The future of rice in Asia - adron.sr

contentsEDITORIAL ................................................................ 4Fighting climate changeNEWS ......................................................................... 5Climate Change initiative ramps upRice Knowledge Bank recognizedOSCAR vs. weedsPostharvest training goes digitalBangladeshi food securityChina protects new plant varietiesArchaeological finds in China and JapanReducing grain shatteringManaging sheath blightAfrican rice newsPEOPLE ..................................................................... 9Rice genetics pioneer passes awayKeeping up with IRRI staffAchievementsNEWS FEATURES .................................................... 10Setting the rice agendaBreeding rice for rainfed ecosystemsVIRTUAL CHALLENGES .......................................... 12In the fast-changing world of the digital era, theworld’s foremost collection of information on riceand rice research is moving with the timesMAPS ....................................................................... 14False color gives a true impressionKOREA-IRRI COLLABORATION MULTIPLIESBENEFITS ............................................................ 15The Top Rice Project, launched in 2005, aimsto develop and popularize high-qualityrice in KoreaTRICKS OF THE TRADE ........................................... 16In Asia, the question of whether or not to liberalizerice trade is a vexing one. If liberalization is tooccur at all, it needs to happen gradually and withan understanding of how people—especially thepoor—will be affectedSNAPSHOT .........................................................20-21A different kind of rice landscapeTRADE PERSPECTIVES ........................................... 22Opportunities beyond growing rice—a farmer’sperspectiveTrade liberalization—an agricultural economist’sperspectiveA RICE FUTURE FOR ASIA ...................................... 25Thai and Filipino high school students come togetherto help ensure the rice industry’s future in Asia,sparking new friendships—and friendly rivalries—along the waySTEINBECK AND A CALLING .................................. 28Noel Magor’s focus on marginal farmers in Bangladeshderives from his childhood on a modest Australianfarm, his experience of famine in Ethiopia, and aclassic tale of dust bowl AmericaPEST BY PEST, STEP BY STEP ................................. 30Cambodian researchers are set to increase theirunderstanding of rice diseases as part of a projectthat could help lift the country off the lower rungsof Asia’s rice yield ladderENVIRONMENT ....................................................... 34Balanced on a wing. Although seemingly at odds, riceproduction and biodiversity conservation can existtogether—the trick is to find the right balanceRICE FACTS .............................................................. 37Do rice prices affect malnutrition in the poor? Cheaperrice can help break the cycle of poverty andmalnutritionGRAIN OF TRUTH .................................................... 38Are we at risk from metal contamination in rice?DIAGNOSING DROUGHT ........................................ 32Improved methods of measuring how rice plantsrespond to drought in the field are helpingscientists discover how and why some varietiestolerate water shortages better than others—knowledge that will ultimately help farmerswithstand the cruel vagaries of the weatherOn the cover:Leenlada "Oom" Monpo, aThai high school student,learns how to prepare aricefield for transplantingat IRRI headquarters.See page 25.cover photo Jose Raymond Panaliganpublisher Duncan Macintosheditor Adam Barclayart director Juan Lazaro IVdesigner and production supervisor George Reyescontributing editors Gene Hettel, Bill Hardynews editor Juanito Goloyugophoto editor Ariel Javellanaphoto researcher Jose Raymond Panaligancirculation Chrisanto Quintanaprinter Primex Printers, Inc.Rice Today is published by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the world’sleading international rice research and training center. Based in the Philippines and withoffices in 13 other countries, IRRI is an autonomous, nonprofit institution focused onimproving the well-being of present and future generations of rice farmers and consumers,particularly those with low incomes, while preserving natural resources. IRRI is one of15 centers funded through the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research(CGIAR), an association of public and private donor agencies. For more information, visitthe CGIAR Web site (www.cgiar.org).Responsibility for this publication rests with IRRI. Designations used in this publicationInternational Rice Research InstituteDAPO Box 7777, Metro Manila, PhilippinesWeb (IRRI): www.irri.orgWeb (Library): http://ricelib.irri.cgiar.orgWeb (Rice Knowledge Bank): www.knowledgebank.irri.orgRice Today editorialtelephone (+63-2) 580-5600 or (+63-2) 844-3351 to 53, ext 2725;fax: (+63-2) 580-5699 or (+63-2) 845-0606; email: a.barclay@cgiar.orgshould not be construed as expressing IRRI policy or opinion on the legal status of anycountry, territory, city or area, or its authorities, or the delimitation of its frontiers orboundaries.Rice Today welcomes comments and suggestions from readers. Potential contributorsare encouraged to query first, rather than submit unsolicited materials. Rice Todayassumes no responsibility for loss or damage to unsolicited submissions, which shouldbe accompanied by sufficient return postage.Copyright International Rice Research Institute 2006

NEWSClimate Change initiative ramps upNew evidence is emerging that climatechange could reduce not only theworld’s ability to produce food but also internationalefforts to cut poverty. However,the recent sequencing of the rice genome isalready providing researchers with some ofthe tools they need to help poor rice farmersand consumers avoid the worst effectsof the problem.The new knowledge generated by thesequencing effort is allowing scientists todevelop new rice varieties faster and withthe specific characteristics needed to dealwith climate change, such as tolerance ofhigher temperatures. However, scientistsare calling for more research to fully understandthe impact of climate change—especiallythe extreme weather it may cause—oninternational efforts to reduce poverty andensure food security.A Climate Change and Rice planningworkshop in March 2006 at the InternationalRice Research Institute (IRRI) in thePhilippines was told that climate change isalready affecting Asia’s ability to producerice, and that this could eventually slow effortsto reduce poverty in the region, wheremost of the world’s poor live.The workshop was informed that, toovercome many of the climate change-relatedproblems facing rice production inAsia—and continue to meet the demandfor rice in the region—yields will have todouble over the next 50 years. Research hasRice Knowledge Bank recognizedconfirmed that global warming will makerice crops less productive, with increasingtemperatures decreasing yields.“Clearly, climate change is going tohave a major impact on our ability to growrice,” IRRI Director General Robert Zeiglersaid. “We can’t afford to sit back and becomplacent about this because rice productionfeeds almost half the world’s populationwhile providing vital employment to millionsas well, with most of them being verypoor and vulnerable.”Dr. Zeigler announced at the workshopthat IRRI was ready to put up US$2 millionof its own research funds as part of an effortto raise $25 million for a major five-yearproject to mitigate the effects of climatechange on rice production. “We need to startdeveloping rice varieties that can toleratehigher temperatures and other aspects ofclimate change right now,” he said.“Fortunately, the recent sequencing ofthe rice genome will allow us to do this muchfaster than we could have in the past,” Dr.Zeigler added. “But, in addition to new ricevarieties, we must develop other technologiesthat will help poor rice farmers dealwith climate change.”The proposal plans include three siteson at-risk rice lands in the Philippines,southern China, and northern India. Researcherswill use data from these sites toconstruct models designed to predict theeffects of climate change and help developMA. ANGIE MAGHUYOPdemonstrates the RKBon board an ICT RoadShow bus.ence and Technology’s (DOST) MobileInformation Technology Classroom—a busthat in March and April toured the Philippinesas part of the K-AgriNet ICT RoadShow. The Road Show is promoting theuse of computers and the Internet to localgovernment officials, agricultural extensionworkers, and farmers.GINA ZARSADIASIRRI’s digital extension service,the Rice Knowledge Bank(RKB; www.knowledgebank.irri.org), was selected as a finalistin the 2006 Stockholm Challenge Awards.The awards, in their sixth year, recognizesome of the world’s best information andcommunication technology (ICT) projectsfor social and economic development. Theawards aim to find examples of ICT projectsthat show clear benefits to people and theircommunities, wide impact, and sustainablebusiness models. The RKB, entered in theEconomic Development category, was oneof 151 finalists chosen from 1,155 entries.The eventual winner in the RKB’s categorywas India’s “ITC eChoupal,” which usesICT to help improve the competitiveness ofsmall-farmer agriculture and enhance ruralprosperity. Information about all finalistsis available at http://event.stockholmchallenge.se.IRRI training staff also took the RKBaboard the Philippine Department of Sciresearchand policy directions and priorities.IRRI’s senior climate change researcher,John Sheehy, told the workshopthat poor farmers need help in several challengingnew areas. “We need to develop ricevarieties tolerant of higher temperaturesthat can maintain yield and quality whenextreme temperatures occur,” Dr. Sheehysaid. “We also need rice varieties that cantake advantage of higher levels of CO 2 in theatmosphere, rice that is vigorous enoughto recover quickly from extreme weatherevents and disasters, and very high-yieldingrice that will provide a supply buffer for poorcommunities during periods of change.”OSCAR vs. weedsnew technology called OSCAR—Open-A Source Simple Computer for Agriculturein Rural Areas—promises to help farmersin the Indo-Gangetic Plains identify andeliminate weeds in their fields. The software,which has a database of 50 differentweed species found in the Indo-GangeticPlains, was set to be updated with 250 morevarieties of such unwanted plants found inthe region.“The project builds an open-sourceweed identification system for major weedspecies for rice-wheat cropping systems ofIndo-Gangetic Plains covering India, Pakistan,Nepal, and Bangladesh,” Rice-WheatConsortium for the Indo-Gangetic PlainsHead Raj Gupta said. The French Instituteof Pondicherry initiated the project incollaboration with the consortium, InternationalCentre for Agricultural Researchand Development (CIRAD by its Frenchacronym) of France, and the NetherlandsbasedWageningen University.ARIEL JAVELLANARice Today July-September 20065

MARTIN GUMMERTNEWSPostharvest training goes digitalFor the first time ever, electronic learning(e-learning) has featured in an IRRIpostharvest training course. Postharvestmanagement for improved quality of ricegrain and seed, conducted by Martin Gummertof IRRI’s Agricultural EngineeringUnit and Geert Claessens of IRRI’s TrainingCenter, was held in Myanmar on 24-26 Apriland Laos on 10-12 May.Bangladeshi food securityPoverty Elimination Through Rice ResearchAssistance (PETRRA), a fiveyearproject funded by the Department forInternational Development of the UnitedKingdom and managed by IRRI in closepartnership with the Bangladesh Rice ResearchInstitute (BRRI), the BangladeshMinistry of Agriculture, and the resourcepoorrice farmers of Bangladesh, ended inAugust 2004.Participants were enthusiastic aboutthe computer-based e-learning, which waspart of the overall course on improvingpostharvest management and technologyto increase grain quality and reduce postharvestlosses, hence increasing income.In developing countries, inadequate postharvestpractices are estimated to result ina 10–15% loss in quantity and a 25–50%loss in value.The participants—23 in Myanmarand 18 in Laos—included extension workers,researchers, manufacturers, and ricemillers. The course included hands-onexercises on drying and milling systems anddemonstrations of how to set up hermeticstorage. Gummert also trained participantsto analyze rice seed and grain quality withsimple tools such as a weighing scale, athermometer, and a low-cost IRRI-designedmoisture meter.In light of PETRRA’s success, theEuropean Union is funding the Food Securityfor Sustainable Household Livelihoods(FoSHoL) project—coordinated by IRRI andkey NGOs—to deliver PETRRA technologiesacross Bangladesh, where around half thepopulation lives below the poverty line ofUS$1 per day, most of them in rural areas.The project target is to reach at least 50,000food-insecure households. For more information,visit the recently launched FoSHoLat www.foshol.org.China protects new plantvarietiesThe Chinese Ministry of Agriculture(MOA) announced in Beijing that Chinatoday ranks fourth in the world in applicationsfor protecting new agricultural plantvarieties as it tightens its regulations againstcounterfeit goods and new plant varieties aspart of the country’s intellectual propertyrights protection strategy. According to areport carried by the Xinhua news agencyon 24 April 2006, China has received 3,207applications for protecting new plant varieties,including 114 applications from foreignentities. The MOA said more than 700 applicationshave been approved.China signed the International Conventionfor the Protection of New Varieties ofPlants in 1999, becoming the 39th memberof the International Union for the Protectionof New Varieties of Plants. China refers toa new plant variety as a cultivated or developednew plant variety based on a wildplant, which is new, distinct, uniform, andstable, with a designated name. No one isallowed to grow or sell these new varietieswithout the owner’s permission.In the last 7 years, the government hasorganized more than 30 training programsto increase the public’s knowledge on plantbreeders’ rights, and issued laws and regulationsto fight against illegal cases violatingthose rights. More than 800 violation caseshave been investigated, 460 of which weretaken to court.No to rice futures tradingThe Japanese agriculture ministry hasdisapproved plans by the Tokyo Grain Exchangeand Kansai Commodities Exchangeto list rice futures contracts for trading onan experimental basis, saying this wouldgravely affect rice production and distribution.Japan initiated rice futures tradingin the 18th century and terminated it in1939.Highest Cambodian productionPrime Minister Hun Sen announced Cambodia’snearly 6 million metric tons of riceharvest in 2005, the best harvest in 27 years,representing a 43% increase over 2004 anda surplus of more than 2 million metrictons above the needed rice for domesticconsumption, Oryza.com reported.Joint forces in rice exportsOryza.com reported on 18 April 2006 thatVietnam and Thailand agreed to strengthentheir rice exports to stabilize rice prices inthe international market. Rachane Potjanasutom,head of Thailand’s Foreign TradeDepartment under the Trade Ministry, saidthe bilateral cooperation would includesupport by Thailand to improve the qualityof Vietnamese rice in aspects of harvesting,storing, selling, and transportation. The twonations are creating and applying a generalmarketing strategy on a trial basis, whichcould later be applied by the world’s topfive exporters, including China, Pakistan,and India.Emergency riceVietnam has contributed 14,000 tons of riceto the East Asia Emergency Rice Reserve(EAERR), a regional cooperation programamong China, Republic of Korea, and Japan,which aims to assist member countries copewith difficulties caused by natural disastersand disease. Of the 337,000 tons of ricereserved so far, 87,000 tons come fromcountries of the Association of SoutheastAsian Nations and 250,000 tons fromJapan. EAERR is now formulating regulationson rice aid action to quickly respondto emergency cases occurring in membercountries.Forbidden seedsThe trading of any strain of geneticallymodified (GM) rice is strictly prohibitedin China until it has passed a safety assessment,Director Fang Xiangdong of theMinistry of Agriculture’s Biosafety Officesaid in reaction to Greenpeace China’s allegationsof illegal commercialization ofpest-resistant GM rice cultivated and soldin Central China’s Hubei Province over thepast two years.Mice, rice enemy number 1Scientists from Vietnam, Australia, andIRRI recently held a meeting to implementa US$556,500 project, funded by the AustralianCentre for International AgriculturalResearch, to control mice in the Cuu Long(Mekong) Delta, Vietnam’s central-coastalregion, and southern Sulawesi in Indonesia.Mice destroy 15% of the rice produced annuallyin the Southeast Asian region. The proj-6Rice Today July-September 2006

