumption that—for malnourished children—Golden Rice will need to make up the entire recommended daily intake (RDI) of vitamin A . This standard is not the benchmark for success for this project. In fact, VAD occurs as a result of a deficiency of vitamin A, not necessarily complete lack thereof. Therefore, adding beta-carotene in even incremental amounts to one of the staple foods of the developing world has the potential to substantially relieve VAD symptoms. Secondly, it is has become clear now that the originally estimated level of beta-carotene content that could be achieved in the genetically engineered grain, upon which much of the calculation supporting the early criticism was based, was strongly underestimated. Selected events being introgressed into locally adapted rice varieties are showing levels five times higher than the originally reported. New developments have led to levels substantially higher again—up to 23 times the originally estimated figure.
The Golden Rice Humanitarian Board is committed to the highest standards of safety assessment being conducted, and Golden Rice will only be made available for consumption after clearance by the relevant authorities according to national laws. The seeds have been donated under the licensed terms of the technology and it is for national regulatory authorities to determine the safety requirements. Syngenta, whose scientist were involved in the development of the latest Golden Rice version, believes that the seeds are entirely safe. Carotenoids are not dangerous by any definition: they are widely available in the environment and in the human diet (especially in green vegetables). There is no reasonable argument that would support propose any public health, human toxicological or any other adverse affect that could be considered in respect of carotenoids. Indeed, carotenoids are more generally associated with imparting important health benefits. As concerns the genetic engineering step, conventional plant breeding involves the uncontrolled transfer and simultaneous random recombination of many thousands of genes between from all parents involved. Therefore, safety concerns in respect of the deliberate and controlled transfer of no more than two genes, as in this case, is unwarranted. The Alternatives Limitations of Conventional Approaches
While it is true that blindness due to micronutrient deficiency can be prevented by a better diet or by distribution of vitamin A capsules, the global VAD burden continues for the reasons described below. One current approach to reduce VAD in developing countries has been to supply pre-school children with 6-monthly oral doses of high levels of vitamin A in solution. Such programmes reach only a part of the children in need, and are not always continued, as the cost, need for education, medical staff and distribution infrastructure present significant operational problems. Annual costs for a country the size of Nepal or Ghana are in the range of two million dollars (MOST 2004). The real challenges to solve malnutrition in the developing world are poverty, poor infrastructure, lack of education and awareness, not the lack of existing technology. All these issues are important too, and should continue to be addressed, as they have been for many years. However, solutions to these problems appear to be as far away as ever, and the situation is even deteriorating. Golden Rice, in combination with other efficient approaches, could lead to a highly effective, cheap and simple contribution to the relief of a major health problem. The combination of approaches will depend on the particularities of the region.
The natural oil-rich outer layer of the rice grain—the bran and the aleurone—is rich in some important nutrients, including vitamin B, and yet rice is generally consumed in its milled form, i.e. with the outer layer removed. If not removed, the oils undergo natural oxidation processes, the grain becomes rancid, affecting odour and taste, very rapidly, particularly in tropical and sub-tropical climates. Milling improves the long-term storability of rice without loss of taste.
Golden Rice Q&A
Golden Rice and Vitamin A Deficiency (VAD)Golden Rice is rice that has been genetically engineered to contain beta-carotene and other carotenoids in the endosperm (the edible part of the grain). This gives the grains a golden colour, as opposed to regular white rice, which is practically devoid of carotenoids. When the rice is consumed, some carotenoids are converted in the body into vitamin A. Carotenoids (including beta-carotene) are natural plant pigments and are widely found in coloured fruits, carrots, and green vegetables. Plants do not contain Vitamin A, but only its precursor, provitamin A (beta-carotene). Animals, including man, synthesise Vitamin A from carotenoids eaten in the diet. Hence, animal meat products contain Vitamin A. People living on a poor diet are at risk of becoming vitamin A deficient, which can lead to life-threatening illnesses. Who invented Golden Rice and how did the project start?
The inventors of Golden Rice are Ingo Potrykus, Professor emeritus of the Institute for Plant Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH, Zurich), and Professor Peter Beyer, of the Centre for Applied Biosciences, University of Freiburg, Germany with co-workers (Ye et al 2002). The search for a Golden Rice started off as a Rockefeller Foundation inititative in 1982. After years of research by various research groups a meeting of experts was convened in New York in 1992. There, Ingo Potrykus and Peter Beyer met for the first time, and subsequently decided to embark on the project that would lead them to the first version of Golden Rice in 1999.
- Ye X, Al-Babili S, Klöti A, Zhang J, Lucca P, Beyer P, Potrykus I (2000) Engineering the provitamin A
(beta-carotene) biosynthetic pathway into (carotenoid-free) rice endosperm. Science 287:303-305.
Only some carotenoids have provitamin A activity but beta-carotene is the most common and important among them. Rice is the most important staple food for hundreds of millions of people in developing countries. Hence, delivery of beta-carotene with the help of Golden Rice could contribute to reduce chronic health problems caused by vitamin A deficiency (VAD). VAD is widely acknowledged to cause blindness, but more importantly, VAD exacerbates infections, including HIV-AIDS, measles, and other childhood diseases. This leads to an increased mortality rate, especially amongt children. UNICEF has estimated that 124 million children in the world are deficient in vitamin A. The World Bank has estimated that VAD accounted for about one-quarter of the total global burden of disease from malnutrition (Dawe et al 2002). Carotenoids are also associated with nutritional benefits that include the mitigation of various degenerative diseases in older humans. Diets high in carotenoids have been associated with a reduced risk of age-related macular degeneration (affecting part of the retina of the eye most associated with visual acuity, eventually leading to blindness), skin and prostate cancers and cardiovascular disease.
- Dawe D, Robertson R and Unnevehr L, Golden Rice: What role could it play in alleviation of Vitamin A deficiency? Food Policy 27: 541-560, 2002.
