Scientists are genetically modifying rice for several purposes including making rice resistant to herbicides, diseases, and pests, increasing nutritional value, eliminating rice allergies, producing human blood protein, increasing yield; improving tolerance to drought and salinity; and enhancing nitrogen use efficiency.
In 2000, the first two GM rice varieties both with herbicide-resistance, called LLRice60 and LLRice62, were approved in the United States. Later, these and other types of herbicide-resistant GM rice were approved in Canada, Australia, Mexico, and Colombia. However, none of these approvals resulted in commercialization.[3] Reuters reported in 2009 that China had granted biosafety approval to GM rice with pest resistance,[4] but it hasn't been commercialized either. As of December 2012 GM rice had not yet become widely available for production or consumption.[5] A 2013 article calculated that the annual global value of future developments of genetically engineered rice to be US$64 billion. They argued that since rice is a staple crop for a large number of very poor people in the world, this has enormous potential for alleviating hunger, malnutrition and poverty.[6]