6

The Ultimate
Green Revolution

Kaymart Gimutao

T
he world is experiencing a significant
population boom. Changing climactic
patterns are causing extreme
temperatures, droughts and strong typhoons. This
scenario is further complicated by threats of water
scarcity and decreasing agricultural land area due
to urbanization. It is in this context that mankind
must ensure the sustainability of agriculture and
address the issue of food security before it is too
late.
Thanks to scientists from the International Rice
Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines and its
partner institutions around the world, breakthrough
62 BUGS & QUARKS

research on rice—the world’s most consumed crop—

is underway.
The C4 Rice Consortium, funded by the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation, aims to change the
biophysical structure of the rice plant and optimize
the way it acquires energy from the sun during
photosynthesis. This technology is expected to
increase rice yields by at least 50%.
Rice is the most important crop on the planet for
human consumption, feeding more than half of the
world’s population every day. In Asia, which hosts
more than 90% of rice consumers, a single hectare of
land used for rice production currently provides food
for up to 27 people. Annual rice consumption exceeds
100kg per person in many Asian countries.
However, studies have revealed that the number
of rice consumers is increasing by 1.1% every year,
and by 2050, a hectare of land used for rice
production will have to support at least 43 people. To
achieve this, the Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations projects that a 50% increase in
rice yield may be necessary.

A DRAMATIC TRANSFORMATION

We learned in our basic botany classes that plants

carry out photosynthesis to grow—to develop leaves,
roots, stems, flowers and seeds. During
photosynthesis, plants acquire energy from the sun
 THE ULTIMATE GREEN REVOLUTION 63

and store it as chemical energy. It turns out, however,

that some plants have evolved to perform
photosynthesis more efficiently than others. These
plants, which include maize, sugarcane and sorghum,
underwent changes in their anatomy and
biochemistry, evolving to use a C4 photosynthetic
pathway from the traditional C3.
“C4 plants evolved as an adaptation to
restrictions in inputs such as water,” explains
Jacqueline Dionora, an IRRI senior associate
scientist working on the C4 Rice Project. “Thus, they
are usually found in drier areas. Additionally, the
carbon dioxide situation of the Earth also changed
over time, and so they are survivors of evolution.
Basically, this is a process that nature created.”
Unlike maize and other plants with a C4
pathway, rice uses a C3 photosynthetic pathway. The
C3 pathway is less efficient as its photosynthetic
enzyme, ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase
oxygenase (RuBisCO), also catalyzes a reaction with
oxygen when temperatures exceed 20°C. This
reaction is not useful to plants, and competition
between carbon dioxide and oxygen fixation
dramatically reduces photosynthetic efficiency.
Although C4 plants still synthesize RuBisCO, the
enzyme only has minimal functions in the C4
photosynthetic pathway. C4 plants can increase the
carbon dioxide concentration around RuBisCO by
more than ten-fold over oxygen, making it impossible
for the enzyme to bind oxygen during photosynthesis.
64 BUGS & QUARKS

Basically, the key objective of the C4 Rice Project

is to transform the photosynthetic process of rice
from C3 to C4. But gathering insights from evolution
and transforming a plant from C3 to C4 is not as
simple as we might imagine. “That’s why we need a
consortium. We need big-minded people who are
experts in different fields such as molecular biology,
genetic engineering and bioinformatics,” shares
Dionora.
Currently, IRRI scientists are searching for the
genes responsible for the C4 photosynthesis pathway,
and characterizing the regulatory control
mechanisms found in C4 plants. Once these have
been identified, they will proceed to the next step,
which is to transform the photosynthetic mechanism
in rice from C3 to C4.

“SUPERCHARGING” RICE AND OTHER

C3 CROPS

Describing the C4 Rice Project as this generation’s

“ultimate green revolution,” Dionora expresses
optimism that C4 rice will greatly contribute to food
security over the next fifty years.
“Photosynthesis is the heart of the plant. No
matter how you change planting spacing and increase
your fertilizer, it would still not be enough, as
photosynthesis is the only way for plants to produce
food,” she notes. “This research really matters
 THE ULTIMATE GREEN REVOLUTION 65

because it is the only way we can increase yield

drastically by 50%. It’s like supercharging your car’s
engine to make it extra fast.”
The expected 50% increase in rice yield could
translate to feeding 39-40 people per hectare instead
of the current 27. If C4 rice were commercially
available today, the world’s total rice production
would surge to 1.06 million metric tons from the
current 706,472 metric tons. This figure is good
enough to change the lives of people living in hunger
and poverty, particularly in Asia, which is home to
70% of the world’s population earning less than US$1
a day. C4 rice’s resistance to harsh environmental
conditions and hotter temperatures is also a foreseen
advantage.
To top it all off, this technology could just be the
starting point in revolutionizing crop production.
Once scientists unlock the genes responsible for C4
photosynthesis and optimize their functions in rice,
they can proceed to apply the same technology to
other major C3 crops of the world, such as wheat, an
important food in sub-Saharan Africa, and legumes,
a staple in India. The ability to supercharge
photosynthesis may well end up being the ultimate
game changer for feeding the world.

Mr. Kaymart Gimutao is a consultant at the

Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, Alabang,
Muntinlupa, the Philippines.