Golden Rice alone is not expected to solve the problem, but its use could significantly reduce the incidence of the VAD syndrome. Rice provides as much 80 percent or more of the daily caloric intake of 3 billion people—half the world’s population. Many eat little else than rice. But other challenges such as poverty, lack of infrastructure and lack of education remain and should be dealt with by governments and policymakers. Golden Rice is not a replacement for existing efforts to tackle the problem, but could substantially complement them in the future and make them more sustainable, especially in remote rural areas. Critics of thre technology have claimed that children in the developing world will have to eat an unrealistic amount of Golden Rice in order to reduce VAD. The numbers are based on the assumption that—for malnourished children—Golden Rice will need to make up the entire recommended daily intake (RDI) of vitamin A . This standard is not the benchmark for success for this project. In fact, VAD occurs as a result of a deficiency of vitamin A, not necessarily complete lack thereof. Therefore, adding beta-carotene in even incremental amounts to one of the staple foods of the developing world has the potential to substantially relieve VAD symptoms. Secondly, it is has become clear now that the originally estimated level of beta-carotene content that could be achieved in the genetically engineered grain, upon which much of the calculation supporting the early criticism was based, was strongly underestimated. Selected events being introgressed into locally adapted rice varieties are showing levels five times higher than the originally reported. New developments have led to levels substantially higher again—up to 23 times the originally estimated figure.
Is beta-carotene safe? Are any toxic effects to be expected from Golden Rice?
Beta-carotene is a natural component of many plant foods including all green vegetables and carrots, and is not known to be toxic. When intake is high any excess is stored in the body as beta-carotene, or excreted, and only converted to vitamin A when the body needs it. It is not possible to suffer from an overdose of beta-carotene, while it is possible to overdose vitamin A to toxic levels (Clevidence et al., 1997; Khachik et al, 1995). There are just two reports of potential adverse health effects from the consumption of beta-carotene, and both involve dietary supplements, not food. In these studies, beta-carotene was given with high levels of vitamin A or vitamin E, respectively. One of these studies suggested, but did not prove, that beta- carotene may, in certain circumstances, be harmful to smokers. Moreover, unlike with vitamin pills, there is no danger of vitamin A toxicity, as there is no vitamin A in Golden Rice, only non-toxic carotenoid precursors that enable the human body to make vitamin A as required. The natural lipid membranes (of fatty nature) in rice could be enough to facilitate the absorption of vitamin A, even in diets with little or no other added oil. For many millions of people in the world, rice is not only a source of energy—which they obtain from the starch contained in the grain—but also a main source of lipids, in spite of the low fat content of rice grains.- Clevidence BA et al., Human consumption of carotenoid-rich vegetables, in Antioxidant Methodology, pp 53-63, 1997.
- Khachik F et al., Lutein, lycopene, and their oxidative metabolites in chemoprevention of cancer, J Cell Biochem, Suppl 22:236-246, 1995.
What guarantees the safety of Golden Rice?
The Golden Rice Humanitarian Board is committed to the highest standards of safety assessment being conducted, and Golden Rice will only be made available for consumption after clearance by the relevant authorities according to national laws. The seeds have been donated under the licensed terms of the technology and it is for national regulatory authorities to determine the safety requirements. Syngenta, whose scientist were involved in the development of the latest Golden Rice version, believes that the seeds are entirely safe. Carotenoids are not dangerous by any definition: they are widely available in the environment and in the human diet (especially in green vegetables). There is no reasonable argument that would support propose any public health, human toxicological or any other adverse affect that could be considered in respect of carotenoids. Indeed, carotenoids are more generally associated with imparting important health benefits. As concerns the genetic engineering step, conventional plant breeding involves the uncontrolled transfer and simultaneous random recombination of many thousands of genes between from all parents involved. Therefore, safety concerns in respect of the deliberate and controlled transfer of no more than two genes, as in this case, is unwarranted. The Alternatives Limitations of Conventional Approaches
While it is true that blindness due to micronutrient deficiency can be prevented by a better diet or by distribution of vitamin A capsules, the global VAD burden continues for the reasons described below. One current approach to reduce VAD in developing countries has been to supply pre-school children with 6-monthly oral doses of high levels of vitamin A in solution. Such programmes reach only a part of the children in need, and are not always continued, as the cost, need for education, medical staff and distribution infrastructure present significant operational problems. Annual costs for a country the size of Nepal or Ghana are in the range of two million dollars (MOST 2004). The real challenges to solve malnutrition in the developing world are poverty, poor infrastructure, lack of education and awareness, not the lack of existing technology. All these issues are important too, and should continue to be addressed, as they have been for many years. However, solutions to these problems appear to be as far away as ever, and the situation is even deteriorating. Golden Rice, in combination with other efficient approaches, could lead to a highly effective, cheap and simple contribution to the relief of a major health problem. The combination of approaches will depend on the particularities of the region.
- MOST, USAID Micronutrient Program (2004) Cost analysis of the national vitamin A supplementation programs in Ghana, Nepal, and Zambia: A synthesis of three studies.
The natural oil-rich outer layer of the rice grain—the bran and the aleurone—is rich in some important nutrients, including vitamin B, and yet rice is generally consumed in its milled form, i.e. with the outer layer removed. If not removed, the oils undergo natural oxidation processes, the grain becomes rancid, affecting odour and taste, very rapidly, particularly in tropical and sub-tropical climates. Milling improves the long-term storability of rice without loss of taste.
 The schematic shows the most distinctive structures of a rice seed.
