To help address the devastating impacts of vitamin A deficiency, particularly on the poor in Asia, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and its national and international partners are developing Golden Rice – a vitamin A-rich rice.
Vitamin A and human health
Vitamin A is an essential micronutrient that helps the body to fight diseases and maintain healthy eyesight. Vitamin A deficiency lowers immune system function, causing people to get sick more often and have a higher risk of dying from infections. Vitamin A deficiency can also cause nightblindness and is a leading cause of preventable blindness in children.
Vitamin A deficiency particularly affects infants, young children, and women who are pregnant or nursing. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 vitamin A-deficient children become blind every year, half of them dying within 12 months of losing their sight. With adequate vitamin A, young children are up to 30 percent less likely to die from infections and the death rate for women during or shortly after pregnancy can be reduced by approximately 40 percent.
Vitamin A deficiency can be reduced by eating more foods that are naturally high in vitamin A or beta-carotene (a form of vitamin A), by eating foods that have had these micronutrients added to them, or by taking supplements.
Occurrence of vitamin A deficiency
Vitamin A deficiency can be particularly severe in countries where the staple food contains no forms of vitamin A and other nutritious food is scarce, unavailable, or too expensive for poor people.
Rice is the staple food crop for more than half of the world’s population, and is especially important in Asia, where more than 70% of the world’s 1 billion poor live. Rice is an affordable and filling food, yet it contains no vitamin A. Over 90 million children in Southeast Asia suffer from vitamin A deficiency, more than in any other region.
Golden Rice
Golden Rice is a type of rice that contains beneficial amounts of beta-carotene, which is used by the human body to make vitamin A. Beta-carotene gives Golden Rice its yellow color. Many fruits and vegetables, such as papaya and carrots, also get their color from beta-carotene.
Golden Rice was bred using a combination of genetic modification and other breeding methods. It contains genes from maize and other sources that together produce beta-carotene.
Golden Rice and human health
According to the American Society for Nutrition, one cup of Golden Rice could supply half of the vitamin A needed every day. Golden Rice could be used in combination with existing ways of overcoming vitamin A deficiency through diet, fortification, and supplements.
Golden Rice will be tested by researchers and government authorities in the countries that are developing it to ensure its safety and that it produces vitamin A in the body in amounts that are effective. Researchers have already found that the body turns more than 25% of the beta-carotene in Golden Rice into vitamin A, a better conversion rate than for many green, leafy vegetables.
Golden Rice is expected to taste the same as other rice, be cooked in the same way, and have the same eating quality of other popular rice varieties.
Growing Golden Rice
Golden Rice is being bred into local rice varieties in the Philippines, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam. National agricultural research institutes in these countries are testing Golden Rice to make sure that it grows just like other rice crops, with comparable yields and pest resistance, and the same environmental impacts.
Golden Rice will be planted, harvested, threshed, and milled like current rice varieties.
Availability of Golden Rice
Golden Rice will be available to farmers and consumers only after it has been authorized by the agriculture, environment, health, and food safety agencies of their countries. Public health officials, nongovernment organizations, grain traders, and private industry will be consulted in each country before Golden Rice is introduced.
Golden Rice may be approved in the Philippines and Bangladesh as early as 2012, and introduced to the public in those countries soon after. Other countries developing Golden Rice in local varieties are India, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
Golden Rice will be made available to people with vitamin A deficiency in different ways depending on community needs and preferences.
Golden Rice will cost no more than other rice for farmers and consumers. Due to its enormous potential to benefit public health, the technology behind Golden Rice has been donated by its inventors. Different governments and private charities are supporting the development and testing costs.
A one-time investment to develop a biofortified crop such as Golden Rice can generate new varieties for farmers to grow for years to come, in many different countries. There will be some recurrent expenditure for monitoring and maintaining the high beta-carotene trait in Golden Rice, but these costs will be relatively low compared to the ongoing costs of traditional supplementation and fortification programs.
Copyright ©2009 International Rice Research Institute
