Enhanced Rice quality for Health (EnRicH)

Rice is a staple food for more than half of the world's population. However, rice is largely consumed as polished grain (white rice) and its consumption, as part of the adoption of a Western diet and increasingly sedentary life style, is associated with increased risk of a range of chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes, obesity, cardio-vascular disease and forms of cancer. Hence it is important to consider the impact of rice on nutrition and health as well as traditional quality attributes. Consequently, the two most important targets for quality improvement of polished white rice are to reduce the rate of digestion in the human gastrointestinal tract (through starch structure manipulation and increasing the percentage of resistant starch) and increase the content of dietary fibre while retaining high yield and good cooking and sensory properties.
The research project will carry out detailed analyses of grain composition of a wide range of rice lines to identify lines with increased health benefits combined with good consumer acceptability. Cutting-edge genetics and bioinformatics will then be used to identify molecular markers that can be used to select for quality traits by breeders.
The improved lines and markers will then be delivered to national and international rice breeding programmes to allow them to develop new commercial varieties.

The project will bring together major rice research groups in the Philippines and major cereal researchers in the UK at Rothamsted Research. RRes scientists have established research programmes on cereal improvement, in particular the Cell Wall Group has a strong research interest in improving wheat quality with the aim of delivering improved diet and health. The Philippine partners have substantial programmes of research on rice improvement. IRRI is part of the CGIAR system of agricultural research centres with a mandate to lead rice improvement and to translate food and nutritional security in S Asia and SE Asia. DA-PhilRice is the national rice research institute in the Philippines which aims to help develop high-yielding and cost-reducing technologies for farmers, including improved rice varieties.
The partners are committed to provide an infrastructure for research and collaboration beyond the time span of the current grant. A "legacy" of shared platforms for genotyping, rapid screens and data management; and of trained staff, students and early career scientists, will facilitate future research and collaboration on rice improvement within and between the two countries. The partnership will also increase the academic impact of both research communities in international rice research.
In the longer term the project will provide improved health to large populations through diet based interventions in one of the major staples of diet in Asia, at low cost and to improve social welfare.
Dissemination.
1. The primary direct beneficiaries from this project are rice breeders in the target regions who will be provided with elite breeding materials and with state of the art molecular markers and training in their use. Both IRRI and PhilRice have established pathways for dissemination and delivery of improved germplasm to national and international breeders. These include talks, discussions and field demonstrations of improved technologies and agronomic package of practices. Within the Philippines this will make use of the Philippines National Agricultural Research and extension systems (NARES).
2. Publications: a schedule for publication will be agreed, including preparing review articles for journals of wide circulation to rice researchers and other stakeholders, including farmers and breeders, in the Philippines. Primary research data will be published in open access articles in broad scope international refereed journals. Significant findings will be highlighted in press releases issued in the UK and the Philippines.
3. Data from the project will be made freely available to the global rice community on the IRRI web site
4. Presentations will be made at local, national and international meetings of the scientific community such as the Crop Science Society of the Philippines Scientific Conference, the International Rice Congress.
5. Wider communication to the general public will be made via institute open days, public meetings and articles in local publications. This will be aided by press releases highlighting the relevance of the work to food security and environmental sustainability.