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Most people prefer to eat white rice
White rice is the most commonly consumed form of rice. Golden Rice will be more like white rice in that it will be consumed as milled or polished rice, while it will deliver all of its benefits as brown rice also. The grain will be a bright yellow or orange colour and its appeal to people is still to be investigated. Coloured rices are eaten in many developing countries, including, for example, rice coloured yellow by saffron or naturally coloured red. It is expected that sensitive social educational programmes will be important aspects of the development and deployment of Golden Rice. Rice varieties with superior agronomic characteristics, ie that grow and yield well, will be very important for the farmers who will grow the rice. Hence the importance of introducing the trait from the genetically modified lines into varieties grown locally by farmers in VAD areas. The trait is transferred using conventional breeding techniques The Donation How did Syngenta become involved in the Humanitarian Golden Rice project?
The inventors, Ingo Potrykus and Peter Beyer, recognized early on that while they had an important technical achievement in their hands, they required an additional set of skills and expertise to get their invention to those who needed it most. Syngenta was the inventors’ preferred partner given the company’s past record in the field of carotenoid modification in plants, their long standing involvement in joint EC-funded research programmes, a track record of donation of such technologies to the developing world, and its long experience in regulatory affairs, licensing and intellectual property. What has Syngenta donated?
Syngenta has produced many Golden Rice transgenic events and has identified and selected for donation those with high carotenoid levels and good agronomic characteristics. Seed from these plants and performance data were donated to the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board. In the summer of 2004 Syngenta also conducted field trials of the first three selected Golden Rice events together with two other events generated in the public sector (published by Dr Hoa and co-workers, from the Cuu Long Delta Rice Research Institute in Vietnam). The field trials, which were conducted at Louisiana State University, were undertaken as a contribution to the Humanitarian Board and Project. The donation is therefore a combination of technology, a full technical dossier, patents, legal rights, and seeds, and reflects the work done by Syngenta and its legacy companies on behalf of the humanitarian interest over several years. More recently, additional higher expressing lines of Golden Rice (now called GR2) and based on new inventions, have also been donated to the Humanitarian Project (Paine et al 2005), A new version of Golden Rice with increased pro-vitamin A content. Nature Biotechnology 2005).
The donation of the Golden Rice transgenic events was made to the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board to carry forward the project and transfer the technology to target countries. The donation of the first events was officially made on 13 October 2004. The donation was put into effect by amendments to the licence agreements to the licensee network working with the physical materials. The licences remain free, do not create any new dependencies, and are necessary to maintain good stewardship of the technology. What will happen to the seeds that have been donated?
The donated seeds will be used in breeding work to check the suitability and stability of the transgenic Golden Rice events in VAD prone regions. These events will be used to breed the Golden Rice trait into locally preferred rice varieties (of which there are many hundreds) so that farmers in those areas can have the opportunity to grow rice containing the trait without having to change their agronomic practices or cooking habits. This work will be managed by the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board and by the public institutions that are licensees in target countries. No charges will be levied for the use of the trait. What specific support does Syngenta provide to the Humanitarian Board?
Since the inception of the Humanitarian Board, Syngenta has provided significant support in the company’s critical areas of expertise. Syngenta has expertise in regulatory affairs, biotechnology research, product development, intellectual property management, stewardship and training, all of which will have proven useful to the inventors and their collaborators. Dr Adrian Dubock, Syngenta’s Head of Public-Private Partnerships, who initially negotiated the agreement with the inventors at a time when Zeneca (one of the legacy companies which formed Syngenta in 2001) had a commercial interest in nutritional enhancement of rice) represents Syngenta on the Humanitarian Board. Syngenta has no commercial interests in Golden Rice. Why then is it supporting the development work?
Syngenta has no commercial interest in Golden Rice in respect of its potential use or application in developing countries. It does not see a commercial market for Golden Rice in the developed world either. The technology is being donated by the inventors and Syngenta to the resource-poor farmers of developing countries. Syngenta is donating selected transgenic Golden Rice events to the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board and their development will be the responsibility of the Board and public institutes, which are the licensees. The intention is to introduce Golden Rice into publicly-owned rice varieties via national and international public sector research institutions, to be made available by governments free of charge to resource-poor farmers. The farmers will then be able to grow, save, consume, replant and sell on a small scale into the local economy the resulting rice crop. No new dependencies will be created. When this work started, Zeneca had an initial commercial interest in the nutritional enhancement of rice. Syngenta, which inherited this project at the merger of the agribusiness interests of Zeneca and Novartis, wanted above all to assist the inventors and help them achieve their vision. From the outset Syngenta made a firm commitment to help develop and to donate the technology for the benefit of developing countries. It no longer has a commercial interest in the project but continues to support it because it regards this investment as being of humanitarian significance. This is the most significant donation that Syngenta has ever made. The potential benefits that the donation could bring are very substantial but also very difficult to evaluate (see eg Zimmermann and Qaim 2004). Previous donations by Syngenta have included smaller scale projects such as the Papaya Programme in Asia, in which Syngenta and the University of Nottingham (UK) collaborated through the donation of technology to an Asian biotechnology programme run by public sector research institutions in Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. Another example was the donation of antifungal proteins developed with the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, to benefit the post-harvest viability of bananas in Africa. Syngenta’s antifungal technology was donated to the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, IITA, in Nigeria. Ciba Geigy, another legacy company of Syngenta, has previously donated Bt technology for insect control in rice for humanitarian purposes to IRRI, in the Philippines.
The Golden Rice Humanitarian Board provides governance to the Golden Rice Humanitarian Project, which is being carried out by a network of Golden Rice licensees and related interested parties. The Humanitarian Project is a public-private partnership created by the inventors in 2000 to assist in the development of Golden Rice. The Humanitarian Project is sponsored by HarvestPlus (which in turn is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Bank), the Swiss Development and Collaboration Agency, USAID, and the Syngenta Foundation, together with local research institutes and several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) including the Rockefeller Foundation and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). The Golden Rice Humanitarian Board is responsible for the global development, introduction and free distribution of Golden Rice to target countries. The novel trait will be bred into locally adapted rice varieties for regional use. It is intended to introduce it into publicly owned rice varieties via national and international public sector research institutions. It will then be made available locally, free of charge to resource-poor farmers. These farmers will be able to grow, save, consume, replant and locally sell Golden Rice. Who are the members of the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board?