Archaeological finds in China and JapanLarge quantities of rice said to be morethan 3,000 years old have been unearthedin Zhongshui town in GuizhouProvince by archaeologists in China. Xinhuanews agency quoted researcher ZhaoZhijun of the Archaeology Institute of theChinese Academy of Social Science saying,“The rice was found in numerous pits andit’s believed to be upland rice, since the ricegrains are much smaller and rice shoots aremuch shorter than those of paddy rice.” Thediscovery, which showed the systematiccultivation of rice in China more than 3,000years ago, would provide valuable insightsReducing grain shatteringScientists from Michigan State Universityled by plant biology associateprofessor Tao Sang, while undertakingrice domestication research, have identifiedfor the first time the genetic mutationthat reduces grain shattering, a feat thatcould help improve rice production. Theresearchers pinpointed a mutation inDNA causing an amino acid change in aprotein responsible for the nonshatteringof rice varieties.According to the electronic publicationScience Express, which publishedthe article Rice domestication by reducingshattering, the researchers firstinto the evolution of rice strains.Meanwhile, archaeologists in Japanhave unearthed an ancient wooden stripat the Shimoda Higashi archaeological remainsbearing inscriptions of rice growingfrom seed to harvest. The archaeologicalfind, measuring 36.8 centimeters long and11.1 centimeters wide, dates back to the early9th century and bears characters writtenin Chinese ink. Ancient history professorTakehiko Yoshimura of Meiji Universitysaid the strip indicated the role of womenin growing rice and seedlings, the YomiuriShimbun reported.determined rice chromosome 4 as beingresponsible for the reduced shattering.Then, plant biology research associateChangbao Li invented a process that allowedresearchers to efficiently completethe screening of 12,000 seedlings.Science Express quoted RichTriemer, chairperson of the Departmentof Plant Biology: “By tracing the breedingof rice and identifying the geneticmutations, the researchers have openednew doors to the science communitythat benefit the world through a moreeffective use of the land and water usedto grow rice.”Managing sheath blightScientists fromt h e T a m i lNadu AgriculturalUniversity,India, are undertakinga study onmanaging sheathblight disease inrice through geneticengineering.The authors of thestudy, Engineeringsheath blightresistance in eliteindica rice cultivarsusing genesencoding defenseproteins, which appeared in the journalPlant Science, aim to develop rice cultivarswith enhanced resistance to sheath blightby genetically transforming high-yieldingindica rice cultivars with a rice gene thatencodes a protein. Pathogenesis-relatedproteins can enhance plant resistance topathogens when overexpressed.The researchers, led by KrishnanKalpana, revealed that the engineered ricehad increased resistance to the rice fungusRhizoctonia solani when compared withnontransformed plants. In addition tosheath blight resistance, they found thatthe transgenic lines were also resistant tothe rice sheath rot pathogen, Sarocladiumoryzae.IRRIect, to be completed in 2009, will be carriedout jointly by the Australian CommonwealthScientific and Industrial Research Organisation,IRRI, and the Vietnamese Departmentfor Plant Protection, the Vietnam NewsAgency said.Irrigation rehabRestoration work on the Philippines’ nationaland communal irrigation systems isin full blast in response to President GloriaMacapagal Arroyo’s goal of attaining riceself-sufficiency by year 2009. The projectis expected to restore the productiveness ofsome 12,475 hectares of agricultural landsand benefit 21,500 farmers nationwide.Agriculture Secretary Domingo Panganibansaid that the nationwide rehabilitation willresult in “the efficient delivery and distributionof irrigation water.”Groundwater for rice productionMahabub Hossain, head of IRRI’s Social SciencesDivision, has advised the Jharkhandgovernment in India to tap groundwater forrice production. Speaking at a workshop onscaling up of technologies to improve rurallivelihood organized by the Birsa AgricultureUniversity, in collaboration with IRRIand the state’s agriculture department, Dr.Hossain told The Telegraph: “Jharkhandis mainly dependent on rains for irrigationpurposes. Even the Philippines has similarproblems. The farmers depend on rains orcanals that often dry up during summer.Therefore, groundwater becomes impor-GENE HETTELtant. One can take out the groundwaterand use it for irrigation. Even if the waterdries up, the rain, which comes for a shortperiod, can replenish the groundwater stockfor further use.”Clean boots for good cropsFarmers in the Cordilleras in northern Luzon,Philippines, were advised to regularlywash their boots because their soles andedges could transport pathogens or diseasecausingorganisms to their crops. RhodesiaCeloy-Manzan, an IRRI assistant scientistwho specializes in molecular genetics, explainedto farmers gathered at the BenguetState University that rubber boots, whensoiled and muddy, could become potentiallyhazardous in moving potent organisms fromfarm to farm and affect the natural balancebetween pathogenic (disease-causing) andbeneficial organisms on farmlands. Heradvice also goes to some 300,000 farmersin 13 towns of the province, according to areport from online news agency INQ7.neton 21 April 2006.Rice Today July-September 20067

IRRIAfrican rice newsNEWSNutrition revolution for AfricaAbout 100 leading scientists and policymakersfrom Africa met in Kenyato discuss new technologies for fightingmalnutrition and improving health. TheForum for Agricultural Research in Africaand HarvestPlus cohosted a workshop onbiofortification on 4-5 May in Mombasa.The workshop discussed the latestresearch on biofortification (developingcrops with higher levels of nutrients), andidentified strategies to develop biofortifiedcrops, including rice, in Africa and integratethem into national agricultural and healthpolicy agendas.HarvestPlus Director Howarth Bouis,speaking to reporters in Nairobi, Kenya, saidthat “addressing micronutrient malnutritionrequires a paradigm shift. Agriculturalresearch needs to move beyond increasingproductivity to improving food quality aswell. In this way, biofortification can play acritical role in improving health.”According to Professor Ruth Oniang’o,professor of food science and nutrition atthe Jomo Kenyatta University of Agricultureand Technology and IRRI Board of Trusteesmember, “Until now, the solution to micronutrientdeficiency among the poor has focusedon vitamin and mineral supplements,dietary diversity, and commercial foodfortification. While these approaches haveattained some success, they have not beenable to reach all those in need, particularlypeople in remote rural areas. By targetingstaple food crops grown and consumed bythe rural poor, biofortification can reachlarge numbers of people in a cost-effectiveand sustained manner.”Tidal irrigation in The GambiaTaiwanese technical mission that specializesin rice cultivation has extendedAits operations in the northern part of TheGambia’s Central River Divisionby building a tidal irrigationsystem in the area toenable farmers to grow riceand other crops throughoutthe year. About 4,000 farmerswill benefit from the project,enabling each to cultivate 24to 26 hectares of land, theDaily Observer reported on16 February 2006.Conserving dollarreservesThe governor of Nigeria’sOsun State, Prince OlagunsoyeOyinlola, has advocateda stop to rice importation toconserve and harness much-needed foreignreserves during the inauguration of twocommittees on the Presidential Initiative onRice Production. Prince Olagunsoye assuredgovernment support for rice processors insourcing modern processing equipmentby linking them to areas to obtain credit.Meanwhile, committee chair and deputygovernor Erelu Olusola Obada announcedthe release by the government, through theState Agricultural Development Board, offunds to purchase equipment and 13 tonsof rice seedlings, including upland andlowland seeds.Low production in GhanaGhana is experiencing low levels of domesticrice production and the loss ofthousands of jobs due to rice imports. Theextent of Ghana’s rice import surge wasdiscussed during a recent workshop onAgro-import surge study: the case of ricein Ghana. Deputy Minister for Local Governmentand Rural Development AbrahamDwuma Odoom said the government is consideringhow the promotion of the productionand consumption of locally producedrice could be achieved by incorporating itinto the National School Feeding Program,according to a report at Ghanaian onlinenews service www.myjoyonline.com.New rice in Uganda and The GambiaThe Japanese government is extendingthe Grant Assistance for UnderprivilegedFarmers, through the FAO, for thedissemination of the New Rice for Africa(NERICA) and improvement of rice productionsystems in the Republic of Uganda.Japanese Ambassador to Italy His ExcellencyYuji Nakamura and FAO DeputyDirector General David Harcharik signedan implementing agreement in Rome earlythis year.The project is intended to provideUgandan farmers with NERICA seedsand necessary training at a Farmers’ FieldSchool, an FAO training system to raise thetechnical knowledge of farmers.A Japanese government statementsaid, “In concrete terms, NERICA IV, whoseunit crop yields are 30% higher than localrice and whose growth to harvest is 20–30%faster, will be cultivated on a total of 1,000hectares of fields in the eastern, central,and western parts of the country. Farmersof 6,000 households will be provided withthe seed, fertilizer, and pedal threshers.They will also receive training in sowing andfertilizing for cultivation and postharvesttechniques after threshing. Farmers will alsolearn about self production of seed and thedistribution system.”Meanwhile, NERICA has taken itsroots in The Gambia because of its widerrange of adoption in most Gambian soils,especially on loamy clay soil, with goodvigorous growth. Its importance is also attributedto increased consumption due torapid population growth and the low levelof production, the Daily Observer reportedon 27 May 2006.Famara Badjie, an agriculture extensionworker in the Kombo North, said thatNERICA fits very well with The Gambia’serratic rainfall pattern, adding that the2005-06 NERICA rice harvest in Jambur isthree times more than that in 2004-05.Agricultural boost for Sierra LeoneThe Chinese government donated tractorsand other agricultural implements to thegovernment of Sierra Leone, the AwarenessTimes Newspaper reported on 29 March2006. The equipment was formally handedover by the Ambassador of the People’sRepublic of China to Sierra Leone, HisExcellency Cheng Wenju, to Minister ofAgriculture, Forestry, and Food Security,Sama Mondeh.China’s assistance to Sierra Leonestarted in 2002 by providing professionaltraining to 50 Sierra Leonean technicians inChina on rice cultivation, sending two expertmissions in 2002 and 2005 to examine thepossibility of establishing a technical hybridrice research and production team in thecountry, and sending eight experts to the BoAgricultural Station to enhance large-scaleproduction and processing of hybrid rice.China is also this year providing 18technicians for a food security programunder the South-South Cooperation Schemeof the Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO) of the United Nations, and sendingthree senior Chinese scientists to train ministryofficials and senior university studentson modern rice production for 6 months.8 Rice Today July-September 2006

