An Indian researcher led a team that developed a rice variety that takes up less arsenic and they’re now working on one that will generate less greenhouse gas emissions.
According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 140 million people in over 70 countries drink water containing the toxic element arsenic at levels above WHO guidelines and in the Indian subcontinent, contaminated water from the Himalayas flow down across multiple countries into farmlands and irrigation reservoirs, which are then absorbed by food crops like rice, the dominant dietary staple in the region.
Jauhar Ali, head of the Hybrid Rice Development Consortium (HRDC), at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) says that in 2012, he and his team identified that arsenic toxicity was a key rice production constraint in India and Bangladesh.
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