Golden Rice is any variety of rice which makes beta-carotene, thus giving the rice a yellow (Golden) colour. It was created as an additional intervention for vitamin A deficiency .
What are the benefits of Golden Rice?
Golden Rice Benefits
Golden rice has the promise to help prevent millions of deaths and alleviate the suffering of children and adults with VAD and micronutrient malnutrition in developing countries.
Why was Golden Rice created?
Golden Rice, which was developed in the hopes of combatting that problem by a team of European scientists in the late ’90s, was genetically modified to provide an essential nutrient that white rice lacks : beta-carotene, which is converted into vitamin A in the body.
What is Golden Rice?
Golden rice is a variety of rice (Oryza sativa) produced through genetic engineering to biosynthesize beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A , in the edible parts of rice. It is intended to produce a fortified food to be grown and consumed in areas with a shortage of dietary vitamin A.
Why is Golden Rice not being used?
The rice is a beta carotene-enriched crop that is intended to reduce Vitamin A deficiency (VAD), a health problem in very poor areas. But a new study finds that most families at risk for VAD can’t grow Golden Rice themselves, and most commercial farmers won’t grow it either.
Who is father of golden rice?
The magazine showed the father of Golden Rice, Swiss plant researcher Ingo Potrykus , touting it as “rice that could save a million lives a year”.
What are the disadvantages of golden rice?
- beta carotene levels in golden rice may not be high enough to make a difference.
- there are fears that it will cross-breed with and contaminate wild rice.
- there are concerns that food from GM plants might harm people.
- seed for GM plants can be expensive.
Is Golden Rice safe to eat?
The plant is engineered to be packed with beta-carotene, an orange pigment that the body converts into the essential nutrient vitamin A. Declared “ as safe as conventional rice ” by the Department of Agriculture in December, golden rice can now be legally consumed and processed.
Is Golden Rice on the market?
It is the first such approval in the developing world. But even after nearly three decades of development, Golden Rice is still beset by problems, according to Stone. Golden Rice still has to be approved for commercial sale , and it still needs a company to grow marketable quantities of seed.
Is Golden Rice nutritious?
The ‘new’ property of Golden Rice, as a result of its colour, is nutrition: it contains beta-carotene (an important source of vitamin A) additional to the carbohydrate energy source of white rice, which is unchanged. Golden Rice is above all a well-being, a nutritional, a medical project.
What is the difference between white rice and golden rice?
The key difference between golden rice and normal rice is that golden rice is a genetically modified rice which contains a high amount of beta-carotene and other provitamin A carotenoids while normal rice contains no beta-carotene, and no vitamin A.
How was golden rice genetically modified?
Golden rice is a genetically engineered variety of rice (Oryza sativa). It has been modified by inserting a gene from maize and a gene from bacteria found in soil which allows the plant to biosynthesise beta-carotene in the edible parts of rice.
Why is golden rice yellow?
The endosperm of Golden Rice (Oryza sativa) is yellow due to the accumulation of beta-carotene (provitamin A) and xanthophylls . The product of the two carotenoid biosynthesis transgenes used in Golden Rice, phytoene synthase (PSY) and the bacterial carotene desaturase (CRTI), is lycopene, which has a red color.
What is the current status of Golden Rice?
There are no varieties of Golden Rice, or any other genetically engineered rice, on the market anywhere in the world. Government officials and researchers from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), a partner in developing Golden Rice, have said it will be available for commercial planting in 2016 or 2017.
Did Bangladesh approve Golden Rice?
The breeding division at IRRI is working with the BRRI to conduct confined field trails for some variety of rice including GR since 2015. Now, Bangladesh appears about to become the first country to approve Golden Rice for planting and consumption.
Is Golden Rice allowed in India?
A tool to beat Vitamin A deficiency
The only GM crop under commercial cultivation in India is Bt cotton. India is yet to approve commercial cultivation of a genetically modified food crop. ... Golden rice is meant to tackle Vitamin A deficiency , a major public health problem, especially in South Asia.