Rice genetics pioneerpasses awayPEOPLEOver the years, Dr. Chang had sharedhis expertise in genetic conservation withnational agricultural research centers inChina and India as they established genebanks for other crop species.A native of Shanghai, China, Dr. Changcompleted his undergraduate degree at theUniversity of Nanking and earned mastersand Ph.D. degrees from Cornell Universityand the University of Minnesota, respectively.He was a fellow of the American Societyof Agronomy, the Institute of Biologyof the UK, the Crop Science Society of thePhilippines, and the Crop Science Societyof America. Among his many awards werethe 1988 Rank Prize for Nutrition andthe 1999 Tyler Prize for EnvironmentalAchievement.JESSE VICTOLEROTe-Tzu (T.T.) Chang, 79, passed away inTaiwan on 24 March 2006. Dr. Chang,IRRI’s principal geneticist for more than30 years and head of the InternationalRice Germplasm Center when he retiredin December 1991, was considered a worldauthority on rice genetics and conservation.His research on the evolution and variationof rice led to major advances in plant breeding,productivity, and disease resistancewith a profound impact on agricultural productivitythroughout much of Asia, Africa,and South America.Dr. Chang introduced Dee-geo-woogen,a Chinese dwarf rice, to IRRI’s breedingprogram in 1962. That led to the developmentof the first high-yielding semidwarfrice varieties. IR8, the first such variety tobe widely grown in the tropics, was releasedlate in 1966. It was followed by a successionof improved, early-maturing varieties withgenetic resistance to many of the majorinsect pests and diseases of rice.Faced with the peril of losing geneticresources that hold the key to the futuredevelopment of newer and better rice crops,Dr. Chang perceived the danger and putgreat effort into saving unimproved varietiesand their wild relatives.He mobilized international and multiagencyresources in 14 Asian nations andseveral African nations to undertake massivefield collections of nearly 40,000 specimens,many on the brink of extinction. Thiseffort made IRRI’s rice gene bank holdingsthe largest collection in the world for a singlecrop plant. Desirable genes from this invaluableresource continue to sustain advancesin global rice production.Keeping up with IRRI staffZahirul Islam, international researchfellow, has joined IRRI’s Social SciencesDivision (SSD) to coordinate the IRRI-InternationalFund for Agricultural Developmentproject on accelerating technologiesand adoption to improve livelihoods on therainfed Indo-Gangetic Plains at seven sitesin India and Bangladesh. Hari Gurungalso joined SSD as an international researchfellow.Yuichiro Furukawa, Ruben Lampayan,and Rachid Serraj joined the Cropand Environmental Sciences (CES) Divisionas a project scientist, postdoctoral fellow, andsenior crop physiologist, respectively.Inez Slamet-Loedin joined theGolden Rice Network as a shuttle scientistresponsible for developing the non-eventspecificregulatory dossier for Golden RiceSGR2, while Florencia Palis is a newpostdoctoral fellow with the CES Divisionresponsible for coordinating projects underthe Irrigated Rice Research Consortium(IRRC), among others. Trina Mendozaalso joined IRRC as an associate in communicationand extension.AchievementsAdam Barclay, Rice Today editor, wona Gold Award (1st place) in the Writingfor Magazines Category for the article,Dreams beyond drought that appeared onpages 14-21 of Vol. 4, No. 2 of Rice Today.The award was presented by the Associationfor Communications Excellence (ACE)during its annual meeting in Quebec City,Canada, 2-6 June 2006. ACE is an internationalorganization of communicators andinformation technologists that developsthe professional skills of its members toextend knowledge about agriculture, naturalresources and life and human sciences topeople worldwide. The article explored howAppointed heads of OrganizationalUnits as part of IRRI’s new strategic planare David Mackill, Plant Breeding, Genetics,and Biotechnology (PBGB) Division,including current PBGB staff and the plantpathology research groups of the formerEntomology and Plant Pathology Division(EPPD); T.P. Tuong, CES, including staffof the former Crop, Soil, and Water SciencesDivision and the entomology and ecologyresearch groups of the former EPPD; MahabubHossain, SSD, including currentstaff and units of SSD; Ruaraidh SackvilleHamilton, the T.T. Chang GeneticResources Center (GRC), including currentstaff of GRC; Graham McLaren, theIRRI-CIMMYT Crop Research InformaticsLaboratory (CRIL), including current staffof the former Biometrics and BioinformaticsUnit; and Melissa Fitzgerald, the GrainQuality, Nutrition, and Postharvest Center,including current staff of the former GrainQuality and Nutrition Research Centerand the agricultural engineering and postharvest research groups of the former AgriculturalEngineering Unit.drought in Asia delivers heartbreak and ripscommunities apart among the rural poor,but also how promising new research ishelping rice farmers avoid devastation.Anthropologist Florencia Palis ofIRRI’s Social Sciences Division receivedthe Nationally Recruited Staff Award forOutstanding Scientific Achievement at therecent Board of Trustees meeting at theinstitute’s Philippine headquarters. Dr.Palis was chosen for her independent ethnographicresearch that encompassed manycommunity settings and IRRI projects,including her research for the advancementof knowledge.Yuan Longping, director general ofthe China National Hybrid Rice Researchand Development Center, in April joinedthe elite U.S. National Academy of Sciencesas a foreign associate, one of the highesthonors in American science and engineering.Professor Longping, 76, is known as the“Father of Hybrid Rice” for his contributionin developing high-yield rice in China.Rice Today July-September 20069

NEWS FEATURESSetting the rice agendaGlobal rice productionhit a world-record 628million tons in 2005,after increasing for thethird consecutive season. The alltimehigh was announced in theApril 2006 issue of the Rice MarketMonitor, published by the Food andAgriculture Organization (FAO) ofthe United Nations, ahead of the 21stsession of the International RiceCommission (IRC) on 3-5 May 2006.What next?Key recommendations to come out of the 21stsession of the International Rice Commissionincluded• Member countries, fund donors, FAO, partnerinstitutions, and all other stakeholdersshould increase collaborative efforts andfunding support for a sustainable increasein rice production.• The partnership i n rice researchand development among national andinternational institutions, nongovernmentalorganizations, and the private sector shouldbe strengthened and broadened.• Strategies and policies for sustainable riceproduction should aim to help rice farmersefficiently manage resources—especiallywater—and reduce the environmental impactof farming.• Support should increase for initiatives topromote the development, dissemination,and adoption of rice varieties with highnutrient content (especially iron, zinc, andvitamin A).• New rice varieties should combine highyield with increased nutritional valueand improved tolerance of salinity, hightemperature, drought, and flood.• Rice production should be viewed as anintegrated system, from selection of seedthrough to food on the table, encompassingthe interactions and relationships amongrice plants and other organisms in riceecosystems.• To increase returns and employment fromrice production, support should increase forsmall and medium enterprises that use riceand its by-products (such as bran and husks)to manufacture value-added products.The IRC Secretariat also recommended aGlobal Expert Consultation, to be held beforethe 22nd session in 2010, to review progressand to identify strategies for up-scaling thetransfer of integrated crop management systemsfor increasing yield and profit, and reducingenvironmental degradation in rice production.“Growth reflected relativelyfavorable weather conditions inAsia, western Africa, and SouthAmerica, and the positive effectsof high prices in 2004, whichhad fostered a general increase inplantings,” according to the report.However, tight domesticsupplies and rising populationsleft a number of countries facingproduction shortfalls in 2004,leading to a spike in global importsin 2005 of 29 million tons—anotherrecord, but a figure that is expectedto drop slightly in 2006.The IRC session, held inChiclayo, Peru, brought togethernearly 100 participants, includingofficials from 61 countries, IRCmembers, and partner institutions,to discuss ways and means topromote international action onthe production, preservation,distribution, and consumption of rice.Organized by the Ministry ofAgriculture of Peru and the FAO, thetheme of the 21st session was Riceis life—bringing the implementationof the International Year of Rice tofarmers’ fields. The United Nationsdeclared 2004 as the InternationalYear of Rice to underline the needto coordinate efforts to combatpoverty, improve food security,and achieve the United NationsMillennium Development Goalsin the poor rice-producing areasof the world, which are home toclose to half of all humanity.Country representativespresented and analyzed theirnational rice research anddevelopment programs, discussingstrategies for sustainable increasesin rice production, reducingrice production’s environmentalimpact, and reducing hunger inpoor rice-producing populations.The IRC holds a session every 4years to review emerging issues andrecent achievements in scientific,technical, and socioeconomicmatters relating to sustainable riceproduction and rice-based farmingAILEEN DEL ROSARIO-RONDILLAsystems. The session also helpsmember countries develop theirnational rice programs, and promotesinteraction and collaborationamong national, regional, andinternational institutions.Rice, the main staple ofaround half the world’s population,constitutes one-fifth of the total foodenergy intake of everyone on theplanet. In Asia alone, more than 2billion people obtain around twothirdsof their daily dietary energyfrom rice and its by-products.But rice is not the preserve ofAsian countries alone. Accordingto FAO, almost a billion householdsin Asia, Africa, and the Americasdepend on rice systems for their mainsource of employment and livelihood,and rice production in sub-SaharanAfrica is now expanding faster thanany other crop but continues to beoutpaced by consumption. Further,26 countries in Latin Americaand the Caribbean cultivate rice,although the region’s productionis only 4.3% of the world total. InPeru itself, rice consumption—about50 kg of milled rice per personeach year—is higher than in otherLatin American countries.10 Rice Today July-September 2006

Breeding ricefor rainfedecosystemsby Mahabub HossainHead, Social Sciences Division,International Rice Research InstituteAsia has made remarkableprogress in boosting riceproduction and productivityover the last 4 decades. Mostof this increase has been achievedthrough the adoption of improvedrice varieties. But the progresshas remained uneven—countriesthat rely predominantly on rainfedecosystems continue to lag behind.Rainfed ecosystems—slopingand plateau uplands, medium todeeply flooded monsoon-dependentlowlands, and salt-affected coastalareas—still account for about 45%of total rice lands in Asia. Theseecosystems therefore remaincrucial to sustaining future growthin rice production, especially asimprovements in rice production inirrigated ecosystems are runningout of steam, with near completeadoption of improved varietiesand narrowing of yield gaps.Compared with this success, foodinsecurity and poverty are extensivein rainfed ecosystems and thedemand for food is growing fast.Rainfed ecosystemsare characterized bysevere abiotic stressessuch as drought,submergence, problemsoils, and strong winds.These factors mustbe considered, alongwith high yield andpest resistance, in anybreeding strategies forimproved varieties forrainfed systems. Todevelop high-yieldingvarieties appropriatefor these ecosystems,rice breeders from thenational agriculturalresearch systems of the riceproducingcountries of Asia seek tocombine local traditional varietiesthat possess abiotic stress tolerancewith elite lines obtained frominternational research centers.Such research involves complexbreeding procedures and often hasa low probability of success, and,when a variety is released, farmersand consumers may not accept it.We have seen promising progressin developing varieties for the rainfedupland ecosystem but many farmerscontinue to grow traditional varieties.The only major success has been inChina’s Yunnan Province, where theadoption of improved varieties wasfacilitated by investment in terracingthe sloping uplands and therebymodifying the growing environment.Substantial efforts have alsobeen made in improving varietiesfor the flood-prone ecosystem bychanging the rice plant’s capacity toelongate with rising floodwaters anddeveloping kneeing ability—the abilityof a plant that has been flattened byfloodwaters to grow upright againwhen the water recedes. However,farm-level data from Thailandshow limited adoption of improveddeepwater rice varieties because theeffect on yield has been marginal.Rather, farmers in the flood-proneecosystem have abandoned deepwaterrice in favor of growing shorterdurationhigh-yielding rice varieties(often raising two rice crops in thesame year) developed for the irrigatedecosystem, therebysubstantiallyincreasing riceproduction andincome. Thisdevelopment startedin the Mekong Deltaof South Vietnamand subsequentlyspread to theGanges delta inBangladesh andWest Bengal,India, where itwas augmentedby pumpinggroundwaterthrough smallscaleirrigation. This approach isnow proceeding rapidly in the ChaoPhraya delta of central Thailand.Progress in developing varietiesfor rainfed lowlands has beenrelatively slow. In India, for example,18 varieties were released permillion hectares in 1970-2000 forthe irrigated ecosystem, comparedwith only 9 for the rainfed lowlandecosystem. But there has beenconsiderable spillover of varietiesreleased for the irrigated systeminto the rainfed lowland system.However, data on the effect ofadoption show that rice yield hasremained low because farmersare reluctant to invest in adequateinputs—such as fertilizer—becauseof the risks of crop failure fromdrought and submergence.Recent efforts in using modernbiotechnology tools to incorporatedrought and submergence toleranceinto popularly grown modernvarieties may help increase riceproduction in the rainfed lowlands.Progress in breedingrice for rainfedecosystems is essentialif poor farmers are toimprove both theirproductivity andtheir livelihoodAdapted from a paper presented atthe 21st Session of the InternationalRice Commission, held in Chiclayo,Peru, 3-5 May 2006.Rice Today July-September 200611

Virtual challengesby Johnny GoloyugoIn the fast-changing world of the digital era, theworld’s foremost collection of information onrice and rice research is moving with the timesAt the helm of the IRRILibrary—chief librarianMila Ramos.In 1960, the founding fathers of theInternational Rice Research Institute(IRRI) recognized the need,especially in the developing world,for accessible knowledge and informationin the field of rice research.In his book, An adventure inapplied science: a history of the InternationalRice Research Institute,IRRI’s first director general, RobertChandler, wrote that an essential elementof the institute “would be a goodlibrary that would contain the worldcollection of important rice literatureand such other reference materialsas would be needed by a group ofnatural and social scientists engagedin an active research and trainingprogram. Furthermore, the facilityshould be able to make available toJOSE RAYMOND PANALIGANscientists in developing countriesany articles that they were unableto get in the libraries of the institutionswhere they were working.”Now, almost 50 years later, theprogress of rice research is availablefor all to see in the world’s largestrepository of rice literature—IRRI’sLibrary and Documentation Services(LDS).The institute’s first chief librarianwas Lina Manalo, who, in the wordsof Dr. Chandler, “built the best libraryamong the network of internationalagricultural research centers.”Today, the LDS houses a total bibliographyof more than 230,000 references,including more than 138,000books and monographs, and over1,400 journals. There are also doctoraltheses, conference proceedings,and comprehensive reference, audiovisual,and map collections. Thesepublications are accessible not only tothe library’s average 70 daily walkinclients, but also online at http://ricelib.irri.cgiar.org. The libraryalso houses documents in around80 languages—English accounts forjust over half, Japanese almost onefifth, and Chinese 6%. The entirebibliography is available in print, onCD, and online, and is updated daily.The library also offers electronicalerts, computerized literaturesearches, and electronicand print document delivery. Justas important, the LDS trains librariansfrom other organizations,and trains IRRI staff on databasecreation and management.At the helm of the LDS is MilaRamos. A graduate of the Universityof the Philippines, Ramos began atthe library in 1965. Over the ensuing41 years, she has served at the world’smost comprehensive repository ofinformation on rice, rising to her currentposition of chief librarian. Alongwith former LDS Head Ian Wallace(1993-99), Ramos has helped lead thelibrary into the digital era. In 2001,the LDS received the Outstanding Academicand Research Library Awardfrom the Philippine Association ofAcademic and Research Librarians.The LDS’s staff of 14—smallerthan that of most comparable organizations—handlesadmirablythe challenges that come withbeing responsible for such an importantbody of information.“The big challenge,” explainsRamos, “is being able to provideinstant and easy access to electronicsources of information, journalsespecially. But the costs of e-resourcesare rising and we can provideonly a fraction of what our scientistswould like. The IRRI librarians needto be persistent and resourceful tobe able to look for needed researcharticles for free or at the least cost.”The emergence of new informationand communication technologies(ICT) poses another big challenge.“With the new ICTs,” says Ramos,“the role of the library will get biggeras the amount of knowledge availableon the Web increases at an exponentialrate. The task of the library is tonavigate this maze, evaluate and selectmaterials that would benefit ricescientists, keep users aware of what’savailable, and ensure quick access.”Meanwhile, assistant chieflibrarian and rice bibliographerCarmelita Austria points out thatprint publications remain as importantas ever. “Computers will notreplace books,” she says. “We donot simply replace old technologieswith new ones. Print and electronicresources have their own strengths.”Making the ever-increasingknowledge available to the peoplewho need it is indeed a great challengefor librarians. Failure meansthat all those print and electronicresources are consigned to gatherdust—both real and virtual— in thearchives. With Ramos and her staff incharge, the needs of rice researchersacross the globe are in safe hands.12Rice Today July-September 2006

