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ISSN 1655-5422
International Rice Research Institute July-September 2004, Vol. 3 No. 3
Ofcialpublication
InternationalYearofRice2
Rice year updates:
Festivities in Asia markInternational Year of Rice
World food reprise:Des Moines puts riceback on the menu
The whole way:Going the distancefor the environment
RICE REVEALEDRiceworlds decade of celebrating the life-giving grain
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he rice that feeds
Asia's poorest is also their
bi es ,
so cheap rice means more
money for other essentials
i
Sciencefor a Better
Rice is
LifeI N T E R N A T I O N A L Y E A R O F R I C E 2 0 0 4
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contentsVol. 3, No. 3
International Rice Research InstituteDAPO Box 7777, Metro Manila, Philippines
Web (IRRI): www.irri.orgWeb (Library): http://ricelib.irri.cgiar.orgWeb (Riceweb): www.riceweb.orgWeb (Rice Knowledge Bank): www.knowledgebank.irri.org
Rice Todayeditorialtelephone (+63-2) 580-5600 or (+63-2) 844-3351 to 53, ext 2401;fax: (+63-2) 580-5699 or (+63-2) 845-0606; email: p.fredenburg@cgiar.org
CoverAileen Del Rosario-Rondilla
publisher Duncan Macintosheditor Peter Fredenburg
art director Juan Lazaro IVdesigner and production supervisor George Reyesdeputy editor Adam Barclaycontributing editors Gene Hettel, Bill Hardyphoto researcherAileen Del Rosario-RondillaphotographerAriel Javellanacirculation Al Benaventeprinter Primex Printers, Inc.
Rice Todayis published by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the worldsleading international rice research and training center. Based in the Philippines and withofces in 11 other countries, IRRI is an autonomous, nonprot 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 publication
should 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 Todaywelcomes comments and suggestions from readers. Potential contributorsare encouraged to query rst, rather than submit unsolicited materials. Rice Todayassumes no responsibility for loss or damage to unsolicited submissions, which shouldbe accompanied by sufcient return postage.
Copyright International Rice Research Institute 2004
INTRODUCING IRRI ............................................................... 4Proud to lead the way
DONORS CORNER................................................................... 5Investing in agricultural research pays: Asian
Development Bank is dedicated to reducingpoverty and improving peoples welfare
NEWS............................................................................................ 6
IRRI director general will step downCooperation with Korea advances
Postharvest project for Cambodia and Vietnam
RICE IN THE NEWS .................................................................. 9New York Times calls for a gene revolution
for the poor
Canberra Times considers security roleof rice research
Science scrutinizes crown jewels initiative
Harvest shortfalls and higher grain pricesviewed as a worrying trend
WORLD FOOD REPRISE......................................................12The Nobel-inspired World Food Prize puts
rice back on the menu
RICE REVEALED WITH MORE IN STORE ................18After a decade of celebrating rice and instilling
knowledge of the essential grain, the RiceworldMuseum and Learning Center marks theInternational Year of Rice with a timelycelebration of itself
THE WHOLE WAY ...................................................................24Going the distance with a holistic Environmental
Agenda that captures decades of experience inenvironmental protection
ON YOUR MARK, GET SET, SELECT! ...............................28Molecular markers give rice breeders the edge
in the race against crop loss
PINNING DOWN RURAL POVERTY ...............................30An innovative project to map poverty in
Bangladesh points the way for programs
that target the rural poorSpecial section: .....................................................................32
INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF RICEFarmers and diplomats focus on rice research
Year of international rice awards
Rice year reports from Australia, Bangladesh,India, Korea, Laos, Nepal, Philippines,Thailand and Vietnam
Rice year conferences around the world,from Osaka to Tokyo
Other conferences, meetings, workshops and training
PEOPLE ......................................................................................40Philippine president honors agronomist
Keeping up with IRRI staff
Partners in progress
RICE FACTS ..............................................................................41Rice to the tiller
Lower prices can put more rice in the bowls of thelandless rural poor the forgotten, anonymousand voiceless underclass that provides most of thelabor to grow it
GRAIN OF TRUTH ..................................................................42System of rice intensication responds to
21st century needs versus
Agronomic UFOs waste valuable scientic resources
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INTRODUCING IRRI
Proud to leadthe way
The world was a terrifyingplace in 1952-53. Theperiod saw the rst use ofpopulation explosion in
Time magazine and a cruel irony therst detonation, over the Pacic Ocean, of
a hydrogen bomb. It also brought acrossthe Pacic two senior Rockefeller Founda-tion agriculturalists to study how to end
2 decades of stagnating rice yields in Asia.By 1960, the population explosion was acover story in Time, and the InternationalRice Research Institute (IRRI) was estab-lished in the Philippines to shore up globalfood security in the face of exponentialpopulation growth.
Along with the other midwife of theGreen Revolution, the Mexico-basedInternational Maize and Wheat Improve-ment Center, IRRI was a prototype for aglobal network of research centers that,since 1971, have found common purpose
within the Consultative Group on Interna-
tional Agricultural Research. With morethan US$400 million in annual fundingfrom its 63 cosponsors and member statesand organizations in particular the
World Bank and developed countries inNorth America, Europe and theAsia Pacic the 15-center
group represents the worldslargest investment in mobiliz-ing science to generate publicgoods for poor farm com-munities.
Since IRRIs release in1966 of the rst modernrice variety, the insti-
tute has led the way indeveloping improved
depend on them for reliable, affordablesupplies of their staple food. IRRIs work,on its research campus at Los Baos andacross Asia in collaboration with the na-tional partners it has nurtured, has greatlycontributed to the near doubling of the
Asian rice harvest since 1970.Today, the institute combines rice-
biodiversity conservation, gene discovery
and plant breeding with natural resourcemanagement, integrated pest manage-ment, agricultural engineering andpostharvest technologies, and social andpolicy studies to develop ecologicallyand economically sustainable strategiesto reverse a troubling new stagnationin rice-yield improvement. This trendoccurs in the contexts of slowing popula-tion growth and Asian farmers enjoyingan average yield more than double that oftheir parents and grandparents at IRRIsfounding. It nevertheless threatens to
undermine the indispensable agricultural
foundation of development, thus sabotag-ing the prospects of todays 500 millionpoor in rice-producing Asia and a largeportion of the billions to be born in theseveral decades before the global popula-tion nally stabilizes.
People at IRRI take pride in howthey, their colleagues and their prede-cessors going back to the shell-shockedmiddle of the 20th century have helpedto make the world a more prosper-ous, safe and hopeful place. But muchremains to be done to achieve the UnitedNations Millennium Development Goalsand so alleviate hunger, want, prevent-
able disease, ignorance, inequality andenvironmental degradation. With contin-
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DONORS CORNER
5Rice TodayJuly-September 2004
The Asian Development Bank isdedicated to reducing poverty andimproving peoples welfare. The
63-member ADB pursues these goals
with diverse operations in agriculture andnatural resource management, energy,nance, industry, social infrastructure,transport, and communications.
In 1999, ADB dened its vision ofan Asia-Pacic region free of poverty andformulated aPoverty Reduction Strategy focused on sustainable economic growth,
inclusive social development and goodgovernance. In early 2001, it adopted a
Long-Term Strategic Framework to pro-vide a roadmap for action up to 2015. Theframework is well aligned with the UnitedNations Millennium Development Goalsand rmly grounded on the key operatingprinciples of strong country ownership,
strategic partnerships and developmentimpact assessment.
Substantial and sustained support
From its establishment in 1966, ADBhas recognized how agriculture, naturalresources and environment are inter-twined with the lives of the rural poor in
Asia, and so has provided substantial andsustained support in these areas. Between1968 and 2003, ADB approved 566 loans constituting 17% of approved loans andtotaling US$18 billion for agriculture,natural resources and rural development.This sector has also been a major recipientof ADB technical assistance (TA) grants,attracting 26% of all such grants between
1967 and 2003, which amounted to $497million.
ADB has a long-standing partnershipwith the Consultative Group on Interna-tional Agricultural Research (CGIAR),recognizing much in common between themissions of the CGIAR and ADB in im-proving agricultural productivity, conserv-ing soil and water resources, protectinggenetic diversity, and bolstering humanresources. Agricultural research contin-ues to be relevant to ADB operations anddevelopment objectives as a means ofreducing poverty in Asia.
From 1975 to 1995, ADB channeled
its nancial support to the CGIAR largelythrough individual grants to specic centersfor specic purposes, which ranged fromimproving training facilities to establishingregional collaborative networks. FollowingBoard approval of the ADB policy paper onagriculture and natural resources research(ANRR) in 1995, support for this sector has
been channeled through annual umbrella
regional technical assistance (RETA), witheight approved grants to date totaling $38.5million.
ADBs policy on ANRR addresses threestrategic objectives: sustainable manage-ment of natural resources, improvedagricultural productivity and poverty reduc-tion. With ADB linked to farmers and localstakeholders through its partnerships withinternational agricultural research centersand national agricultural research systems,the bank ensures that technology is simpli-ed into understandable language andprocedures, knowledge is disseminated andinstitutionalized, and community participa-tion encouraged.
The International Rice Research Insti-
tute (IRRI) is the CGIAR center that has re-ceived the most ADB support, starting withthe banks rst TA project with a CGIARcenter, a grant in 1975 to buy equipment forthe IRRI Training Center. Since that year,
ADB has supported 22 IRRI-led projects.Other main TA recipients have been theInternational Crops Research Institute forthe Semi-Arid Tropics, International WaterManagement Institute, and WorldFish Cen-ter. Altogether, 14 international agriculturalresearch centers have enjoyed ADB support.
