Adrian Dubock presentation at IFPRI Policy Seminar "Leveraging Agriculture to Improve Human Nutrition Prospects for Golden Rice" held at IFPRI on Thursday, April 14, 2011

1. Golden Rice – What Now?
With some special emphasis on India
IFPRI Policy Seminar
April 14th 2011
Adrian Dubock S R Rao
Golden Rice Project Manager Advisor, Government of India
contact@goldenrice.org
www.goldenrice.org

2. Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato contains
1-160 µg/g retinol equivalents
Biofortified staple foods can
sustainably complement other
VAD interventions, with less
cost and logistical problems so
better population coverage

3. Progress towards UN MDG Goal 4:
Reduction of <5Years Child Mortality
Deaths 1990 2006 2009 2015
Target
Per year 12.4m 9.7m 8.1m <4.1m
Per day ~34,000 >26,000 ~22,000 <11,200
“23 – 34% reduction in preschool mortality can be expected from
Vitamin A programs reaching children in undernourished settings”*
Sources: Levels & Trends in Child Mortality. UNICEF 2010
The State of the World’s Children. UNICEF 2008
www.un.org/en/mdg/summit2010
*West, Klemm & Sommer, 2010.

4. PLANNING SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY
COMMISSION
PRIME MINISTER COMMITEE
MINISTRIES / DEPARTMENTS DEALING NUTRITION PROGRAMMES
Women & Consumer Affairs, Human Health Agriculture Science
Child Food and public Resource &
Development &
Distribution Development Family Technology
welfare
 Nutrition policy
National Nutrition Board Mid- Day meal Seeds and Food Production /
Integrated Child scheme regulation
Development services Agricultural Research &
Nutrition Education & Education
training
National blindness control
Consumer protection  Health & nutrition research
Public Distribution of Immunization
food Food safety regulation
Price control of essential
commodities  Basic research
Technology Development
Biotechnology

5. :
1. Continue nutritional
research to demonstrate
effect on Vitamin A
status

6. The human bioconversion of the beta carotene in
Golden Rice to Vitamin A is better than from
conventional food sources:
•Excellent in adults
•Even better in children
•The effect of fat in the diet on bioconversion is minimal

7. Golden Rice picture
~40 g per day of
Golden Rice, with 6
µg/ gram of β-carotene
can provide >40% of
the EAR daily.
Sufficient to combat
morbidity and
mortality from Vitamin
A deficiency

8. :
2. Breeding into locally
adapted and preferred
rice varieties in all
countries

9. Golden Rice Research In India
Three rice breeding centres involved,...........
patient rice breeders.............
Version 1 – Received in Taipei 309 in 2003. Research abandoned when
marker free materials available 
Version 2 – Received in Taipei 309 & IR64 in 2004 – Backcross breeding work
completed. Work abandoned when higher carotenoid content materials
became available

Version 3 – GR1- Received in Cocodrie in 2005. Work abandoned by Golden
Rice Humanitarian Board decision in favour of GR2 in 2009, following human
trials results for bioconversion

Version 4 – GR2R - Received in Kaybonnet in 2006 & via IRRI in IR36 and IR
64 in late 2010 

10. Everywhere, the current Golden
Rice was created once by genetic
engineering about 8 years ago.
Since then it has been about:
• multiplying that rice seed
•breeding the trait into Asian rice
varieties
•selecting the best materials for
further breeding into local rice
varieties

11. Some of the Golden Rice team in Vietnam

12. Screenhouse facility for Golden rice work in India – 600 m2 area

13. Back cross derived lines of Swarna
Swarna Golden Swarna
Homozygous lines available for evaluation………..

14. GR2R Crosses with ADT43 &
ASD16 at TNAU Feb 2011

15. All for Planting in screen
house in Feb 2011
Swarna GR2R
IR36 GR2R
IR64 GR2R

16. Golden Rice breeding program (India):…….
 Golden Rice is in high yielding good quality Indian rice varieties
 Field trials India are planned for 2012
 Golden Rice is now being combined with rice with additional
agronomic traits
‘Golden Rice + submergence tolerance ’
‘Golden rice + Bacterial Blight resistance’
 ‘Golden rice + high iron rice combination’ is planned

17. :
3. Marketing research
to understand peoples
interest, attitudes &
sources of influence

