Source: CropBiotech Update

In a Just-food.com feature article “China moves towards approval of GM rice,” Tamara Ventroyen looks at the current state of China's rice industry, and predicts the effects that genetically modified (GM) rice will have on the economy once the government approves it. China's central government is setting aside US$ 1 billion to hasten the biotech crop's commercialization.

Ventroyen reports that rice output in China has fallen from 198.5m tons in 1999 to 179m tons in 2004, leading to a 27% increase in rice prices. The country's decreased rice production is due to pollution, irrigation with industrial and domestic sewage, long term use of chemical compounds, and the improper disposal of animal waste from farmland. “One potentially beneficial effect GM rice would have on the rice industry is that it would help reduce the use of pesticides which are themselves creating more pollution,” Ventroyen writes, “Those who stand to benefit the most from a higher rice yield and a reduction in pesticide usage are the Chinese farmers themselves.”

According to Gurdev Singh Khush, a consultant at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), insect-resistant and disease-resistant rice are the two types of GM rice likely to be the first to make their appearance on China's market. While the country waits, China's Ministry of Agriculture has asked 12 grain-producing provinces to raise output by sowing a combined 4m hectares of super rice - a strain of rice developed by “China's Father of Super Rice,” Yuan Longping.

Just-food.com subscribers can read the complete article at www.just-food.com/features_detail.asp?art=1062