Comprehensive guidelines
ADBs project-based support to the CGIARhas gone hand-in-hand with efforts to
improve the focus and quality of that re-search. In April 2003, the bank formulatedcomprehensive guidelines for submittingand evaluating proposals under the annual
ANRR RETA. Following procedures de-tailed in the guidelines, the nal selection ofprojects for the eighth such grant resultedfrom one of the most in-depth consulta-tions ever carried out within ADB regionaldepartments.
To promote dialogue and coopera-tion among national agricultural-sectormanagers, national and internationalresearch institutions, and donors, the
bank is this year facilitating two regionalforums on ANRR, in Central Asia in
August and in South Asia in September.The forums will highlight signicantachievements and benets resultingfrom research funded by ADB and otherdonors, as well as strengthen linkagesamong donors, country programs andresearch outputs.
ADBs experience in developmentassistance shows that agricultural re-search pays a handsome return in terms
of alleviating rural poverty, promotingrural productivity, employment andsustainable natural resource use, andimproving incomes and living stan-dards. ADB will continue to serve as animpartial adviser to agricultural development and a broker assisting efforts thatstrengthen cooperation toward sustain-able economic growth and develop-ment t roug agr cu tura researc anextension.
MS. DAYAL is a senior agriculture specialist inthe Agriculture, Natural Resources and SocialSectors Division of ADBs Regional and Sustain-able Development Department.
Agricultural researchinvestments pay b y P r a t i m a D a y a l
ADB
ADB
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NEWS
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Rice TodayJuly-September 2004 Rice TodayJuly-September 2004
ce Todayupliftedong Kong Dragon Airlines is markingternational Year of Rice 2004 by offeringce Today in its airport lounge and rst andsiness class cabins on all routes. Dragon-r operates 20 passenger aircraft betweenong Kong and 28 other Asian destinations,cluding Beijing, Taipei, Phnom Penh,ngkok and Tokyo. This is perhaps the rst
me that an airline anywhere has stocked asearch institute newsletter alongside theual gossip magazines and internationalws and business weeklies.
ce Knowledge Bank in Nepale Nepal Agricultural Research CouncilARC) and IRRI held on 28 April an orien-ion workshop for establishing the Nepaluntry site of the Rice Knowledge Bank.e Knowledge Bank provides practical
rice knowledge and training materials thathelp rice researchers and extension workers
better meet farmers needs. It promises tobecome a repository for current rice knowl-edge relevant to the various agroecologies ofNepal, with information accessible throughthe Internet, on CD or in print.
Plant breeding team honoredIRRIs Plant Breeding, Genetics and Bio-chemistry Division breeding team wasrecognized at the 28 April Annual Rice Va-rietal Improvement Group meeting of thePhilippine National Seed Industry Council.The team was honored for the Philippinerelease in 2003 of two new rice varietiesfor the irrigated lowlands Matatag 3,
which is resistant to rice tungro virus, andAngelica, which is high-yielding and hasgood resistance to bacterial leaf blight.
Rice with that?Fast-food chain McDonalds is showcasingGraindell, IRRIs book for children, in itscurrent Bright Minds Read campaign, whichstarted in April at all 241 of its outlets inthe Philippines. McDonalds launched thecampaign to empower the Filipino childthrough encouragement and promotion ofreading as a fun and enjoyable activity forgrowth in mind, character and values. IRRIis one of t hree publishers that McDonaldsinvited to participate in the reading andliteracy campaign.
Scientic excellence recognizedTen scientists from Africa, Latin Americaand Asia were recognized in May by theInternational Fund for Agricultural Re-search, a foundation dedicated to fosteringscientic excellence in agriculture through
the Consultative Group on International Ag-ricultural Research (CGIAR). The successfulscientists, who will spend up to 3 months
working with world-class researchers atCGIAR centers, are Helga Rodriguez VonPlaten, Christian O. Thine, Zachee Ngoko,Xue-Jun Ge, Jules Bayala, Geetha Rani,Peter Gathumbi, Tilahum T. Habtemichael,Drissa Hema and Reuben Muasya.
Award for Bangladesh video projectThe Poverty Elimination Through RiceResearch Assistance communication proj-ect Learner-centered video production toenhance women-to-women extension ofpostharvest innovations in Bangladeshreceived a Bronze Award for effective com-munication from the International VisualCommunications Association at a ceremonyin London in March.
Step forward for biodiversityCape Verde and Egypt became on 1 April therst governments to sign the agreement toestablish the Global Crop Diversity Trust.The trust, which aims to raise US$260 mil-lion from governments, foundations andcorporations, will provide a permanentsource of funding for collections of cropdiversity around the world. This diversityis an essential source of the traits scientistsneed to adapt crops to farmers food andlivelihood needs and to changing environ-mental conditions.
IRRI scientists at grains confabSeveral IRRI scientists featured at the 18-19March 4th National Grains PostproductionConference in Cebu City, Philippines, orga-nized by the Philippine Rice PostproductionConsortium, of which IRRI is a founding
member. IRRI speakers includeDatta (on Golden Rice researcDawe (rice marketing in the PhMartin Gummert (IRRIs posthorities), Cristina Sison (rice biofoand Eugene Aquino (developingmoisture meter). A forum on cPhilippine grain postproductionlower costs, simple designs andrying as key farmers needs.
More rice for less waterA new Australian method for selwater-use soils for rice productiduced risk of salinity is being arice farmers. The approach, devthe Cooperative Research Centtainable Rice Production, uses elnetic induction to create a picturto a depth of 5 meters or more,
Ronald Cantrellhas announcedhis resignation asdirector general ofIRRI effective 31December 2004. Ina 2 April statementto institute stafffollowing IRRIsannual Board ofTrustees meeting,Board Chair Kei-
jiro Otsuka saidDr. Cantrell wasstepping down forhealth and fam-ily reasons. Dr.Cantrell took up theposition of directorgeneral in Septem-
ber 1998 and led the institute through
many major challenges and decisions.Ron Cantrell provided the steadying
hand, strong leadership and intel-ligent management IRRI needed,said Dr. Otsuka. The institute
went through an uncertain pe-riod in the mid- to late-1990s,
with one director general depart-ing unexpectedly to be replaced
by a temporary appointment. But,within a year or so of his arrival,Dr. Cantrell had got the institute
back on track. After successfully negoti-
ating a tumultuous start, Dr.Cantrell had to deal with twoof the biggest challenges fac-
ing agriculturalresearch in thedeveloping world.
A continuing de-cline in funding hitIRRI hard in 2002,
when Japan cut itsfinancial support
by almost 50%,causing painfulstaff cutbacks.
Added to this wasthe growing inter-national debateover biotechnologyand how it could
be used to benetpoor rice farmersand consumers.
Dr. Otsukaemphasized that
IRRI now neededto find new can-didates of Dr.Cantrells caliber.We especially
want to encouragegood candidates
with outstandingexpertise in rice science and who fullyunderstand the international rice indus-try, he said. The position is one of themost important and influential in the riceindustry today. Other topics raised by Dr. Otsuka fol-lowing the 29 March-2 April board meetingincluded the boards acknowledgment of thefavorable External Program and Manage-
IRRI DIRECTOR GENERALRonald Cantrell (left)with Egyptian DeputyPrime Minister YoussefWally.
Collaboration between IRRI and theKorean Rural Development Administra-n (RDA) took another step forward at theth RDA-IRRI Collaborative Research andaining Workplan Meeting at IRRI on 19-April. Participants assessed the progresscollaboration in 2002-03 and developed
2004-05 RDA-IRRI collaborative work-an, including new project proposals. Theeeting also highlighted the achievements40 years of Korea-IRRI partnership one research and development.
Meanwhile, breeding collaboration
between IRRI and the RDA at the NationalInstitute of Crop Science (NICS) in Suwon,South Korea, has made progress againsta serious pest problem of japonica rice bysuccessfully developing brown planthopper-resistant japonica rice breeding lines.
A new source of resistance to brownplanthopper was identied in two IRRI
breeding lines and incorporated into two japonica rice cultivars, Jinbubyeo andJunambyeo, using conventional and mo-lecular breeding methods. These researchmaterials will be shared with scientists
SHAKING HANDS after the signing of the 2004-05 RDA-IRRI collaborative workplan are Moon-Hee Lee (left), director general of theKorean National Institute of Crop Science (NICS) in Suwon, South Korea, and Ren Wang, IRRI deputy director general for research.Looking on are (from left) William Padolina, IRRI deputy director general for p artnerships; K.L. Heong, deputy head of IRRIs Ento-mology and Plant Pathology Division (EPPD); Nollie Vera Cruz, EPPD senior scientist; Jae-Kweon Ko, senior rice breeder at HonamAgricultural Research Institute; Sant Virmani, IRRI principal scientist in plant breeding; Darshan Brar, senior scientist in IRRIs PlantBreeding, Genetics and Bioche mistry Division (PBGB); Mark Bell, head of IRRIs International Programs Management Ofce (IPMO);Ho-Yeong Kim, EPPD senior scientist; Hung-Goo Hwang, director of the Breeding and Genetics Division of NICS; Ji-Ung Jeung, seniorresearch scientist in the IRRI-Korea Ofce; K.K. Jena, PBGB se nior scientist and IRRI country representative for Korea; Tom Mew,IRRI principal scientist in plant pathology; and Jojo Lapitan, IPMO senior scientist.
working in two oth-er NICS-affiliatedinstitutes, the Ho-nam AgriculturalResearch Instituteand the Yeongnam
Agricultural Re-search Institute,for their breed-ing programs toimprove japonicaresistance to brownplanthopper.
