Leaves From a New Rice Variety Boost Nourish Both People and Planet

Just before dawn, baker Sasipen Pan rises and slips into her kitchen in central Thailand. On a sparkling clean counter, she begins making bread—or sometimes brownies or meringue cookies—with a “secret ingredient.”

With support from the Rice Science Center at Bangkok’s Kasetsart University and The Rockefeller Foundation, Pan is the world’s only baker regularly using powder made from rice leaves, generally burned as a waste product.

The only baker so far, that is.

If the Rice Science Center’s director, Professor Apichart Vanavichit, gets his way, food products from the leaves of a new breed known as Rainbow Rice will be widely used throughout the world for their nutritional value, taste, texture, and beauty.

Farmer in the Rainbow rice field. (Photo Courtesy of Professor Apichart Vanavichit)

Consuming Rice Leaves

Rice has been integral to Thai culture for centuries, featured in festivals, folktales, storybooks, and song lyrics. In the Thai language, when someone asks a guest “Would you like to eat?” the literal translation is “Would you like to eat rice?” Thailand boasts 3.7 million farmer households and 24.7 million acres of rice fields, or three-fourths of its arable land, and is the second largest global exporter of rice after India.

But there are danger signs in this critical sector. The growing impact of climate change, including drought, floods, saltwater, and extreme temperatures, threaten to devastate crops and risk the livelihoods of 144 million smallholder rice farmers worldwide each growing season, who already earn an average of the equivalent of only $5.18 a month. Some 40 percent of Thai farm families live below the poverty level.

With the global population projected to increase to 9.8 billion people by the year 2050, and farmers confronted by other resource challenges caused by pollution and soil degradation, Professor Vanavichit believes that breeding nutrient-dense rice—and making full use of the rice plant—is more essential than ever to food security and human well-being.

For years, he has centered his work on rice, first breeding disease-resistant rice for larger yields and reduced use of chemical pesticides, then more aromatic rice, and finally more nutritious rice. Prior to developing Rainbow Rice, the professor helped develop Riceberry Rice, a distinctive purple grain which is high in antioxidants and minerals like zinc and iron. Purple rice was cultivated from as far back as 2500 BC. In Imperial China, it was known as “Forbidden Rice” that only the aristocracy was allowed to eat. Riceberry Rice is a cross breed of Jao Hom Nin, a Thai purple rice, and Khao Dawk Mali 105, or Thai Jasmine rice.

Rainbow Rice leaves are used to help create colorful dishware, while also ensuring less of the rice product remains behind after harvesting. (Photo Courtesy of Professor Apichart Vanavichit)

Rainbow Rice Has Potential to Help Reduce Pollution

The delicately colored leaves are also prized for their potential decorative use. Netnapa Takahachi is an entrepreneur who has developed a method to preserve the color of Rainbow Rice leaves and weave them into dishware. Her next goal is to incorporate them into handbags as well. Read more

https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/case-study/leaves-from-a-new-rice-variety-boost-nourish-both-people-and-planet/