MAPSFalse color gives atrue impressionby Greg FanslowFor this issue’s article on bird diversity andwetland conversion (see Balanced on a wingon pages 34–36), Rice Today needed a landcovermap of Candaba marsh to compare historicaland current conditions and plan a field visit. Theonly available maps weren’t detailed enough andhadn’t been updated since the mid-1970s, so theIRRI Geographic Information Systems lab usedfreely available LandSat data from the Global LandCover Facility (http://glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/index.shtml) at the University of Maryland in the USA.Because of our interest in vegetation cover, satellitedata were reprocessed into false color images thatexploit the high infrared reflectance of chlorophyll—thegreen pigment in plants—to render vegetation patterns.The image is termed “false color” because theimaging process displays the intensities of red,green, and infrared radiation recorded by satellitesensors as shades of, respectively, green, blue, andred instead (see https://zulu.ssc.nasa.gov/mrsid/tutorial/Landsat%20Tutorial-V1.html). In the resultingimage, vegetation is in varying shades of red, wateris blue, and bare or fallow areas are light brown.False color images of Candaba marsh on 17 March 1976 and 3 April2002. While there were small differences in the infrared data collectedbetween the two years, this comparison gives an immediate sense ofthe magnitude of change that has occurred to the landscape due toconstruction of agricultural fields and, to a lesser extent, fish ponds.17 March 1976After field visits to several areas shown on the 2002 falsecolor map (bottom right), image-processing software wasused to characterize the spectral signature of areas underrice cultivation (green on map below) and fish ponds (blue).These signatures were then automatically applied to therest of the image to approximate the extent of these typesof land cover. While significant work on the ground wouldbe needed to fully validate these results, they give a generalimpression of the extent of fish ponds and agriculturalfields and illustrate the power of remote-sensing analysisto facilitate studies of landscape-scale phenomena.3 April 20022002IMAGE PROCESSED BY AILEEN MAUNAHAN (3)14 Rice Today July-September 2006

Korea-IRRI collaborationmultiplies benefitsAs part of the “Top RiceProject” of the Republic ofKorea’s Rural DevelopmentAdministration (RDA), 25 tons ofhigh-quality rice seed were harvestedin February-March at the Philippineheadquarters of the InternationalRice Research Institute (IRRI).The seed was transported in afleet of trucks to the Ninoy AquinoInternational Airport, Manila, on31 March and has since made itsway to the RDA’s National Instituteof Crop Science in Suwon, Korea.The Top Rice Project, launchedin 2005, aims to develop andpopularize high-quality rice in Korea.As part of this drive, RDA and IRRIinitiated the Large-Scale Korean SeedMultiplication Project in 2005-06.Through this seed multiplicationproject, newly developed premiumqualityvarieties—known asGopumbyeo and Unkwangbyeo—arebeing multiplied at IRRI beforetransport to Korea and distributionto Korean rice farmers.Multiplication of Korean rice seedat the IRRI farm in the Philippineshas been an important part of Korea’srice production for almost fourdecades. The country’s achievementARIEL JAVELLANA (2)of rice self-sufficiency through theGreen Revolution of the 1970s wasmade possible through similar pastcollaboration between IRRI and RDA.The first Korean Seed MultiplicationProject, for rapid dissemination ofthe popular Tongil variety, occurredin the 1969-70 dry season.Multiplication of Korean rice seedin the Philippines has also enabledKorea to accelerate its researchprograms. Since 1970, Korea hassent its rice breeding nurseries andadvanced lines to the Philippinesfor seed multiplication during thewinter, thus cutting years off the timerequired to develop new rice varieties.This practice has also helpedKorea protect its farmers againstproduction threats. In 1980-81, forexample, Korean rice breeders usedA fleet of trucks loaded with 25 tonsof high-quality rice seed leaves IRRIheadquarters for Manila’s Ninoy AquinoInternational Airport on 31 March 2006enroute to Korea.IRRI Senior Scientist Hung-Goo Hwang (center),Visiting Research Fellow Kyu-Seong Lee (right), andIRRI Director General Robert Zeigler inspect one ofthe seed-laden trucks before its departure.the Philippine-grown winter cropto gain time in a “gene rotation”program to retain blast resistancein Korea’s rice crop. In November1980, 305 kilograms of Korean seedwere multiplied at IRRI into 120.5tons. Once back in Korea, that seedwas further multiplied on 2,544hectares during the Korean summerof 1981. The following year, it wasused to plant 130,000 hectares ofKorea’s then 1.2 million hectaresof rice land, so providing a geneticbarrier to the spread of rice blast.The most recent Korean rice seedmultiplication was performed in a14-hectare upland field at IRRI underthe supervision of Hung-Goo Hwang,a senior Korean scientist secondedfrom RDA currently working inIRRI’s Plant Breeding, Genetics,and Biotechnology Division, andKyu-Seong Lee, visiting researchfellow and RDA senior rice breeder.“I am very happy that wereached our target productionand we finished our projectsuccessfully,” said Dr. Hwang.Rice Today July-September 2006 15

Tricksby Gene Hettelof theTradeIn Asia, the question of whether or not to liberalize rice trade is a vexing one.If liberalization is to occur at all, it needs to happen gradually and with anunderstanding of how people—especially the poor—will be affectedThe smattering ofprovocative headlines(at left), appearingin recent issues ofvarious Philippine dailynewspapers, mirrors a basic issue onthe minds of many Filipinos: Whydoes the Philippines import rice, andwhy can’t the country produce enoughof its staple food to feed its people?“Indeed, in a country wherehalf-full rice bins are a cause forgreat concern in a given household,having a sufficient rice supplyfor all Filipinos’ consumption isour government’s priority,” saysLeocadio Sebastian, executivedirector of the Philippine RiceResearch Institute (PhilRice).To meet this moving target,the Philippines has needed to buyrice from other countries suchas Thailand, Vietnam, and eventhe United States for most of thepast 130 years. “Rice is such anintegral part of history and culturein the Philippines that, for someFilipinos, this fact is a source ofnational shame,” says David Dawe,Bangkok-based economist for theFood and Agriculture Organization(FAO) of the United Nations.Many reasons are typicallyput forth to explain the failure toachieve rice self-sufficiency—faultygovernment policy, corruption,conversion of rice land to otheruses, backward rice farmers,deteriorating irrigation systems, andlack of farm credit, among others.JOSE RAYMOND PANALIGAN (2)“But all countries,” says Dr. Dawe,“including several rice exporters,complain about these problems.Although some of these problemsare important, they do not explainwhy the Philippines imports rice.”But then what does explain it?In a word, it is geography. SaysDr. Dawe: “The Philippines importsrice because it is a nation of islandswithout any major river deltaslike those in Thailand andVietnam. The major traditionalexporters—Thailand, Vietnam,Cambodia, and Myanmar—are allon the Southeast Asian mainland,while the countries that have beenconsistently importing rice formore than 100 years—Indonesia,the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Japan,Korea, and Malaysia—are all islandsor narrow peninsulas.” (See Riceimports come with the territory onpage 37 of Rice Today Vol. 3, No. 2.)Although the presence or absenceof river deltas is the overridingfactor in explaining why some Asiancountries import rice and othersexport it, other reasons are also atwork. In the Philippines, geographyis again the culprit. Located off theeastern edge of the Asian continent,the Philippines bears the brunt ofnumerous typhoons, making riceproduction more difficult, risky,and often unpredictable. Thailandand the Mekong and Red Riverdeltas are much less affectedby such recurring disasters. Inaddition, the Philippines’ rice sectorhas high labor costs that must bereduced—without reducing wages—inorder to increase productivity.So, what would happen if ricetrade were liberalized? Would it meanthat the Philippines might end upimporting even more rice? To lookat the consequences of such a policydecision in the Philippines—and othercountries for that matter— PhilRiceand the International Rice Research16 Rice Today July-September 2006 Rice Today July-September 200617

Rice is an intregral part of life, history, and culture in the Philippines.Institute (IRRI), with the supportof the Bureau of AgriculturalResearch (BAR) of the Departmentof Agriculture of the Philippines,conducted a 3-year study of the issuesinvolved. BAR’s support enabledthe research team of Dr. Dawe,who was then still stationed in thePhilippines as an IRRI economist,Piedad Moya, senior associatescientist in IRRI’s Social SciencesDivision, and Cheryll Casiwan,economist with the SocioeconomicsDivision of PhilRice, to bring togetheragricultural experts from many otherPhilippine organizations, such as theBureau of Agricultural Statistics,the National Food Authority, andstate colleges and universities.Trade liberalization, although aterm used widely today, is often notproperly understood. “It does notnecessarily mean more imports forall commodities in all situations,”explains Ms. Moya. “What it doesmean is that the price for a specificcommodity inside the country(the domestic price) becomes thesame as the price for that samecommodity outside the country (theworld price), after taking accountof the exchange rate and anynecessary transportation costs.”Generally speaking, for anycommodity that is tradable acrossinternational borders, the domesticprice will naturally tend to equal theworld price unless the governmentintervenes with trade restrictions.If domestic prices are higher thanworld prices, private traders willtry to profit by importing fromabroad, buying low, and selling high.This process will continue untilthe additional supply of importslowers domestic prices and erasesthose profits. The reverse willhappen if world prices are higherthan domestic prices: privatetraders will profit by exporting.For rice in the Philippines,only the government has the legalauthority to arrange imports.“Because the government iscurrently limiting the quantity ofimports each year,” says Ms. Moya,“the law of supply and demandsuggests that domestic prices willrise, and, in fact, they have.”It is not widely known, evenin the Philippines, that Filipinofarmers receive much higher pricesfor their palay (rice at harvestbefore the husk is removed) than dofarmers in neighboring developingcountries. Further, farm pricesfor rice have increased during thepast 10 years much faster than forother key agricultural commoditiessuch as corn. Not surprisinglythen, the very high prices receivedby Filipino farmers translate intovery high rice prices paid by poorconsumers. The large gap betweenworld prices and domestic rice pricesnot only harms consumers, it alsocreates opportunities for corruptionthat would disappear if the pricedifferential were much smaller.During the past few years, thePhilippines has imported about 10%of its consumption requirements.According to May 2006 pressreports, the projected rice importtotal for 2006 will amount to around1.4 million metric tons. Becausepalay and rice prices are higherin the Philippines than on worldmarkets (sometimes nearly doubleworld prices), the researchers’analyses show that rice tradeliberalization would most likelymean more rice imports than this.“Lower palay and rice pricesdue to increased imports would, ofcourse, hurt palay farmers,” says Dr.Dawe, “especially those with largesurpluses to sell. Many palay farmersare poor, but many are not, and mostof the benefits of high prices accrueto the larger, better-off farmersbecause they have the most surplusto sell. However, there is no doubtthat some small, poor palay farmerswould be hurt by trade liberalization.”PHOTOGRAPHY BY ARIEL JAVELLANA, GENE HETTEL, AND JOSE RAYMOND PANALIGANOn the other hand, the researchsuggests that lower prices resultingfrom increased imports wouldbenefit the many poor consumerswho spend more than 20% oftheir income on rice alone. “Theseconsumers consist of fishers, landlesslaborers, corn farmers, and theurban poor—in fact, most poorpeople in the Philippines are notrice farmers,” Dr. Dawe points out.In a trade liberalization scenariothat results in more rice imports,Filipino farmers would need toeither become more competitivein rice production or explorealternative crops. “One promisingway to improve competitiveness isthrough the use of hybrid rice, a newtechnology that could increase yieldsand profits in areas and seasons thatare suitable for its cultivation,” saysMs. Casiwan. “PhilRice is conductingconsiderable hybrid rice researchthat will, we hope, provide farmerswith this additional option.”Progressive rice farmers can andare exploring growing other crops.“The choice of alternative crops willvary from province to province andsome of these alternatives are evenmore profitable than rice and wouldmake farmers wealthier,” says Ms.Casiwan. “But these crops are alsooften riskier to plant than rice, andthe government and private sectorwill need to work together to reducethe effects of this risk on farmers.”(See Opportunities beyond growingrice on pages 22–23, for a farmer’sperspective on the role of cropdiversification in the Philippines.)Rice farmers who switch cropswill not lose their household ricesecurity. “They can still choose toplant some rice if liberalizationoccurs,” says Ms. Casiwan. “Only asmall portion of their land—about0.15 hectare of double-cropped landfor a family of five—is necessaryto feed their own family.”As the study found, tradeliberalization will have both positiveand negative effects. So, PhilRice’sDr. Sebastian and IRRI DirectorGeneral Robert Zeigler urge that anyrelaxation of government importrestrictions that does occur in aneffort, for example, to benefit poorconsumers should be done gradually,not all at once. In the foreword to thebook that details the results of thisresearch, Why does the Philippinesimport rice? (see box at right), theywrite that “Gradual changes makeit easier for all members of societyto adjust their lives to changedcircumstances. Any analyst with adose of humility must admit to beingless than perfect, and a gradualapproach to reform would allowan assessment of changes beforefull reform is implemented.”“In thinking about the futureof rice policy in the Philippinesor any country for that matter, itis important to keep a balancedperspective,” says Dr. Dawe. “Riceis what many farmers grow, but itis also what nearly all consumerseat. In many cases, farmers havemore flexibility to switch cropsthan consumers—especially poorones—do to switch their staple food.”Although self-sufficiency can be alaudable goal, it can cause great harmif it is pursued at all costs, withoutregard for the welfare of the poor.Self-sufficiency pursued throughimprovements in productivityand competitiveness is much lesslikely to have negative side-effects,and is a target worth pursuing.Indeed, in one recent story in thePhilippine press, National FoodAuthority Administrator GregorioTan Jr. is quoted as saying, “If wecan be self-sufficient in a competitivemanner, then well and good.”It is important that policymakersreach decisions with as muchinformation as possible. ThePhilRice-IRRI research teamhas endeavored to provide thatinformation so that decisions canbe made to help the millions ofFilipinos living in poverty—riceproducers and consumers alike.Why Does the PhilippinesImport Rice? Meetingthe challenge of tradeliberalizationA book edited by David C. Dawe, Piedad F.Moya, and Cheryll B. Casiwan and publishedby IRRI and PhilRice.Emanatingfrom a 3-year jointPhilRice-IRRIstudy, this bookattempts to answerthe question onthe cover, andthen proceeds tothe even moredifficult issue ofwhat would happenif rice trade wereliberalized andthe Philippines began to import more rice.Although written by experts on the riceeconomy and some of the country’s youngeconomists, this book is intended for ageneral lay audience. The reader need not befamiliar with complex concepts and jargonin economics or mathematics in order tounderstand the arguments presented. Allthat is necessary is an open mind and awillingness to think carefully.The primary goal of this book is to beeducational. For example, the Philippinesimports rice because it is an island nation;Filipino farmers receive high rice prices; farmlaborers, not rice farmers, do the bulk of thework producing the nation’s rice; and mostof the poorest people in the Philippines arenot rice farmers. If readers retain just someof these facts about the rice sector in thePhilippines, and discuss them with friendsand colleagues, then the publication will havebeen successful.For more information about purchasingthis book, access IRRI’s online publicationscatalog at www.irri.org.18 Rice Today July-September 2006 Rice Today July-September 200619

