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July 27, 2006
Mike
Shanahan, SciDev.Net
Scientists have announced plans to
radically boost rice yields, warning that unless production
increases millions of people could fall back into poverty.
Delegates who met at the
International Rice Research
Institute in the Philippines this month (17-21 July) said
they hope to manipulate the crop's genetics to enable it to grow
faster and bigger.
Traditional methods of
increasing rice production — such as crossing different
varieties — have been pushed to the limits of what is
scientifically possible. But now that researchers have sequenced
rice's entire genetic code, more advanced approaches could
become available.
Key to the strategy discussed
at the workshop is a difference in the way that rice and other
plants convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into sugar for growth
— a process called photosynthesis.
Rice photosynthesis is less
efficient than that of some other plants such as maize that use
an extra chemical process for capturing carbon dioxide.
The researchers say it should
be possible to transfer this process to rice by inserting genes
from maize or from wild relatives of rice that also use it.
The project is ambitious. The
specialists who met this month say it would take about four
years to determine whether the technique is feasible and another
10-15 years until the first improved varieties are available.
Related article:
Chinese scientists complete rice gene map |