DR. LEE (center) examinesplants with resistance tobrown planthopper. With himare Hung-Goo Hwang (left),director of the Breeding and
Genetics Division of NICS,and K.K. Jena, IRRI countryrepresentative for Korea.
ooperation with Korea advances in conference rooms and laboratories Rice institute director general will step down at the end of 2004
INTO EGYPT. IRRI Board of Trustees Chair Keijiro Otsuka and DirectoRonald Cantrell (rst row, fourth and fth from left) pose with princresearchers at the Rice Research and Training Center at Sakha, EgyptCantrell and Otsuka also met with Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister YWally, who also serves as minister of agric ulture and land reclamatioan 8-12 May visit to Sakha and the Rice Technology Training Center andria. Dr. Wally and Badawi A. Tantawi, head of the Egyptian Rice RProgram, expressed appreciation for IRRIs contributions to the tremincrease in rice production in Egypt, where the average yield climbe5.4 t/ha in 1970 to 9.2 t/ha in 2003, one of the highest yields in th
ment Review in March and his aof IRRIs nancial situation, abhe was cautiously optimistic. Hcomed three new board membeK. Oniango (Kenya), Ronald (USA) and Baowen Zhang (Chi
bid farewell to three departingCalvin Qualset (USA), Mike Gand Emanuel Serro (Brazil).JI
-UNGJEUNG
EGYPTGOVERNMENT
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8 Rice TodayJuly-September 2004
with evaluation of soil chemical properties.The technique helps farmers minimize theamount of irrigation water escaping into thegroundwater system.
Library capacity buildingIRRI librarians Carmelita Austria, Lea DelosReyes and Mila Ramos trained librarians at
a capacity-building workshop on 20-21 Mayat Benguet State University, Philippines, for
PhilAgriNet, a network that aims to builda central database of Philippine techni-cal agricultural literature outputs, andthe International Information System forthe Agricultural Sciences and Technology(AGRIS).
Science Council meetingThe new Science Council of the Consulta-tive Group on International Agricultural
The Asian Development Bank hasapproved a US$750,000 Japanese Fundfor Poverty Reduction grant for a project toreduce postharvest losses on rice farming in
Vietnam and Cambodia. The project aims todevelop a comprehensive training package
in cost-effective postharvest methods thatwill improve food security, boost livelihoodsand reduce poverty in villages that rely onrice production.
The training will be provided to threefarming intermediary institutes in eachcountry. The institutes will work with atleast 800 farmers and 10 rice millers toteach drying and pesticide-free storage tech-niques and improve rice-milling techniques.Spoilage caused by poor storage techniquescan rob farmers in Vietnam and Cambodiaof half or more of their household grainsupplies.
The Vietnamese and Cambodian gov-ernments will together contribute $25,000
in kind to fund the project, and IRRI theexecuting agency for the grant, which can
be utilized until 2006 will add $165,000in kind, for a total of $940,000. IRRI-developed equipment will be adapted usinglocally available materials to ensure that it isaffordable to farmers, and farmers and ricemillers will be taught about the workings ofthe local rice market, including consumerpreferences, quality requirements and pric-ing mechanisms.
Research, IRRIs parent group, held itsformal inaugural meeting on 12-15 May at
the International Center for AgriculturalResearch in the Dry Areas, Syria. Chaired
by Per Pinstrup-Andersen, former directorgeneral of the International Food PolicyResearch Institute, the council consists of
Virender Lal Chopra, Ken Fischer, outgoing
IRRI board member Michael Gale, RichardHarwood, Alain de Janvry, Keiji Kainuma,Onesmo ole-Moi Yoi, Lisa Sennerby-Forsseand Hans Gregersen.
Pest management on CDIRRI and the Malaysian Agricultural Re-search and Development Institute jointlyimplemented in May a CD-based trainingcourse on integrated pest management(IPM) for research and extension person-
nel in Malaysia. This type of training, based
on information in IRRIs Rice KnowledgeBank, allows the institute to reach more
participants with fewer resources. Thecourse was structured around the themesof ecology, updates on pest managementpractices, sociology, and the communica-tion and implementation aspects of IPM.The training was mostly CD-based, and
only a few topics were delivered in face-to-face lectures.
Indian transgenic cropsThe Indian Council of Agricultural Research(ICAR) will develop transgenic varieties of14 selected crops, including rice resistantto stem borer and fungal infections. Othercrops slated for development include stem
borer-resistant sorghum and maize andpod borer-resistant pigeonpea and chick-
pea. At the March national conference on
Postharvest project forCambodia and Vietnam
Correction:A photo caption on page 25 ofthe April-June issue ofRice Today misidenti-
ed V.N. Singh as H.N. Singh.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT IN BHUTAN: International Programs Management Ofce Senior Scientist Jojo Lapitan(front row, third from left) led a project-management course on 27-29 April in Wangduephodrang, Bhutan.Providing technical assistance toward developing Bhutans research and human resource capacity, the coursewas attended by 16 senior Bhutanese research and administrative ofcers from renewable natural resourcesresearch centers, watershed projects and the Natural Resources Training Institute.
AWARD-WINNING FARMERS:The Vietnamese Ministry ofAgriculture and Rural Devel-opment promoted in Aprilthe Three Reductions farmingtechnique locally knownas Ba Giam Ba Tang byhonoring farmers who pro-duced crops with the lowestinputs and highest output,thus maximizing prots. Thecampaign, which encouragesfarmers to reduce their seed,pesticide and fertilizer rates,has spread to thousands of
farmers in the Mekong Deltathrough radio, TV, posters andleaets.
IPMO
NGUYENHUUHUAN
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RICE IN THE NEWS
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9Rice TodayJuly-September 2004
An editorial in the 24 May edition of theNew York Times welcomed a statementin the 2004 annual report of the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Na-tions that genetically modied foods aresafe to eat. It repeated the reports mainconclusion regarding the real problem
with genetically modied crops: they arenot aimed at helping the worlds hungry.The editorial continued: Agriculture
is the livelihood of 70% of the worlds poor,a population that is growing considerably,even as soil and water are becoming de-pleted. Billions are already malnourished
because their staple crops supply few nu-trients. Genetic engineering can help on
both counts.
The poor need a gene revolution tofollow the 1960s Green Revolution, whichhelped hundreds of millions by increasingthe yields of wheat, rice and other crops. But
so far, theres only been a gene revolution foragribusiness. The genetically engineered foodindustry is controlled by a few corporations,such as Monsanto and DuPont. They havelittle incentive to work on crops poor peoplegrow, or to share their licensed technology.
New York Timescalls for a gene revolution for the poor
Keijiro Otsuka, chair of IRRIs Board ofTrustees and vice president of the Inter-national Association of Agricultural Econo-mists, warned in an editorial published on 1
April in the Canberra Times that alleviatingrural poverty in Asia and quelling the in-stability it causes requires revitalized donor
support for publicly funded rice research.Rice directly or indirectly supports
hundreds of millions of people, so improv-ing farmers ability to grow rice efcientlyand sustainably is essential for ensuringfood security, alleviating poverty and im-proving the well-being of rural and urbanpopulations alike, wrote Dr. Otsuka, add-ing that the potential for success is greaterthan ever.
The recent sequencing of the ricegenome is now providing more scientic
knowledge of the rice plant than has beengathered in the 15,000 years of its cultiva-tion, he said. The development of morenutritious rice varieties promises to help
combat the malnutrition that aficts hun-dreds of millions of people who depend onrice for most of their calories. However, de-clining support is preventing the delivery ofnew technologies to farmers.
Meanwhile, in the edition ofPaddy andWater Environmentpublished online on 25February, IRRI Director General Ronald P.Cantrell addressed the challenges and op-
To allow widespread research on poor-coun-try crops, these companies must release thetechnology for humanitarian use. Wealthycountries must sponsor research. The 13 March edition of The Hindunewspaper reported on a public debate onBiotechnology and shaping the future o
rice, held in Chennai, India, the previousday by the M.S. Swaminathan Foundation(www.hindu.com/2004/03/13/stories/2004031311740500.htm). It said debatersachieved a consensus that thorough discussion on various aspects of genetically modi-
ed seeds and food should be held before anal decision on adopting the new GM technology is taken. Panelists supporting theuse of biotechnology for improving cropsnutritional value and resistance to pestsand disease were M.K. Bhan, secretary othe Indian governments Department of Bio-technology; William James Peacock, chie
of the Australian Commonwealth Scienticand Industrial Research Organization; andGerard Barry, IRRI-based coordinator othe Golden Rice Network. Suman Sahaipresident of the Delhi-based NGO GeneCampaign, dissented.
portunities for rice-based farming in theInternational Year of Rice and beyond.
There are two major challenges involving rice in Asia, he wrote. The rst isensuring the ability of nations to meet theirnational and household food security needs
with a declining natural resource base, espe-cially regarding water and land. [] The sec-ond challenge as stated by the UN as oneof its eight Millennium Development Goals is the eradication of extreme poverty andhunger. Rice is so central to the lives of mos
Asians that any solution to global povertyand hunger must include research that helps
poor Asian farmers earn a decent, reliableincome by growing rice that is affordable topoor consumers.
