Opportunities for Biological Nitrogen Fixation in Rice and Other Non-Legumes

Recent advances in understanding symbiotic Rhizobium-legume interactions at the molecular level, the discovery of endophytic interactions of nitrogen-fixing organisms with non-legumes and the ability to introduce new genes into rice through transformation have created an opportunity to investigate the possibilities for incorporating N2 fixation capability in rice. During a think-tank workshop organized by IRRI in 1992, the participants reaffirmed that such opportunities do exist for cereals and recommended that rice be used as a model system. Subsequently, IRRI developed a "New Frontier Project" to co-ordinate the worldwide collaborative efforts among research centres committed to reducing dependency of rice on mineral N resources. An international Rice Biological Nitrogen Fixation (BNF) working group was established to review, share research results/materials, and to catalyze research.