There are going to be many learning techniques that will come out of this that will be important in other crops. It's much more than just the rice applications. Rice is the simplest of all cereals. Others like barley, maize, and wheat are more complex versions of rice, Barton explains. By having the core cereal genome together, you have landmarks for all the important cereals.
Rice is the most consumed food in the world.
It is primarily produced in Asia, where an estimated one billion new consumers will be added in the next two decades. By 2020, four billion will depend on rice, according to projections by the International Rice Research Institute. But it is a vulnerable crop. A lack of rainfall and other changes in environmental conditions may lead to shortages and price instability. Once the sequencing is complete, scientists may begin to develop improved rice that is more nutritious, drought and disease resistant, or that produces greater yields, Barton says.