{"id":178654,"date":"2025-09-29T23:13:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T23:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/178654\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T23:13:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T23:13:08","slug":"viewpoint-the-promise-and-challenges-facing-indias-turn-toward-gene-edited-rice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/178654\/","title":{"rendered":"Viewpoint: The promise and challenges facing India\u2019s turn toward gene-edited rice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a notable milestone for India\u2019s agri-biotechnology sector, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) announced the development of two gene-edited rice varieties that display climate resilience and enhanced productivity, achieved without any introduction of foreign DNA.<\/p>\n<p>Despite marking a tremendous step towards sustainable agriculture and food security, the release sparked public debate over biosafety, ethics, and consumer acceptance, necessitating a nuanced assessment of gene-edited food crops in the Indian context.<\/p>\n<p>Follow the latest news and policy debates on sustainable agriculture, biomedicine, and other \u2018disruptive\u2019 innovations. Subscribe to our newsletter.<\/p>\n<p>India is the largest producer of rice\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fas.usda.gov\/data\/production\/commodity\/0422110\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">globally<\/a>\u00a0and relies on rice for its food and nutritional security. Rice cultivation, however, is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/india.mongabay.com\/2025\/06\/india-releases-genome-edited-rice-draws-both-applause-and-alarm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">hampered<\/a>\u00a0by low yield, drought, and soil salinity, which are ubiquitous in Indian farming regions, but exacerbated by climate change.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pib.gov.in\/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=2126802\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">development<\/a>\u00a0of two GE rice varieties \u2013 RR Rice 100 (Kamala) and Pusa DST Rice 1 \u2013 was announced by ICAR in May 2025. Using a CRISPR\/Cas9 gene-editing platform, scientists carried out precise gene edits \u2026, enhancing yield and improving adaptation to salt, drought, and climate stressors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurasiareview.com\/25092025-resilient-harvests-the-promise-and-debate-around-indias-gene-edited-rice-analysis\/#google_vignette\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">This is an excerpt. Read the original post here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a notable milestone for India\u2019s agri-biotechnology sector, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) announced the development&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[64,63,336,128],"class_list":["post-178654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-genetics","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-genetics","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}