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In the last century, some highly

motivated people, driven by moral

outrage, decided that slavery was

monstrous, unconscionable, and must be

abolished. They were called abolitionists.

Today, widespread hunger in a world of

plenty calls equally for moral outrage.

The silent holocaust that causes some40,000 hunger-related deaths every

day is unconscionable and must be

abolished. We must become the new

abolitionists.

Ismail Serageldin

Chairman, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research

Riceand

Hope

AbolishingPoverty in Asia

Every day, 250,000 people join us on our already

crowded globe. Most of these people are born into

poverty and live their entire lives in p overty, with only

death allowing them to escape.

According to the World Bank, 840 million people are

going hungry today, two billion are malnourished, and

1.3 billion live in absolute poverty, existing on less than one

dollar a day. For many, their lives are driven by a simple

obsession: finding their next meal.

What most of us do not realize is that 70 percent of

these poor, hungry people live in Asia. South Asia alone is

home to half the developing worlds poor. Together,

Bangladesh and eastern India have as many poor as all of

sub-Saharan Africa.

While poverty and hunger in Ethiopia and Somalia have

permanently scarred the worlds conscience, the longstanding

suffering, hunger, and hopelessness of Asias 800 million des-

perately poor people are somehow routinely overlooked.

Forgotten.

Why?

These victims are living testimonials to our failures: dis-

torted priority setting, social irresponsibility, and lack of glo-

bal thinking. To still have hunger in our world of abundanceis not only unacceptable, it is unforgivable.

In Asia, where nearly all the worlds rice is grown and

eaten, food means rice. Feeding the poor and helping them

work their way out of poverty means starting with the ba-

sics: increasing rice production and improving access to rice.

In Asia, plentiful, affordable rice has been the key to

maintaining social stability, promoting economic growth, and

reducing poverty. As Asia becomes increasingly urban during

the next quarter century, growing enough rice for the urban

poorand finding the land, water, and people to do this

will most likely become hot political issues.

We must ask ourselves two difficult questions: Can the

world grow enough rice to feed Asia? And, do we have the

means and determination to get this food to the people who

need it and ensure that they have access to it?

The fear of famine and penury in Asia in the 1950s pro-

pelled concerned people to create the International Rice Re-

search Institute in 1960. The driving force was simple: making

the biggest pile of rice possible, as quickly as possible, to feed

the ever-multiplying number of hungry mouths. This mas-

sive effort gave the world something it desperately needed:

time. Time to build national rice research institutions, curb

population growth, build more schools, and establish good

health programs.

But have we used this time wisely to invest in a healthy

world?

IRRI and its partners are once again faced with the

daunting challenge of producing more rice, but in a much

more complicated and fragile world. With success in keeping

Asia fed has come a complacency that is difficult to shake.

The world simply assumes that Asias growling stomach

can be quieted once again: Asian farmers can bring moreland into cultivation, irrigate more fields, throw on more fer-

tilizer, plant another crop, and, if more food is needed, it can

be grown elsewhere and traded in the global economy. But

the quick fixes for boosting production are long gone. In Asia,

there is no more new land. Water is becoming scarce.

Besides, who wants to be a poor rice farmer when the city at

least offers hope for a better life for the next generation? And

unlike maize and wheat, little of the rice crop (only 6.6 per-

cent) is traded globally.

C.

Dedolph

With Asias stomach growling once again, rice is providing hope for

dealing with the intertwined issues of poverty, hunger, soaring popula-

tion, and environmental degradation.

R.

Cabrera

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OPINION

Must ThereBe Poverty?Muhammad YunusProfessor and Managing DirectorGrameen Bank, Bangladesh

Each year, 50 million new peoplemostly

rice eatersare added to Asia. To feed them,

the world must increase its rice output between

now and 2020 by one-third more than what is

grown and eaten today. Unlike other industries,

agriculture cannot simply build more rice fac-

tories and step up production.

Never before has agriculture faced such a

stern challenge. Feeding Asia and providing op-

portunities for people to free themselves from

the shackles of poverty are not impossible. This

task requires political will, commitment, and

sheer determination among many diverse part-

ners. Agriculturericemust be the corner-

stone of dealing with the inseparable issues of

poverty, hunger, population growth, and envi-

ronmental degradation.

Humanitys greatest challenge may soon

be just making it to the next harvest, Lester

Brown of the World Watch Institute warned in

1995. But even if the world can produce eno ugh,getting the food to those who need it is a huge

challenge. As Nobel laureate Amartya Sen as-

serts, An efficient food distribution system is as

important as food self-sufficiency.

We can keep Asiaand the worldfed if

we can correctly set our priorities. We can grow

enough food and generate productive employ-

ment for the landless so they can buy their food

from the market, while maintaining our natural

resource base and preserving biodiversity. We

can control population growth. We can provide

every child with the right to be free from hun-

ger, to be healthy, to go to school, and to even-

tually earn a decent livingand hope for a

better tomorrow.

Human beings must have hope to survive.

If people in food-deficit countries see no pros-

pect for ever being free f rom poverty, they can-

not help but lose all hope. And with hopelessness,

society unravels.

Hunger or hope?

Our actions today will decide whether

Asias tomorrow is filled with famine or food se-

curity, poverty or prosperity. Asiaand the

worldcannot afford for IRRI and its partners

to fail. The stakes are simply too high.s

Ronald P. Cantrell

Director General

When scientists and the best

of science are devoted to the

problems of those who have

less in life, that is equity and

ethics at its best. For themillions of Asians for whom

rice is life, science best serves

its human purpose.

Gelia Castillo

Emeritus Professor of Rural Sociology

University of the Philippines

Poverty is not a naturalstate of humans. Poorpeople do not create

poverty, nor do people enjoybeing poor. Poverty is createdby institutions, concepts, andpolicies. We need to go backto the drawing board to

redesign these and removethe barriers.We must accept the

position that we can create a poverty-free world.To do this, we must change our mind-set so that all humans

can be equipped to work themselves out of poverty. Providingaccess to capital is the single most important step in helping toreduce poverty. But even more basic than that, we must addresshunger. To be hungry is to be poor. And if people are poor, theyare often also hungry or undernourished.

The International Rice Research Institute was not createdfor the benefit of multinationals. IRRI exists because ofhunger.

There must be a strong connection between IRRI andreducing poverty. People must know that IRRI believes in apoverty-free world and has fixedits research agenda around thisgoal. Only then can IRRI and itspartners succeed in helping tochange the worlds mind-set anddoing what needs to be done.

IRRI does not do researchon rice for rices sake; it doesresearch to benefit the poor. Theworld cannot afford to havescientists who only do research. All scientists need to have apicture of a hungry personand know they are working forthat less fortunate person. All scientists need to think abouthow their research will help to provide extra rice for thatperson.