Dr. Cantrell noted that stiffer competition from industrial and domestic usersfor limited water supplies is creating anurgent need to improve crop water productivity. About 70% of the water currently
withdrawn from all freshwater sourceworldwide is used for agriculture. In Asiairrigated agriculture uses 90% of the totadiverted freshwater, and more than half ofthis irrigates rice. Until recently, such waterusage has been taken for granted, but thiscannot continue. We must help farmers produce the larger harvests required by future
generations while using no more water thanthey use today, and probably less.
Canberra Timesconsiders security role of rice research
The Philippine chapter of the Associationfor Communication Excellence in Agri-culture, Natural Resources, and Life andHuman Sciences unveiled its new logo inMay, as IRRI staff won a swag of awards inthe U.S.-based associations 2004 Critiqueand Awards Program.
Aurora Ammayao and husband GeneHettel won a Gold Award and the Outstand-ing Professional Skill Award in writing fortheir chapter in the bookArt of Rice: Spirit
and Sustenance in Asia, published by theUCLA Museum of Cultural History (anadapted excerpt of the chapter appearedin the January 2004 issue ofRice Today);
Ariel Javellana, Christian Concepcion andDuncan Macintosh won a Gold Award forIRRIs International Year of Rice poster set;Meg Yandoc, Gina Santos, Vic Alarcon, JoeIbabao and Gene Hettel won a Silver Awardfor theIRRI Bulletin electronic newsletter;
and Juan Lazaro IV, Ariel Javellana andGene Hettel won a Bronze Award for anIRRI Rice Image Bank advertisement.
transgenics in agriculture, ICAR DirectorGeneral Mangala Rai said that the council
will move ahead with transgenic crops fol-lowing Planning Commission approval.
All about riceThe Asia Rice Foundation launched in Feb-ruaryAll About Rice , a new quarterly publi-
cation designed to enlighten readers abouttopical rice issues. The rst edition focuses
on Organic Fertilizer in Rice: Myths andFacts. The editors encourage submissions,which should provide information that willhelp readers understand specic issues, mo-
bilize public support and increase apprecia-tion for rice. Send submissions and queriesto: The Asia Rice Foundation, Los Baos,4031 Laguna, Philippines; tel/fax (+63-49)536-2285; email asiarice@laguna.net. Visitthe foundation at www.asiarice.org.
New logo and awardsfor communicators
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RICE IN THE NEWS
10 Rice TodayJuly-September 2004
14 March with a report that the Rice Export-ers Association of Pakistan and the All IndiaRice Exporters Association had agreed inNew Delhi to jointly promote exports of
basmati rice (www.nancialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=54749).
We will jointly ght any possible in-fringement on geographical indications on
basmati rice, which is our common heri-tage, Sharma quoted Adbul Rahim Janoo,head of the Pakistani delegation, as saying.We will also jointly promote basmati inthe overseas market. India and Pakistantogether export more than 1 million tons of
basmati rice per year.Sharma urged in the next days Fi-
nancial Express similar promotion andprotection for other scented South Asianrice varieties (www.nancialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=54785).
Christopher Surridge, a senior biology editor ofNature, investigated in the 25 March edition ofthe journal (Vol. 428) the controversy surroundingthe system of rice intensication (SRI). In someways, the debate resembles that currently raging
over organic agriculture, he wrote. For advocates,SRI is a grassroots movement to resist the inuenceof global agribusiness by reducing dependence onchemical inputs. Detractors call it a waste of timethat is diverting resources from more promising ap-proaches such as genetic engineering. The journalField Crops Research (Vol. 88, Issue 1) took a criticallook at SRI with the article Fantastic yields in thesystem of rice intensication: Fact or fallacy?, by J.E.Sheehy, S. Peng, A. Dobermann, P.L. Mitchell, A. Fer-rer, Jianchang Yang, Yingbin Zou, Xuhua Zhong andJianliang Huang, and the discussionAgronomic UFOs ,by Thomas R. Sinclair and Kenneth G. Cassman. (SeeGrain of Truth, pages 42-43.) Also in Field Crops Research (Vol. 87, Issue 1) is
the short communication Trends in Rice-WheatAreain China, by IRRI economist David Dawe and SteveFrolking and Changsheng Li, both of the Institute forthe Study of Earth, Oceans and Space at the Universityof New Hampshire. Combining two methods of estimat-ing the area of farmland planted to rice and wheat inrotation in China yielded an estimate of 3.4 millionha, much less than gures found in the literature,
which run as high as 13 million ha. The Manila Times reported on 5 February the launchby Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ofve hybrid varieties collectively known as GloriaRice, quoting farmers who reported doubling theirharvests to 10 t/ha. On 6 March, Todaynewspapercontrasted the governments forecast of yields 2 to 3times higher than the current national average of 3t/ha with the assertion of the farmers group Masipagthat such high yields are possible only under the idealconditions experienced by few farmers. The Xinhua News Agency reported in mid-April on ahybrid rice exhibition at Sanya, Hainan, and Chineseefforts to export hybrid rice technology globally. Thereport said that hybrid rice area in 2003 reached
1 million ha in South and Southeast Asia. Chinesehybrids were reportedly doing exceptionally well inEgypt, producing 35% more grain in saline-alkali soilthan in normal soil. Another Xinhua report said thatHainan Province will establish ve natural reservesfor endangered wild rice, which it called the giantpanda of the botanical world. The April edition of International Development
Review, the in-house publication of the British De-partment for International Development (DFID), and 1March edition ofNew Agriculturalist on-line (www.new-agri.co.uk/04-2/focuson/focuson2.html) both reviewedDFID-funded research in India and Bangladesh by IRRIweed scientist David Johnson and his collaborators oncontrolling weeds in direct-seeded rice. Derryn Hinch hosted on 21 May an Independence BallforEast Timor, whose 500 invited guests were asked tobring a bag of rice with $2 taped to it to cover shippingcosts to the famine-threatened nation. The Australiantalkback radio host decided to take things a step further,asking listeners to his program on Melbourne radio sta-tion 3AW to do the same. The campaign raised US$40,000and more than 10 tons of rice.
Also
Meager grain harvests over the pastseveral years, especially in China, areraising a chorus of concern that the rela-tive bounty of recent decades may soon bea thing of the past. The New York Times,
Asian Wall Street Journal,Asia Times, andGlobe and Mailare among the newspapers
that since March have published majorfeatures suggesting structural causes fordeclining grain harvests, diminished stocksand soaring prices.
Lester Brown, founder of the World-watch Institute and the Earth Policy Institute(www.earth-policy.org), has long warned ofglobal famine. Lately, more people seem to belistening. Martin Mittelstaedt, writing in the22 May edition of Canadas prestigiousGlobeand Mail, said the American media magnateTed Turner came upon [Browns] new book
[Plan B, rescuing a planet under stress anda civilization in trouble] and thought its
worrisome content was so persuasive thathe bought more than 3,000 copies for dis-tribution to people he knows.
Mittelstaedt reported that total globalgrain reserves stood at 280 million tons in late2003, down from more than 500 million tonsin 1999. Citing Brown, he blamed three mainenvironmental trends : global warming, wa-ter shortages in many parts of the world andfarmland degradation in China.
Factoring in economic causes, reportsattributed the decline in land sown to grainin China to urbanization, deserticationand reforestation efforts to combat it, loss
of irrigation supplies, a shift to higher-valuecrops, and a decline in double-cropping dueto farm labor shortages.
The Asian Wall Street Journalre-ported on 9 March: Sudden price surgesfor Chinas most precious staple, rice,
have caught several big cities off guardand prompted urgent measures to ensuresupply. Among them was a governmentpledge of $1.2 billion in rural subsidies toget farmers to grow more grain and workto smooth supply bottlenecks.
Jim Yardley, writing in the 2 May edi-
tion of the New York Times, focused on of-ten illegal land conversion in China. Since2002, China has lost more than 13,500square miles [3.5 million ha] of farmland,
he wrote. Last year alone, more than 2% ofall farmland was lost.
Citing farm-gate and world-marketprice declines that are driving thousandsfrom an increasingly unprotable business,
Alan Boyd noted in a March edition of theAsia Times that global rice stocks are ex-
Harvest shortfalls and higher grain prices viewed as a worrying trend
Cooperation in South Asia on zero tillage, basmati promotion
The 10 March edition of the Financial
Express newspaper in India and the 29March online edition of the Daily Timesnewspaper in Pakistan covered an agree-ment by subcontinental rivals India andPakistan to cooperate in soil-conservationtechnologies and sustainable agriculture.
The stories cited Mangala Rai, directorgeneral of the Indian Council of AgriculturalResearch (ICAR), saying that the regionalmeeting of the IRRI-supported Rice-WheatConsortium in Islamabad in February hadpaved the way for bilateral cooperation
between the two countries after 8 years of
stymied progress in the consortium due toadverse political relations. The agreementcalls for bringing 1 million ha, including900,000 ha in India, under zero tillage.
Ashok B. Sharma, author of the Fi-nancial Express article, followed it up on
pected to decline by 20 million tons, reduc-ing reserves to about 3 months of supply.China and India, the biggest consumers, willexperience the largest drops.
Mittelstaedt was especially alarmed atthe effect of global warming on plants abil-ity to fertilize their seeds. He cited research
conducted at IRRI that found that the fer-tilization of rice seeds falls from 100% at 34degrees to near zero at 40 degrees.
Its the work that we have been doing
with colleagues at the University of Florida,Gainesville, commented John Sheehy, spe-cialist in crop ecology and crop modeling,
when he saw the article. The bit that getsleft out is that were trying to work on a solu-tion to the high-temperature problem, butnding it almost impossible to get funds.