The initial research of Potrykus and Beyer was financially supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, together with the EU, the Swiss Federal Office for Education and Science (1996-2000), and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Syngenta (formerly Zeneca) scientists contributed to the EU carotenoid research programme of which Golden Rice had been a part since 1996. Syngenta itself has supported the project with research and facilities since 2000. More recently funds also have also come from USAID, the Syngenta Foundation, HarvestPlus, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Initially, Syngenta (then Zeneca) arranged for intellectual property controlled by Novartis, Bayer, Monsanto, and Japan Tobacco to be licensed free of charge for the sole purpose of the Golden Rice Project. Syngenta, and the inventors entered into contractual arrangements whereby Syngenta licensed back to the inventors the combined package of necessary IP and agreed to support them administratively in their task of making the technology available to resource-poor farmers in developing countries free of any charge. The use by these farmers includes local production made by farmers who earn less than US$10,000 annually. The inventors were also granted the rights to grant sub-licences for the same purpose.
There has been no new contract introduced, but a side letter has been added to the original agreement. This letter contains certain new conditions that have become necessary because of the substantial costs of regulation and licensing. The Humanitarian Board wishes to encourage the selection of just one transformation event eventually, to facilitate sailing smoothly through the regulatory process, such as to to reduce costs and advance the time at which the technology can be made available to farmers. The selected and approved event can then be cross-bred with any locally preferred variety. The old licence remains valid along with the recently agreed additional clauses. The Humanitarian Board and the licensees will together guide the project to its conclusion.
The technology will be provided to international and national research organisations in developing countries under licence. The Humanitarian Board will provide strategic guidance in the application of the technology to locally adapted public rice varieties and the carrying out of biosafety and other assessments. The transformed seed will be first introgressed (bred) into locally important rice varities. When approved by the appropriate national authorities who will assess safety to man, animals, and the environment, the seed will be multiplied by conventional seed multiplication processes and distributed to resource-poor farmers for planting, harvesting, small scale commercial activity (less than US$10,000 per annum, to neighbours and local markets) and consumption.
The Golden Rice version already donated by Syngenta (GR1) has approximately four times more carotenoid than the prototype version (Ye et al. 2000). These grains are a more intense orange/yellow colour and contain more beta-carotene than the 2000 version. The grains harvested from the first field trial, conducted in 2004, showed carotenoid levels between 4.0 and 8.0 micrograms per gram total carotenoid. The latest Golden Rice version (GR2) produces even 23 times the originally reported carotenoid levels (Paine et al. 2005).
This is not yet known, and depends on further testing with the events that have been and are being developed. It is important to establish the optimum level of carotenoid delivery consistent with other considerations such as behaviour during harvesting, processing and cooking, bioavailability, and taste. Work with other carotenoid-containing plant foodstuff has shown that provitamin A is relatively stable at high temperatures and hence losses due to cooking are expected to be low. The optimum level at which Golden Rice can play a significant role in helping to combat VAD has not been established yet. The professional and authoritative nutritional advice received by the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board is that even the original 1.6 microgram per gram result of the first-generation Golden Rice would have a positive and beneficial effect on reducingVAD. It has been indicated that Golden Rice with even higher levels of beta-carotene exists. Would such a development stop ongoing work with the current events?
Syngenta has developed different genetic constructs that have the capacity to accumulate carotenoids at much higher levels than the original research showed (Paine et al. 2005). Further tests on the agronomic performance of the plants, and nutritional, cooking, taste, etc characteristics of Golden Rice will decide whether the GR1 constructs or the newest GR2 constructs will be optimal for alleviating VAD. The Humanitarian Board's goal is to be able to provide the recommended daily intake for children in the usual daily amount of rice they consume.
There are several likely reasons. In both strains the gene constructs used by Syngenta were slightly different from the original construct. Whilst the two carotenoid biosynthesis genes are functionally the same, the control element of one of the genes was exchanged. In the new strains the phytoene desaturase gene crtI is expressed using a seed-specific promoter rather than a constitutive promoter (i.e. active throughout the plant). This may have beneficially affected the amount of carotenoid that is accumulated in the grain. In GR2 the Narcissus phytoene synthase gene psy used in the original construct was exchanged for a maize homolog. Also, in their work Syngenta was able to generate hundreds of individual Golden Rice transformants and within they found more plants with particularly high levels of carotenoid accumulation. The experiments of Potrykus and Beyer produced far fewer plants and the chances of finding plants with high levels were therefore lower. It is normal to expect a range of trasgene expression levels in a group of genetically engineered plants from the same transformation experiment.
Is gene flow an issue with Golden Rice?
While the chances of out-crossing to non-transgenic rice are very low (but not zero) the relevant issue is what effect the genes would have if outcrossing occurred. No selective advantage for the recipient plants would be expected from the outcrossing of the carotenoid genes from Golden Rice. Let's not forget that practically all plants produce carotenoids, hence no new chemical compound is being introduced into the environment.
The inventors needed a way to recognise the presence of the desirable trait in the rice in their laboratory experiments, and used the hygromycin resistance marker gene (also called a selectable marker) as it was then available and suitable. Comprehensive studies have shown that the use of the hygormycin resistance gene would be safe to humans and the environment. Because of public perception reasons, the donated events have been constructed free of a marker gene (by co-transformation, a methodology in which two separate gene constructs are introduced concurrently, thereby allowing to breed out the selectable marker by conventional crossing) or they may have been produced using the sugar-based Positech® technology, licensed free-to-use by Syngenta. The latter is an alternative to antibiotic resistance marker genes and which utilises an innocuous non-metabolisable sugar as a selection agent. The transformation events being donated by Syngenta contain neither antibiotic nor herbicide tolerance selectable marker genes.
