The problem of environmental pollution and health hazards associated with large-scale burning of Rice Straw, especially in northern states of India, has crossed all limits of tolerance, which calls for an immediate solution. Though several approaches to avoid burning by recycling straw into soil have been developed, none has attained large-scale adoption by farmers, primarily due to the involvement of ostensibly uneconomical financial resources. A pragmatic solution for the management of this straw thus lies in making rice behave like other field crops, for whose residue harvesting burning is not required. It is a matter of fact that Rice is a cereal crop like that of wheat where straw is used as animal feed, but rice straw is unfit as animal feed on account of poor quality and digestibility caused by a high proportion of Silica content affecting animal health. In the proposed project, we will redesign available popular rice varieties that will not only be equal or better than their current yield levels but will also have <5% silica in the straw that will dramatically improve their feed quality. The rice straw of all such varieties shall be available as animal feed without any adverse effect on their health. It would not only provide animal feed without any additional land, water or fertilizer resources but would also produce large quantity of Farm Yard Manure to recycle the soil nutrients otherwise being lost by burning of rice straw. Such a transformation of rice has not previously been attained for want of suitable genetic sources for reduced Silica content as well as the suitable technology for transfer of these characters. Furthermore, in the second phase of the effort, we will attain increased levels of Protein, Iron (Fe), and Zinc (Zn) in rice straw and thus will develop rice varieties having higher content of these nutrients which will either end up in the grain or in milk thus will reach the human population while also improving animal health.