The advent of genomics has unleashed a plethora of information on gene structure and function, thereby opening new opportunities for accelerated and more precise breeding. It is indeed a daunting task for any individual to attempt to present such information in a single book, especially for a crop that has received so much scientific attention such as rice. Nonetheless, this excellent book contains contributions from eminent scientists describing the applications of biotechnology and genomics to rice improvement, such as in breeding for abiotic stress tolerance, insect-and disease-resistance, as well as nutritionally dense rice (rice with elevated levels of iron, zinc and β-carotene in the endosperm). The first chapter is rightly assigned to the ground-breaking work in the complete sequencing of the rice genome and its potential applications in rice research. The book then details the tools and approaches deployed for gene expression studies using microarrays, haploid breeding, hybrid rice technology, molecular marker-assisted breeding and use of transgenic technology to introduce new gene combinations or to suppress or over-express certain proteins. The authors acknowledge that these new tools do not offer a panacea for rice breeders and that many challenges remain to be surmounted in order to exploit this new information in breeding for more complex traits or traits not presently known in the rice gene pool. The arguments against some of the new technologies such as transgenics are highlighted but several authors in the book provide strong evidence in support of the technologies.