High-yielding varieties have lowered rice prices andhelped to create the feeling that theres enough rice.Alleviating the fear of famine has truly been one of IRRIsmajor successes. But this puts the responsibility on IRRI to givethe signal when it sees things are not working out. s

Poor people in Asia

can live without

grapes to make wine,

but they cannot live

without rice.

C.

Dedolph

R.

Kendrick

C.

Dedolph

Combating hunger should be the

topmost priority of the world commu-

nity. As Nobel laureate in economics

Amartya Sen says, Famines do not

occur in stable democracies. An

efficient food distribution system is as

important as food self-suffici ency.

Economic development leading to

gainful employment is essential for

combating hunger. Every night,

200 million Indians go to bed hungry,

yet India exports 2-4 million tons of

rice every year. If everyone had the

purchasing power to buy sufficient

food, there wouldnt be any surplus.

Gurdev S. Khush

1997 World Food Prize Laureate

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Good for Rural Asia

Despite all the social and environmental headaches it

brings, urbanization has actually been good for ru-

ral Asia: landholdings have gotten bigger and labor

shortages have forced farmers to mechanize, both of which

contribute to increased efficiency in agriculture. Rural-

urban migration has also eased the pressure on land in rural

areas. In some places, urban slum dwellers are much better

off than the rural landless and marginal landowners.

Going urban requires a lot of planning for a smooth

transition. Dr. Hossain says that some absolute musts in -

volve decentralizing gover nment to the local level and im-

proving infrastructure, such as housing, communication

systems, roads, electricity, water and sanitation, and edu -

cation and health systemsand providing more access

to capital and food.

Feeding the Cities

One of the bonuses of urbanization is that rice de-

mand per person should go down. Dr. Hossain andhis colleagues have documented that, at the same

income level, city people in Bangladesh and Thailand eat

less rice than their rural relatives, primarily because city

workers have less physically taxing work.

But with 50 million new rice consumersor five new

Calcuttas added each year, Asia still faces an uphill battle

to feed these extra mout hs, most of whom will be poor. Meet-

ing this challenge will require switching from a subsistence

to commercial mentality, says Dr. Hossain. A smaller, more

efficient rural population can support huge urban popula-

tions if the proper economic incentives exist and new tech-

nologies are widely adopted.

The fragile flood-prone areas and the uplands will re-

main subsistence rice production areas and cannot be expected

to help feed the cities. The greatest potential for increasing

rice production lies in the rainfed lowlands, which may be

able to contribute some extra rice to the cities. But production

in these monsoon-dependent areas remains low. In eastern

India, for example, yields are only about 2 tons per hectare

compared with more than 5 tons in Punjab and Tamil Nadu,

where all the rice land is irrigated. New technologies may

help to boost production, but the outcome is uncertain.

Keeping urban consumers fed will boil down to contin-

ued reliance on Asias traditional rice bowls: the highly pro-

ductive, intensive irrigated rice-based systems. But these fields

are already about as bountiful as they can be considering the

rice plants genetics and current technologies and input levels.

New technologies are needed to increase land produc-

tivity and input-use efficiency. Two of the most promising area new plant type, which will have a yield advantage of about

20 percent over todays best varieties, and tropical hybrid

rice, with a yield advantage of 15 percent over current variet-

ies (see p. 32).

Increased production from irrigated fields is an abso-

lute must if rice prices are to remain affordable to the poor,

says Gurdev Khush, IRRIs principal plant breeder. s

Cities and people are

like sugar and ants. We

shouldnt put all the sugar

in the cities, because all the

ants will go there. We need

to sprinkle more sugar in

other places.

Made OkaEconomist, Center for Agro-SocioeconomicResearch, Indonesia

Asia Goes Urban

RiceandCities

Asia is a continent on the moveand its future will be a

crowded one: by 2020 half its population will be urban.Is mass rural-urban migration good for the region?

G

oing urban brings good things to life. Just ask the

hundreds of millions of Asians who have made the

journey from the countryside to the city. Despitethe pollution and slums, most say theyre better off.

Asia is urbanand increasingly so, thanks to recent

economic prosperity and industrial growth. Whether its hope

for work and a better life, endemic poverty, natural disaster,

or politics, migration has been the main reason for the swell-

ing of the cities. But too many people crowding into too little

space can spell environmental and social disaster.

Today, the continent is home to nine of the worlds 14

megacities of more than 10 million people. And experts at

the Asian Development Bank predict even more monster cit-

ies on the horizon: by 2015 Asia will have 17 of the worlds

27 megacities.

Urban Bloat

In 1965, Asia had a rural population of 1.5 billion and

an urban population of 430 million. But today about

one-third (1.2 billion) of the population is urban. By

2025, the rural population will not have changed from

todays 2.3 billion, but the urban population will h ave soared

to 2.5 billionabout half of Asias total.

Urbanization is an inevitable element of the develop-

ment process, says IRRI economist Mahabub Hossain. And

in his opinion, rural to urban migration cannot be controlled

as long as there are economic incentives for people to move.

But a few monster cities arent desirable either, em-

phasizes the economist. Dhaka, for example, is a potential

disaster in the making. In 1990, it was the 28th largest city

in the world, with a population of 6.2 million and density of

5,050 persons per square kilometer. In 2015, it is projected

to be the fifth largestand home to 19.5 million.

We dont want to see Dhaka become a megacitya

mega nightmare, says Muhammad Yunus of the Grameen

Bank. The key to preventing this, he believes, is to figure out

why some people dont leave the farms and small cities, and

learn from them about how to make life outside megacitiesmore attractive. Theres no reason why one city should suck

the entire country into it, says Professor Yunus.

But what if everyone stayed put in the countryside?

Then the situation of the poor would be much worse,

says Dr. Rita Afsar, research fellow at the Bangladesh Insti-

tute of Development Studies and IRRI collaborator. Migra-

tion is typically adapted as a strategy for self-help.

ADBphoto

R.Cabrera

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For those of us

on the food

production

front, let us all

remember that

world peace

will not be built

on empty

stomachs and

human misery.

Deny the small-

scale farmers of

the developing

world access to

modern factors

of production,

and human-

kind will be

doomed, not

from poisoning

and environ-

mental melt-

down, as

some say,

but from

starvation

and social

and political

chaos.

Norman Borlaug

1970 Nobel Peace Prize

Laureate

RiceandPolitics

Governments in Asia go to

great lengths to protect theirrice. Why is this grain so politi-

cally sacredand powerful?

