Rice Information Materials: Rice Sheets
India’s BT Brinjal Battle
This paper describes the series of events which took place in India from the development of Bt brinjal to its initial approval by the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) to the declaration of a moratorium on it by the then Minister of Environment & Forests and events thereafter.
Golden Rice Blinds IRRI
Much is written about the invention of genetically engineered (GE) ‘Golden Rice’ (GR). Much less is told about how and why it came to be located in the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). The fact that The Golden Rice Project lies with IRRI is by no means either coincidental or insignificant.
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Rice for Health
Rice is consumed by about 50% of the global population. Being the staple food of Asians, it constitutes 50-60% of their total calorie intake and 30% of their total protein intake. Ancient Asian civilizations have long valued the importance of rice in sustaining human health and nutrition. Due to the Green Revolution, however, many traditional rice varieties have disappeared from our tables to be replaced by polished white rice from a narrow range of commercial high-input varieties.
Who Needs Golden Rice?
Golden Rice, a genetically engineered (GE) rice, is being promoted by agri-corporations and the International Rice Research Institute as a cure for Vitamin A deficiency (VAD). This paper debunks that myth by taking a close look at the real causes of and solutions to combat VAD, the actual ‘performance’ of Golden Rice, and the serious risks this GE rice poses to human and environmental well-being. It brings to light the questionable motives underlying the hype around Golden Rice. The original version of this fact sheet was released in 2007, written by Dr.
IRRI and Hybrid Rice
Hybrid rice varieties are those created by crossing two different parental strains. It is essentially a commercial rice crop. It is a known scientific fact that the vigour of hybrid rice seeds is at its peak in the first generation (F1) after which it reduces dramatically in successive generations so much so the rice is often described to ‘breed true’ only for the first cropping. This limited period heterosis may achieve yields of up to 15-20% higher than non-hybrid (inbred) varieties under specific conditions.
IRRI - Moving Down the IPR Alley
An institute’s policy on intellectual property (IP) is meant to be in line with its larger objectives. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)’s first explicit policy on IP dates back to 1994.1 Since then, both IRRI and its IP policy have undergone change. IRRI was originally intended to be a philanthropic nonprofit benevolent corporation that was to exist for a limited period of time. However, it is now decisively working towards both profitoriented research and fortifying its position in agricultural R&D.
IRRI’s Not-So-Green Revolution
The term Green Revolution was first used in 1968 by former director of United States Agency for International Development (USAID), William Gaud, for the increased agricultural production in Latin America and Asia with reference to the work of the US scientist, Dr. Norman Borlaug, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).1 What Borlaug did with wheat, IRRI did with rice: breed highyielding semi-dwarf varieties.
Liberty Link Rice: The Scandal that Woke up the World
An announcement in August 2006 by the US Agriculture Secretary, Mike Johanns, sparked off the biggest GMO scandal in recent times—Bayer CropScience had informed the Department of Agriculture (USDA) that conventional long-grain rice meant for export had been contaminated by its discontinued experimental genetically engineered (GE) Liberty Link Rice strain, LLRICE601. They could, however, offer no explanation as to how this had happened.
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Saving the Rice Seed
Rice origins are in Asia where the world’s greatest number of rice varieties is found. In developing countries, 90% of all seed used for cultivation still comes from farmer-saved seeds. This paper, written by Dr. Charito Medina of MASIPAG, Philippines, discusses the importance of farmer seed systems and how these systems and traditional rice varieties (TRVs) are under threat from the propagation of ‘modern’, hybrid and genetically engineered rice varieties.
Rice Plant Hopper Outbreaks: A Man-made Plague?
In the year 2005, outbreaks of rice plant hoppers, a serious pest of rice, ravaged rice plants in Vietnam and China. The outbreak threatened rice yields and farmers’ livelihoods in both countries. This resulted in both countries allocating funds for chemical insecticides to control the pests. The irony of this response is that similar outbreaks in the 1970’s and concomitant scientific studies showed that rice plant hopper (RPH) outbreaks, particularly of the rice brown plant hopper (BPH), were in fact caused by regular use of chemical insecticides.