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11Rice TodayJuly-September 2004
In the 27 February edition ofScience (Vol.303, No. 5662, pages 1281-1283), Den-nis Normile reported on efforts to achievecloser cooperation, and perhaps a merger,
between IRRI and the International Maizeand Wheat Improvement Center (CIM-MYT). The aim of the crown jewels of the
Consultative Group on International Agri-cultural Research (CGIAR), he wrote, is aheightened and more centralized effort touse genomics to enhance germplasm.
We know now that the major cerealshave a majority of their genes in common,IRRI Director General Ronald Cantrell wasquoted as saying. Normile added that thetwo institutes taking advantage of thesimilarities among the cereals might leadto a shared genomics laboratory, jointlyappointed researchers and possibly even acommon board. Savings in lab costs could beaugmented by efciencies from centralized
bioinformatics efforts, intellectual-propertymanagement and training programs.
Normile explained that the initiativearose in response to lower funding levelsfor both centers and a donor-led diversionof money from basic germplasm research
into other areas. A recent evaluation by theWorld Bank of some 700 previous reportsand studies notes that CGIAR spending onimproving crop productivity declined by6.5% annually in real terms through the1990s and that training programs for thedeveloping world decreased by nearly 1%a year (see graphic), he reported. At the
same time, research into environmentalprotection and biodiversity were receiving
larger shares of a shrinking pie.The resulting erce competi-
tion among centers for scarce fund-ing isolated research programs ata time when germplasm researchefforts could have beneted fromgreater collaboration, especially
in biotechnology. While privatecompanies and universities inadvanced countries invested $8
billion to $10 billion in agricultural bio-
technology in the 1990s, says Uma Lele, anagricultural economist who led the WorldBank review, the CGIAR system spent just$25 million. For a billion poor people in the
world, that is just minuscule, she says.The combined weight of IRRI and
CIMMYT within the CGIAR has led tospeculation that the initiative which isoverseen by a committee chaired by Gor-don Conway, president of the Rockefeller
Foundation could shake up the structureof the entire group.
Perhaps the biggest question is howdonors will react, wrote Normile. Rock-efellers Conway, an agricultural ecologist,says that coupling a new functional ge-
nomics program to the existing germplasmbanks and eld-testing expertise of the twocenters will create a really powerful basis forproducing new crop traits that might appealto donors. So, too, might a report from theRockefeller Foundation offering a blueprintfor a new, improved CGIAR. The 19 April edition of the Financial
Express described an IRRI-CIMMYTmerger as the height of folly. Editorialist
Ashok B. Sharma wrote: One should no
think that the roles of IRRI and CIMMYTare over with the ushering in of the GreenRevolution. There are still millions of hungry people in Asia, Africa and Latin AmericaBoth IRRI and CIMMYT still have effectiveroles to play.
The national governments, in theinterests of greater public welfare, shouldincrease their funding to the CGIAR systemin general and to IRRI and CIMMYT in par
ticular. Also in the interest of greater publicwelfare, the CGIAR system should maintainits image as a global public-sector research
body working for public good.The CGIAR should not depend upon
funds from private sector.
The Manila Times on 20 Aprilreported that IRRIs budget hadfallen from US$44.49 million in 1993to $27.1 million (www.manilatimesnet/national/2004/apr/20/yehey/metro/20040420met6.html). Citing Dr. Cantrellit said IRRI is developing a long-termstrategy to tap Asian funding, beginning
this year with members of the Associationof Southeast Asian Nations.
The Daily Star newspaper examined arange of rice-related developments inBangladesh in March and April.
On 4 March, it covered a workshopon poverty mapping held at the Local Gov-ernment Engineering Department, whichparticipated in this IRRI-led project along
with the Bangladesh Agricultural ResearchCouncil and the Bangladesh Bureau of Sta-tistics (seePinning down poverty on page
30). Rural poverty is of direct concern forpolicymakers, planners, and implement-ers of agricultural and rural developmentprograms, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir,state minister for agriculture, was quotedas telling the workshop.
The article added: Noting that therural poverty is not spread evenly acrossthe countryside, the state minister saidthere was a need for detailed informationon hot spots of poverty so that the govern-
ment can target the development programmore precisely.
The 18 April edition reported on a2-day workshop on Uptake Methods andPathways organized by the Department of
Agricultural Extension and the IRRI-ledproject Poverty Elimination Through RiceResearch Assistance. At the workshop, Ag-riculture Minister M.K. Anwar pointed outthat agriculture receives only 2.47% of thecountrys annual development budget, downfrom 22% in 1979. He promised that the next
budget will include measures favoring farm-ers to lower high rice production costs.
On the front page of its 23 April edition,theDaily Star covered a dialogue on Wom-ens contribution to rural economic activities:Making the invisible visible, organized by
the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD). Agri-culture Minister Anwar, State Minister for
Agriculture Alamgir, and Awami League
Agriculture Secretary Mohammad AbduRazzaque were among those who addressed
the gathering, which was chaired by FazleHasan Abed, member of the CPD Board oTrustees and chairman of the BangladeshRural Advancement Committee.
Representing IRRI were Social Sciences Division Head Mahabub Hossain andgender specialist Thelma Paris. Dr. Hossainrecommended channeling agricultural creditthrough women and new government projects to train women in improved agriculturatechnologies and support their income-generating activities around the homestead.
The article quoted Dr. Paris as addingStereotyped notions that rural women arehousewives should be discarded and replaced by the recognition that their roles in
production and their contributions to familyincome are crucial for improving the liveli-hoods of the household.
Sciencescrutinizes crown jewels initiative
Daily Starcovers poverty mapping, technology uptake and women in farming in Bangladesh
A changing set of research priorities*
Increasingproductivity Training
+2.7%+3.1% +3.1%
0.8% Savingbiodiversity
Protectingthe
environment
Betterpolicies
6.5%*Average annual change in CGIAR research
expenditures, 1992-2001. Source: CGIAR
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Rice, the worlds most widely consumed grain, plays a unique role in combating global hunger.
Reecting this, the World Food Prize has recognized seven scientists and world leaders for their
exceptional achievements in rice more than in any other area of food production. This trend
reinforced on 29 March at a ceremony at the United States Department of State hosted by Secretary
State Colin Powell. At this event, it was my pleasure and honor, as president of the World Food Prize
undation, to name two more scientists, Monty Jones of Sierra Leone and Yuan Longping of China, as
ipients of the World Food Prize for their efforts to improve rice productivity in Africa and Asia.
The Nobel-inspired World Food Prizeputs rice back on the menu
WORLDby AmbassadorKenneth Quinn
FOOD
THE IOWA STATE Capitol
Building in Des Moines de
out in celebration of the
US$250,000 World Food P
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Rice TodayJuly-September 2004 Rice TodayJuly-September 2004
Iowas international harvester
Born in a rural Norwegian-American community in northeastern Iowa on 25 March 1914,
Norman Borlaug was like hundreds of millions of beneciaries of his lifes work
worldwide raised on a family farm and rst educated in a one-room schoolhouse.
In the 1940s, armed with degrees in forestry and plant pathology, he began working in
a wheat-research program jointly sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Mexican
government. His achievements in Mexico notably the development of short-strawedwheat cultivars able to produce high yields and resist disease were the beginning
of a distinguished career in ghting world hunger. After helping to reverse severe food
shortages in India and Pakistan in the 1960s, Dr. Borlaug continued his work in other
hunger-ravaged nations throughout the world, never losing sight of his goal to provide
food for the countless millions suffering the pangs of malnourishment.
As a result, Dr. Borlaug saved as many as a billion lives
throughout the world. For this unprecedented service to
humanity, the man now known as the father of the Green
Revolution received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970.
Yet, as he accepted the worlds premier humanitarian
honor, Dr. Borlaug realized that no provision existed for
regular recognition of the work of others in the ght
to end world hunger. There was no system to honor
the achievements of thousands of scientists, farmers,
political leaders and humanitarians working toward
global food security in elds as diverse as agriculture,
ecology, nutrition, economics, manufacturing and public
policy. He envisioned a World Food Prize, knowing
that establishing it would be a difcult task. However,
overcoming immeasurable challenges was nothing new to
Dr. Borlaug, so when the rst World Food Prize was awarded
in 1987, few were surprised by its success.
This years laureate announcement in March at the
Department of State in Washington, D.C., which did double
duty as a 90th birthday ce lebration for Dr. Borlaug, gave
Secretary of State Colin Powell the opportunity to express
sentiments that many have long cherished.
Thanks to Dr. Borlaugs pioneering work in the 1960sto develop varieties of high-yielding wheat, countless
millions of men, women and children, who will never know his name, will never go to bed
hungry, Sec. Powell observed. Dr. Borlaug has been an inspiration to new generations
across the globe who have taken up the ght against hunger.
