Iran, which says it was the first country to commercialise genetically modified rice in 2004, hopes to cut its imports of about 1 million tonnes each year by developing higher-yielding varieties, a senior scientist said.
Behzad Ghareyazie of the Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute of Iran said the area planted to GMO rice was likely to rise in the next several years after high acceptance among farmers and consumers of the initial variety.
"In the near future, we will have better varieties and more higher-yielding varieties," he told reporters on the sidelines of an international rice conference in the Philippines.
Ghareyazie said Iranian scientists were conducting more research on other higher-yielding varieties.
Iran approved the commercial planting last year of a GMO variety called Tarom molaii, an aromatic rice popular among Iranians but not classified among the higher-yielding varieties.
The Tarom molaii variety yielded an average of 2.2 tonnes per hectare, higher than the 2 tonnes per hectare for a non-GMO counterpart in Iran, Ghareyazie said.
The GMO rice introduced in Iran is resistant to the stem borer pest, the main rice pest in that country which normally infests up to 25 percent of harvest each cropping season.
Greenpeace and other consumer groups are opposing the planting of transgenic crops, specially rice, saying they threaten consumer health and the environment.
Scientists said countries in Asia, like China, India and the Philippines that are pursuing research on other GMO varieties, are closely watching developments of the GMO rice in Iran.
"Wherever you come close to a technology in a developing country, then there will be a lot of noise," Ghareyazie said, adding it was up to public officials and scientists to explain to the people the merits of such new technology.
Ghareyazie said the GMO rice released in his country was commercialised after nearly 10 years of risks assessment, including field trials.
"It wasn't too fast. It was too slow," Ghareyazie said, referring to deaths from misuse of insecticide during the 10 years.
"Every year we have reports of deaths or serious illness due to the mismanagement and misuse of ... insecticides that are being used for controlling rice stem borer."
The first GMO variety came from Iran and scientists at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines helped to modify the rice to resist attack by insects.
The first GMO rice in Iran is now planted in "several thousand hectares," Ghareyazie said. Rice is planted on 600,000 hectares of land in Iran, which produces just two thirds of its consumption.
"If we can have our average yield increased to 6 tonnes per hectare, definitely we will be self sufficient in rice production and that is possible because there are a lot of countries which are producing 10 tonnes per hectare," he said.
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