The future in a grain: Malaysia's bet on gene-edited rice

KUALA LUMPUR - The leaves tell the story.
Laid side by side in a research glasshouse at the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi) in Serdang, Selangor, the two paddy leaves look alike at first glance. But under the sharp gaze of principal research officer Dr Zulkifli Ahmad Seman, the difference is obvious.
One leaf is almost all yellow, a sickly sign of bacterial blight - a disease that has afflicted Malaysian rice fields for decades and caused losses amounting to hundreds of thousands of ringgit. The other is almost entirely green, save for a faint yellowing at the tip. It comes from a rice line Zulkifli and his team edited using CRISPR-CS9 technology.
"So with the host, the protein (blight) can't attach because of where we've mutated it. So when it cannot attach, that's where it will stop," he said at Mardi's headquarters.
Since 2021, Zulkifli and other Mardi scientists have been involved in a project to develop new genetically edited rice varieties with targeted traits, such as resistance to disease and tolerance to climate challenges like extreme heat and drought.
He said they now had a potential gene-edited (GE) paddy line, which is currently undergoing the screening phase. He said so far, their research has shown that blight would only affect 11 per cent of the leaves of GE paddy.
The line is not just a scientific breakthrough. It is the first GE plant for Mardi and Malaysia. But as Zulkifli's team approaches the fifth generation of the disease-resistant seed, they are coming closer to confronting an arguably worse challenge than blight: Malaysia's regulatory gray zone. Photo for illustration purposes only.
GRAY ZONE
Malaysia is one of Asia's highest per capita consumers of rice but it does not grow enough of it. In 2023, per capita consumption was 76.7 kilogrammes per year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security. The numbers have decreased from 2022, showing a 4.7 per cent decrease in rice production, from 2.28 million tonnes in 2022 to 2.18 million tonnes in 2023.
According to the same statistics, local rice production can only meet 56.2 per cent of local demand, leaving the country vulnerable to price shocks and supply disruptions.
For paddy farmers like 57-year-old Puteh Hassan in Kedah, the worsening weather patterns and recurring disease outbreaks have made harvests increasingly uncertain.
"There was one season we were badly hit (by bacterial blight). We lost 60 per cent of our paddy. When it (blight) strikes, there's nothing inside (the paddy husks)... it's empty,' she said over the phone.
Zulkifli's research, should it be allowed to continue, may be able to save Puteh's paddy field from another disastrous attack. But the issue putting the research in limbo is whether current regulations on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) should apply to GE crops or not.
Unlike genetically modified organisms, GE crops do not contain foreign DNA, such as Bt corn, which has the DNA from the bacterium Bacillus Thuringiensis to make it pest-resistant. Instead, they involve precise deletions or tweaks to existing genes a process some researchers argue is closer to accelerated natural selection. As such, scientists and biotechnologists argue they cannot be judged according to the same standards.
So far, the regulatory framework has not caught up. Malaysia's Biosafety Act 2007 governs GMOs but when the law was passed, there was no CRISPR technology or any effective way to edit the genome. The scientists are in a quandary - they are doing ground-breaking work with the potential to help the nation feed its people, but will their GE rice even see the light of day?
Bernama contacted the National Biosafety Board (NBB) for clarification but the board did not respond before press time.
THE YELLOW FIELDS
Puteh remembers the season her paddy fields turned yellow.
Born in Kedah and raised by paddy farmers, she then married a paddy farmer. Managing her own paddy field for the past 15 years, Puteh has seen plenty of bad years. But she still remembers when the blight wiped out almost all of her income in 2019.
"It was terrible. I lost one tonne of paddy that season," she said.
She had hoped the ensuing seasons would be better but she found that her yields either improved marginally or got worse. In recent years, extreme temperatures and sudden floods have become more common.
"Climate change is really bad now; all kinds of natural disasters, rain, then, water shortages,' she said.
On top of that, blight is still there.
Bacterial blight, caused by Xanthomonas oryzae, spreads quickly in flooded paddies and thrives in warm, humid environments like Malaysia's. It browns and withers paddy leaves and cuts grain production, leaving farmers with rotten fields.
