Elemarie Lamigo-Rosellon

IRRI Today July 14 2017

Figure: “For science-based interventions, the beginning stage always comes with many challenges. Developing rice varieties with the right combination of good traits with improved nutrition is one of the major goals.” (Photo by Isagani Serrano, IRRI)

Mallikarjuna Swamy, head of the Healthier Rice Breeding Group at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), shares his thoughts on the role of science in solving malnutrition, particularly zinc deficiency.

“More than two billion people in the world are malnourished and most of them live in rice-consuming Asian countries,” says Dr. Swamy. He adds, however, that huge opportunities exist to improve the nutritional content of rice varieties to solve the micronutrient-deficiency problem. Scientists at IRRI and its partners are working together to bring solutions such as the high-zinc rice varieties that have been released in the Philippines and Bangladesh.

A molecular biologist, Dr. Swamy joined IRRI in 2009 and served as a postdoctoral fellow in a rice breeding program on drought. He identified quantitative trait loci and introduced these into several popular rice varieties to develop drought-tolerant ones. In 2013, he was selected as a breeder in the institute’s biofortification program to develop high-zinc and vitamin A-enriched rice varieties for South and Southeast Asian countries.

See more: http://ricetoday.irri.org/improving-health-and-nutrition-through-rice-science/