Ariel Javellana20 Rice Today July-September 2006 Rice Today July-September 200621Rice Today July-September 2006, Vol. 5, No. 3A different kind of rice landscape—hills and valleys of sacks waiting to be unloaded from a ship docked at Manila, Philippines.

Opportunities beyond growingrice—a farmer’s perspectiveIf rice trade liberalization wereto occur and result in more riceimports, one potentially viableoption for rice farmers wouldbe to plant alternative crops. Soils,climate, and the degree of economicdevelopment vary throughout thedifferent provinces of the Philippines.Because of these differences, riceproduction systems are different,and so are the alternative crops thatcould be grown if trade liberalizationmade rice less profitable for farmers.Here, Florentino M. Santiago, aprogressive Filipino farmer fromCentral Luzon in the Philippines,offers his thoughts on diversification.Growing up on a farm, Santiago,Jr., 36, has always known thelanguage of agriculture. As a youngboy, he watched his father toil onthe farm so he could send him andhis eight siblings to school. Theonly child who studied agriculturein school, Santiago now works asPHILRICE (2)FLORENTINO M. SANTIAGO tendssome of the nonrice crops on hisfarm in Central Luzon, Philippines,and (top opposite) feeds his pigs.a PhilRice farmer-consultant. TheTalavera, Nueva Ecija, native iscommitted to proving that thereis indeed money in farming.Santiago’s ambition has alwaysbeen to become a professionalfarmer and a role model to thefarming community. He felt a need toinfluence traditional farmers when herealized their dire need for moderntechnologies. He practices land-useplanning and uses every space on hisfarm to obtain higher income. Sinceincome from rice is not enough tomeet the basic needs of his family,he intercrops gabi (taro), vegetables,and mango trees on his 3.25-hectarefarm and has also ventured into fishculture. To minimize his expenseson chemical fertilizers, he usesindigenous materials available on thefarm—animal waste, rice straw, andother organic materials. He attendstraining and seminars conductedby different government andnongovernment agencies to augmenthis practical experience in farming.The rice yield on his farmnormally reaches 5.8 tons perhectare. Planting only rice willgive him an annual gross incomeof about 150,000 Philippine pesos(US$2,900). With 300 mango treesplanted along the dikes around hisrice farm, he is earning an additionalincome of $1,750 per year. Annualprofit from gabi is higher at $2,900.Fish harvests give him an extra$580, while his vegetable produceadds $390 to his household income.Thus, adopting an integrated farmingsystem by devoting 2.25 hectares forrice cultivation and allocating smallportions of his land to fish and othercrops more than doubled his annualgross income to at least $6,600.Diversifying his farm increasedhis family income and reduced therisk in relying solely on rice farming.Moreover, diversification benefitsthe environment as it helps improvesoil conditions and forces farmers toreduce their chemical applications onthe farm. However, “Diversificationdoes not mean abandoning rice,” hesays cautiously, “but simply usingprudent land-use planning.”For rice farmers, Santiagosees diversification as one safetynet for rice trade liberalization.“Unfortunately, our farmershave not been prepared wellfor this possibility,” he says. “Isee capital, or lack of it, as onedeterrent to diversification formost farmers. Usually, it is simplybecause they are not aware ofwhere to get additional money orthey are afraid to take risks.”In Nueva Ecija, where a distinctdry season exists, pumps—whichmay cost a farmer at least $680—areneeded to irrigate farms after the22 Rice Today July-September 2006

wet season. Restructuring of landto suit other crops also seems tobe a stumbling block for farmers.Santiago quickly points out, however,that municipal government officeshave heavy equipment that can berented at a minimal fee to restructurelots. Farmers also need to investsome time to learn about the cropssuited for cultivation consideringthe soil type and climate. Becausehis farm soil is mostly heavy clay,Santiago is mindful that he cannotplant onion, so he opted for othervegetables such as sitao (cowpea),talong (eggplant), and gabi. Anotherimportant issue is the high laborrequirement for planting vegetablescompared with planting rice alone.In cases in which farmers donot diversify, Santiago assertsthat farmers are either indolent orignorant. He stresses the importanceof farmers’ initiative in increasingtheir household income throughdiversification. “I firmly believethat farmers themselves shouldmake the first move in obtainingtheir inputs and capital needs andnot depend on the government tosupply them with those needs,” hesays. “The role of the governmentand the extension service shouldbe in making sure technologies andopportunities reach farmers.”His competence as a skilledfarmer manager was first recognizedin 1998. From then on, Santiago hasconsistently been honored as oneof the outstanding rice farmers inCentral Luzon. Although focused onfarming, he is active in communityaffairs and development, servingas chairman of a cooperative andof an agrarian reform council inhis barangay (district). He stilldreams of expanding his farmbecause he sees opportunities infarming that would eventuallymake him a peso millionaire.Adapted from Chapter 16 of Why Doesthe Philippines Import Rice?Trade liberalization:an agricultural economist’s perspectiveRice Today recently discussed the issue of rice trade liberalization with DavidDawe, Bangkok-based economist for the Food and Agriculture Organization ofthe United Nations and former International Rice Research Institute economist.Rice Today: What effects can tradereforms have on reducing poverty?Dr. Dawe: The effects of trade reforms on poverty andfood security are complex and will vary depending onsocial structure (e.g., the proportion of landlessnessin the rural population, inequality of land ownership),infrastructure, the specific commodity involved (e.g.,whether it is preferentially consumed by the poor or wellto-do,whether it is being imported or exported in anyparticular country), and many other factors. This complexitymeans that analyses of specific countries and commoditiesare highly valuable, although some generic lessons can begleaned from the studies described in Trade liberalization,poverty and food security, a part of the new publicationfrom the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, TheState of Food and Agriculture in Asia and the Pacific.Rice Today: If any country decided to import morerice, in part, to benefit poor consumers, can today’sworld market be trusted to provide those supplies?Dr. Dawe: In the mid-1970s, the answer was uncertain. Today,however, the world rice market has fundamentally changed.World rice production is more stable because of more irrigationand high-yielding varieties with pest and disease resistance.Rice Today July-September 200623

ARIEL JAVELLANA (2)In addition, more exporting countries are commerciallyoriented—the health of their own domestic rice economiesdepends on being reliable suppliers to the world market. Asproof, the world market has successfully weathered two recentevents that did not turn into crises—the massive El Niño of 1998and China’s rice imports in 2004 and 2005. Today, althoughprice fluctuations still occur on the world market, rice pricesare more stable than ever before, and they are more stablethan world prices for other cereal grains. So, the world ricemarket can be trusted once again, just as it could in the 1950s.Rice Today: What about price stabilitywhen opening to external markets?Dr. Dawe: Trade can play an important role in ensuringprice stability, as in the case of Bangladesh during the “floodof the century” in 1998 that caused a drop in rice production.The government eliminated tariffs on rice imports duringthe crisis and the increased supplies brought in from Indiaby private traders kept domestic prices stable. In additionto trade, government storage also has a role to play inensuring price stability, but the costs of food reserves areoften much higher than the benefits. Tariffs that vary inresponse to changing world prices and domestic harvests(either according to a predetermined schedule or on anad hoc basis) may be a more cost-effective mechanism forstabilizing domestic prices. This is a more feasible optiontoday than it was in the 1970s, because of the increasedstability in the world rice market mentioned earlier. Suchtariffs should be imposed only for key commodities, confinedto a low level, and used to moderate price fluctuations,not provide protection for an extended length of time.Rice Today: What is your take on riceexporters trying to form an organization ofrice-exporting countries that would lead toa cartel of rice exporters just like in oil?Dr. Dawe: First of all, rice is very different from oil in thatproduction comes from millions of small farmers actingindependently, as opposed to a few oil wells controlled by agovernment planner. This makes it difficult to control surplusproduction if a cartel is successful in raising prices. Second,rice is a perishable commodity, unlike oil. Thus, when surplusesaccumulate, and governments try to keep prices high byholding these surpluses off the market, they will suffer largefinancial losses as the rice deteriorates in storage. Third, riceexporters have been trying to form this cartel for many yearswithout success, as the interests of the exporters are verydiverse. While some countries may try to increase world priceson their own by holding back their rice stocks, other nationsare happy to provide more opportunities for their farmers toexport at any time. In other words, enforcement is a problem,as with all cartels. Fourth, oil prices are high today becauseof recent increases in demand and the prospects of furtherincreases in demand from India and China, as well as politicalinstability in the Middle East. In contrast, rice demand isincreasing relatively slowly as wealthy and middle-class Asianconsumers diversify their diets away from staple foods in favorof meats, dairy products, vegetable oils, and fruits. Becauseof all these factors, it will be difficult for a rice exporters’cartel to increase prices by more than a small amount.For more information on this topic, see Tradeliberalization, poverty and food security in the newpublication from the FAO Regional Office for Asia and thePacific, The State of Food and Agriculture in Asia and thePacific. The publication can be obtained online atwww.fao.org/world/regional/rap/publication.aspor by sending an email to david.dawe@fao.org.24 Rice Today July-September 2006

