THE PHILIPPINES COULD BE the first country to commercialize Vitamin A-fortified rice or golden rice by 2013, according to a non-government organization (NGO).

Randy A. Hautea, global coordinator and Southeast Asian director of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), said in a briefing that the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) was now conducting trials.

The Philippine Rice Research Institute is also expected to conduct field testing within the year, he said.

He said that golden rice will have about rice will have about the same average yield as traditional varieties at “easily 6 tons” a hectare, but harvest may be more consistent because of the variety’s resistance to disease.

An added benefit is the high Vitamin A content, he said.

Hautea noted that the prospect of commercialization was high because Filipinos seem to be more open to having the fortified cereal.

“Acceptance among Filipinos is found to be high when the technology is explained well,” he said, citing the beneficial values of the crop.

A prototype Golden Rice was developed in 1999 to provide the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A- in the form of beta-carotene-in 100-200-grams of rice, which corresponds to the daily rice consumption of children in rice-based societies.

According to the World Health Organization, dietary vitamin A deficiency causes some 250,000 to 500,000 children to go blind each year.

In late 2008, the Rockefeller Foundation said it would provide funding to Irri to shepherd Golden Rice through national, regulatory approval processes in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Besides golden rice, ISAAA and the academe are calling for the adoption of more biotech crops to increase production and improve the quality of farm produce.

“We should adopt (biotechnology from abroad) so we can easily incorporate that in our crops,” Hautea said.

Hybrid crops have been reported to increase yields and contain costs due to disease resistance.