In the Philippines, about two million children under five are at risk of vision issues and weak immune systems. These symptoms are consequences of diets lacking in Vitamin A. This number is equivalent to one out of five Filipino children from the less fortunate communities in the country with Vitamin A deficiency (VAD). This preventable nutritional problem impacts the Philippines and an estimated 190 million children globally.Several initiatives have addressed this problem, including supplementation, diversified diet, and food fortification. Yet, many are still being missed. One of the complementary solutions to these initiatives is now in the hands of Filipino farmers—a healthier kind of rice known as Golden Rice. This effort was initiated in 1982 by Dr Ingo Potrykus of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and Dr Peter Beyer of the University of Freiburg, Germany, and aimed to address VAD by developing a kind of rice that can provide Vitamin A in the diet.Contribute to food and nutrition securityCo-inventors have since donated the Golden Rice technology for humanitarian reasons. Through genetic engineering, genes from corn and a common soil bacterium were harnessed to produce beta-carotene in the rice grain. This beta carotene, converted into Vitamin A by the body, is the same kind of beta carotene found in green leafy and yellow-colored vegetables, orange-colored fruits, and vitamin supplements and food ingredients. Golden Rice was approved for food feed and processing in 2019 and for planting in 2021 in the Philippines after the Bureau of Plant Industry proved it is as safe as conventional rice varieties.