A rice futurefor AsiaThai and Filipino high school students come together to help ensure the rice industry’sfuture in Asia, sparking new friendships—and friendly rivalries—along the wayRice and agricultureare still fundamentalto the economicdevelopment of mostAsian nations, not to mentiontheir cultural and socialidentities. The rice industryhas been a foundation of theAsian way of life for generations.In much of Asia, rice plays acentral role in politics, society,and culture, and directlyor indirectly employs morepeople than any other sector.A healthy rice industry,especially in Asia’s poorercountries, is crucial to thelivelihoods of rice producersand consumers alike.Farmers need to achieve goodyields without harming theenvironment so that theycan make a good living whileproviding the rice-eating publicwith a high-quality, affordablestaple. Underpinning this, a strongrice research sector can help reducecosts, improve production, andensure environmental sustainability.Indeed, rice research has been akey to productivity and livelihoodgains over the last four decades.But, in recent years, one majorproblem has emerged that threatensto halt this progress: the youngpeople of Asia don’t want to workin the industry. And they havesupport—many existing rice farmers,having experienced for themselvesthe unforgiving life that often definesfarming for a living, are encouragingtheir children to leave the land forcareers in burgeoning urban andindustrial sectors. Even fewer youngAsians are choosing careers inrice science, despite its vitalimportance to the region.However, an innovativeproject launched in Aprilin Thailand and thePhilippines marks the startof a major new effort toencourage young Asians toconsider a future in rice.“It’s a sad fact of life inmodern Asia that many youngpeople in the region don’t thinkof rice as offering an excitingor promising career, so theyfocus on other industries andother careers,” says RobertZeigler, director generalof the International RiceResearch Institute (IRRI).On 24–28 April 2006,IRRI, together with theThai Rice Foundationunder Royal Patronage andPhilippine Rice ResearchInstitute (PhilRice), hosted 19 highschool students, aged 16–18, fromThailand and the Philippines ata “rice camp,” designed to boosttheir interest in rice and science.The nine Filipinos and tenThais—all from rice-farmingfamilies, they were selected becauseof their interest in, or knowledgeof, rice—spent 5 days at IRRI’sJOSE RAYMOND PANALIGANRice Today July-September 200625

The future ofrice in Asia?The following students participatedin the rice camp at IRRI:ThailandSupawan FukkearwSuwassa SemsilBoontawee KuhanaLeenlada MonpoNarumol NookongSasiwimon SaengaawangSantad KlaithinWeerasak MegweePreeda LunleeAnon ChaiyasatrPhilippinesFaye Victoria CasimeroJoana Joyce GadianoEvelita CaraPamela CunananJeniffer PascualRomarc CorpuzMc Christian Julius Macaranas IIMichael John Albert MaligCarlos Miguel Jr.These photos show the Filipino and Thai students enjoying activities—not all of them centered on rice—at the rice camp.PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOSE RAYMOND PANALIGAN, LAURO ATIENZA, AND CHRISANTO QUINTANAPhilippine headquarters learningabout the latest rice research and,more importantly, how rice researchcan provide a brighter future forrice production and, consequently,peoples’ livelihoods in Asia.Dr. Zeigler emphasizes that, if therice industry is to continue to developin Asia, the rice industry must attractthe region’s best and brightest youngpeople. “We want them to understandthat rice research is not some sleepylittle scientific backwater, but is,in fact, right on the cutting edge ofinternational scientific activity,” hesays. “The recent sequencing of therice genome attracted enormousinternational attention, especiallyamong the scientific community,yet most young Asians still don’tknow it even happened, let aloneunderstand its implications forthe food they eat each day.”During their 5 days at IRRI, thestudents, who were accompanied bytheir teachers, tried their hand atseveral laboratory techniques such asextracting DNA from a rice plant andinserting a gene into the rice genome.It wasn’t all air-conditioned labs,though—they also had the chanceto get their hands dirty, preparinga field for rice transplanting.One of the camp’s biggestsuccesses was the camaraderie thatblossomed among the students.Despite sharing little language, theyoung Thais and Filipinos struck upfriendships that look set to last wellbeyond the 5-day camp. IRRI hascreated a Web site where the studentscan communicate and post photos.According to IRRI SpokespersonDuncan Macintosh, the chance to mixwith people from different culturesalso provided some comic moments.“At dinner one night,” recountsMacintosh, “one of the Filipino boysboldly challenged one of the Thaiboys to a chili-eating competition.After gulping down three chilies inthe time it took the Thai lad to eatone, the Filipino proclaimed victory—prematurely, as it turned out. Withina minute or so, the Filipino hadturned red and tears were streamingdown his face as he guzzled water.Meanwhile, the Thai student calmlyate his second, then third, thenfourth, then fifth chili. The rest ofthe students were in stitches.”Macintosh added that theFilipinos got their revenge later,when they challenged the Thaisto eat Filipino balut. While theFilipinos savored the delicacy,the Thais gagged and splutteredon the fertilized duck egg with anearly-developed embryo inside.Kwanchai Gomez, executivedirector of the Thai Rice Foundation,expressed hope that the studentsreturned home with a new senseof excitement about rice and itspotential both in science and inthe future development of Asia.“Rice has played a vital role inThailand’s economic development,not to mention its history andculture,” says Dr. Gomez. “Thechallenge is to try to translate thisinto a sense of excitement andinterest amongst young peoplein Thailand and all over Asia.”26 Rice Today July-September 2006 Rice Today July-September 200627

Noel Magor’s focus on marginal farmersin Bangladesh derives from his childhoodNoel Magor, pictured here with wifeRose and (below and opposite) in thefield in Bangladesh.on a modest Australian farm, hisexperience of famine in Ethiopia, anda classic tale of dust bowl AmericaSteinbeckand a callingby Rebecca Khelseau-CarskyARIEL JAVELLANAGrowing up on his father’salmond and poultryfarm in Australia, NoelMagor knew from earlychildhood that he would pursue acareer in agriculture. His father,one of 10 children, had grown up onthe modest 3-hectare farm that hisgrandfather had struggled to keep.Yet, with the conviction that fair playand hard work lead to success, Noel’sfather succeeded in expanding thefamily farm to 12 hectares. WhatDr. Magor remembers most clearlytoday is how his father repeatedlywon competitions with his chickensand produced beautiful almondsusing green manure and irrigation.What young Noel probably didnot realize in his early childhoodwas that other influences wouldset him on a particular career pathleading to distant lands. From hissecondary school days, he felt anawareness of social issues brewingwithin him. John Steinbeck’s novelThe Grapes of Wrath profoundlyaffected his thinking. Reading atthe age of 16 about indebted farmersin the American Midwest losingtheir land, and of the hardshipssuffered by migrant farm laborers,sparked in him an interest insocial justice—an interest thatlater became a commitment.Proof of that commitmentbegan in 1974. Upon completing abachelor’s degree in agriculturalscience at Adelaide University, Noelset off to Wollo Province in northernEthiopia, where a devastatingfamine had struck the year before.As a volunteer, he assessed howthe famine affected village familiesand sought ways to rehabilitatethe most destitute by providinggrain through food-for-workprojects and by distributing seed.Twelve months of living andworking under primitive conditionsleft Noel determined to alleviatehunger and poverty. It also broughtPETRRA (2)alive Steinbeck’s narrative on thestruggles of the working class.“Some things affect you inside,” herecalls. “I believe that my reflectionson The Grapes of Wrath, andmy growing awareness of socialjustice issues, prompted me tomove into development work.”Measured by his achievements,Dr. Magor’s decision was an answerto a calling. In 1977, simultaneouslyserving as agricultural service head,28 Rice Today July-September 2006

extension coordinator, and actingproject director of the KamalganjProject of HEED Bangladesh, anongovernmental organization(NGO), he started working toempower marginal farmers. Neverexpecting to pursue graduatestudies or maintain a long-termconnection with Bangladesh, he didboth to support his commitment toalleviating their plight. He returnedbriefly to Australia to earn a master’sdegree in tropical agronomy fromSydney University and a PhD inpolitics from Adelaide University.Dr. Magor explains why hechose to enhance his scientific andagricultural background with adegree in politics: “I was interestedin the importance of agriculturefor poverty reduction. I neededto know what was happening tomarginal farmers, as they seemedto be a group missed by NGOs,who keep their focus on poorhouseholds not dependent onagriculture, and by government,which concentrates on biggerfarmers. The politics departmentof the university provided the bestperspective for exploring that.”Choosing marginal farmers inBangladesh as his thesis topic, hedemonstrated that marginal farmhouseholds—those able to growenough rice to feed themselves foronly 3–5 months of the year—wererapidly becoming landless. On theother hand, small farm households—those able to provision themselveswith rice for 6–8 months of the year—were very resilient and incrementallyincreased their landholdings.Establishing eight key principles forsuccess in creating an environmentfor uplifting and empowering poorhouseholds, he pioneered a shift inresearch focus toward the farmingsystems of marginal farmers.Dr. Magor’s inclusive approachtoward alleviating poverty foundeloquent expression in the projectPoverty Elimination Through RiceResearch Assistance (PETRRA),which he set up and managed for theInternational Rice Research Institute(IRRI), a center of the ConsultativeGroup on International AgriculturalEliminating poverty in BangladeshPoverty Elimination Through Rice Research Assistance (PETRRA), a five-year project funded by theDepartment for International Development of the United Kingdom and managed by IRRI in closepartnership with the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), the Bangladesh Ministry of Agriculture,and—most importantly—the resource-poor rice farmers of Bangladesh, ended in August 2004.The project improved the well-being of resource-poor farm households by identifying, developing,and validating improved technology and service delivery methods, so fostering the development of ademand-led research system. PETRRA developed clear strategies and policy support documents thatenhanced the research and delivery methods used among the 45 partner organizations representingnational, international, private, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and universities. PETRRAprojects were implemented in 551 villages throughout 38 districts with more than 11,000 farmers,of whom about 40% were women.The PETRRA Web site (www.petrra-irri.org) makes available the experiences of researchers,extension persons, and farmers and so spreads awareness of agricultural development’s contribution topoverty reduction. The Bangladesh Rice Knowledge Bank (www.knowledgebank-brri.org) gives extensionworkers and farmers up-to-date information, in Bangla, on rice production and training.In light of PETRRA’s success, the European Union is funding the Food Security for SustainableHousehold Livelihoods project (www.foshol.org)—coordinated by IRRI and key NGOs and now underway—to deliver PETRRA technologies across Bangladesh, where around half the population lives belowthe poverty line of US$1 per day, most of them in rural areas. The project target is to reach at least50,000 food-insecure households.Research (CGIAR).Funded by theUnited Kingdom’sDepartment forInternationalDevelopment,PETRRA greatlyenhancedIRRI’s workingpartnership withthe BangladeshRice ResearchInstitute, theMinistry ofAgriculture,and poor farmhouseholds inBangladesh. Theproject also exemplified a philosophythat Dr. Magor had nurturedover the years that combines apoverty focus, gender equity,participation, and partnership in aregional, in-country framework.On top of developing appropriatetechnologies endorsed by farmersand new methods of extension andknowledge delivery, Dr. Magorhas found time to learn Banglato facilitate his immersion in theworld of Bangladeshi farmers.That the PETRRA Web site andnewsletter appeared in bothEnglish and Bangla reflects hisdetermination to develop moreeffective means of communicationand so spread awareness ofagricultural development’scontribution to poverty reduction.“With a strong enough will, wecan relieve hunger by mobilizingscience, social organizations,governments, and farmers,” hesays. “I credit the CGIAR systemwith helping to focus science andtechnology on marshalling theefforts of different organizationsto achieve poverty reduction. Butwe’ll never really know the fullextent of what we’ve contributed.”Reprinted from Scientists of the CGIAR,published by the Consultative Group onInternational Agricultural Research.Rice Today July-September 200629

Cambodian researchers are set to increase their understanding of rice diseases as partof a project that could help lift the country off the lower rungs of Asia’s rice yield ladderstepPest by pestbyby Rowena McNaughtonstepCambodia’s per hectarerice yield is one of thelowest in Asia. This isa significant problemin a country wheremore than 80% of thepopulation is reliant on agriculturefor its primary source of income andwhere rice constitutes 90% of totalagricultural output. Rice is also by farthe country’s most important staplefood, with the average Cambodianobtaining three-quarters of his orher calories from rice and consuming160 kg of the grain per year.Within the problem of low yields,however, lies a great opportunity.In November 2005, the CambodianMinistry of Agriculture, Forestry, andFisheries reported that the nationalaverage rice yield was 2.1 tons perhectare—an improvement on previousyears but, according to researchersfrom the Cambodian AgriculturalResearch and DevelopmentInstitute (CARDI), simply not highenough. In neighboring Vietnam,for example, the average yieldstands at 4.1 tons per hectare.“There is no doubt that, inCambodia, diseases of rice contributeto low productivity by reducing yieldand grain quality,” Preap Visarto,head of CARDI’s Plant ProtectionProgram, explains. Improvedunderstanding and management ofpests can help pull Cambodia’s lowyields up to levels comparable withthose of other countries in the region.One of Cambodia’s fewplant pathologists, Ny Vuthy,adds that, until recently, therehas been little technical anddiagnostic interest in disease,with most scientific pest researchfocusing exclusively on insects.“Most farmers can’t identifydiseases, and therefore do notknow how to treat and manageHIN SARITH, research assistant in CARDI’s Soil and Water Department, and a field worker check on plants ina CARDI greenhouse. Thun Vathany (top left), research assistant in CARDI’s Plant Breeding Department, teststhe disease resistance of CARDI-developed orchard germplasm. Top right, a Cambodian Agricultural Universitystudent performs fieldwork at CARDI.CARDI (5)30 Rice Today July-September 2006

