The golden rice project in the Philippines (First of three parts)

IN the continuing quest of mankind for quality existence, in times of peace or war, a retreat is not always an acquiescence, surrender, or abandonment of a great cause.

In the theatre of human struggles, the characters must re- verse Lenin’s dictum and tactic. When necessary they must take “a step backward and two steps forward,” to advance their goals. The net result is progress.

In Philippine history, retreating and the promise of coming back to redeem a loss is not only a great story but a model in romance and other survival endeavors.

For rural development, it continues to inspire noble, dedicated and committed quests and aspirations for the liberation of the suffering masses and the farmers from their afflictions.

One such story of history repeating itself in this manner is the retreat of golden rice (GR) from public view only to return in several locations in the farmers’ fields, with more support from farmers, local government units, and other private stakeholders.

GR is the brainchild of Professors Ingo Potrykus (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) and Peter Beyer (University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany). Their collaborative work demonstrated that ß-carotene could be turned on in rice grains using “a minimum set of transgenes.”

Dr. Karen Eloisa Barroga of the Department of Agriculture (DA), Philippine Rice Research Institute (Philrice) and member of the GR Project in the Philippines said that GR was developed through genetic engineering technique as a potential new food-based approach to improve vi- tamin A status. The problem of Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is particularly felt severely in developing countries like the Philippines, whose food are mainly rice.

Blindness due to vitamin A deficiency (VAD) affects more than 2.1 million children and about 9 % of pregnant women and 5 percent of lactating mothers in the Philippines, Dr. Barroga said.

Worldwide, the Helen Keller International (HKI) has been working to address VAD for well over 30 years. It has determined that around 190 million pre-school children and 19 million pregnant women are suffering from VAD. Each year, an estimated 670,000 children will die from VAD, and 350,000 will go blind because of it. Elsewhere in Asia, particularly Bangladesh, one in every five of pre-school aged children has VAD. In developing countries whose populations are affected by VAD, “effective distribution systems for vitamin A supplementation are not in place to reach all people in need adequately and consistently. Supplementation programs incur high logistic costs that not every region can afford,” according to the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board, on its web page.

The Board is composed of internationally recognized experts belonging to various “reputable” institutions who provide strategic guidance to the GR project. The Board is chaired by Prof. Ingo Potykus, co-founder of GR.

The GR Project is currently promoting GR to those who need it most “at no additional cost and that growers will be able to buy and reuse their seed as they please.”