ThePoliticsof Rice

ADBp

hoto

ADBp

hoto

Rice rules in Asia. Alone, it provides 30-76 percent of

peoples daily calories. No single food in the West

comes close to matching rices dietary dominance in

the East. A secure, bountiful supply of rice in Asia has typi-

cally ensured food securityand economic, political, and

social stability.

The first sign of civil unrest can often be traced to ris-

ing rice prices, says IRRI economist Mahabub Hossain. Poor

distribution and lack of purchasing power are also often

responsible for hardship, as experienced in the famines in

Bengal in 1943-44 and in Bangladesh in 1974-75.

Have Rice, Will Keep Working

U

rban workers and the rural landless, who spend 50-

70 percent of their total income on rice, cannot tol-

erate drastic price increases. Poor rice farmers alsohave limited ability to tolerate sudden, sharp price declines.

With the danger of disrupting political stability, its no won-

der rice holds such a lofty position in Asian culture and is of

such critical importance to government policymaking.

The rule of rice and prosperity in Asia is simple: make

sure the masses have enough rice to eat if the country wants

to maintain social and political stability. But what is it about

rice that makes it more sacred than other staples? And why

is maintaining domestic rice security such a political issue?

In many of the poorer Asian countries, economic develop-

ment and industrial growth are closely linked to a reliable

supply of cheap rice. If rice prices go up, workers will de-

mand more pay, which in turn lowers the economys com-

petitive strength in the world market.

Whether rich or poor, most Asian countries follow the

same food security strategy: they grow most of their own

rice, maintain a public-sector monopoly in external trade,

and hold rice stocks to dampen sharp price fluctuations. But

countries do not necessarily require self-sufficiency in rice to

achieve or sustain food security, explains Dr. Hossain. A few

countries have proven this point. Malaysia imports 40 percen t

of its rice, and wealthy Singapore and Hong Kong (which doesnt

produce any rice) have better records of food security than their

major rice-growing neighbors.

The critical factor for food security is self-reliance,

the economist says, which requires favorable export growth

so that those with a rice deficit can import food from those

with surpluses who can produce it at a lower cost. Self-reli-

ance also requires entitlement, as coined by Nobel laure-

ate Amartya Sen, which is the assurance of productive

employment so that people can buy foo d from the market.

Moving to Free Trade

The Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tar-

iffs and Trade brought agriculture into the spotlight of

negotiations. This will bring many benefits, the most

prominent of which is that once subsidies and tariffs are re-

moved, global agricultural production will become more ef-

ficient. But, in the opinion of IRRI economist David Dawe,

the transition to free trade in rice must be managed care-

fully, especially in poor Asian countries, so that the food secu-

rity of vulnerable segments of the population is not

endangered.

Several important reasons exist why rice presents some

special complications when it comes to free trade. When com-

pared with the world markets for wheat and maize, that for

rice is extremely small and unstable. Even though the inter-

national rice trade has increased significantly in the past few

years, only 6.6 percent of the worlds rice crop will be sold on

the world market in 1999. World rice prices are more vola-

tile, and no futures market of any significant size exists. At

times, the world rice market has even closedmaking it next

to impossible to obtain rice at any price. With many Asian

countries being large relative to the size of the world market,

relying on it could mean very large increases in world pricesif a major harvest failure occurs.

Because rice makes up such a large share of poor farm-

ers incomes and poor consumers expenditures on food, un-

stable prices can lead to large and abrupt swings in purchasing

power for these individuals. Such risk and uncertainty con-

tradict the very notion of food security. Allowing world mar-

kets to determine domestic rice prices on a month-to-month

basis is probably not the recipe for food security in Asiaat

least not now, says Dr. Dawe.

Indonesia provides a sobering lesson about what could

happen in the absence of any government intervention. The

stunning plunge of the Indonesian rupiah during the finan-

cial crisisfrom Rp 2,500 to 15,000 to the dollarwould

have triggered a sixfold increase in the domestic rice price

within a few months, while consumer incomes remained

stagnant. Rice prices did increase substantially, but, thanks

to the governments stabilization policies, the increase was

much less than a factor of six and was not abrupt. Without

these policies, widespread famine might have o ccurred.

In the name of stability, however, many governments

have intervened excessively in domestic grain marketing, ig-

noring the crucial role of the private sector. Much research,

at IRRI and elsewhere, has shown that private traders are

more efficient at moving farm inputs and outputs.

The challenge for economists and policymakers is to

find cost-effective mechanisms that provide for adequate sta-

bility, yet still preserve as many of the benefits of free trade as

possible and allow the private sector to have a dominant role,

says Dr. Dawe.

All for One

With the increasing costs of labor, land, and water,

it will be more efficient for richer countries to shift

resources away from growing their own rice and

buy their supplies from countries with a comparative advan-

tage in producing rice. Before the economic crisis in Asia,

many political leaders were in favor of adopting this strat-

egybut no longer, says Dr. Hossain. Because the political

costs of failing to feed their people are so incredibly high,

most governments are not willing to take this risk.

Asian nations need to collaborate mutually to

strengthen agricultural research and develop irrigation and

marketing infrastructure, says Dr. Hossain. International

support is required to address food security in places with

extensive poverty, that are threatened by political instabil-

ity, or that have a vulnerable natural resource base. All this

requires political will, changes in philosophy, and regional

cooperation. What happens to rice in Asia will largely be

based on politicsthe same as always. s

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With the economic crisis melting the tiger economies, rice has reemerged as a powerfulforceand as an old friend. Southeast Asia is learning some painful lessons as dramati-

cally different economic and political fates unfold.

G.

Hettel

G.

Hettel

For most rural poor in Indonesia, life ismuch the same as always. Largely un-touched by the recent boom years, and

largely untouched by the economic crisis, theirlives continue to be both impoverished and nour-

ished by rice.Outside Bojong Jaya village in West Java,the husband-wife team of Sanaim and Aliah worksin unison with 25 other laborers, all busy threshingand sacking rice. For every seven 50-kilogramsacks packed, they get to keep one. Theirearnings will amount to about 15 sacks, andthats it until the next harvest.

Like many of Indonesias landless ruralpoorsome 11 million households on Javaalonethey are oblivious to the price of rice:whatever they earn, they eat.

At least we have rice to feed our family,says Ms. Aliah. If only the hundreds of thousandsof jobless families in Jakarta could say the samething. Their trouble has been do uble: little moneyand high rice prices.

Down But Not Out

Miat used to be a security guard at aJakarta construction site. He was laidoff in early 1998, and has been job-

less ever since. He, his wife Nenti, and their fam-ily, after months of searching for work, foundthemselves in Bekasi, an eastern suburb of Jakarta.

