as a model for other countries.
During the 54th convocation of the
Indian Agricultural Research Institute
(IARI) in February 2016, the then
President of India, Pranab Mukherjee
highlighted in his speech that IARI
has developed genetically modified
Golden Rice enriched with pro-
vitamin A along with high-protein
maize, and iron- and zinc-rich wheat,
pearl millet and lentil varieties
through molecular breeding. A
project called “Development of
Golden Rice for various agro-
ecological zones of Bihar” was
underway at the Rajendra
Agricultural University, in Bihar
state, utilising a funding support of
almost US$ 95,000 (Rs 6.8 million)
under the national agriculture
development programme (Rashtriya
Krishi Vikas Yojana). Despite being
the first to develop Golden Rice in
the country, in 2017, a group of
Indian researchers reported that
the genes needed to produce
Golden Rice have unintended
effects. When they inserted the
engineered DNA in the high-yielding
and agronomically superior Indian
rice variety, Swarna, it became pale
and stunted. The yields were so
reduced that it was unsuitable for
cultivation.
Philippines
In February 2017, the
Philippines Rice Research Institute
(PhilRice) and the International
Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
submitted two applications for field
testing and biosafety permit for
direct use in food, feed, or for
processing, of GR2E Golden Rice
to the Philippines’ Department of
Agriculture-Bureau of Plant Industry.
These applications were filed after
confined field trials were conducted
by PhilRice between 2015 and
2016, where PhilRice concluded
that Golden Rice has the same
nutritional components with ordinary
rice except for its beta-carotene
content and did not impact key
agronomic properties of the rice,
including yield.
January - 2019
PhilRice and IRRI discreetly
carried out with the confined field
test and kept mum on the status of
Golden Rice in Philippines after
August 2013, when more than 400
farmers and basic sectors trooped
to the office of the Department of
Agriculture’s Regional Office in Pili,
Camarines Sur and uprooted the
Golden Rice field trials there.
According to the farmers, the
direct action was to prevent
contamination of their precious
traditional and farmer-bred varieties.
The two institutions blamed the
uprooting for causing setbacks to
the planned commercialisation of
Golden Rice for another two to three
years, despite the fact that IRRI also
confessed that the yields of the
Golden Rice variety grown in the
field trials proved to be a failure,
with average yields lower than those
of local varieties. Yet new field trial
applications are being filed by
PhilRice. According to PhilRice, the
field trials will only run for one
cropping season, after that the
application for commercial
propagation will be filed. Aside from
the field trials, the Golden Rice
proponents likewise filed an
application for direct use for food,
feed and processing.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh completed the
confined field testing of Golden
Rice at the Bangladesh Rice
Research Institute (BRRI), campus
in Gazipur, in early 2017. It is now
in the stage of submitting an
application to the Minister of the
Environment and the Minister of
Agriculture for a multilocation field
test in farmers’ fields. Further, an
application for an environmental
and food safety assessment on
GR2E BRRI dhan29 Golden Rice
was submitted to the Ministry of
Agriculture in November 2017 and
to the Ministry of the Environment
and Forests on the following month.
However, concerns over trade
contamination of Golden Rice have
also arisen in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh itself already stumbles
upon the problem of exporting their
agricultural products since they
allowed commercial production of
Bt eggplant in 2013. Bangladesh is
very cautious of having any
contamination of GM rice in their rice
export, worried that it may affect
their agricultural export market.
Indonesia
Public information about Golden
Rice development in Indonesia is
very limited. Golden Rice itself has
been tested in Indonesia since
2012 at the Rice Research Centre
(BB Padi) in Bogor, West Java.
In March 2014, one of IRRI’s
researchers went to BB Padi to see
the follow up of Golden Rice
research in Indonesia. In the
meeting with the head of the rice
research centre and other
researchers, IRRI confirmed that
Golden Rice IR64 GR2-R showed
low quality of agronomical results
in Indonesia, compared to
conventional IR64. For that reason,
since 2014, plans to conduct
confined tests in Indonesia have
been postponed. Despite the
development failures and the
postponement of confined test in
Indonesia, IRRI’s application to the
Food Safety Australia and New
Zealand (FSANZ) in 2016 stated
that IRRI is undertaking a pre-
market biotechnology consultation
together with its National Agricultural
Research and Extension System
(NARES) partners and planning
regulatory submissions, including in
Indonesia.
Golden Rice : Patents on Who
owns Golden Rice?
The technology behind the
original Golden Rice (GR1, made
with a daffodil gene) was developed
and patented in 2000 by the public
scientists Ingo Potrykus and Peter
Beyer. They assigned their rights
over the technology to Syngenta.
Syngenta in turn negotiated other
licenses from other sources,
including Monsanto, to make the
technology workable and then
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