The first Golden Rice field trials using three selected GR1 transgenic events, together with two other transformation events created by Dr Hoa of Vietnam (produced while working at ETH, Zurich and at Peter Beyer's laboratory in Freiburg) were harvested in Louisiana, USA in September 2004. The first field trials were done in the US because the country has a well developed regulatory system for field trials of GM crops, and it is also the country of origin of the rice variety which carries the donated Syngenta technology. Field trials in India and the Philippines are set to be carried out in 2006, after having passed all the mandatory biosafety requirements.
Recent studies suggest significant net economic benefits to countries from the adoption of Golden Rice. These benefits stem from the expected reduction in disease and mortality incidences from VAD, and would by far surpass any adverse economic effects from barriers to exports into countries currently unwilling to import transgenic crops. The economic benefits result from better public health as measured by DALY’s (Disability Adjusted Life Years; see Zimmerman and Qaim, 2004) as well as from increased worker productivity (Anderson et al. 2004). The value of health improvements to the Philippine economy are estimated at US$16 – 88 million per year (Zimmerman and Qaim 2004). Annual net gains in Asia are estimated at US$6.3 billion (China), $2.3 bn (India), and $4.1 bn for the rest of South and South East Asia.
Donated seeds are being bred into locally preferred varieties in India and in the Philippines. Field trials in these countries are expected to carried out in 2006. The results of these trials will then form the basis of breeding work by the Golden Rice Network’s breeders, to introgress the trait into many more selected locally adapted rice varieties which will be attractive to rice farmers in VAD areas. The transfer of the technology to local rice varieties and the necessary biosafety and efficacy testing is expected to take another two to four years, depending entirely upon the speed with which regulatory tests and conditions are completed .
White rice is the most commonly consumed form of rice. Golden Rice will be more like white rice in that it will be consumed as milled or polished rice, while it will deliver all of its benefits as brown rice also. The grain will be a bright yellow or orange colour and its appeal to people is still to be investigated. Coloured rices are eaten in many developing countries, including, for example, rice coloured yellow by saffron or naturally coloured red. It is expected that sensitive social educational programmes will be important aspects of the development and deployment of Golden Rice. Rice varieties with superior agronomic characteristics, ie that grow and yield well, will be very important for the farmers who will grow the rice. Hence the importance of introducing the trait from the genetically modified lines into varieties grown locally by farmers in VAD areas. The trait is transferred using conventional breeding techniques The Donation How did Syngenta become involved in the Humanitarian Golden Rice project?
The inventors, Ingo Potrykus and Peter Beyer, recognized early on that while they had an important technical achievement in their hands, they required an additional set of skills and expertise to get their invention to those who needed it most. Syngenta was the inventors’ preferred partner given the company’s past record in the field of carotenoid modification in plants, their long standing involvement in joint EC-funded research programmes, a track record of donation of such technologies to the developing world, and its long experience in regulatory affairs, licensing and intellectual property. What has Syngenta donated?
Syngenta has produced many Golden Rice transgenic events and has identified and selected for donation those with high carotenoid levels and good agronomic characteristics. Seed from these plants and performance data were donated to the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board. In the summer of 2004 Syngenta also conducted field trials of the first three selected Golden Rice events together with two other events generated in the public sector (published by Dr Hoa and co-workers, from the Cuu Long Delta Rice Research Institute in Vietnam). The field trials, which were conducted at Louisiana State University, were undertaken as a contribution to the Humanitarian Board and Project. The donation is therefore a combination of technology, a full technical dossier, patents, legal rights, and seeds, and reflects the work done by Syngenta and its legacy companies on behalf of the humanitarian interest over several years. More recently, additional higher expressing lines of Golden Rice (now called GR2) and based on new inventions, have also been donated to the Humanitarian Project (Paine et al 2005), A new version of Golden Rice with increased pro-vitamin A content. Nature Biotechnology 2005).
- Paine JA, Shipton CA, Chaggar S, Howells RM, Kennedy MJ, Vernon G, Wright SY, Hinchliffe E,
Adams JL, Silverstone AL, Drake R (2005) A new version of Golden Rice with increased pro-vitamin A
content. Nature Biotechnology 23:482-487.
The donation of the Golden Rice transgenic events was made to the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board to carry forward the project and transfer the technology to target countries. The donation of the first events was officially made on 13 October 2004. The donation was put into effect by amendments to the licence agreements to the licensee network working with the physical materials. The licences remain free, do not create any new dependencies, and are necessary to maintain good stewardship of the technology. What will happen to the seeds that have been donated?
The donated seeds will be used in breeding work to check the suitability and stability of the transgenic Golden Rice events in VAD prone regions. These events will be used to breed the Golden Rice trait into locally preferred rice varieties (of which there are many hundreds) so that farmers in those areas can have the opportunity to grow rice containing the trait without having to change their agronomic practices or cooking habits. This work will be managed by the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board and by the public institutions that are licensees in target countries. No charges will be levied for the use of the trait. What specific support does Syngenta provide to the Humanitarian Board?
Since the inception of the Humanitarian Board, Syngenta has provided significant support in the company’s critical areas of expertise. Syngenta has expertise in regulatory affairs, biotechnology research, product development, intellectual property management, stewardship and training, all of which will have proven useful to the inventors and their collaborators. Dr Adrian Dubock, Syngenta’s Head of Public-Private Partnerships, who initially negotiated the agreement with the inventors at a time when Zeneca (one of the legacy companies which formed Syngenta in 2001) had a commercial interest in nutritional enhancement of rice) represents Syngenta on the Humanitarian Board. Syngenta has no commercial interests in Golden Rice. Why then is it supporting the development work?