Their luck suddenly changed for the betterwhen they became part of a self-help seed andfeed project sponsored by the United NationsDevelopment Programme and administered by

the Indonesian Ministry of Social Affairs. Each ofthe participating familiesa thousand or sois given rice and vegetable seeds to plant onabandoned suburban land, and enough rice toeat until their first harvest. Then theyre on their

own for deciding what to do with the produce:eat it, sell it, or replant it.Mr. Miat says his family is extremely gra te-

ful. The project has helped us to hold on until Ican find a job again. And the children, Firmanand Miasi, have been able to stay in grade school.

Back to Rice

More than 5 million new entrantsincluding the Miat familyhavemoved into the agricultural sector since

August 1997, when the financial crisis hit Indo-nesia. Its not exactly traditional agriculture, noris it by choice, but peri-urban agriculture is help-ing many jobless Indonesians cope with economichardship.

With most jobless persons being too em-barrassed to go back home, the suburbs and smallcities around Jakarta are becoming socioeconomicbuffer zones. With their vast tracts of landonce destined for urban development but nowabandonedthese areas are helping the job-less scrape out a living until better times return.

Even if millions did go back to their home

villages (and some have), Indonesias agriculturalsector simply could not absorb them. Thecountryside is already oversaturated with millions

of subsistence farmerswith tiny holdings of athird of a hectare or lesswho have no choicebut to grow rice to survive.

Regaining Food Security

Before the crisis, Indonesia had madeexcellent progress in reducing poverty.Now, however, no work and high rice

prices have temporarily thrown many people backinto poverty.

In less than two years from the start of thefinancial crisis, the cost of a kilogram of rice atJakartas Cipinang rice market more thandoubledfrom Rp 2,000 to Rp 5,000 ($0.23to $0.58). With families reserving every rupiahpossible to buy food, malnutrition has becomewidespread, and many children are dropping outof school. International organizations, such as theUnited Nations Childrens Fund (Unicef), fearmalnutrition will cause the loss of an entiregeneration of Indonesians, with the Fund report-ing more than half the children under two to bemalnourished.

Even in the Bekasi UNDP project, Mr. Miat

says his family is down to two meals a day: cas-sava in the morning and rice in the evening.It makes for a long day, he sighs.

Recently, however, a good harvest partlyboosted by the governments 300 percent croppingintensity project and large imports have brought riceprices down. The government has also stepped inwith a program to sell cheap rice to poor people foronly Rp 1,000 ($0.12) per kilogram.

How Rice Can Help

Since the early 1970s, rice production inthe country has more than doubledoneof the most dramatic jumps the world has

ever seen. But, after having achieved rice self-

sufficiency in 1984, Indonesia is once again theworlds largest importer of rice.

The food insecurity of the past months canbe mainly blamed on th e vicious financial crisis inwhich the rupiah plummeted 80 percent againstthe dollar. Poor harvests, caused by the El Nio-inflicted drought in late 1997 and early 1998,aggravated the situation.

The economic cloud hanging gloomily overthe country may still have a silver lining after all,as Indonesia realizes that agricultureandricehas an important role to play in providingthe initial impetus for economic recovery.

Increased rice production can boost rural in-comes and promote stability in urban markets.In so doing, it will create a stronger foundationfor a robust national economy, and, at the sametime, help to meet future increases in rice de-mand from the more than two million Indone-sians being born annually. The government isallocating much of its social safety net funds tostrengthen the rice sector, including making avail-able good-quality seeds and subsidized credit, andrestoring rural roads and irrigation.

The poverty caused by unemployment and

the general decline of the economy, however,cannot be overcome solely by increased rice pro-duction, says Sjarifudin Baharsjah, independentchairman of the Food and Agriculture Organiza-tion of the United Nations. Capital investmentneeds to return and macroeconomics needs tobe managed better. Affordable rice can help too,by creating a climate conducive to investment,which will in turn foster jobs and employment.s

Rice Gets ThailandThrough Crisis

Posters and bil lboards in centralBangkok picture His Majesty The KingBhumibol Adulyadej with a sickle in

his right handreinforcing the importanceof rice for Thailand.

The strong rice sector has saved ourcountry from real, real trouble, says SompornIsvilanonda, associate professor of econom-ics at Thailands Kasetsart University and alongtime IRRI collaborator. Rice remains oneof Thailands most powerful tools for earningcash to pay back its debts.

The rural poor have suffered less thanthe urban poor, many of whom have lost theirjobs and must pay more for white rice, saysMr. Somporn. In Bangkok, even the price oflow-quality rice has nearly doubled, from 10to 17 baht ($0.26 to $0.44) per kilogram.Eating less rice is an absolute last reso rt for aThai, so poor people are instead cutting downon vegetables, meat, and fish.

Repairman Chatchai Meepohsom saysthe higher prices have not decreased hisfamilys rice consumption: the seven still eat60 kilograms a month. We just make dowith less of other things, he explains.

In an unusual situation of reverse mi-gration, an estimated 12-18 percent of theurban people have actually been leavingBangkok and returning to their home villages.How many of these people can be absorbedinto the rural workforce depends on the ruralcommunity and whether some activities stillrequire new labor.

Perhaps it is the Thai farmer who isweathering the economic storm the best.

The baht devaluation was good for ricefarmers in terms of domestic price increases,says Mr. Somporn. Before devaluation, thefarm price was 4,800 baht per ton an d after,7,600 baht. With good profits, farmers even

expanded rice area during the wet season.But then the severe d rought hit in late 1998,and the rice crop suffered from lack of water.

In 1998, the country retained its posi-tion as the worlds largest rice ex porter, ship-ping 5.5 million tons. In the coming years,rice will continue to play a crucial role inThailands economic recovery and in helpingto reduce poverty in rural areas. s

G.

Hettel

From Rice to RichesAnd Back to Rice

(L-R) Sanaim, Aliah, Nenti and Miat

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With the world needing more nutritious foodnot justmore foodscientists asked: If modern high-yielding vari-eties are part of the malnutrition problem, can they not alsobe part of the solution?

The Secrets in the Soil

Few have paid attention to improving the nutritionalportfolio of starchy staples. In the 1960s and 70s, sci-entists at IRRI and the International Maize and Wheat

Improvement Center tried, with varying success, to breedfor improved protein content in high-yielding rice and maize.For a long time, researchers were discouraged from doingmuch of anything related to nutrition. Until 1992.

Stimulated by the Philippine governments effort tocombat iron malnutrition by artificially fortifying milled rice,IRRI plant breeders Dharmawansa Senadhira and GlennGregorio started studying the rice plants reaction to highiron content in the soil. At about the same time, the CGIARMicronutrient Project started, and the scientists expandedthe work to include zinc.