On 10-12 July, the World Food Prize Foundation will join the Chinese Academy of
Agricultural Sciences to celebrate Dr. Borlaugs birthday again in Beijing, where the father
of the Green Revolution will be guest of honor along with Yuan Longping, Chinas
homegrown 2004 World Food Prize laureate at the International Symposium on Science
and Technology in Agriculture: Current and Future. In October, as people everywhere mark
World Food Day, the foundation will bring the celebration back home to Des Moines, Iowa
(see Ear of rice on page 17).
the world. The mission of the WorldFood Prize Foundation, which awardsthe annual US$250,000 prize, isthreefold: to recognize exceptionalachievement across the entire food
production and distribution process,to highlight how scientic innovationmight solve problems affecting the
process, and to inspire others todedicate their careers to helping to
feed the world and eradicate hunger.Yuan Longping, while at the
Hunan Academy of AgriculturalSciences in China, achieved a
major scientic breakthrough ashe developed the genetic materialsessential for breeding high-yieldinghybrid rice varieties. Now widelyconsidered the father of hybrid rice,
Prof. Yuan is being recognized fordeveloping hybrids that yield up to20% more grain than inbred varieties.
NORMAN BORLAUGS contribu-tions to world agriculture have
saved a billion lives.
The announcement coincidestly with the United Nationssignation of 2004 as theternational Year of Rice. The
remony in Washington attendedover 250 diplomats, experts andlicymakers including U.S. SecretaryAgriculture Ann Veneman andcques Diouf, director general of the
ood and Agriculture Organizationthe United Nations was notableanother respect. It served as a
surprise celebration of the 90thbirthday of Norman Borlaug, withSec. Powell leading the diplomaticcorps in singingHappy Birthday
to the World Food Prize founder(seeIowas international harvester
below).Now in its 18th year, the World
Food Prize honors individuals who
have made signicant contributionsto improving the quality, quantityor availability of food throughout
AT THE 29 MARCH laureate announcement at the Department ofState in Washington, D.C., are (from left) Ambassador KennethQuinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation and authorof this feature; John Ruan III, vice-chairman of the World FoodPrize Foundation; Alan P. Larson, under secretary of state foreconomic, business and agricultural affairs; Ann Veneman,secretary of agriculture; Colin Powell, secretary of state; JacquesDiouf, director general of the Food and Agriculture Organizationof the United Nations; Norman Borlaug; Andrew Natsios, admin-istrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
EMILYWESTERGAARD,THEWORLDFOODPRIZE
CIMMYT
THEAFRICARICECENTER(WARDA)
Further, Prof. Yuan has made aconcerted effort to educate others
about his discovery, thus spreadingthe benets to more than 10 other
countries worldwide. His work hasdirectly contributed to the productionof enough additional food to sustain60 million people.
Breakthrough achievementBorn in Sierra Leone, Monty Jones
became in 1991 the head of theUpland Rice Breeding Program of
the West Africa Rice DevelopmentAssociation (WARDA) The AfricaRice Center, one of 15 international
research centers funded through theConsultative Group on International
Agricultural Research by the WorldBank and other member donors. It
was in this position that he madehis breakthrough achievementof combining Asian and Africanrice varieties to develop a new
rice uniquely suited to the uplandconditions farmed by poor Africans.These varieties, which came to beknown as New Rice for Africa, orNERICA, provide African farmers
with much-needed alternatives toexisting rice varieties. As the father ofNERICA, Dr. Jones is credited withincreasing many African farmersupland rice yields by half or more.
In October, Prof. Yuan and Dr.Jones will travel to Des Moines,Iowa, to receive their award andparticipate in the 2004 World Food
Prize International Symposium, FromAsia to Africa: Rice, Bioforticationand Human Nutrition. Along withthe laureate announcement in
Washington, D.C., the Laureate
Award Ceremony and Symposium willlikely be remembered as a deningevent of the International Year of Rice(seeEar of rice on page 15).
Scientic and policyachievements related to rice theprimary food of 17 countries and
billions of individuals throughout theworld have greatly advanced the
struggle to feed some of the worldslargest and most undernourishedpopulations. Prof. Yuan and Dr. Jones
WORLD FOOD PRIZE laureates (from left) Monty Jones (2004), Yuan Longping (2004), M.S. Swaminathan(1987, pictured with Philippine President C orazon Aquino at IRRI in 1986), Robert F. Chandler (1988, withPhilippine President Diosdado Macapagal and John D. Rockefeller III at the formal dedication of IRRI in1962), Henry Beachell (1996, with Dr. Chandler and the Philippine and American rst ladies Imelda Marcosand Lady Bird Johnson at IRRI i n 1966) and Dr. Swaminathan again (with Lu Liangsh u, president of the Chi-nese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, in 1985).
are the most recent World Folaureates honored for their wthis essential grain, adding achapter to the prizes rich his
of recognizing achievements production.
This history started withinaugural World Food Prize.
1987, M.S. Swaminathan becthe rst World Food Prize laufor his work in extending theRevolution to India, which lea doubling of that countrys t
wheat and rice output in justcropping seasons. Dr. Swamipromoted high-yielding rice v
TANGMIN
IRRI(4)
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Rice TodayJuly-September 2004 Rice TodayJuly-September 2004
veloped by the International Riceesearch Institute (IRRI) to Indianrmers through test plots and
monstrations, thus advancing avolutionary approach to agricultural
tension in India that reversed yieldagnation and helped feed millions.
The prize recognized progress ince again the following year, as IRRIs
unding director general, Robert F.handler, became the 1988 laureate.r. Chandler was selected for his rolepreventing widespread famine inia, as IRRI, under his leadership,
lped raise the continents ricervest by two-thirds. The prize alsocognized Dr. Chandlers continuedntributions after he moved on from
RRI to become the founding director
the Asian Vegetable Research andevelopment Center, where he wasstrumental in improving the dietsmillions of undernourished people
roughout the world.
Eight years later, in 1996, theWorld Food Prize honored HenryBeachell and Gurdev Khush, who
worked together at IRRI to developnew strains of rice with dramatically
improved yields. Dr. Beachell appliedto rice Norman Borlaugs principleof breeding sturdy, short-strawedcultivars. The results were semidwarf
rice cultivars that yielded nearly twiceas much grain as traditional varieties.Dr. Khush, a student of Dr. Beachellsat IRRI, carried on his mentors work
by breeding into these high-yielding
modern varieties improved resistanceto diseases and pests. The innovationsdeveloped by these two men led to ahigh-yielding and resilient rice varietythat at one point occupied over 70%
of the worlds rice lands.I witnessed, 3 decades ago while
working in the Mekong Delta, thedramatic impact of the rice varieties
developed by Drs. Beachell and Khush. The arrival of the new seedsfrom IRRI coincided with the buildingof new roads rice and roadstogether clearly driving dramaticimprovement in the quality of life.
But, where the road-building stopped,so did the spread of technology.
Rice scientists are not the onlyWorld Food Prize laureates who
have helped make the global riceharvest both more bountiful and moreeconomically and environmentallysustainable. The prize has gone toseveral individuals whose substantial
contributions to agriculture as a whole in the realms of government and
business as well as science beneted
BOBELBERT,THEWORLDFOODPRIZE
JESUSVICTOLERO
rice along with other crops and soenhanced global food security.
Disseminated knowledgeFormer Chinese Minister of Agriculture
He Kang, the 1993 World Food Prizelaureate, was recognized for settingpolicies that allowed China to becomeone of the most efcient rice-producing
countries in the world. Minister Hehelped rebuild a national infrastructurethat had been devastated by years ofneglect, notably restoring resourcesto Chinese agricultural universities,
which brought a vast increase in theuse of new rice-farming methods. Inaddition, Minister Hes efforts helped
disseminate knowledge of new high-yielding rice varieties to his nationsfarmers.
In 1997, Ray Smith and PerryAdkisson were awarded the World
Food Prize for addressing sustainablepest control, one of the greatestchallenges facing agriculture, notleast rice production. Drs. Smith and
Adkisson together developed what isperhaps the most environmentallyfriendly and cost-effective approachto pest control. The system, knownas integrated pest management,
stresses limiting the use of pollutingagricultural chemicals by employinginstead natural pest-control methods.
Each of these accomplishindividuals, through his uniqinnovative approach, has dedhis life to ensuring that the wadequately fed. It is to recogn
seless dedication that the WFood Prize exists. For their wrice, Prof. Yuan and Dr. Jone
women thus honored.
Dr. Quinn, former U.S. ambassaCambodia, is president of the W
Prize Foundation (www.worldf.org). Emily Westergaard and NYoung contributed to this articlmore about the International Y
Rice, see www.rice2004.org.
With the October 2004 World Food Prize
Harvest Festival in Des Moines, Iowa, the Corn
and Soybean State will become the venue for
arguably the worlds most focused observance of
the International Year of Rice. Highlights among
the more than 200 events statewide will be
celebrations of Norman Borlaugs 90th birthday
and the formal presentation of the World Food
Prize to the 2004 laureates, Monty Jones of
Sierra Leone and Yuan Longping of China.
Reflecting the origins of the new
laureates, the World Food Prize Foundation
has applied the theme From Asia to Africa
to its 13-14 October Symposium on Rice,
Biofortication and Enhanced Nutrition.