Syngenta has no commercial interest in Golden Rice in respect of its potential use or application in developing countries. It does not see a commercial market for Golden Rice in the developed world either. The technology is being donated by the inventors and Syngenta to the resource-poor farmers of developing countries. Syngenta is donating selected transgenic Golden Rice events to the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board and their development will be the responsibility of the Board and public institutes, which are the licensees. The intention is to introduce Golden Rice into publicly-owned rice varieties via national and international public sector research institutions, to be made available by governments free of charge to resource-poor farmers. The farmers will then be able to grow, save, consume, replant and sell on a small scale into the local economy the resulting rice crop. No new dependencies will be created. When this work started, Zeneca had an initial commercial interest in the nutritional enhancement of rice. Syngenta, which inherited this project at the merger of the agribusiness interests of Zeneca and Novartis, wanted above all to assist the inventors and help them achieve their vision. From the outset Syngenta made a firm commitment to help develop and to donate the technology for the benefit of developing countries. It no longer has a commercial interest in the project but continues to support it because it regards this investment as being of humanitarian significance. This is the most significant donation that Syngenta has ever made. The potential benefits that the donation could bring are very substantial but also very difficult to evaluate (see eg Zimmermann and Qaim 2004). Previous donations by Syngenta have included smaller scale projects such as the Papaya Programme in Asia, in which Syngenta and the University of Nottingham (UK) collaborated through the donation of technology to an Asian biotechnology programme run by public sector research institutions in Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. Another example was the donation of antifungal proteins developed with the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, to benefit the post-harvest viability of bananas in Africa. Syngenta’s antifungal technology was donated to the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, IITA, in Nigeria. Ciba Geigy, another legacy company of Syngenta, has previously donated Bt technology for insect control in rice for humanitarian purposes to IRRI, in the Philippines.
- Zimmermann R, and Qaim M (2004) Potential health benefits of Golden Rice: A Philippine case study. Food Policy 29:147-
168.
The Golden Rice Humanitarian Board provides governance to the Golden Rice Humanitarian Project, which is being carried out by a network of Golden Rice licensees and related interested parties. The Humanitarian Project is a public-private partnership created by the inventors in 2000 to assist in the development of Golden Rice. The Humanitarian Project is sponsored by HarvestPlus (which in turn is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Bank), the Swiss Development and Collaboration Agency, USAID, and the Syngenta Foundation, together with local research institutes and several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) including the Rockefeller Foundation and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). The Golden Rice Humanitarian Board is responsible for the global development, introduction and free distribution of Golden Rice to target countries. The novel trait will be bred into locally adapted rice varieties for regional use. It is intended to introduce it into publicly owned rice varieties via national and international public sector research institutions. It will then be made available locally, free of charge to resource-poor farmers. These farmers will be able to grow, save, consume, replant and locally sell Golden Rice. Who are the members of the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board?
- Dr Ingo Potrykus, professor emeritus of the Institute for Plant Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) (Chair and co- inventor);
- Prof Peter Beyer of the Centre for Applied Biosciences, Univ of Freiburg, Germany (Co-inventor);
- Prof Gurdev Khush, Univ of California Davis (and formerly Chief Rice Breeder, IRRI);
- Dr Gary Toenniessen, Director of Food Security, The Rockefeller Foundation, NY, USA;
- Dr Howarth Bouis, Director of the HarvestPlus Programme (joint appointment at IFPRI and CIAT);
- Dr Robert Russell, Director, Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, USA;
- Dr Robert Bertram, Director of the Multilateral Agricultural Programme, USAID;
- Dr Katharina Jenny, Senior Advisor, Swiss Development and Collaboration Agency;
- Dr Adrian Dubock, Head of Public-Private Partnerships Syngenta AG;
- Dr Robert Zeigler, Director General International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), The Philippines;
- Dr Ren Wang, Deputy Deputy Director of Research, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), The Philippines;
- Dr William Padolina, Deputy Director for Partnerships, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), The Philippines;
- Dr SR Rao, Director Dept of Biotechnology, New Delhi, India;
- Dr Gerard Barry, Golden Rice Network Coordinator, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), The Philippines (ex-officio member);
- Dr Jorge Mayer, Golden Rice Project Manager, Campus Technologies Freiburg, Germany (ex-officio member).
The initial research of Potrykus and Beyer was financially supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, together with the EU, the Swiss Federal Office for Education and Science (1996-2000), and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Syngenta (formerly Zeneca) scientists contributed to the EU carotenoid research programme of which Golden Rice had been a part since 1996. Syngenta itself has supported the project with research and facilities since 2000. More recently funds also have also come from USAID, the Syngenta Foundation, HarvestPlus, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Contractual Issues
What is the nature of the licence agreement?Initially, Syngenta (then Zeneca) arranged for intellectual property controlled by Novartis, Bayer, Monsanto, and Japan Tobacco to be licensed free of charge for the sole purpose of the Golden Rice Project. Syngenta, and the inventors entered into contractual arrangements whereby Syngenta licensed back to the inventors the combined package of necessary IP and agreed to support them administratively in their task of making the technology available to resource-poor farmers in developing countries free of any charge. The use by these farmers includes local production made by farmers who earn less than US$10,000 annually. The inventors were also granted the rights to grant sub-licences for the same purpose.
Golden Rice is expected to become widely and cheaply distributed through the farmers’ own supply and exchange networks. The contractual arrangements will guarantee free access for farmers to the technology. Farmers can keep the seeds for future sowing. This will reinforce and repeat the initial distribution of seed.
Have the rights recently been cut back or have additional restrictions been introduced to the agreement?There has been no new contract introduced, but a side letter has been added to the original agreement. This letter contains certain new conditions that have become necessary because of the substantial costs of regulation and licensing. The Humanitarian Board wishes to encourage the selection of just one transformation event eventually, to facilitate sailing smoothly through the regulatory process, such as to to reduce costs and advance the time at which the technology can be made available to farmers. The selected and approved event can then be cross-bred with any locally preferred variety. The old licence remains valid along with the recently agreed additional clauses. The Humanitarian Board and the licensees will together guide the project to its conclusion.