Help was sought from Dr. Graham and his team inAustralia to precisely measure nutrient content in rice variet-ies, which they found to vary greatly in both iron and zinc.Of the first 1,000 samples analyzed, iro n in brown rice rangedfrom 7.5 to 24.4 milligrams/kilogram (mg/kg), and zinc con-tent from 15.9 to 58.4 mg/kg. Todays commonly grownvarieties, such as IR64, contain about 12 mg/kg of iron and25 mg/kg of zinc in brown rice.

Not surprising, highest in these nutrients were old tra-ditional varieties, mainly from eastern India where zinc- andiron-deficient soils are common. These harsh soils have defi-nitely influenced the origin of rice with high mineral contentin the grain, says Dr. Gregorio.

Floating rice Jalmagna is a good example: grown on al-kaline soils for centuries, it had almost twice as much iron asIR36 and nearly 40 percent more zinc than IR6 4. Madhukar, apopular variety in some rainfed and deepwater areas, showedmoderately high iron content and very high zinc.

And theres a bonus: if the rice smells good while itscooking, chances are its packed with iron and zinc too. Sci-entists believe that the traits of high iron and zinc are linked

to the gene for aroma, making it easy for them to identify.

Under Their Noses

In a dream come true, plant breeders discovered ahigh-iron and high-zinc, high-yielding conventionallybred rice line with excellent grain quality already on

the shelf at IRRI. IR68144 has excellent grain type, is aro-matic, yields about 4.2 tons per hectare, and has an ironcontent of 20 mg/kg. It produces not quite as much as popu-lar variety IR72, which has an iron content of only 12 mg/kgwhen grown under the same conditions. It has grain qualitylike that of IR64 and is suitable for consumers in much of

Asia, including countries starving for nutrition, such asBangladesh, Cambodia, and the Philippines.

Thanks to IRRI breeders skills, a little serendipity, andthis good luck, the project is five years ahead of schedule. Butthis has also caused a problem. We didnt envisage being so fardown the track so quickly, explains Dr. Bouis. Because nobreeding was involved, we need funding sooner than antici-pated to support the final step: long-term feeding trials.

Good nutrition

is good health.

Eating a bal-

anced diet that

includes rice

and cereals

energizes the

body and

produces strong

minds.

Juan M. Flavier

Senator, Philippines

Hungers dictatorship does not respectnations or ideologies; it destroys men and

women equally, destroys the projects of

young people, and does not allow our older

people to rest.

Ernesto Sbato

Novelist and essayist, Argentina

RiceandHealth

Every night, this Bangladeshi girl joins at least two bil-lion other people who go to sleep hungry. Their hun-

ger, however, is not the growling, aching kind. Ratherit is silent, insidiously stunting their bodies and brains, weak-ening their immune systems, and sapping their energyand prospects for living productive lives.

Their hidden hunger is malnutrition, which contrib-utes to killing an estimated 40,000 people each day. Most ofthe victims are impoverished women and children, and manyare in Asia.

Their limited diets primarily comprise one basic food:rice, rice, and more rice. Many eat as much as 214 kilo-grams of rice each year (more than half a kilogram a day),providing them with up to 76 percent of their daily calories,and half their iron and zinc. While rice and other starchesfill the belly, they are rather empty nutritionally speaking.

Even slightly more nutritious rice could mean healthierpeople. If the iron and zinc content could be doubledortripledthe health of these at-risk people could be dramati-cally improved. In what appears to be a truly exciting break-through in human nutrition, IRRI and its partners havedeveloped high-iron and -zinc rice varieties that can com-bat malnutrition.

Hidden Hunger Out in the Open

Few inroads have been made in the battle against mal-

nutrition among Asias poorest of the poor. Accordingto the World Health Organization, more than 2 billion

people worldwide are weakened by a lack of iron in theirdiets, 250 million are vitamin A deficient, and 1.5 billion areat risk for brain impairment because of iodine deficiency.

Although the prevalence of zinc deficiency is unknown (notest exists), it is likely a problem wherever malnutrition oc-curs (see p. 25).

Were still losing one generation after another to mal-nutrition and this just shouldnt be happening anymore,

More Nutrition forWomen and Children

With malnutrition still claiming entire generations in Asia, rice rich iniron and zinc could dramatically improve the diets of women and

childrenand provide hope for healthy, productive lives.

REVOLUTIONARY RICE:

says Dr. Howarth Bouis, a research fellow at the Interna-tional Food Policy Research Institute in Washington , D.C., and

coordinator of the C GIAR Micronutrient Project (see p. 25).Fortification and supplementation programs have proven

too expensive and relatively ineffective in reaching the b il-lions of malnourished people. Iron fortification costs just 10cents a year per person. But for a country such as India, thats$93 million annually.

And thats why packing more nutrients into grain is sucha revolutionaryyet basicway to attack malnutrition. Thecost of a plant breeding program to develop iron-rich variet-ies of a crop is peanuts compared with the benefits human-ity could receive, says Robin Graham, a professor of plantscience at the University of Adelaide. If we can just get mod-ern varieties rich in iron and zinc into farmers fieldsandthen the rice into peoplewe will make major progress incombating basic malnutrition in South and Southeast Asia.

With three-fourths of Asias farmers already choosing togrow the high-yielding, short-duration modern varieties, thismay just work.

Green Revolution Blues

The Green Revolutions impact on diet appears to behuge. While some diseases (such as pellagra and neuro-lathyrism in India) have been eliminated through the

increased availability of rice and wheat, eating more of these

grains may have actually increased micronutrient malnutri-tion. In the all-out effort to avert widespread famine and sim-ply feed the ever-increasing number of mouths, scientistsmostly ignored nutrition in the new rice and wheat varieties.Farmers also commonly abandoned planting nutrient-bal-ancing crops, such as pulses, in favor of the high-yieldingnew cereal varieties.

We have gone a long way toward solving one problem,dietary energy, says Dr. Bouis. We have, however, virtuallyignored another that is just as important: dietary quality.C.

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Good news comes again from the

Interna-ional Rice Research Institute:

more nutritious rice with high iron and zinc right

in the grain. This is exciting for nutritionists

and the entire worldbecause so much of

humanity depends on this cereal.

Rice competes closely with wheat as the

worlds most important crop. It is grown inmore than 100 countries and, when compared

with other cereals, has the highest food yield.

Together with wheat and maize, rice directly

supplies more than half of all the calories

humans consume.

Increased iron and zinc content in rice will

definitely be a boon to rice-consuming coun-

tries, many of which suffer from some form of

hidden hunger. The most common are protein-

energy malnutrition and micronutrient malnutri-

tion, primarily iron deficiency anemia, vitamin A

deficiency, and iodine-deficiency disorders, in

addition to deficiencies in thiamine, riboflavin,

calcium, and zinc. Many of these populations

show a high incidence of low birth weight, high

infant mortality and high mortality for children

under five years, and a high prevalence of

moderately and severely underweight children.

