Indian system of transgenic release and commercialization seems too conserved for allowing such events to happen. Infact commercialization of Golden rice is expected to have its direct effect on malnutrition, with more focus on quality than quantity of rice.

Thanks Mohammad for ur reply, hope it could solve India's problem of plenty if released in India..

It will help to eradicate malnutrition especially in poor population as it will be rich in Vit A. Its quality will solve the problems of vit A defficiency so if released it should be popularised and made available to poor community

Many thanks Inderjit Singh for ur reply, I doubt golden rice coming into reality, is there any way out by using genes from plant source in the place of Eriwinia bacterium, so that it could gain acceptance? Any idea?

Dr Reddy, we shouldnot take the fate of Golden rice and Bt-brinjal in India together. Infact, bacterias belong to plant kingdom and genes sourced from bacteria to any food plant should not affect the mindset of people of India, of whom majority being vegetarian. I strongly believe that not only release of transgenic crops, but much extension work is also needed to popularize transgenic crops in India.

It is really difficult to predict. Most of the time and if prerequisite steps are not taken up and implemented properly, such things end up only in making business rather than solving the real and required problems. This view is independent whether it is transgenic or non-transgenic. It may not be totally wrong to say that most of golden rice will be taken up by those who are already getting better nutrition. India wastes 21million tonnes of wheat and 15 to 40% of nutritious fruits and vegetables (most of them are good source of vit A) on annual basis.............curtailing these losses and making these commodities available to the needy can also provide food and nutritional security to the poor.....but what to do...problems are also linked up finally with the failure of polices and their implementations.

Truly said @ Mohammed khan and Vijay paul, infact i feel we need to have an independent governing body that is far from politics and truly focused in taking forward agriculture in India. Even now we have GEAC which is not functioning to ite standards, but taking blame to them only shows our helpless hands. With looming population pressure and minimising land, we have to prioritize at this time. Share ur ideas with what we can do ourselves folks.

Check also this thread:

https://www.researchgate.net/post/As_soon_as_it_is_commercialized_will_Golden_Rice_become_a_premium_pro-health_product_or_an_inferior_product_for_the_poor

Golden Rice does not reduce production costs, but provides nutritional benefits for vitamin A-deficient consumers. Hence, my hypothesis is that in order for farmers to adopt this variety at a large scale, a price premium for the improved nutritional benefits needs to emerge on the market. This price premium can only emerge if consumers (i) accept the rice product despite its yellowish color and (ii) perceive it as superior to conventional rice. If they perceive it as "the poor man's rice" or as an inferior good, probably no price premium will be generated on the market (but rather a price discount) and this may prevent the product from being adopted at a large scale. Subsistence farmers may still adopt it for own consumption if they are aware of their Vitamin A-deficiency and want to do something about it.

It is really very difficult to tell the impact of golden rice technology. Acceptance of golden rice is a consumer related issue and seeing the preference of rich european population for green technologies, you can never predict that rich Indian will not adopt the same route. There are number of other easy option to remove the malnutrition like use of multi-grain and nutrition rich vegetables, many of which are cheaper and easily available to the poorest section of population.

Thank you @ Matty Demont for your reply, i just have a question to you as you are from a place where you watch the development of Golden rice so closely.

1. Does yield has any impact due to the introduction of gene/enzyme related in manufacturing Vit A?

2. What would be done to alley fears of many NGO s in order to commercialize the product?

I just request you to feel me as a lay man as these are very routine questions that comes to notice when we talk about GMO's.

Golden rice, good! How far? One concept it will eradicate Vit A deficiency? Is poorest of the poor eat only rice or people of India will be poor for ever so that hey will eat only rice in their life? If you visit any villages, even the poor do not eat simply rice. If they are unable to purchase some leafy vegetables, they collect it. Of course slum dwellers in City have not such chance. But so many measures are being taken recently like two rupees a kg rice, food security etc. Now some extra fund is in the hand of people. They will not eat only rice. The cost of the Golden rice will be higher. Affluent consumers for fun may consume. But poor people need minimum cereal with handful of pulses and leafy vegetables. Our research should focus on these direction. Even after release I think will not be popular. But the release is essential.

Thank you Rajbir Yadav, I just treat your answer as an assertion and here i have an answer for what would be an easy one. i hope you are aware of the recent ups and downs in rates of vegetables, i feel that most vegetables are not consumer friendly even for common man and people from rural background just go on with staple food to be done with their appetite. I dont say that i would suggest Golden rice as a replacement to this lacuna, but still say that its not an easy option to choose vegetables as a replacement for nutrition source keeping in view of recent stats in production, consumption and availability of Vegetables.

Excellent answer Sarkarji, i can relate your answer with the fate of present basmati rice as it is not affordable for common man, even it is not related to nutritional aspect, but commercialization of product and reaching it to poor ones is not an easy task. i do believe in science that we have another green revolution in near future.

I want to add to this conversation that for a common Indian farmer the commercialization of Golden Rice by public sector would be a better choice. Golden Rice in the form of varieties would save our farmers and this would definitely add to rapid and easy acceptance of this nutrient rich form. The Golden Rice being basically targeted to reach poorest of poor communities of developing world, its motive cannot be achieved through the exploitations of private sector in the shape of hybrids.

The idea of golden rice is not to replace diverse diet, but to give 50% of dietary requirement of Vit-A in a staple food. So it can be sustainable, farmer can grow it themselves, keep the seeds if they want for next planting since it is inbred. In reality not everyone have access to diverse diet. Vit A deficiency affects million of children (together with iron, Zinc and iodine deficiency affect 2 billion people, mainly women and children-WHO/FAO data) despite of the current intervention of supplementation, chemical fortification. Good things that golden rice beta carotene content was shown to be highly bioavailable, beta carotene-carotenoid conversion around 4:1, compare to leafy vegetables 28:1 and carrot 10:1 All efforts combined, with diverse diet as first frontier, hopefully can improve the situation. Surely it has to incorporated to government program and other targeted efforts to reach those in needs.

There will be no increase of yield, however, yield will decrease after introgression of gene related to VitA enrichment. This decease may or may no be statistically significant. As such there is no harm if some one eat it, not in regular basis but occasionally. Excessive Vit A is injurious to health.

If it is found to be safe and nutritionally rich by the regulatory agencies of Government of India, then it can possibly be cleared for cultivation by farmers and consumption by the people in the country. Consumption of Golden Rice may help mitigate and reduce vitamin A deficiency among small children and lactating mothers and other vulnerable groups and may reduce the extent of blindness caused due to Vitamin A deficiency. Few studies carried out in the Philippines.