Rice serves as the principal source of nourishment for over half of the global population. The year 2004 was declared as the international year of rice by the Food and Agricultural Organization, to heighten awareness of this crop in combating global poverty and malnutrition. The present review is a comprehensive account of this model monocot crop tracing its history, botanical descriptions, and the research work in breeding and biotechnology. An exhaustive illustrative account of all the important milestones in plant breeding, particle bombardment, Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, and genomics has been provided, with a focus on other important aspects such as transgene silencing, biosafety regulations of transgenic plants, and the global consequences of rice biotechnology research.Keywords:rice;Oryza sativa L;rice transformation;transgenic rice;rice biotechnology;rice genome;transgene silencing