Increased iron in rice is highly significant

because anemia is the most widespread micro-

nutrient deficiency in the world today, despite it

being preventable. Iron improves the cognitive

performance of children, increases worker

productivity, and reduces low birth weights and

deaths caused by anemia. Zinc, on the other

hand, is known for its potency in promoting the

growth of children and is associated with

decreased diarrhea incidence.

A fundamental shortcoming of todays

ordinary rice arises in its processing. Rice is

milled because people like their rice to be very

white, and because its easier to cook.

However, the methods used to remove the hulls

GUEST ESSAY

Building HealthierSocieties ThroughMore NutritiousRice

Florentino S. Solon

from the grain and the subsequent polishing

considerably reduce the cereals nutritional

value. Likewise, milling removes not only the

outer layers of the grain but also a significant

amount of fat, protein, and other nutrients.

The iron content of 100 grams of ordinary rice

drops from 14 mg (when the bran and hulls

are still attached) to1 mg after milling, and then to 0.6 mg once

this well-milled rice is cooked. Washing and

cooking compound this severe loss of nutrients,

with nearly all the B vitamins being thrown out

with the wash water.

In the Philippines, a laudable attempt was

made to enrich rice by fortifying it with

thiamine and other nutrients. The program

faltered because millers balked at the extra

expense of buying the nutrients for fortifica-

tion. Dietary supplements often have a similar

economic burden. The result? Unsustainable

fortification and supplementation programs.

This is why the genetic method of increasing

nutrients in the grain is more advantageous to

society: once the varieties are developed, the

extra nutrition is free with every harvest.

Iron and zinc combine to form a strong

team in the fight against malnutrition, a

scourge that cripples the body, mind, and

spirit, mortgaging the futures of mostly young

children and pregnant and lactating women. A

formidable part of our defense can be this

more nutritious rice, which can substantially

nourish efforts to build strong and healthy

societies in the future. s

Can mineral- and vitamin-dense variet-ies of staple foods be developed? Canfarmers be convinced to grow them? And

would human nutrition be significantly improvedfor less cost than nutrition interventions?

A group of determined plant scientists, hu-man nutritionists, and social scientists believethe answers are yes, yes, and yes! They haveteamed up in a daring, long-shot project to tryto improve human nutrition through staplefoods: wheat, rice, maize, cassava, and beans.Their target is to naturally boost these foodsiron, zinc, vitamin A, and iodine contentand,in the process, bring nutrition to the forefront ofthe CGIARs breeding priorities. So far, rice hasbeen the star.

If we want 8 billion healthy people onEarth, the agriculture and health sectors needto work together, says Howarth Bouis, an IFPR Iresearch fellow and the projects leader.

The CGIAR Micronutrient Project is a trulyinternational effort, with CIAT, CIMMYT, andIRRI participating in partnership with the Uni-versity of Adelaide, United States Department of

Agriculture-Agricultural Research Services Plant,Soil, and Nutrition Laboratory, and the USDA-

ARS Western Human Nutrition Research Center.The Danish International Development

Agency has provided major funding for theproject, with the United States Agency for In-ternational Development supplying startupmoney (and the challenge to begin the project)and the Australian Centre for International Ag-ricultural Research supporting activities at theUniversity of Adelaide.

While this project is using conventionalbreeding to increase nutrition, others are explor-

ing the potential of biotechnology to increase thenutrition of rice. Groups in Japan and Switzer-land have transformed rice with the phytoferritingene from soybean. Although phytoferritinsbioavailabilty has not yet been tested, thisachievement may be useful in further boostingthe iron content of rice. A Rockefeller-fundedproject is attempting to put vitamin A into rice,which in turn could increase the efficiency ofabsorption of iron by the human gut.s

Nutrient-Dense

Food for the Poor

Making Nutritionists Believe

So far, so good, but a major obstacle re-mains in convincing nutritionists that theiron and zinc in this rice are bioavailable

for humansand dont just go down the tube,as Dr. Graham puts it.

The optimistic scientists are putting thehigh-nutrient rice through rigorous testing toprove beyond a doubt that this extra iron ispresent after milling and absorbed in humans.

In collaboration with researchers at the In-stitute of Human Nutrition of the University ofthe Philippines Los Baos, a large-scale trial isunder study to begin in mid-1999 at a conventin the Philippines. It could be the perfect placefor a study, says Dr. Gregorio. The postulantsand novitiates are all young women of about thesame age who eat the same amount of the samefood every day.

Next Steps

lthough the science is new and risky,researchers are confident they can domore than just increase rice supplies as

food. Were optimistic that were on to some-thing big, says Dr. Graham. We are callingfor a new paradigm for agriculture: sustainable,productive, nutritious food systems. To achieveour goals, we need a new alliance of agricul-tural and health professionals researching anddefining those systems.

If they succeed, the lives of the poorest ofthe poorespecially women and childrencanbe drastically improved through more nutritiousrice. s

Experiments conducted in collaboration withDr. Ross Welch and his team at the Uni ted StatesDepartment of Agriculture-Agricultural Re-search Services Plant, Soil, and Nutrition Labo-ratory at Cornell University verified that theextra iron and zinc are available to rats andhuman colon cell cultures (which simulate ahuman intestine). But the gut of a rat is differ-ent from that of a human, and colon cells in apetri dish are not the same as the real thing. Andthat is why human feeding trials must be done.

Sahernaz, who lives in the Agargaon slum in

Dhaka, cannot make enough breast milk to

satisfy her babys hunger. Its no wonder:

she says she eats only one meal of rice a day.

In Bangladesh, two out of every three

children are malnourished, shorter and lighter

than what they should be, anemic, and unable

to ward off diseases. This comes as no surprise

in a country where rice supplies 76 percent of all

calories, and people are lucky if they eat two

meals a day. The result is one generation of

weak, malnourished people giving birth to

another in a never-ending cycle that is simply

alarming, says Khursheed Jahan, a nutrition

professor at the Institute of Nutrition and Food

Science, University of Dhaka.

Cooking habits, polished rice, and the

cultural tradition that men eat firstand more

and better than the womencombined withpoverty make a recipe for pervasive malnutri-

tion. Children and women are hardest hit.

Professor Jahans hope?

