New Rice Plant

This is an interesting revelation. Simply that there are two types of photosynthesis and that rice uses the inferior method. Thus a combination of uncontroversial bioengineering, insect control and the application of biochar practices could increase production a plausible two fold. This is pretty important because this is done without additional inputs like more fertilizer.

What I cannot emphasize enough is that we are living through the first generation of scientific agriculture. Every improvement is often unprecedented. We are often not that satisfied with results but it is an evolutionary process. It will take a couple more generations to all fully mature.

Thus we see rice culture been industrialized and now been reshaped and reengineered. A hundred years from now one will wonder what all the fuss was about.

New Rice Plant Could Ease Threat Of Hunger For The Poor

http://www.agribusinessweek.com/new-rice-plant-could-ease-threat-of-hunger-for-the-poor/

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An ambitiuos project to re-engineer photosynthesis in rice, led by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) through a global consortium of scientists, has received a grant of US$11 million over 3 years from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. As a result o research being conducted by this group, rice plants that can produce 50% more grain using less, fertilizer and less water are a step closer to reality.

Currently, more than a billion people worldwide live on less than a dollar a day and nearly one billion live in hunger. Over the next 50 years, the population of the world will increase by about 50% and water scarcity will grow. About half of the world’s population consumes rice as a staple cereal, so boosting its productivity is crucial to achieving long-term food security. IRRI is leading the effort to achieve a major increase in global rice production by using modem molecular tools to develop a more efficient and higher-yielding form of rice.

Photosynthesis, the process by which plants use solar energy to capture carbon dioxide and convert it into the carbohydrates required for growth, is not the same for all plants. Some species, including rice, have a mode of photo-synthesis (known as C3), in which the capture of carbon dioxide is relatively I inefficient. Other plants, such as maize and sorghum, have evolved a much more efficient form of photosynthesis known as C4.

According to IRRI scientist and project leader Dr. John Sheehy, in tropical climates the efficiency of solar energy conversion of crops using the so-called C4 photosynthesis is about 50% higher than that of C3 crops. Given the demands from an increasing population, combined with less available land and water, adequate future supplies of rice will need to come in large part through substantial yield boosts and more efficient use of crop inputs.

“Converting the photosynthesis of rice from the less-efficient C3 form to the C4 form would increase yields by 50%,” ; said Dr. Sheehy, adding that C4 rice would also use water twice as efficiently. In developing tropical countries, where billions of poor people rely on rice as their staple food, “The benefits of such an improvement in the face of increasing world population, increasing food prices, and decreasing natural resources would, be immense,” he added.

“This is a long-term, complex project that will take a decade or more to complete,” said Dr. Sheehy. “The result of this strategic research has the potential to benefit billions of poor people.”

The C4 Rice Consortium combines the strengths of a range of partners, including molecular biologists, geneticists, physiologists, biochemists, and mathematicians, representing leading research , organizations worldwide. Members include Yale, Cornell, Florida, and Washington State universities in the United States; Oxford, Cambridge, Dundee, Nottingham, and Sheffield universities in Britain; the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australian National University, and James Cook University in Australia; Heinrich Heince University and the Institute for Biology in Germany; Jiangsu Academy in China; the University of Toronto in Canada; and the Food and Agriculture Organizations of the United Nations.