Manila, Philippines · 23 July 2021 — The Philippines made agricultural and nutritional history when the Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Plant Industry (DA-BPI) issued a biosafety permit approving Golden Rice for commercial propagation — the first such approval anywhere in the world. The decision, dated 21 July 2021, followed years of biosafety reviews and field trials confirming that the genetically engineered rice variety was as safe as conventional rice for human consumption and the environment.
Golden Rice, known locally as Malusog Rice (healthy rice), was developed to address vitamin A deficiency (VAD), a significant public health problem in the Philippines and many other developing countries. The rice is genetically engineered to produce beta-carotene in its endosperm — the edible part of the grain — giving it a characteristic golden colour and providing a dietary source of vitamin A.
A Two-Decade Journey
The concept of Golden Rice was first proposed in the late 1990s by Professors Ingo Potrykus of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and Peter Beyer of the University of Freiburg. Their goal was to use genetic engineering to address a nutritional deficiency that conventional breeding could not solve: rice naturally produces beta-carotene in its leaves but not in its grain.
The technology was donated for humanitarian use in 2000, with the inventors and the biotechnology company Syngenta agreeing to make Golden Rice available royalty-free to farmers in developing countries. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), based in Los Baños, Philippines, took up the task of developing locally adapted varieties, working in partnership with the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice).
The Nutritional Rationale
Vitamin A deficiency is a serious public health problem in the Philippines. According to the Philippine government's National Nutrition Survey, approximately 17 percent of children aged 6 months to 5 years are vitamin A deficient, along with significant proportions of pregnant and lactating women.
Vitamin A deficiency can cause irreversible blindness, weaken the immune system, and increase the risk of death from common childhood infections such as measles and diarrhoea. The World Health Organization estimates that VAD affects approximately 190 million preschool-age children globally, contributing to an estimated 1.9 to 2.8 million deaths annually.
Golden Rice is designed to provide 30 to 50 percent of the estimated average requirement of vitamin A for children aged 6 months to 5 years, based on typical rice consumption levels in the Philippines. It is intended to complement, not replace, existing interventions such as vitamin A supplementation and dietary diversification.
The Biosafety Review Process
The 2021 approval was the culmination of a rigorous regulatory process. The DA-BPI conducted biosafety assessments covering several dimensions:
- Food safety: Analyses confirmed that Golden Rice is compositionally equivalent to conventional rice, with the exception of the intended beta-carotene production. The beta-carotene in Golden Rice is the same compound found in carrots, spinach, and other common foods.
- Environmental safety: Field trials demonstrated that Golden Rice poses no greater risk to the environment than conventional rice varieties. The gene flow, weediness potential, and impact on non-target organisms were all assessed.
- Nutritional efficacy: Studies confirmed that the beta-carotene in Golden Rice is bioavailable — meaning it can be absorbed and converted to vitamin A by the human body.
The Philippines has one of the most rigorous biosafety regulatory frameworks in Southeast Asia, established under Department of Agriculture Administrative Order No. 8 (2002) and strengthened by the Joint Department Circular of 2016.
Deployment Plans
Following the approval, PhilRice announced plans for a phased deployment. The initial phase focused on seed multiplication and distribution in target provinces with high rates of vitamin A deficiency. The government planned to integrate Golden Rice into local feeding programmes and seed production systems, working through existing agricultural extension networks.
The varieties approved for propagation were developed by crossing the Golden Rice trait into two popular Philippine rice varieties — PSB Rc82 and NSIC Rc348 — to ensure that farmers would be planting varieties they were already familiar with in terms of yield, grain quality, and agronomic characteristics.
Debate and Controversy
The approval was not without controversy. Critics, including Greenpeace Southeast Asia and farmer advocacy groups, raised concerns about the long-term health and environmental impacts of genetically modified crops, the potential for corporate control of seeds, and whether Golden Rice would actually reach the most vulnerable populations.
Supporters argued that the two-decade delay in deployment had cost lives — that children had suffered irreversible blindness and died from VAD-related causes while the technology sat in regulatory limbo. They pointed to the extensive safety data and the humanitarian nature of the project as evidence that the objections were ideological rather than scientific.
Subsequent Legal Challenges
The 2021 approval faced a significant legal setback in April 2024, when the Philippine Court of Appeals revoked the biosafety permit for Golden Rice's commercial propagation, issuing a cease and desist order. The court's decision was based on a petition filed by Greenpeace Southeast Asia and other groups, which argued that the scientific certainty of the rice's health and environmental impacts had not been adequately established.
The Philippine government, including the Department of Agriculture, indicated its intention to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. The legal battle highlighted the ongoing tension between regulatory science and judicial interpretation of biosafety standards — a tension that extends well beyond the Philippines and has implications for the global governance of agricultural biotechnology.
Global Significance
The Philippines' 2021 approval was closely watched by other countries grappling with vitamin A deficiency. Bangladesh was reported to be in advanced stages of its own regulatory review of Golden Rice varieties adapted to local conditions. Indonesia and Vietnam also expressed interest in the technology.
The approval also had broader implications for the acceptance of genetically engineered biofortified crops. Other biofortified crops in development — including iron- and zinc-enriched beans, zinc-enriched wheat, and high-oleic soybeans — faced similar regulatory and public acceptance challenges. The Philippines' decision was seen as a test case for whether regulatory systems could evaluate biofortified crops on their scientific merits rather than on ideological opposition to genetic engineering.
Sources
- USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, Philippines First in World to Approve Golden Rice for Propagation (July 2021):
- Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Golden Rice Approved for Commercial Propagation in the Philippines:
- Philippine Rice Research Institute, Golden Rice Q&A:
- Alliance for Science, Latest Developments in Golden Rice Deployment:
- Golden Rice Project:
FIRAT Editorial Board
Institutional Research Desk · Foresight Institute of Research and Translation
The collective editorial and research translation board of FIRAT, synthesising peer-reviewed evidence, policy briefs, and division milestones across our seven foundational research pillars.
