Scientists and the rice sector are ready to use the new gene editing tools to develop rice varieties more adapted to climate change, although they fear that European legislation will put a brake on transgenic rice.
This has been expressed by more than a hundred international experts in rice genetics who have met in Barcelona (Spain) in the framework of the 18th International Symposium on Functional Rice Genomics.
The CSIC research professor at the Center for Research in Agrigenomics (CRAG), Blanca San Segundo, responsible for the organization of the congress, explained that “rice, the main food for many of the world’s population, is a crop that, on the one hand it contributes to climate change, and on the other hand it is especially threatened by it.”
According to San Segundo, in Mediterranean regions, climate change translates into an increase in the salinity of soils, a lack of water resources and a higher incidence of pests that affect rice fields.
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“To overcome these difficulties, it is necessary to introduce new strategies to maintain the competitiveness of rice cultivation, without affecting these natural spaces,” defended San Segundo.
[Editor’s note: This article was originally published in Spanish and has been translated and edited for clarity.]