Opportunities must be created for rural

peopleboth women and mento become

more active income generators through in-

creased agricultural production and cottage

industry, she stresses. Women will spend their

money on their children. But if they a rent the

ones who earn it, they have no control.s

Starving for Nutrition

Dr. Solon is the executive director of the NutritionCenter of the Philippines. A medical doctor andpublic health and nutrition specialist, he pioneeredvitamin A fortification and has been a longtimeproponent of nutrition education. Dr. Solon is amember of the Nutrition Advisory Panel of theWorld Health Organization, a consultant for theWashington, D.C.-based International Life SciencesInstitute, and a former presidential adviser onhealth and nutrition.

CGIAR Micronutrient Project

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Lost Varieties Returned

One of the most dramatic stories about the resurrec-tion of rice research in Cambodia is the return ofthe lost indigenous rice varieties. Many traditional

Cambodian rice varieties disappeared during the civil strifebecause seed reserves were eaten and farmers were discour-aged from growing deepwater rice. Fortunately, 765 dupli-cate samples had been sent to the International Rice Genebankin the Philippines. At the governments request, IRRI returnedthe safely conserved seeds.

These new traditional varieties are once again grow-ing in Cambodian farmers fieldsas they have been forcenturies. Nineteen of the 34 varieties released since 1990have been from these restored seeds and more recent in-coun-try collection efforts. The varieties all have the letters CAR,which signify Cambodian rice.

Dr. Nesbitt predicts that these high-yielding and good-tasting varieties will spread throughout rainfed areasifenough good seed is made available to farmers. Seed multi-plication is increasingly being done through nongovernmentorganizations (NGOs) and multilateral aid programs.

Listening to the Farmers

CIAP has been trying to hear the voice of farmers ineverything it does. We try to get ideas from farmersand build on their experiences, says CIAP agricul-

tural economist Peter Cox. With the majority of Cambodiansbeing subsistence farmers, creating appropriate, low-costtechnologies is challenging. We are cognizant that not all

the technologies being developed are suitable for the poorestof the poor, says Dr. Nesbitt. But as they become better off,they will be able to use them.

Some farmers say that CIAP technology is too costly,says Seung Keoviseth, CIAP socioeconomic assistant since1995. We try to learn from these people by asking whatwould be useful and affordable.

CIAP has been listening to what farmersand rurallandless peoplehave to say through on-farm experiments,farmer participatory research, integrated pest management(IPM) experiments, and surveys.

The key is flexibility. Different strategies are neededfor different farmers, explains Mak Solieng, CIAP socioeco-nomic specialist. If they are very poor, we try to fit produc-tion strategies to their situations. Innovative, appropriatetechnologies, some of which are very low-cost, have been theresult.

Integrated pest management provides a good example.CIAP entomologists have developed appropriate IPM tech-niques, shared them with farmers through field schools, andencouraged them to do their own experiments. Pesticideuse is still low in Cambodia, so the timing is perfect toimplement IPM.

Weeds cause yield losses of 20-30 percent, much of whichcould be recaptured if farmers level their fields and preparethem better. Farmers dont need big equipment to level theirfields, they just need water and shovels, says agriculturalengineer Joe Rickman.

Seed quality could be improved through the widespreadadoption of simple farmer practices, and massive wastestopped. Mr. Rickman estimates that only 20 percent of all

We dont want to beg

for rice from other

countries. Rice is the best

way to improve food

security, stimulate

economic development,

and help poor farmers.

Lim Kean HorSecretary of State, Cambodia(Talking with farmers and extensionistsat a CIAP field day)(

Cambodias LongJourney Back

Crushed by years of civil strife and hunger, Cambodians are

rebuilding their nation. Rice research is helping to feed the coun-try, reclaim time, and replant hope.

The 1970s and early 80s were times when normal lifeceased in Cambodia, and few had enough to eat. Mostfarmers stopped growing rice. One and a half million

people died.Today, peace and rice are at the core of Cambodias

recovery. Recent democratic elections and the opening of theeconomy have renewed hope for a return to normalcy. Butmany families remain on the edge, impoverished, hungry,and with little hope. For them, the starting point must berice: 85 percent of the people are rice farmers, and rice pro-vides three-fourths of the daily calories.

We dont want to beg for rice from other countries,says Lim Kean Hor, Cambodian Secretary of State. Rice isthe best way to improve food security, stimulate economicdevelopment, and help poor farmers.

Starting from Ground Zero

The Vietnam War, Cambodias own civil war, and thenPol Pots Khmer Rouge regime plunged the countryinto a time when little rice was harvested. When lib-

eration forces entered Cambodia in 1979, the countrys rice-growing capacity had shrunk to only 20 percent of the 3.8million tons harvested in 1970. Its research and extension

infrastructureboth human and physicalwas destroyed.The irrigation systems were demolished or dilapidated, andfields were planted with millions of antipersonnel mines in-stead of rice. The national genebank was gone, and hungryrefugees had eaten seed stocks.

Farmers did the best t hey could, but food insecurityremained a serious problem. In 1986, Cambodias Ministryof Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF) invited IRRIto help the country restore Cambodias rice capability. Withfunding from the Australian Agency for International Devel-

RiceandPeace

opment (AusAID), the Cambodia-IRRI-Australia Project(CIAP) was launched in 1987 with a dual agenda: increaserice production as quickly as possible to improve food secu-rity, and develop Cambodias agricultural research capacity.

You cant have development without food. In Cambo-dia, rice is food and central to life, says Bill Costello, FirstSecretary of AusAID in Cambodia. Thats why Australia isassisting Cambodia through CIAP.

In the Rice Again

Cambodia reached a milestone in 1995: self-sufficiencyin rice for the first time in 25 years. Even more amaz-ing, the country also produced a rice surplus of

139,000 tons of milled rice for export. Cambodian farmershave kept these production levels up ever since.

In May 1997, Chann Saphan, the Undersecretary of Statefor Agriculture, unequivocally attributed Cambodias return tosurplus rice production to research. More farmers plantinghigher-yielding varieties from IRRI and CIAP, expanded dry-season rice area, improved pest management, and increaseddistribution and use of fertilizer are the main reasons, says HarryNesbitt, CIAP team leader and agronomist since 1988.

When both the dry-season and wet-season crops are

combined, 1.1 million tons more rice (worth $126 million)was eaten by Cambodians or sold in 1997 over 1992 amounts.If only 15 percent of this amount were attributed to riceresearch, the value would be $18.9 million, which exceedsthe total funds invested in CIAP.

Three-fourths of this additional rice is from the wet-season crop, which 80 percent of Cambodian farmers grow.Despite the national surplus, 40 percent of the population isstill short of food, illustrating that food security involves morethan just increasing rice production.

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Sokha Cithoun and her four children

are

survivors. Displaced and impoverished,

the family struggled through years of

hard times. Just when their precarious lives

seemed to be stabilizing, Ms. Sokhas

husband made the mistake of stepping on a

land mine one day while cutting firewood in

1991.