The distinguished speakers at the
symposium will be (in alphabetical order)
Catherine Bertini, United Nations under
secretary general, chair of the UN Nutrition
Council and 2003 World Food Prize laureate;
Howarth Bouis, director of the HarvestPlus
biofortification challenge program ofthe Consultative Group on International
Agricultural Research (CGIAR); Joachim von
Braun, director general of the In
Food Policy Research Institute of
Ronald P. Cantrell, director gen
International Rice Research Insti
CGIAR; Gordon Conway, presid
Rockefeller Foundation; Susan
professor of plant breeding in the
Rice Biotechnology Program
University; Pedro A. Sanchez, p
tropical agriculture at Columbia
2003 MacArthur fellow and 2002
Prize laureate; Alfred Sommer, d
Bloomberg School of Public Healt
Hopkins University; M.S. Swa
chairman of the M.S. Swaminatha
Foundation, co-chair of the UN
Projects Hunger Task Force and
Food Prize laureate; and Steven Tan
of the Genomics Initiative Task Forc
University and 2004 Wolf Prize rec
For more information on the 2004International Symposium or to regi
please visitwww.worldfoodprize.org
Ear of rice
RAY CHARLES and the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra keepthe music owing at the 2002 Laureate Ceremony in Iowa.At the IRRI Experiment Station in the Philippines (top,
from left), Gurdev Khush, 1996 World Food Prize laureate,examines a rice eld in 1999 with Norman Borlaug andSant Virmani, IRRI principal scientist in plant breedingand pioneer of tropical hybrid rice, and (bottom) ArnoldManza, Experiment Station senior manager, demonstrates theinstitutes modern rice mill to Yuan Longping in 2003.
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When 39 membersof the Maniladiplomaticcommunity
urneyed 60 km southeast of
e Philippine capital for anternational Year of Rice openy at the International Rice
ore than the usual VIP tour. Afterspecting the International Riceenebank and the institutes state--the-art rice mill and experimentallds and laboratories, the guests
turned to their starting point, theceworld Museum and Learning
enter. After a brief ceremonyarking Riceworlds 10th anniversary
d a ribbon cutting, they indulgedan activity never before offered to
sitors at IRRI. They went shopping.Since that grand opening on 4
arch of the Riceworld Bookstore
d Coffee Shop, all visitors toRRIs headquarters in Los Baos,aguna, have the option of sipping
their favorite coffee as theybrowse for T-shirts, hats,publications and trinkets.Its not a bad way to roundout a couple hours of
garnering knowledge aboutthe grain that feeds half the
world.
September 1994, but marking the10th anniversary in March madesense beyond aligning the celebration
with the open day for diplomats. InMarch 1994, another high-powered
visit to IRRI by Gunther Beck,head of the Southeast Asia andPacic Department of the Germangovernment funding agency BMZ
set the languishing dream ofRiceworld on the road to reality.
Klaus Lampe, IRRI directorgeneral in 1988-95 and a Germannational himself, mentioned to Beck
that IRRI was considering plans forsome sort of rice education center.The idea was to develop a space that
Rice TodayJuly-September 2004
Rice revealed
with morein store
fter a decade of celebrating rice and instilling knowledge
f the essential grain, the Riceworld Museum and Learning
enter marks the International Year of Rice with a timely
elebration of itself
by Adam Barclay
FRANKLIM SILVA (bottom left), chancellor of the Portuguese Embassybrowses in the new Riceworld Bookstore and Coffee Shop. The exhibimuseum and learning center itself include traditional harvesting knivsickles from across Asia; (continuing clockwise) unthreshed bundles orice from Banaue, Philippines; rice-straw sandals from Nepal; a Philipharvesting knife; samples of wild, traditional and modern rice varietiThai ox cart used to transport harvested rice, farm implements and pwooden bulul gure opposite is a granary guardian of the Ifugao minmountains of northern Luzon in the Philippines.
photography by Al Benavente
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was in hishands. GTZpromptlydonatedUS$73,000,and just
6 months
H.E. Karl-Friedrich
Mar
The idea
served as IRRI director general in1982-88 (see World food reprise onpage 12). Dr. Swaminathan pointedout that busloads of schoolchildrenarrived at IRRI every day to ndalmost nothing specically designedto foster in them an appreciation ofthe history and value of rice. He wrote
at the time of the need that youngstudents who come in large numbersto IRRI have an opportunity to learnabout the antiquity and fascinatinghistory of the rice plant.
By that time, IRRI hadaccumulated a number of artifactsthat were kept in a room at theTraining Center, Movillon explains.Many of the original artifacts, ifnot most of them, were donated byHarold Conklin, former curator ofanthropology at Yale Universitys
Peabody Museum of Natural Historyin the United States. According toDuncan Macintosh, head of IRRIsVisitors and Information Services,Riceworld would not be what it istoday without him.
Unsung heroHes an unsung hero of Riceworld,says Macintosh. Prof. Conklin hadbeen coming to the Philippines sincethe 1940s. He rst came to studythe Ifugao and the rice terraces ofnorthern Luzon. His most recenttrip was 2 years ago, when he was inhis 70s. On every trip hes made, hecouldnt help but collect artifacts. Hedidnt want to take them back to theStates, so he left them here at IRRI.
If Prof. Conklin kick-startedRiceworld with his collection, itwas a wide and
RICEWORLD SHOWCASES ricefestivals and customs, displayingbrilliantly colored kiping, the leaf-shaped rice-paste wafers that areused to decorate houses during thePahiyas festival, held on 15 May inhonor of San Isidro Labrador, thepatron saint of farmers, in Lucbanand surrounding towns in thePhilippines. Male and female bululgranary guardians (right) from thePhilippines.
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21
that grabbed hold of the wheel. Once things got moving,people volunteered to help us, reports Ben Vergara, IRRIdirector of administration in 1991-96 and probably the
person most responsible for driving Riceworlds initialdevelopment. We used to work until 11 at night. Some ofthe carpenters and other workers worked with no overtimepay, because it was fun.
A call went out to people far and wide who mightdonate exhibits or offer advice, attracting especiallyuseful suggestions from Yoshiko Yamamoto, a museumexpert at San Francisco State University. We wrote toIRRI people in other countries Thailand, Cambodia,Laos, Indonesia, Movillon recalls. They started sendingfarmers clothing. Embassy ofcials organized donationsfrom their countries.
The most striking and contentious exhibit in the Rice
Museum and Learning Center is Momi, the giant sculpture
sprouting wild rice seed by renowned Japanese artist Mit
Tanabe. Momi, Japanese for unhulled rice, communicates the vi
of wild rice at germination by depicting the seed protruding from
ground and sprouting both shoot and root. At 6 meters long a
meters tall, the brightly colored, wooden structure is impossible to
and, according to IRRI Visitors and Information Services Head D
Macintosh, elicits a wide range of responses from visitors.
Some people come in and say, What is that thing? What a of money! But the issue that all visitors to Riceworld have in their
when they leave
is wild rice, he
observes. Why?
Because the one
thing everybody
remembers is this
huge abstract
sculpture. Its a
very smart strat-
egy. Mr. Tanabe
wanted people
to talk about
wild rice, andhes been wildly
successful. No
one can walk
past Momi with-
out asking what it is. So his intent actually works extremely well, e
a lot of people think it doesnt. It took me a year to understand t
Tanabe approached IRRI with his Momi idea in the early
and constructed it over several months in 1994. The project was j
funded by IRRI and the newly formed Wild Rice Club of Japan, a gro
businessmen who, having grown weary of sponsoring golf tournam
decided to focus on something more socially worthwhile and respo
to Tanabes idea of promoting wild rice conservation. This year, the
is organizing the World Wild Rice Forum 2004 and Asian Wild Rice
Festival in Osaka on 8 August (see ad on page 39).After completing IRRIs Momi, Tanabe created a 33-meter-
4.5-ton stainless-steel rice grain for the Pathum Thani Rice Res
Institute in Thailand, which occupies a rice eld 70 km northea
Bangkok. His most
recent effort is an
11-meter- long
stainless-steel rice
sculpture donated
to Indias Central
Rice Research
Institute in 2002.
Tanabe plans
to start work this
year on anothergiant rice sculpture
in the far north
of Australia. With help
from the local Aboriginal
community who knew
about Australian varieties
of wild rice long before
anyone else he will carve
the structure into a natural
granite formation.
The Momi of all rice seeds
Rice TodayJuly-September 2004
RICEWORLD SUPERVISOR Paul Hilario (fth from left) guides a groupof visitors to the museum and learning center; Riceworld displays(top) on rice rituals, customs and festivals.
MITSUAKI TANABE supervises the installation in 19944-meter-tall Momi sculpture, which dwarfs Visitors OfFrances Tesoro (below).
IR
RI
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22 Rice TodayJuly-September 2004
As you stroll through Riceworld,you learn the story of the essentialgrain. The rst exhibits link the ever-increasing global population withthe need to grow more rice andso the need for rice research to helpfarmers produce ample supplies of
affordable rice with minimal impacton the environment. These arefollowed by displays on rice-growingenvironments and examples oftraditional and modern rice-farmingimplements and technologies. Onearea showcases insects both ricepests and the farmers friends thatprey on them. Another informs aboutdifferent lineages of rice and theneed to conserve all rice varieties wild and cultivated, traditional andmodern.
Rice productsExhibits showcase rice products food, drink, footwear, hats, ornamentsand art as well as the role ofwomen in rice and the inuence ofrice on traditional cultures. A videofrom inside a traditional stiltedhut of the northern PhilippinesIfugao community shows priests, ormumbaki, performing rice-growingrituals.
Macintosh emphasizes thatRiceworld is not just a museumconcentrating on the past but also aforward-looking learning center.
The very use of the wordmuseum points out a fairlyfundamental problem, he says.Museums are what people know.Theyre what attract funding. Butwe as a scientic institute developtechnologies for the future, so whyshould we look back? Considering
Vintage farming equipmentfound lying around IRRI was sprucedup. Former IRRI scientist S.W.Ahn donated his familys dui-joo,a traditional Korean wooden ricecontainer. Visitors from the Mangyanethnic minority on the nearbyPhilippine island of Mindoro were
excited to see exhibits of traditionalrice-farming implements and donatedsome of their own in the knowledgethat Riceworld would preserve themfor future generations.
