The Hindu Business Line : Global meet on rice revolution next week

`RICE - from Green to Gene Revolution' will be the focal theme of an international symposium to be held in Hyderabad during October 4-6, as part of the celebrations to mark the International Year of Rice.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), in association with the Directorate of Rice Research (DRR), Hyderabad, and the Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI), Cuttack, are jointly organising the meet at the Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad.

About 400 scientists (including international scientists) from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines, are expected to take part.

The Director-General of ICAR, Dr S. Mangala Rai, and well known rice scientist, Dr G.S. Khush will be the important speakers, according to Dr B. Misra, Director of DRR.

The UN has dedicated the year 2004 to rice, which is the staple food for more than half of the world population. In Asia, more than 2,000 million people depend on it and in Africa, it is the fastest growing source of food.

According to DRR, the green revolution of the 1960's was ushered in through the introduction of high yielding varieties of rice and wheat. The second revolution is expected to come from breakthroughs in rice biotechnology and the understanding of the rice genome.

The three-day international symposium will address issues such as whether rice can ensure food and nutritional security in low-income food-deficit countries and if developments in biotechnology can translate into useable technologies to meet the future challenges of rice demands.

The meeting will also have exclusive sessions on whether biotechnology can lead to a gene revolution for rice through discussions on transgenics, functional genomics, molecular breeding, bio-safety and intellectual property rights issues.