Earlier studies indicated that there existed a very complex patent situation around Golden Rice. Does this affeect the Golden RiceProject in any way?
Patents are national in scope, not international. In the US a complex intellectual property situation exists around Golden Rice technology, which is not replicated in Europe or in developing countries. Analysis of the patent issues surrounding the initially invented Golden Rice has determined a far less complex position in developing countries than that previously reported by some commentators. Critics of the project originally made mention of more than 70 patents, a figure derived from a study conducted by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (Kryder et al. 2000). While correct, only 12 of these patents relate to developing countries, and all have been waived by their owners. These remaining patents do not restrict the inventors’ freedom to develop the project for the benefit of developing countries. The new constructs donated to the Humanitarian Project do not require access to any additional third party intellectual property.
- Kryder D, Kowalsi SP, Krattiger AF. 2000. 'The Intellectual and Technical Property Components of pro-Vitamin A Rice (GoldenRice™): A Preliminary Freedom-To-Operate Review', ISAAA Briefs No 20. ISAAA: Ithaca, NY. 56 pp.
The technology will be provided to international and national research organisations in developing countries under licence. The Humanitarian Board will provide strategic guidance in the application of the technology to locally adapted public rice varieties and the carrying out of biosafety and other assessments. The transformed seed will be first introgressed (bred) into locally important rice varities. When approved by the appropriate national authorities who will assess safety to man, animals, and the environment, the seed will be multiplied by conventional seed multiplication processes and distributed to resource-poor farmers for planting, harvesting, small scale commercial activity (less than US$10,000 per annum, to neighbours and local markets) and consumption.
The Humanitarian Board will continue to grant licences as they judge appropriate to the National Agricultural Research Centres and other public sector research institutions, in developing countries. The National Agricultural Research Centres and related rice seed breeding enterprises in each country will distribute rice to resource-poor farmers. There will be no extra-charge for the trait. It will be up to governments ultimately to ensure the free distribution to farmers.
Further developing Golden Rice technology
What are the levels of carotenoid in the donated materials?The Golden Rice version already donated by Syngenta (GR1) has approximately four times more carotenoid than the prototype version (Ye et al. 2000). These grains are a more intense orange/yellow colour and contain more beta-carotene than the 2000 version. The grains harvested from the first field trial, conducted in 2004, showed carotenoid levels between 4.0 and 8.0 micrograms per gram total carotenoid. The latest Golden Rice version (GR2) produces even 23 times the originally reported carotenoid levels (Paine et al. 2005).
- Ye X, Al-Babili S, Klöti A, Zhang J, Lucca P, Beyer P, Potrykus I (2000) Engineering the provitamin A
(beta-carotene) biosynthetic pathway into (carotenoid-free) rice endosperm. Science 287:303-305.
- Paine JA, Shipton CA, Chaggar S, Howells RM, Kennedy MJ, Vernon G, Wright SY, Hinchliffe E,
Adams JL, Silverstone AL, Drake R (2005) A new version of Golden Rice with increased pro-vitamin A
content. Nature Biotechnology 23:482-487.
This is not yet known, and depends on further testing with the events that have been and are being developed. It is important to establish the optimum level of carotenoid delivery consistent with other considerations such as behaviour during harvesting, processing and cooking, bioavailability, and taste. Work with other carotenoid-containing plant foodstuff has shown that provitamin A is relatively stable at high temperatures and hence losses due to cooking are expected to be low. The optimum level at which Golden Rice can play a significant role in helping to combat VAD has not been established yet. The professional and authoritative nutritional advice received by the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board is that even the original 1.6 microgram per gram result of the first-generation Golden Rice would have a positive and beneficial effect on reducingVAD. It has been indicated that Golden Rice with even higher levels of beta-carotene exists. Would such a development stop ongoing work with the current events?
Syngenta has developed different genetic constructs that have the capacity to accumulate carotenoids at much higher levels than the original research showed (Paine et al. 2005). Further tests on the agronomic performance of the plants, and nutritional, cooking, taste, etc characteristics of Golden Rice will decide whether the GR1 constructs or the newest GR2 constructs will be optimal for alleviating VAD. The Humanitarian Board's goal is to be able to provide the recommended daily intake for children in the usual daily amount of rice they consume.
Syngenta will also be donating these newest SGR2 events to the Humanitarian Board. This does not yet change any of the programmed development work on the earlier SGR1 constructs. Events with both the higher and lower level of expression will progress side by side until properly informed decisions can be made about their potential in combating Vitamin A deficiency.
- Paine JA, Shipton CA, Chaggar S, Howells RM, Kennedy MJ, Vernon G, Wright SY, Hinchliffe E,
Adams JL, Silverstone AL, Drake R (2005) A new version of Golden Rice with increased pro-vitamin A
content. Nature Biotechnology 23:482-487.
There are several likely reasons. In both strains the gene constructs used by Syngenta were slightly different from the original construct. Whilst the two carotenoid biosynthesis genes are functionally the same, the control element of one of the genes was exchanged. In the new strains the phytoene desaturase gene crtI is expressed using a seed-specific promoter rather than a constitutive promoter (i.e. active throughout the plant). This may have beneficially affected the amount of carotenoid that is accumulated in the grain. In GR2 the Narcissus phytoene synthase gene psy used in the original construct was exchanged for a maize homolog. Also, in their work Syngenta was able to generate hundreds of individual Golden Rice transformants and within they found more plants with particularly high levels of carotenoid accumulation. The experiments of Potrykus and Beyer produced far fewer plants and the chances of finding plants with high levels were therefore lower. It is normal to expect a range of trasgene expression levels in a group of genetically engineered plants from the same transformation experiment.
In addition, the rice variety used by Syngenta was different to that used previously and this variety may be more suited to carotenoid production in the grain. The growing environment of the plants, light, water, nutrients etc, might also affect the amount of carotenoid accumulated in the grain.