At the same time, farmers are growing less rice. According to National Association of Smallholders Malaysia president Adzmi Hassan, many smallholders have shifted to more lucrative crops like oil palm.
"Have you ever heard of paddy as a commodity that can increase income for small businesses?' he asked. "But we eat rice. There is demand for it here."
He added Malaysia should not just look at technology, it should also look at enriching and encouraging paddy farmers to grow the staple crop.
One way would be to ensure there is a consistent and predictable yield year by year. For two years in a row, beginning in the 2023/24 season, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) had predicted Malaysia's rice production would be below average.
At Mardi's research centre, the GE padi stands as a potential solution. Until they get more information, Mardi researchers are operating under the assumption that their GE rice will not be subject to the same burdensome approval process that stymied past biotech efforts involving GMO products.
But, still, the fear is there. The scientists remember all too well efforts to conduct open field trials of a pesticide-resistant strain of GMO padi in Perlis in 2019. Nearby communities and environmentalists protested against holding the trials, in accordance with NBB guidelines. In the end, the project was shelved.
Mardi senior research officer Dr Mohd Waznu Adlyl said Malaysia should follow Japan's and a few other countries' lead, which exempts certain gene-edited crops from GMO regulation if no foreign DNA is present. These countries treat GE crops as normal crops as the gene-editing process works just like natural mutations, only faster.
He also said the benefits for the world outweighed any potential risks.
"We hope this rice that we produce through gene-editing technology can somehow help our (scientists) to produce new varieties because we know, outside, there are many issues, like climate change and new emerging pests," he said.
But many disagree, seeing GE foods and GMOs as the same.
Third World Network biosafety programme coordinator Lim Li Ching indicated that they were prepared to protest should GE crops be allowed to stage open field trials without any oversight.
"Just because we can do it doesn't mean we should," she said via Google Meet from her home in the United Kingdom.
While CRISPR technology may work within a plant's own genome, she warned that it can bypass the slow, regulated nature of evolutionary change - introducing traits or gene interactions that may not have natural precedents.
She added that even seemingly minor edits could cause unintended effects at the molecular level.
Marrying food and technology has rarely if ever received unequivocal support from everyone. While many think the fears surrounding GMOs and now GE technology are overblown, Lim and other environmentalists insist they are not here to stymie biotechnology research or Malaysia's advancement in these sciences.
CRISPR-Cas9 is a revolutionary gene-editing tool that allows scientists to make precise changes to an organism's DNA. In plants, the process involves several steps, including causing a break or deletion of a DNA strand, and allowing the plant's natural repair mechanisms to fix the break. This will hopefully result in the desired genetic change.
This method enables the development of crops with improved traits, such as disease resistance, drought tolerance and increased yield, without introducing foreign DNA.
Despite the supposed benefits, Lim said the benefits may turn into a curse later.
"We still need to assess these crops to check for unintended impacts. That's the bare minimum,' she said.
GLOBAL GE or GMO
While Malaysia grapples with regulatory uncertainties, other countries are moving forward with GE crops.
India has released two genome-edited rice varieties aimed at enhancing yield and resilience against environmental stresses. These varieties were developed using genome editing techniques that allow for precise modifications in the plant's DNA without introducing foreign genes.
In contrast, Mexico has taken a more cautious approach. In March 2025, the Mexican government amended its constitution to prohibit the use of genetically modified corn seeds, citing concerns over biosafety and the protection of native corn varieties. The ban just applies to GMOs, however, not GE foods.
For Malaysia, the adoption of GE crops like Mardi's blight-resistant rice could play a crucial role in enhancing food security. However, without clear regulatory guidelines, these innovations may remain confined to research facilities.
Malaysia has set the target of a rice self-sufficiency rate of 80 per cent by 2030, but without intervention, be it via technology or other methods, the nation will likely not meet its goal anytime soon as the world experiences shocks to the supply chain, one after another.
Puteh, meanwhile, said she would be interested in trying out a GE crop that is resistant to blight.
"But we need to have discussions first. It may not be suitable for our soil here or the costs may be high. But if it's blight-resistant, we are willing to try," she said. - BERNAMA

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