The new facility made IRRIa magnet for visitors, especiallyFilipino school groups. The number
of visitors ballooned from 34,000 in1994 to more than 120,000 in 1997.The following year, more carefulspacing of school groups pushed thenumber of visitors down to a moremanageable 71,000. In all, 650,000people have visited IRRI since thelearning center opened.
Riceworld offers a crash course inthe breadth and depth of rices placein the world particularly in Asia,but also on every other continentexcept Antarctica. The sheer diversityof cultural exhibits rams home theintegral role that rice plays in culturesworldwide.
A SAMPLING of the surprising variety of food and drink made from rice. The dui-joo (top) recalls traditionalgrain storage in Korea, and the Philippine buffalo cart (bottom) is one of several antique carts on display.
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the number of students that visit us more than 72,000 out of last yearstotal of almost 87,000 visitors itreally is an educational center.
To better engage the students,IRRI has just developed workbooksgraded by age group, adds RiceworldSupervisor Paul Hilario. These help
schoolchildren learn as they tour thecenter.
Hilario stresses that othervisitors including diplomats,scientists, farmers, politicians andtourists must not be forgotten.Riceworld needs to play more toits diverse audience and give them aricher learning experience, he says.Visitors would like more interactiveexhibits, and we dont yet haveenough of these. We plan to turnRiceworld into a place that caters to
all age groups. Most of the displayswill be student-centered, but for othervisitors wishing to investigate moredeeply, well provide information-on-demand exhibits.
The search for funding to keepRiceworld displays fresh and engagingwill no doubt suffer setbacks whichthe center has already learned toendure. Macintosh vividly remembersthe evening of Thursday, 2 September1999. He had arrived 4 months earlieras IRRI spokesperson and was stillworking out with management howreorganization would put Riceworldunder his care.
We had just nished work, herecalls. It was about 6 pm. I walkedout of another building and smelledsmoke then saw smoke risingfrom the back of Riceworld, near the
library. Just then, re engines startedto arrive. The re went on for 4 or 5hours after that, well into the night.There was heavy smoke all throughRiceworld, and you couldnt enterwithout breathing equipment.
The re, caused by rat damageto wiring, spread throughout theceiling. Fireghters smashed throughthe roof to extinguish it, but smokeand water caused considerabledamage, requiring Riceworlds closurefor several months. Movillon andRiceworld Assistant Harris Tumawisall but lived there while they rushed torepair exhibits and clean the buildingin time for IRRIs 40th anniversarycelebration in 2000.
Audiovisual facility
Completely gutted was Chandler Hall,a 192-seat auditorium at the heart ofRiceworld that wouldnt reopen untilApril 2001. Today, the refurbishedand upgraded audiovisual facility isone of the best in the region.
Hilario has taken the lead inrecovering some of Riceworldsmaintenance costs by openingChandler Hall for corporate andcommunity meetings and activities.He has also taken charge of upgrading
exhibits and implementing new ones.One plan is to dedicate a new roomto rotating exhibitions covering suchhot rice issues as genetic modicationand the environmental impact of ricefarming.
Agriculture isnt usually countedamong modern, knowledge-basedindustries. However, research byIRRI and its national partners amplydemonstrates how knowledge is asessential as good seed and sturdytools to farmers striving to improvetheir livelihoods by growing ricemore efciently and sustainably.Similarly, popular support for soundagricultural and food policies dependson widespread knowledge andunderstanding of the issues involved.
As Riceworld enters its second
decade, the museum and learningcenter renews its commitment to sat-isfying this hunger for knowledge.
Riceworld Museum and Learning Center
is open to the public 8 am-5 pm, Monday-
Friday, excluding public holidays. Admission
is free. Large groups should make prior
arrangements with Bita Avendao, tel (+63-
2) 580-5600, fax (+63-2) 580-5699, email
b.avendano@cgiar.org. Riceworld Bookstore
and Coffee Shop offers rice-related books and
souvenirs, as well as snacks, coffee and cakes.
Rice TodayJuly-September 2004 23
RICEWORLD VISITORS learn about rice pests and the farmers friends that prey on them, including ( clockwisefrom top left) the adult moth of the rice greenhorned caterpillar, the grasshopper, the adult and pupa of therice skipper, the rice bug, the ladybird beetle (which preys on such pests as mealybugs, hoppers and aphids)and the yellow stem borer.
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Rice TodayJuly-September 2004 Rice TodayJuly-September 2004
The environment willalways feel the impact ofagriculture, not least of
rice farming. Rice is thestaple food of almost 3
billion people, and rice farms coveralmost 150 million ha more thanany other crop. Much of this landis ooded paddies, whose unique
environmental implications includeland leveling and terracing, heavy
water demand, and greenhousegas emissions. In addition, therice landscape is in many areas
extremely rich in biodiversity, thesurvival of which depends on carefulmanagement.
More than merely acknowledgingthe impact of agriculture on the
environment, the International RiceResearch Institute (IRRI) recentlyacted to ensure that environmentalsustainability will always be central
to its research program, as well asto its day-to-day operations at itsresearch campus and its relationship
with neighboring communities.IRRI management decided the time
was ripe to codify the instituteslongstanding commitment toenvironmental protection andsustainable rice production. Formal
implementation of the resultingEnvironmental Agenda will takeplace over the coming year.
The initiative arose partly inresponse to the 1992 Rio Earth
Summit and the 2002 World Summiton Sustainable Development inJohannesburg. These events rmly
established a global commitmto protect and conserve theenvironment while achieving
and economic development which inuence, and are inu
by, agriculture in general andfarming in particular. Compothis commitment, the UnitedMillennium Development Go
set a target of halving 1990 leof world poverty by 2015, whensuring environmental sustand reversing the loss of naturesources.
Environmental concernhave long been apparent in Iresearch, says Ren Wang, IRdeputy director general for reand a core contributor to the
Environmental Agenda. Buthe environmental approach holistic way, to consciously coto conserving the environme
achieving sustainable develoand to package it in this way that is something new.
TheEnvironmental Agenidenties seven key environm
whole wayGoing the distance with a holisticEnvironmen
Agenda that captures decades of experience
in environmental protection
The
by Adam Barclay
CENTRAL TO MAKING farming more envi-ronmentally friendly, and so preserving andrestoring such magnicent landscapes as thisone in Bhutan, is the application of integratedpest management. This includes adopting farmpractices that encourage the natural enemiesof insect pests, such as spiders ( right), andso eliminating the market for toxic and oftenmisapplied pesticides (overleaf).
GENE
HETTEL
IRRI
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26 Rice TodayJuly-September 2004
initiatives: poverty and humanhealth; land use and degradation;water; biodiversity; farm chemicalsand residues; climate change; andbiosafety and genetically modiedrice. Dr. Wang points out that theagenda recognizes that environmentalconcerns act both ways; while IRRI
strives to reduce the impact of ricefarming on the environment, thechanging environment also affectsrice farming.
Global warming and otherenvironmental trends are alreadyhaving an impact on rice production,and this impact will increase, heexplains. Rice producers all overthe world need to understand theimplications of environmentalchange. For IRRI to help the nationalagricultural research and extension
systems of rice-producing countries,we need to continue to developtechnologies that can be used to copewith this change.
IRRIs commitment toenvironmental protection beginsat home on its research campus atLos Baos in the Philippines. Theinstitutes recycling scheme produces10 tons of usable compost per yearfrom lawn clippings and otherbiodegradable waste, and reduceswaste volume by as much as 70%.As well as reducing energy use, thescheme minimizes dumping, burningand burying.
TheEnvironmental Agendareinforces IRRIs community spiritby promoting environment-friendlyinitiatives implemented for and withthe institutes closest neighbors. Since2000, IRRI Community Projects havecontributed to the environmentallysustainable economic and socialdevelopment of poor communities in
the municipalities of Los Baos andBay. Dr. Wang points out that this isan example of an existing program atIRRI that benets from inclusion in aformal agenda.
You have to live in harmonywith your surrounding society, hesays. IRRI wants to emphasize this
harmony with respect to peopleand their environment. Buildinginitiatives like Community Projectsinto theEnvironmental Agendacan increase local environmentalconsciousness and commitment.By doing things ourselves in anenvironmentally friendly way, we canhelp and encourage our neighbors todo the same.
IRRIs research programpromises to extend the benetsof theEnvironmental Agenda to
the farthest corners of Asia andbeyond. These benets includestemming farm-chemical pollution bypromoting technologies that reduceand optimize their application, andconserving freshwater resources withwater-saving rice varieties and farmpractices. More broadly, IRRIs workto improve the health and livelihoodof poor rice farmers and consumersdirectly addresses the rural povertythat is the most intractable threat tothe environment.
Using crop biodiversityResearch by IRRI Principal ScientistTom Mew into using crop biodiversityto control rice disease has enjoyedstunning success in China and is nowbeing adopted in other countries.Dr. Mew investigated how to controlthe devastating fungal disease riceblast by interplanting two types ofrice, a blast-resistant hybrid and ahigh-value but disease-susceptible
traditional variety. The rows ofhybrids limit the transmission of thefungus between rows of traditionalplants, which nevertheless serveas refuges for the fungus, relievingpressure on it to overcome the hybridvarietys resistance. The techniquepreserves in place traditionalvarieties, extends the useful life ofmodern hybrids, and allows ricefarmers to dramatically improve theirincome while reducing fungicide use.
Also helping both the environmentand farmers