Golden Rice and the EnvironmentIs gene flow an issue with Golden Rice?
While the chances of out-crossing to non-transgenic rice are very low (but not zero) the relevant issue is what effect the genes would have if outcrossing occurred. No selective advantage for the recipient plants would be expected from the outcrossing of the carotenoid genes from Golden Rice. Let's not forget that practically all plants produce carotenoids, hence no new chemical compound is being introduced into the environment.
Research at IRRI (SS Virmani and HL Sharma) and many other studies have demonstrated that the chance of out-crossing from currently cultivated rice species is very low as these varieties are essentially self-pollinating. Moreover, rice pollen is only viable for 3-5 minutes. Where this might be an issue, the likelihood of outcrossing can be reduced significantly by appropriate measures such as staggered flowering dates and by observing recommended distances to other rice fields. While the chances of outcrossing to non-transgenic rice and wild species are very low (but not zero) the relevant issue is what effect these two well-characterised genes would have if outcrossing occurred. No selective advantage for the receptor plants would be expected from the outcrossing of the carotenoid genes from Golden Rice and thus the introgressed genes would be diluted out of the population quickly.
Why was an antibiotic resistance marker (Hygromycin) used?The inventors needed a way to recognise the presence of the desirable trait in the rice in their laboratory experiments, and used the hygromycin resistance marker gene (also called a selectable marker) as it was then available and suitable. Comprehensive studies have shown that the use of the hygormycin resistance gene would be safe to humans and the environment. Because of public perception reasons, the donated events have been constructed free of a marker gene (by co-transformation, a methodology in which two separate gene constructs are introduced concurrently, thereby allowing to breed out the selectable marker by conventional crossing) or they may have been produced using the sugar-based Positech® technology, licensed free-to-use by Syngenta. The latter is an alternative to antibiotic resistance marker genes and which utilises an innocuous non-metabolisable sugar as a selection agent. The transformation events being donated by Syngenta contain neither antibiotic nor herbicide tolerance selectable marker genes.
An alternative selection methodology: Positive Selection
With Positech®, Syngenta has recently presented a new selection technology for the identification of genetically modified (GM) plant cells. This system
enables GM seeds to be developed without the use of antibiotic resistance markers. Transformed plant tissues are enabled to grow on a simple, otherwise
non-utilizable sugar, hence positive selection. Positech has been put at the licence-free disposal of the agricultural research and development
institute in Malaysia (MARDI) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, and is available for other humanitarian projects.
The Future of Golden Rice
What are the early indications from the field trials?The first Golden Rice field trials using three selected GR1 transgenic events, together with two other transformation events created by Dr Hoa of Vietnam (produced while working at ETH, Zurich and at Peter Beyer's laboratory in Freiburg) were harvested in Louisiana, USA in September 2004. The first field trials were done in the US because the country has a well developed regulatory system for field trials of GM crops, and it is also the country of origin of the rice variety which carries the donated Syngenta technology. Field trials in India and the Philippines are set to be carried out in 2006, after having passed all the mandatory biosafety requirements.
The trials provided preliminary agronomic performance data of the selected transformation events. Results from the trial suggest normal agronomic performance from all events. Initial analysis or rice harvested slightly before maturity, indicates carotenoid content in the endosperm of GR1 events in the range of 4–8 micrograms per gram (mean = 6 µg/g). This is four times more than the values obtained from the same events when grown in a greenhouse.
Around 100 Kg of Golden Rice polished grain were harvested in the 2005 trial for further extensive testing of the grinas. Tests will include human nutritional work to investigate aspects of bioavailability and bioefficacy; carotenoid retention trials in rice food preparation (i.e. how much beta- carotene is left after processing, storage and cooking) with various forms of cooking; taste trials with a trained panel of professional rice tasters.
What could be the economic impact of Golden Rice in Asia?Recent studies suggest significant net economic benefits to countries from the adoption of Golden Rice. These benefits stem from the expected reduction in disease and mortality incidences from VAD, and would by far surpass any adverse economic effects from barriers to exports into countries currently unwilling to import transgenic crops. The economic benefits result from better public health as measured by DALY’s (Disability Adjusted Life Years; see Zimmerman and Qaim, 2004) as well as from increased worker productivity (Anderson et al. 2004). The value of health improvements to the Philippine economy are estimated at US$16 – 88 million per year (Zimmerman and Qaim 2004). Annual net gains in Asia are estimated at US$6.3 billion (China), $2.3 bn (India), and $4.1 bn for the rest of South and South East Asia.
- Anderson K, Jackson LA, Pohl Nielsen C (2004) Genetically modified rice adoption: Implications for welfare and poverty alleviation. Centre for
International Economic Studies. Discussion Paper No 0413.
- Zimmermann R and Qaim M (2004) Potential Health Benefits of Golden Rice: a Philippines Case Study, Food Policy
29:147-168.
Donated seeds are being bred into locally preferred varieties in India and in the Philippines. Field trials in these countries are expected to carried out in 2006. The results of these trials will then form the basis of breeding work by the Golden Rice Network’s breeders, to introgress the trait into many more selected locally adapted rice varieties which will be attractive to rice farmers in VAD areas. The transfer of the technology to local rice varieties and the necessary biosafety and efficacy testing is expected to take another two to four years, depending entirely upon the speed with which regulatory tests and conditions are completed .
When are the first health benefits to be realised?
The transfer of the technology to local rice varieties and the necessary biosafety and efficacy testing is expected to take at least another two to four years. The health benefits should follow shortly after the rice seeds are available for widespread cultivation and consumption. The actual timing will also depend on the time required for regulatory clearance by the relevant authorities and seed delivery to farmers. It is hoped that by then farmers will have been informed of this development and will be prepared to adopt the "new old" seed—new in colour yet still the same sort of rice they have come to know and to like over time. The positive effect on the health of their children should help spread the word.Responses to some objections that seem to have a scientific basis:
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