Officers of both the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the Philippine government's agriculture department said the newly-developed "golden rice" had completed field trials, despite vandalism at one test field. "Golden rice is coming. That is in the pipeline and a lot of the principal development and research has been completed," said Achim Dobermann, deputy director-general of IRRI.
"At the moment, there is no GM (genetically-modified) rice officially released in any country," he stressed. He said China was working on a pest-resistant variety of GM rice, but it was unknown when they would release it commercially.
Dobermann said that depending on the length of the approval process, it could take a minimum of "two to three years" before seeds are ready to be distributed to farmers.
Field trials of the rice, a genetically-modified organism (GMO), have been completed in the Philippines and it is now set to undergo tests to determine if it is safe to consume and propagate, said Antonio Alfonso, coordinator of the Agriculture Department's biotechnology programme....
Rice terraces in Banaue, Philippines, shot by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, Wikimedia Commons, Attribution: © CEphoto, Uwe Aranas / CC-BY-SA-3.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)
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