How much water does rice need? - adron.sr

clydie p. pasiaCultural Revolution, agriculturalresearch in general was protected.For example, semidwarf ricevarieties (which resisted lodging, orfalling over, just like the first GreenRevolution semi-dwarf varietyIR8, bred by IRRI) were first bredin China (including Taiwan) in thelate 1950s and early 1960s usingdifferent parents. We now know thatthe Chinese and IRRI semidwarfsall have the same dwarfing gene.The Chinese also developed andreleased hybrid rice in the 1970s,using IRRI varieties IR24 and IR26as fertility restorer parents. Hybridrice varieties would soon coveraround half of the country’s rice area.Basic research was conductedat the provincial and county levelwith extension of research findingscarrying down to the commune,brigade, and production teamlevel. We visited Jiangsu Academyof Agricultural Sciences (JAAS),which had a staff of 600 and 67hectares of experimental fields.This was the same institute whereS.H. Ou had worked before leavingmainland China for Taiwan. Iphotographed Ou sitting in his oldoffice chair (see photo on page 24).Also at JAAS, we met a “modelfarmer,” Mr. Chen, who was carryingout research. He was selected asa “national hero” in 1954 when heachieved a record rice yield. He useda system of nutrient managementcalled “three yellows and threeblacks,” which referred to the greenand yellow coloring of the variousstages of growth. In a techniquesimilar to that employed with IRRI’sleaf color chart today, farmersmade crop management decisionsaccording to the colors of the plant.Wuxi, 16-18 OctoberWe took the train from Nanjing toWuxi on the morning of the 16th.I had brought along a copy of JohnLossing Buck’s seminal work LandUtilization in China. I read thepages where he described the areawe were traveling through, the lowerYangtze River Basin. As I looked outthe window, the cropping patternsseemed much as Buck had describedthem. Buck was the husband ofPearl Buck and together they taughtat the University of Nanking from1920 to 1933. From 1929 to 1933,Buck organized a survey of 38,256farm families in 22 provinces,which provided the materials for thebook. The three-volume book wasfirst published by the University ofNanking in 1937. His demarcationof the agriculturalregions of China remainsbasically the same today.We visited twocommunes near Wuxi,where the main annualcropping pattern was wheatrice.These two communeshad a plan for developing theland, which began in 1970 andwas to extend up to 1985. Thisinvolved an enormous amount ofhuman labor to move soil, dig andstraighten irrigation and drainagecanals, and level land. The landwas originally divided into about15 fields per hectare, but, whenwe were there, each hectare wasjust a single field. The irrigationwater was piped underground.One evening, we attended aChinese movie. It was much likean American melodrama. At onepoint, a Chinese and a Vietnamesenaval ship were approaching eachother. It was easy to make out thevillains by their sinister looks. Apeasant on the Chinese ship wasabout to fire at the Vietnameseship when the party secretary puta hand on his arm and said, “Wedon’t shoot until they shoot first.”My most vivid memories were oftwo events, one peaceful and one notso peaceful. First, we took a boat tripon the famous Tai Lake (see photoon page 25), and I can remembersitting on the lake’s edge watchingthe sun set. Second, and even morememorable, on the day we arrivedin Wuxi, S.H. Ou and ShouichiYoshida read signs on the wall andtold us that something big was afoot.This was the beginning of the massmovement against the Gang of Four.On the morning of the 18th, on theway to the railroad station, we passeddemonstrators parading in the streetscarrying signs condemning the Gangof Four. Our interpreters said verylittle. But I was sitting next to oneof our interpreters, Mr. Huang, whowas obviously pleased. As he put it,“The masses know what is best.”Shanghai, 18-21 OctoberAfter visiting a doll factory, weboarded the train for Shanghai at26 Rice Today January-March 2009