have undergone training at IRRI to conduct rice research. Golden rice IRRI is pursuing the development of "golden rice". Geneticists inserted two genes into the rice plant that allows it to produce beta carotene, which makes its grains yellow. Because the human body converts beta carotene to vitamin A, golden rice has the potential to dramatically improve the lives of millions of people around the world, particularly in Africa and Southeast Asia, where vitamin A deficiency is an especially common malady that can cause blindness and increases the risk of death from disease. Children are particularly vulnerable; according to the World Health Organization, "An estimated 250,000 to 500,000 vitamin A-deficient children become blind every year, half of them dying within 12 months of losing their sight". In August 2013, anti-genetically modified organism protestors broke into IRRI's research facilities and destroyed field trials of golden rice. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supports IRRI in its development of golden rice. Research IRRI's website states that their research themes consist of: Additionally, the organisation describes their expertise as including: conserving, understanding, sharing, and using rice genetic diversity; breeding and delivering new varieties; developing and sharing improved crop and environmental management practices; adding to the economic and nutritional value of rice; broadening our impact by supporting strategic policy and market development; and facilitating large-scale adoption of technologies. In 2010, the Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP) was launched, which IRRI leads in Asia, the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) leads in Africa, and International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) leads in Latin America. It aims to "dramatically improve the ability of rice farmers to feed growing populations in some of the world's poorest nations". Awards In 1969, IRRI was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding. The Ramon Magsaysay Award is an annual award was established in 1957 by the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund based in New York City, with the concurrence of the Philippine government, to "perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay's example of integrity in governance, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society". This award is Asia's highest honor and widely regarded as the Asian equivalent to the Nobel Prize. The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation posited that IRRI represented "the first coordinated international attempt in the tropics to solve a major problem of world agriculture", while also stating: Distilling more than three millennia of accumulated