**Appendix**

What support is available to countries which are interested in introducing Golden Rice as an additional intervention for vitamin A deficiency?

Especially as most rice is consumed close to where it is grown, and Golden Rice will cost no more than white rice, Golden Rice should be increasingly useful, including in post pandemic circumstances, as an additional intervention to combat VAD, in all countries where rice is the staple crop of the resource poor and VAD endemic.

For such countries, and where a public sector rice breeding institute is available (in the country or a neighbouring country) to introgress the GR2E transformation event into locally adapted and preferred rice varieties, the following is required and available without cost:


Most countries make their regulatory deliberations and decisions publicly available, for example Australia and New Zealand, Canada and USA. Included in this openness are inputs from the various Government department involved, including in the Philippines.

It is a pity that In the case of Golden Rice this is all necessary even though the only difference in comparison with white rice is that the normally white endosperm, contains beta-carotene [5], a source of vitamin A for the human body [51].

*Golden Rice, VAD, Covid and Public Health: Saving Lives and Money DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101535*

6.Finance is not available, and must be sought by the potential new, or new licensee from normal sources.

It is normally a requirement that a Golden Rice licensee country has relevant laws in place governing the development and deployment of transgenic crops. If this is not the case, nevertheless discussion is encouraged.

It is to be expected that national rice breeding institutions can introgress the GR2E beta-carotene inducing trait into any public sector owned rice variety, within 2 to 4 growing seasons taking perhaps two or three years.

Other crops than rice, are also potentially able to benefit from the same technology to introduce beta-carotene synthesis to the edible parts. (Peter Beyer has already advised on this for a number of crops.)