the increasing outbreaks that areoccurring,” says Dr. Vuthy. “Theydon’t understand why their ricecrops are dying, and many falselybelieve that, because of Cambodia’stropical climate, disease is aproblem of other countries.”But, since farmers haveadopted modern techniques,both fertilizer and irrigationrates have increased. Dr. Visartoexplains that inappropriate useof both has raised nitrogen levelsand therefore contributed toincreased outbreaks of disease.“It is a critical time in riceresearch,” he says. “Previouslyunseen diseases and pests arenow becoming a problem. Blastin particular has been striking atalarming rates throughout Cambodia.In some areas, 65% of the rice cropshave been damaged by blast. Theoutbreak has been quick and farmersdo not know how to respond.”To date, general plant pathologyissues have been overlooked mainlybecause of the lack of local expertise.Without the required knowledge andconsequent correct identificationof diseases, “an understanding oftheir importance and, ultimately,their management in rice areimpossible,” explains Dr. Vuthy.To develop Cambodia’sexpertise in rice diseases and theirmanagement, researchers at CARDIare collaborating with Australianresearchers at the New South WalesDepartment of Primary Industriesand Charles Sturt University in aproject funded by the AustralianCentre for International AgriculturalResearch, Improving understandingand management of rice pathogensin Cambodia. The project will alsohelp the Australian rice industrythrough better understandingof exotic diseases that couldthreaten Australian crops.Several past projects inCambodia have looked at diseaseidentification, but the new projectis the first to adopt a diagnosticapproach to disease prevention—running tests to, step by step, ruleout possible disease causes—andwill also help set up Cambodia’sfirst-ever disease herbarium (acollection of diseased plants) andcollection of rice pathogens.“One of the goals of the newproject is to train Cambodianresearchers to create and developlocal knowledge and expertisein general plant pathology andrice pathology in particular,”says Dr. Vuthy, who adds thatbeing the only plant pathologistat CARDI and one of the few inCambodia “has been difficult.”Drs. Vuthy and Visarto arescheduled to travel to Australiathroughout 2006 to undertakeintensive pathology training onthe identification of importantCambodian diseases and pathogens.Under the project aims, developmentof the Cambodian agriculturalresearch system is as importantas the research itself. In this light,CARDI staff will be trained in notonly plant pathology techniques butalso research design and reporting.There are more than 50important diseases of rice in Asiaand other tropical and temperaterice-growing areas, all of which canlower yields and increase productionFARMERS participate at a workshopin Kompong Cham Province.CARDI plant pathologist Ny Vuthy(below) at his desk.costs. However, very little is knownabout the distribution, prevalence,and importance of these diseasesin Cambodian conditions. Anincreased understanding of ricedisease and management—especiallyamong Cambodian researchersthemselves—is a significant steptoward improved rice production.Rowena McNaughton worked atCARDI in 2005-06 as an AustralianYouth Ambassador for Development.Rice Today July-September 200631

DiagnosingDROUGHTby Rachid Serraj and Jill CairnsARIEL JAVELLANAHAMLYN JONES takes a thermal image ofdrought-stressed rice while Mauro Centritto(below) measures the photosynthesis rateof plants in the same field.Improved methods of measuring how rice plants respond to drought in the field are helping scientistsdiscover how and why some varieties tolerate water shortages better than others—knowledge that willultimately help farmers withstand the cruel vagaries of the weatherThe International RiceResearch Institute(IRRI) has highlighteddrought as one of themajor challenges to be tackledin its future research. Droughtis a more complex phenomenonthan most other stresses, suchas salinity, submergence, pests,and diseases. It can occur at anypoint during crop production andfor any length of time, affectinga large array of physiological,biochemical, and molecularprocesses. These complexities, alongwith the uncertainty in droughttiming, intensity, and duration,have posed a major challenge foragricultural scientists. Despitedrought having been a focus ofagricultural research for severaldecades, progress in deliveringdrought-adapted rice varieties andtechnologies has been relatively slow.The past few years haveseen something of a revolutionin genomics—the science ofunderstanding DNA sequencestructure, variation, and function,and the relationships among these.Rice research, in particular, hasbenefited from the sequencing ofthe entire rice genome (see Thegene revolution on pages 14–18of Rice Today Vol. 5, No. 1). Theemergence of new information andtechnologies is making it quicker,easier, and cheaper to decipher thecomplex genetic networks of droughtresistance in rice. However, thephysiological characterization, orphenotyping, of plants has not, untilnow, advanced at the same pace. Ifscientists are to better understandand exploit the wealth of availablegenetic information, they needdetailed knowledge of the biologicaleffects of drought stress at both thecellular and whole-plant levels.By subjecting plants to differentirrigation regimes and thus differentlevels and intensities of droughtstress (see Playing rain-god onJOSE RAYMOND PANALIGAN (3)page 33), scientists can investigatedrought-resistant traits and genes(or regions of the genome) and thepotential value of different varieties.In the 2006 dry season alone, IRRIscientists examined the droughtresponse of more than 14,500rice lines and varieties—includingtraditional and exotic rice varietiesthat potentially harbor a wealth ofvaluable genes—at the institute’sPhilippine headquarters. Each lineneeded to be carefully monitoredfor its response to drought in thefield, so that the resultant data couldbe combined with existing geneticinformation, allowing researchers toultimately select the best candidatesfor breeding programs for droughtresistance. It is a daunting task. Evena simple 1-minute description of eachline would take 14,500 minutes—more than 30 work days, and only afraction of what is required to obtainsufficient data for an in-depth study.Researchers are developing newmethods that allow many lines tobe quickly but reliably evaluated.For example, infrared thermalimaging—using an infrared camerato measure plant temperature—is aninnovative method of gaining preciseinformation on the stress experiencedby plants and their subsequentresponse or adaptation. Leaf32 Rice Today July-September 2006

temperature is a sensitive indicatorof plant stress level. Plants cool downby losing water through small pores,known as stomata, on their leaves.In dry periods, plants conservewater by closing their stomata, whichconsequently raises internal planttemperature. Leaf temperature is thusrelated to the stress level of the plant.Infrared thermometer gunshave long been used to measure thetemperature of individual leaves.As early as the 1980s, former IRRIcrop physiologist John O’Tooleused this method to screen ricevarieties for reproductive-stagedrought avoidance. He foundthat mean canopy temperaturesincreased dramatically from 28 to37 degrees Celsius during a droughtstress period, and that the linesthat had previously respondedbest to drought consistentlyremained coolest under stress.Despite these promising results,using an infrared gun on singleplants can result in high plantto-plantvariation and thus havelimited scope as an efficient andreproducible screening method.However, recent technologicalprogress in infrared thermal imageryhas revived interest in using canopytemperature as a screening tool,especially if scaled up to plot or fieldlevels. Infrared cameras can nowHAMLYN JONES (atoptower) takes a thermalimage while Rachid Serraj(right), Gary Atlin (center),and Ranee Mabesadiscuss their research.HAMLYN JONESA THERMAL IMAGE of drought-stressedrice (right; mostly yellow) and irrigated rice(left) in an IRRI field.40.1 °C4030.5 °Cbe used to detect whole-plant, oreven whole-plot, temperature withinseconds. While this technique canbe applied very quickly on a largescale, more detailed measurementsare required to fully understandthe effect of drought stress.As part of a project funded bythe Rockefeller Foundation, HamlynJones, from Dundee University inScotland, and Mauro Centritto,from the Consiglio Nazionale delleRicerche (National Research Council)in Rome, recently worked with IRRI’sdrought physiology group on scalingup field screening procedures fromsingle plants or leaves to plot andfield levels. While taking a series ofinfrared thermal images from atopa 6-meter scaffolding tower placedabove rice plants under variousdrought stress treatments (seephoto below), the team of scientistsmeasured other indicators of droughtstress such as above-ground biomassproduction, plantwater status,photosynthesis,and leaf gasexchangethrough stomata.Combining thisinformation withtemperaturemeasurementswill provide amore detailedpicture of theeffects of stresson individuallines.As periodsof water shortageduring a plant’sreproductivestage canseverely35Playing rain-godTo investigate how rice varieties respond todrought conditions, scientists subject plantsto different irrigation regimes and thus differentlevels and intensities of drought stress. Methodsof irrigation include:Soil drying. By exposing drained paddy fieldsto soil drying periods during both dry and wetseasons, researchers can simulate intermittentdry-spells in rainfed lowlands. This system hasbeen used by IRRI drought breeder Gary Atlinto screen large collections of breeding lines andrice hybrids and to identify several donor parentsfor drought resistance breeding.Sprinkler irrigation. This is used in uplandfields to compare plant performance underwell-watered aerobic conditions and droughtconditions. It also allows drought of varyingseverity to be simulated at specific plant growthstages.Drip irrigation. This uses drip tapes to applywater to individual rice plots, thus allowingvariable drought stress periods. Drip irrigationis the preferred method for screening varietieswith major differences in flowering time—byinitiating the stress period at different times,researchers can target a specific growth stagefor each variety.Line-source sprinkler irrigation. This is used togenerate a differential gradient of soil moisturevarying from well watered to extremely dry, thusallowing comparisons of the effects of differentlevels of drought stress on the same plots atthe same time.reduce yield, the researchers alsotook measurements during andafter flowering to understand whatthe exact cause of this reductionis, and to determine what causescertain varieties to yield more thanothers under drought stress. Earlyresults are gradually revealing thephysiological processes that underpinthe rice plant’s response to drought.Further improving the efficiencyand accuracy of screening willallow enhanced integration ofnewly developed genomics toolswith corresponding methods ofphenotyping. Such advances willhelp scientists unravel the mysteriesof drought and ultimately developrice varieties that can withstandsevere water shortage, thus helpingthe millions of farmers who areafflicted each and every season.Drs. Serraj and Cairns are seniorcrop physiologist and postdoctoralfellow, respectively, in IRRI’s Crop andEnvironmental Sciences Division.33

ENVIRONMENTAN INTERMEDIATE EGRETflies over rice fields.Although seemingly at odds,rice production and biodiversityconservation can exist together—the trick is to find the right balanceBalancedWingon aStory and photos by Greg FanslowYou might see somethingstrange if you go birdwatching near the smalltown of Candaba in themiddle of the Philippineisland of Luzon—next to rice fieldsand a dusty road, with no water insight, are houses perched on stiltswith boats stored underneath. Thisarea is a cultivated floodplain andit’s the quintessential place betweenland and water—an area definedby its potential both in terms ofagricultural productivity and as ahabitat for a profusion of wildlife.Almost every wet season, abouta third of Candaba’s 18,000 hectaresof farmland are flooded up to severalmeters by the Pampanga River. Thisis in some ways a vestige of floodplainlandscapes that used to be muchmore widespread in Asia. However, asdemand for rice has increased, manyareas like this—with soils that arepotentially good for agriculture, butusually too wet—have gradually beenappropriated for rice production.It is a scene repeated again andagain in the planet’s rice-producingareas. From an agronomist’sperspective, wetland conversionexemplifies the application of humaningenuity to optimize nature’sfickle resources for enhanced foodproduction. And, satellite imageryshows us that, over the past 30 years,human ingenuity has been hard atwork converting Candaba marshinto a homogeneous landscape ofagricultural terrain (see maps onpage 14).Bringing floodplain wetlandsinto agricultural production generallyrequires flood control and drainage tomanage water levels. These hydrologicmodifications, along with plowing,AT THE EDGE of Candaba marsh,near the Pampanga River, atruck drives past a flood gaugedesigned to measure depthsmore than 4 meters aboveground level.land leveling, and bunding, radicallyalter the ecology of the system andtend to eliminate nonproductivenative vegetation. From a wildlifeconservation perspective, convertingwetlands to agricultural fields toooften represents habitat simplificationto favor the needs of just onespecies—the crop—and createsnonoptimal circumstances for otherspecies and ecosystem functions.While at first the arguments overhigh levels of food production versus34 Rice Today July-September 2006

maintaining biodiversity may seemhopelessly at odds, International RiceResearch Institute (IRRI) ecologistK.L. Heong maintains that thesedebates are mainly a problem ofsemantics and the scale at which wethink about agricultural systems.“If we say that our goal is tooptimize natural resources tomaximize only grain productionor only the number of bird species,for example,” says Dr. Heong, “weperceive the world quite differentlythan if we say we want to optimizethe totality of services that humanityderives from an ecosystem over manygenerations. Once the discussionexpands to include a larger basketof environmental services overlong time scales, there is usuallymuch less misunderstanding.”Understanding the “totality”of almost anything is a dauntingundertaking, particularly the totalityof a landscape, but Dr. Heongpoints out the value of indicatororganisms for this kind of task—particularly the kind with feathers.According to Dr. Heong, thereare two compelling things aboutbirds that make them useful forunderstanding how human activitiesinfluence ecosystems. First, birdsare widely cherished and, comparedwith less cherished groups oforganisms (such as insects), manypeople have some knowledge abouthow the abundance and speciescomposition of birds have changedwith time. Second, birds are avery diverse group, with manyspecies that specialize on particularresources within the overallenvironment. This specializationmeans that changes in abundanceof a particular species can give usclues to specific things that havechanged in the overall environment.Tim Fisher, a prominentPhilippines-based naturalist andco-author of the authoritative Guideto Birds of the Philippines, hasobserved declining numbers of birdspecies in Candaba and other partsof the Philippines for nearly 30 years.Fisher points out that the majorthreat to bird abundance seems tobe the loss of native vegetation thataccompanies the development ofhomogeneous agricultural areas.While there can be large numbersof birds in rice fields, there generallyaren’t nearly as many species as existin undisturbed wetlands. Accordingto Fisher, “The very abundantspecies we see tend to be the onesthat are lucky enough to have anecological niche that overlaps withsome aspect of the rice system. Suchspecies might do extraordinarily wellbecause the system has essentiallybeen optimized for them as well.”However, Fisher warns that“while rice fields provide excellentfeeding habitat for many of theseasonal migrants to the region,there are very limited breedingopportunities for resident specieson field margins and almost nobirds actually breed in rice fields.”As well as being affected bythe amount of land that is broughtinto cultivation, local bird speciesare also affected by the amount oftime during the year that the land iscultivated. “Early in the conversionprocess,” says Fisher, “there isusually just one crop per year witha long fallow period when nativevegetation can recover and birdsmay be able to breed in overgrownareas. However, as water controlbecomes more effective and croppingcycles are added, the periods whennative vegetation can recover aredrastically reduced.” (See TheIN THE HEART of Candaba marsh, about8 meters above the fields they work in,farm workers camp on one of the majorlevees that holds back seasonal floods.calculus of conservation, page 36,for more on the response of birds tospecific environmental changes.)The streaked reed-warbler(Acrocephalus sorghophilus)is a rare species seen as quitesensitive to wetland conversion.Breeding in China and winteringin reed-beds in the Philippines,this small bird is now rarelyobserved in Candaba marsh and isgenerally regarded as in decline.On the other hand, changingconditions can favor species that werepreviously alien to the landscape.The Eurasian tree sparrow (Passermontanus), for example, is aubiquitous rice pest that can eatlarge amounts of grain, and whichnow thrives in extraordinarily highnumbers in rice-growing areasthroughout the Philippines.Despite these examples, muchcan be done. Take Candaba, forinstance. Candaba City Mayor JerryPelayo has established a 72-hectarebird sanctuary adjacent to Candabamarsh. The sanctuary attracts some500 local and foreign visitors eachyear, boosting the local economythrough increased employmentand tourism. Although an isolatedsanctuary is unlikely to significantlyhelp species that require verylarge areas, a number of species doappear to have benefited from themayor’s efforts. Perhaps the mostnotable is the Philippine swamphenRice Today July-September 200635