18. ‘ New food crops‘ have a 5000 year
movement history:
1550
1804
Sunflower Sugar beet
1900
Soybean, Bean
Rape
1529 Wheat
Corn Rape
Coffee
Potato
Sugar cane
Cassava
Tomato
Kiwi
1955 = Years
Source: Fond der chemischen Industrie - Nr. 20 »Biotechnologie/Gentechnik«, Frankfurt/M, 1996, modified 2003

19. Demand creation & consumption: modifying behaviour:
19

20. What do people think?

21. After probing for attitudes, eventually information is
given about Golden Rice...then attitudes probed again

22. :
4. ContinueEconomic
analysis to support
policy adoption of
Golden Rice as an
additional health
intervention

23. Cost effectiveness per DALY saved (US$)
World Health Organisation
value of a DALY 620 1860
Highest efficiency Lowest efficiency
Supplementation costs
134 599
(Vit A capsule
distribution)
Vitamin A food
84 ?
fortification
Golden Rice 3 19
DALY = Disability Adjusted Life Year Stein et al., Nature Biotechnology 2006, 24, 10, 200-201

24. HIDDEN HUNGER IN INDIA
Malnourishment • 35 per cent of the developing
world's malnourished children.
• largest number of Vitamin A deficient children
in the world; only 43 per cent of children
Vitamin A deficiency (aged 6-59 months) receive the recommended
two doses of Vitamin A per year.
Iron deficiency anemia • 75 per cent of children and 51 per
cent of women
• no way to obtain iodine from the diet;
fortification is essential. only 50 per cent of
Iodine deficiency Indian households have access to adequately
iodized salt.
• Contributes stunting of 42 per cent
Zinc deficiency of children

25. THE CONSEQUENCES OF MICRONUTRIENT DEFICIENCIES
IN INDIA EVERY YEAR
Vitamin A deficiency • 330,000 child deaths
precipitated
• 6.6 million children born
Iodine deficiency mentally impaired
• Intellectual capacity reduced
Iodine deficiency by 15 per cent
• 22,000 people, mainly
severe anaemia pregnant women, die
• 200,000 babies born with neural
Folic acid deficiency tube defects ; 16 times the global
average.

26. Making biofortified foods available to the Indian Population
requires consideration also of:
Indian “public’s” concerns about food safety and the environment, especially
concerning genetically enhanced crops
Regulatory aspects of genetically engineered crops
Multiplication and delivery systems for biofortified crop seeds
Creation of an enabling environment for adoption through attitudinal research,
appropriate partnerships and social marketing

27. Asian GDP could benefit by >US$15 billion annually -
due to increases in agricultural productivity - from
conservatively adopting Golden Rice, …………
Kym Anderson, et al. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3380, August 2004

28. BIOFORTICATION STRATEGY FOR INDIA
SEED TO SPOON
BREEDING OBJECTIVES
IRON ZINC PROVITAMIN A
GERMPLASM SCREENING &
NUTRIENT ANALYSIS
MICRONUTRIENT RETENTION &
BIOAVAILBILITY
BIOLOGICAL IMPACT IN HUMANS
EFFICACY TRIALS
POPULATION IMPACT -
EFFECTIVENESS
PUBLIC OR PRIVATE OR PPP
DELIVERY SYSTEMS

29. :
We welcome Helen Keller International to the Golden Rice
project in Philippines and Bangladesh as we move towards
adoption of Golden Rice as an additional intervention for
Vitamin A deficiency alleviation
We are delighted with the new funding for Golden Rice’s
development in Philippines and Bangladesh from the Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation
The regulatory data generated will be made available free
of charge also to the Golden Rice projects in other
countries, which will be very helpful

30. Rice Teams & budgets @
To all our sponsors at various times,
•IRRI
since before 1990: •Phil Rice- Philippines
•CLRRI- Vietnam
ETH / Swiss Federal Funds •DBT, IARI, DRR,TNAU- India
European Commission
HarvestPlus
USAID
Syngenta Company
Syngenta Foundation
National Institutes of Health (USA)
The Golden Rice Humanitarian Board
Bayer, Mogen, Novartis, Monsanto, Orynova, Zeneca
For additional information, please visit our website:
www.goldenrice.org