DAVIS , California -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- If every scientist hopes to make at least one important discovery in her career , then University of California-Davis professor Pamela Ronald and her colleagues may have hit the jackpot . Scientists have bred a new strain of flood-tolerant rice that could help feed millions . Ronald 's team works with rice , a grain most Americans take for granted , but which is a matter of life and death to much of the world . Thanks to their efforts to breed a new , hardier variety of rice , millions of people may not go hungry . About half the world 's population eats rice as a staple . Two-thirds of the diet of subsistence farmers in India and Bangladesh is made up entirely of rice . If rice crops suffer , it can mean starvation for millions . `` People -LSB- in the United States -RSB- think , well , if I do n't have enough rice , I 'll go to the store , '' said Ronald , a professor of plant pathology at UC-Davis . `` That 's not the situation in these villages . They 're mostly subsistence farmers . They do n't have cars . '' As sea levels rise and world weather patterns worsen , flooding has become a major cause of rice crop loss . Scientists estimate 4 million tons of rice are lost every year because of flooding . That 's enough rice to feed 30 million people . Rice is grown in flooded fields , usually to kill weeds . But rice plants do not like it when they are submerged in water for long periods , Ronald said . `` They do n't get enough carbon dioxide , they do n't get enough light and their entire metabolic processes are thrown off . The rice plant tries to grow out of the flood , but when it does , it depletes its sugar reserves . It starts to break down its chlorophyll , important for photosynthesis . It grows really quickly , and then when the flood recedes , it just dies . It 's out of gas . '' Normal rice dies after three days of complete flooding . Researchers know of at least one rice variety that can tolerate flooding for longer periods , but conventional breeding failed to create a strain that was acceptable to farmers . So Ronald and her colleagues -- David Mackill , senior scientist at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines and Julia Bailey-Serres , professor of genetics at the University of California-Riverside -- spent the last decade working to find a rice strain that could survive flooding for longer periods . Mackill identified a flood-resistant gene 13 years ago in a low-yielding traditional Indian rice variety . He passed along the information to Ronald , who isolated the gene , called Sub1 , and introduced it into normal rice varieties , generating rice that could withstand being submerged in water for 17 days . The team relied on something called precision breeding , the ability to introduce very specific genes into plants without the associated baggage of other genes that might tag along in conventional breeding . `` This can be a problem for farmers , '' Ronald said . `` The varieties that were developed from conventional breeding were rejected by farmers because they did n't yield well or taste good . '' Using precision breeding , scientists introduced the Sub1 gene three years ago into test fields in Bangladesh and India . The subsequent rice harvests were a resounding success . `` The results were really terrific , '' said Ronald . `` The farmers found three - to five-fold increases in yield due to flood tolerance . They can plant the normal way . They can harvest the normal way and it tastes the same . Farmers had more food for their families and they also had additional rice they could sell to bring a little bit of money into the household . '' `` The potential for impact is huge , '' agreed Mackill in a statement on the IRRI Web site . `` In Bangladesh , for example , 20 percent of the rice land is flood prone and the country typically suffers several major floods each year . Submergence-tolerant varieties could make major inroads into Bangladesh 's annual rice shortfall . '' The researchers anticipate that the flood-tolerant rice plants will be available to farmers in Bangladesh and India within two years . Because the plants are the product of precision breeding , rather than genetic modification , they are not subject to the same regulatory testing that can delay release of genetically modified crops . The U.S. Department of Agriculture conferred one of its highest research awards last December on Ronald , Mackill and Bailey-Serres for their work on submergence-tolerant rice . But Ronald has no plans to rest on her laurels . `` I feel a great sense of gratitude that I was able to contribute in this way , '' she said . `` But the farmers have asked us , ` Can you develop varieties that are drought tolerant , salt tolerant ? Can you develop varieties that are insect resistant ? ' There are always more things to work on . '' CNN.com 's Brandon Griggs contributed to this story .