What made India develop genome-edited rice?

• India has become the first country globally to develop rice varieties using genome editing technology.

• Two new varieties, DRR Dhan 100 (Kamala) and Pusa DST Rice 1, were developed by a team of researchers guided by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

• Kamala, developed from a high-yielding green rice Samba Mahsuri, showed superior yield, drought tolerance, high nitrogen use efficiency, and 20 days earliness.

• Pusa DST Rice 1, developed from the Maruteru 1010 variety, showed a yield of 3,508 kilograms per hectare over the parent variety, MTU 1010.

• The technology used was Site-Directed Nuclease 1 and Site-Directed Nuclease 2 (SDN-1 and SDN-2) genome editing techniques.

• Farmers’ representative Venugopal Badaravada, a representative in the ICAR governing body, criticized the ICAR’s genome-edited rice claims as premature and misleading.

• The Coalition for a Genetically Modified-Free India, a group of activists fighting a case against GM crops in the Supreme Court, claimed that gene editing tools are proprietary technologies under Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) ownership and have a direct bearing on the seed sovereignty of the farming community.