ENVIRONMENT(Porphyrio pulverulentus). Commonin the past, the swamphen becamerare as wetlands were lost, but nowbreeds successfully and is a familiarsite in the Candaba sanctuary.In addition to preservingbiodiversity for bird lovers, there aremyriad other human benefits fromwetlands. According to the secretariatof the Ramsar Convention onWetlands, other services provided byhealthy wetlands include protectingdownstream areas by storingfloodwaters during the wet season,recharging aquifers, and releasing thestored water during the dry season.Wetlands also act as biological filtersby retaining and processing nutrientsand pollutants. Wetlands are alsocritical habitat for many fisheries.For a complete list of environmentalservices, see Barbier et al 1997 (www.ramsar.org/lib/lib_valuation_e.htm).According to Thomas Brooks,senior director of the Center forApplied Biodiversity Science atConservation International inWashington, D.C., in the U.S., itworks both ways—while humansThe calculus of conservationby Jonas RuneThe figure to the right shows a theoretical modelof species richness (for birds, for example) asa function of landscape homogeneity (thevariation of types of habitat in the landscape).The more intense the farming, usually the morehomogeneous the landscape and the fewer nativespecies can be expected. This does not necessarilymean that the number of birds will be lower, aswe may see a rise in the abundance of invasivespecies (species that expand rapidly when theyare introduced from another region or whenenvironmental conditions change).The shape of the curve depends on whatspecies and habitats make up the ecosystem.The more specific environmental demands aspecies has, the sooner it will disappear when itsenvironment changes.Case A presents an example where mostnative species disappear quite early in the landconversion process. An example of this would beconverting forest to rice fields, where most of theforest species are lost very quickly because theirniches don’t overlap with the rice system. In caseB, species richness is sustained much longer. Anexample here could be rice farming in an existingwetland, where more species may be able to usethe new habitat and patches of natural habitatstill remain.The relationship between wetlands and birdsA PURPLE HERON prowlsthe bund of a rice field ina once-marshy area.receive benefits from wetlands,the wetlands must be managedappropriately by humans.“While we must restore wetlandhabitat to effectively conserve birdbiodiversity,” explains Dr. Brooks,“this alone won’t be effectiveunless the rice systems in the samelandscape are managed in a mannerthat maintains appropriate flowof water into the areas within thesystem that are important to wildlife.”Can high food production coexistis shaped by many factors, so it is difficult todetermine the exact shape of the curve, but thisconceptual model provides an idea of how mucheffort is needed to restore biodiversity. Case A, forexample, would require the system to be restoredto close to its original condition—a very largeeffort. In case B, however, even small measurescan have significant positive effects.An understanding of how species react toland use gives us a clearer idea about which areasare likely to experience the maximum benefit fromour restorative efforts.Jonas Rune is a Philippines-based biologist.Potential relationships between degree of landscapehomogeneity (variation of types of habitat in the landscape)and the number of species able to use an area.along with biodiversity? “Why not?”asks Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton,leader of the T.T. Chang GeneticResources Center at IRRI. “Althoughagricultural intensification during the20th century was based on reducingbiodiversity, it is not at all clearthat increasing biodiversity per sewould reduce productivity. In theory,judicious selection of the appropriatecomponents of a biodiverse systemcan increase productivity byenhancing beneficial processes likethe activity of natural enemies ofdiseases and pests, and increase thestability of production by bufferingthe impacts of climatic uncertainty.”“It’s a false dichotomy,”says Thomas Brooks. “The mostauthoritative study on this (Balmfordet al 2002, Science Vol. 297, p 950–953) shows that, if the value of allenvironmental services is considered,conservation areas are generallyworth 100 times the opportunitycosts of establishing them.”Further highlighting thepotential for a win-win solution,Sackville Hamilton turns the issueon its head and adds that “when youlook at very extensive wetlands, theyare actually rather homogeneousat the landscape level and it’s quitepossible that when agriculture isintroduced to the landscape inpatches, it can actually increase theoverall biodiversity of the system.”The real issue, it seems, is tocarefully find the right balance.Greg Fanslow is an environmentalconsultant at IRRI.36 Rice Today July-September 2006

RICE FACTSDo rice prices affectmalnutrition in the poor?BY DEBBIE TEMPLETONEconomic impact specialist, IRRI Social Sciences DivisionCheaper rice can help break the cycle of poverty and malnutritionAt least 840 million peopleworldwide do not have enoughfood to meet their daily energyneeds. In addition, more than threetimes this number—including manywho do have enough food to avert dayto-dayhunger—suffer from micronutrientdeficiencies because their staplefoods contain negligible amounts ofessential micronutrients such as zinc,iron, iodine, and vitamin A.Micronutrient deficiency resultsin low cognitive development andincreased susceptibility to disease,and contributes to maternal mortalityduring childbirth. The enormity ofthis problem is staggering, with largenumbers of women and children insub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean,and South and Southeast Asia at highrisk. For example, over half of allwomen and children in South andSoutheast Asia suffer from anemia, towhich iron deficiency is a majorcontributor, and malnutrition-baseddisease contributes to more than halfthe deaths of children below preschoolage.The basic cause of malnutrition ispoverty because the poor lack theresources to produce or purchasenutrient-dense foods such as meat,fruit, and vegetables. In turn, malnutritionperpetuates poverty as itdirectly reduces the productive abilityof those afflicted.Rice is the staple food of aroundhalf the world’s population, providing50–80% of the energy intake of thepoor in South and Southeast Asiancountries. Rice therefore offers atremendous opportunity for breakingthe savage poverty-malnutritioncycle. While the relative benefits ofnutritional supplement and fortificationprograms and of biofortificationof the rice grain (developing varietiesthat contain increased levels ofmicronutrients) are well documented,little research has explicitly examinedthe link between the price of rice andthe nutritional status of rice producersand consumers.We know that the decline in theinflation-adjusted price of rice due toproductivity gains was the majorcontributing factor behind theprogress in poverty reduction in Asiaover the last two decades (see Dolower rice prices help the poor? onpage 37 of Rice Today Vol. 4, No. 2).We also know that a large share of theincome of poor households in Asia isused to purchase food, with thegreatest proportion going toward thepurchase of rice. The ability of ahousehold to purchase food dependson income and on the price of food.Therefore, if households respond to achange in the price of rice by reducingthe quantity or changing the compositionof their total food basket, thehousehold’s nutritional status couldbe affected.Between 1992 and 2000, theNutritional Surveillance Projectcollected data on more than 81,000rural Bangladeshi children aged 6–59months. These data were used toexamine the association betweenARIEL JAVELLANA (2)household rice expenditure and childnutritional status. 1 An analysis of therelationship between the price of riceand the number of children found tobe underweight indicated that, whilerice consumption remained fairlystatic, expenditure on rice increasedwith price rises, leaving less incometo purchase the nonrice foods thatwould deliver the vitamins andminerals essential for healthy growth.Furthermore, higher rice prices arecorrelated with the number ofunderweight children aged 6–59months.The major implication of thisstudy is that factors that lead to a fallin the price of rice can have a positiveimpact on both poverty levels and thenutritional well-being of childrenbecause not only will they have moreto eat, their diets will also contain ahigher proportion of nutrient-richfoods. At the same time, lower riceprices must be accompanied bystrategies to help rice-farmingfamilies who may be adverselyaffected (also see Do lower rice priceshelp the poor?).1Torlesse H, Kiess L, Bloem MW. 2003. Associationof household rice expenditure with child nutritionalstatus indicates a role for macroeconomic food policyin combating malnutrition. J. Nutr. 133:1320-1325.Rice Today July-September 200637

grain of truthAre we at risk from metalcontamination in rice?SARAH JOHNSONThe simple answer to the question posed by the title is “no”—because most rice is not dangerous. On closer inspection,though, we find that some rice-cropping systems are morelikely than others to take up metals that are toxic to humans. Suchmetals may be a natural part of the local environment or presentin industrial pollution.Who is most at risk from contaminated rice? Nutritionallydeficient people are more likely than well-nourished people toexperience harmful effects from eating rice containing higherthan-averagelevels of metals. As the most impoverished peopleare the most likely to be malnourished, they too are the mostvulnerable.Which metals are dangerous? The risk of long-term exposureto low levels of metals is difficult to confirm. All of the potentiallytoxic metals are naturally present in the environment in traceamounts and are ingested with food,water, and air. Human bodies have theability to deal with these backgroundlevels. The World Health Organizationhas established guidelines on allowableconsumption of various toxins.How important is food in exposureto metals? Some toxic metals, suchas chromium, mercury, and lead, areconsidered very low risk as plant foodcontaminants because plants can’t absorbthem. Other metals, such as copper andzinc, are needed in small quantities byplants and humans, and become toxic toplants before they reach high enough concentrations to be toxicto humans. The metals that pose the biggest risk are those thatchemically mimic plant nutrients and can therefore be absorbedby plants at high enough concentrations to threaten humanconsumers.Is rice riskier than other food? Arsenic is of more concernin rice than in other grain crops because flooded soil conditionsmake arsenate, which mimics the plant nutrient phosphate, moreavailable to plants. However, far more arsenic accumulates inleaves than in grain, and experiments have so far failed to measurearsenic concentrations above published safe limits in rice grain,even in very contaminated soil.Sources of arsenic contamination in rice fields include geologicsoil materials that are naturally high in arsenic, irrigation withcontaminated water, residual arsenical pesticides used on cotton,or application of poultry manure from chickens treated witharsenical antiparasite food additives. In Bangladesh, which haswidespread geologic arsenic contamination, the many documentedThe most impoverishedpeople—and hencethe most likely to bemalnourished—arethe most at riskcases of arsenic poisoning have been caused by consumption ofcontaminated drinking water, not food.Cadmium, which chemically mimics the plant micronutrientzinc, is less likely to be found in rice grain than in other grainsbecause it is less available to plants under flooded conditions.However, because cadmium is very toxic, it is important to monitorany effects that trends in rice production may have on graincadmium content. In water-scarce areas, for example, water-savingirrigation strategies may increase cadmium uptake. Sources ofcadmium in rice fields include urban sewage sludge applied tosoil, runoff from mining operations, and, to a much lesser extent,phosphate fertilizer.What are scientists doing? Researchers have a four-prongedapproach to minimizing the content of metals in rice grains:identifying which geographical areas have elevated risk andtesting soil and plant samples; identifyingthe rice varieties that take up the leastmetal or convert the toxin to less toxicforms when grown in high-risk areas;developing irrigation, fertilization, andresidue management strategies that helpto minimize metal uptake by plants; andrecommending growth of nonrice cropswhere the risk is too high for rice.What can farmers do? Farmerswho think their farm may be in a highriskcategory should contact their localextension office and arrange to have soiland grain samples tested. If a contaminantis present, there may be a recommended approach for their area—more suitable varieties or irrigation techniques, for example.What can policymakers do? As well as determining allowablelevels of contaminants in food, policymakers can implement foodand soil-testing programs in suspected risk areas, monitor landuse and cleanup of contaminated sites, and build capacity formonitoring and solving contamination problems.How do I know my rice is safe? Most people are extremelyunlikely to consume sufficient contaminated rice to causehealth problems. The people most at risk are those who live oncontaminated sites and eat primarily the rice produced on theirown land, those who have additional sources of contaminationbesides rice, and those who are nutritionally deficient. Many ofthese people do not have access to the necessary information. Itis our job to identify and inform them.Sarah Johnson is a soil scientist in IRRI’s Crop and EnvironmentalSciences Division.38 Rice Today July-September 2006

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40 Rice Today July-September 2006