Specialty Rice

         Specialty Rice 

Rice has been bred to have properties suited to specific uses or to growing areas with locality-specific problems. Kasetsart University, together with the Ministry of Science and the National Research Council of Thailand, saw the importance of rice varieties to opportunities for Thai farmers, and so did joint research until special rice seed reached farmers' hands as quickly as possible, consisting of many rice lines. The Rice Science Center, Kasetsart University, Kamphaeng Saen Campus, and the Rice Gene Discovery Unit 

have as their main work the Khao Dawk Mali 105 lines that combine resistance to the diseases, insects and environments that limit fragrant rice yield with high nutrition, including iron, zinc and antioxidants, as well as anti-diabetic properties. These rice lines are of interest among consumers at home and abroad, so they may become another interesting export product. As the Rice Gene Discovery Unit and the Rice Science Center have many interesting new rice varieties, they are publishing information and knowledge about these various specialty rice varieties and promoting growing them on farmers' plots in line with the consumer market.

Rice for health

Today the world's population, including Thailand, faces the incidence of non-infectious diseases: more than a billion people show signs of anemia, more than 1 billion have obesity problems, another 200 million or more are diabetic, and by 2025 more than 1.5 billion people are expected to have high blood pressure. In addition, 17 million patients die each year from cardiovascular disease. These health problems may be mainly caused by unbalanced diets. Rice, the world's staple food, may be a cause of these deficiencies. On average people eat about 200–250 grams of milled rice per day. Improving the nutrition of Thai rice may therefore help reduce incidence and position Thai rice for the future functional food market, to slow the epidemic of non-communicable diseases in humankind.