Asia needs biotechnology to boost rice yields: Experts

Asia needs biotechnology to boost rice yields: Experts

MANILA (DPA): Asia needs to turn to such "cutting-edge science
and technology" as genetic engineering to boost rice production
and feed its growing population, scientists attending a rice
research conference in the Philippines said Sunday.

With the region's population expected to double by 2025,
experts at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) said
farmers need to produce 40 to 50 percent more rice with less
land, water, labor and chemicals.

"We desperately need cutting-edge science and technology if we
are going to be able to continue to successfully address the
challenges of food security and poverty alleviation in the new
millennium," said IRRI director general Ronald Cantrell.

Cantrell said biotechnology is an "extremely powerful" tool to
increase rice output in the future, despite strong opposition to
the alteration of genetic structures of such plants as corn, soya
and rice worldwide.

Groups opposed to genetic engineering alleged that the so-
called "Frankenstein" foods are harmful not only to humans but to
the environment.

But scientists said governments must balance the concerns over
genetically modified rice against growing consumer demand.

"I think we should always insist that the world's poor have
the best available technology that science can offer," Cantrell
told some 200 scientists and researchers from around the world
attending the IRRI's Rice Research Conference in its headquarters
in Los Banos town, Laguna province, just south of Manila.

Asia currently produces and eats more than 90 percent of the
world's rice production, estimated to be 590 million tons.

Demand for rice in the next 25 years is projected to rise by
65 percent in the Philippines, 51 percent in Bangladesh, 46
percent in India, 45 percent in Vietnam and 38 percent in
Indonesia, according to IRRI.

"To meet this challenge of increasing rice production during
the first quarter of the 21st century, scientists must develop
rice varieties with higher yield potential, durable resistance to
diseases and insects, and tolerance for abiotic stresses," said
Shaobing Peng, IRRI's crop physiologist and chairman of the
conference.

"Recent breakthroughs in molecular biology have provided
greater opportunities for rice scientists to develop a new
generation of rice varieties," Peng noted.

Last year, China tested a genetically modified rice plant,
which has better resistance to pests and can cut crop losses.
Chinese farmers may start growing the plant in two years, said
Gurdev Khush, head of IRRI's plant breeding, genetics and
biochemistry division.

IRRI and a local research institute, Philrice, has also
applied to conduct field tests on the plant in the Philippines,
but its application has not yet been approved by the government,
Khush said.

Despite the promise of biotechnology, Khush said IRRI
continues to conduct research using conventional breeding methods
to develop the so-called "super rice" variety, which could boost
production by up to 50 percent.

IRRI is the world's leading rice research and training center.
It is part of the Consultative Group on International
Agricultural Research, an association of public and private donor
agencies that funds 16 international research centers.