After living on the side of the road for

years, the family now has a small wooden

hut on stilts in Battambang Province. Ms.

Sokha has her own rattan mat business and

says she owes her livelihood to an NGO

called Pteak Toek Doung. She sells a mat for

9,000 riel or 100 baht ($2.40). Each onetakes three days to weavetwo if her son

helps. She sells herbs and a few chickens now

and then. Sometimes she works as a laborer

to weed rice fields.

The children pitch in too, hunting for

plants and seeds for herbal medicine and

wild morning glory (a leafy green vegetable)

to sell. Sometimes her children hire out as

laborers, and her 14-year-old son (who is

extremely small for his age) cuts rattan. He

earns 15 cents a day.

Ms. Sokha says her most serious problem

is finding food for her family. Sometimes my

money is gone, and I havent sold any mats.

She spends most of their money on

riceevery other bit goes to education. Three

of the children are in school, but the money is

just not enough to send the youngest. The

school charges about $1 per semester, plus

the additional expenses of chalk, pencils,

books, school clothes, and 3 cents per day

extra for the teacher. She says she cannotafford to buy her son a school shirt and

trousers.

Ms. Sokha says that if you cannot pay

the extra daily fee, the teachers will erase the

childs name from the roster. She recently sold

five chickens, with all the money going to the

school.

I dont have property, so the only thing I

can give my children is education, she says

without bitterness. They need skills to sup-

port themselves. s

DisplacedBut NotDefeated

bodia-Australia Agricultural Extension Project.CIAP also works with NGOs in tackling issuessuch as banning hazardous pesticides and pro-moting IPM.

These organizations are in a much betterposition to extend the results of research, saysDr. Nesbitt, who adds that CIAP also benefitsfrom NGO experiences.

Developing People,Sharing Information

In a resource-poor country such as Cambo-dia, people are its greatest asset. Improvingthe capacity of Cambodians to do their own

research continues to be CIAPs long-term goal.Over the past 10 years, CIAP has spon-

sored 4,500 participants in courses, workshops,and conferences in Cambodia. Nearly 300 haveattended short-term training courses, study

tours, and conferences outside of Cambodia.Three of the CIAP-sponsored PhD candidateshave returned with their degrees and are play-ing key roles in establishing CARDI. Dr. Mak isone of them. Eight others are still studying.

CIAP has also been active in publishingbooks, maps, and training materials to share itsresults. Rice-related training videotapes havebeen regularly aired on national television, andCIAP has helped to organize the CambodianSociety of Agriculture.

Handing Over theResponsibility

The impact of a decades worth of rice re-search in Cambodia has been stunning:rice self-sufficiency, 34 varieties released,

researchers and engineers trained, infrastructurerebuilt, national rice genetic resources restored,and an extensive network of government andnongovernment collaborators established.

AusAIDs consistent funding commitment hasbeen a key element in achieving the projectslong-term goals, as has been IRRIs institutional

support.These accomplishments can be attributed

to the excellent spirit of partnership among CIAPteam members, and are a good indication thatCambodia is recovering.

With the birth of CARDI, CIAP will bephased out, and the Khmer staff will take com-plete responsibility for rice research. We haveto work hard, says Dr. Mak. We are the fruitof CIAP, and Cambodia is depending on us. s

seed planted establishes, meaning that160,000 tons of rice rots in the fieldrice thatcould be eaten.

Building Rice ResearchCapacity

C

IAPs long-term work has been to buildinfrastructure: physical and human. Thepermanency of rice research has hinged

on the government establishing the CambodianAgricultural Research Institute (CARDI), whichis now coming to life.

A long and painful process, Dr. Nesbittsays it took nine years to resolve a land owner-ship dispute before the government could pro-vide 70 hectares for the CARDI field stationin 1997.

From these rice fields has risen CARDI: atraining center, shed, eight kilometers of roads,

Partnerships in Development

For research to be useful, its results need toget to the people who can use them. CIAPfreely shares its information, recommen-

dations, and experiences with NGOs,semigovernment organizations, internationalorganizations, and anyone else who needs rice-related information. A recent partner in gettingthe information out has been the Department of

Agricultural Extension, assisted by the new Cam-

CIAP Achievements

1989-1999

s Released 34 varieties

s Developed recommendations for

efficient fertilizer use

s Created new approach for identify-

ing Cambodian soils

s Developed crop protection strate-

gies using environment-sound

integrated pest management

practices

s Demonstrated value of land level-

ing and on-farm water conserva-

tion techniques

s Conducted quantitative socioeco-

nomic surveys that have contrib-

uted to the understanding of

Cambodian rice-farming house-

holds

s Introduced a farming systems

approach to integrate other crops

into the rice farm

s Furthered the professional devel-

opment of women agricultural

scientists and technicians

s Sponsored formal and informal

training in-country and abroad

s Developed research infrastructure

across 16 provinces

Source: AusAID

and one kilometer of irrigation canals. To cel-

ebrate the achievement, a field day was held inOctober 1998 to inaugurate the training centerand to provide an opportunity for more than500 peoplefarmers, extensionists, NGO work-ers, donor representatives, and private agricul-tural entrepreneursto learn more about riceresearch.

Im happy to visit here, said farmer TolKim, who owns one hectare of rice land near thestation. I came to learn.

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Eight in 6 BillionA few among the many, these people are just a handful of Asias poor. Some-day, they hope to have the right to be free from hunger, be healthy, go toschool, and earn a decent livingand have hope for a better tomorrow.

Cambodian El Soey says she and her daughter are oftenhungry. They cannot afford to buy rice, so they pick wildvegetables, hunt for crabs and snails in the rice fields,and sometimes go to the Buddhist pagoda to get rice.She says she thinks about taking her daughter to anorphanage. At least people would take care of her, andshed have enough to eat.

Unlike many Asians,farmer Tong Chan of

Dongkalungnur villagein Lao PDRs

Champassak Provincesays she wants her

son to be a rice farmerwhen he grows up.

Juan Reyes (not his real name) usedto be a security guard until he wasshot on duty in 1990. Now he operatesa food stall with his wife and threechildren in Mandaluyong in MetroManila. The family earns about $8daily, which barely meets their needs.We are scraping the bottom to get by.

Nine-year-old Ismail sellscigarettes, betel nut, andchewing gum outsideDhakas Farmgate Market.He earns less than $1 a day.Most of his money goes tobuy rice for his familys twodaily meals. He has nevergone to school. Alreadygrown-up, Ismail says he willdo this for the rest of his life.

Wanrop Hirikul, a communityleader in Bangkoks Klong

Toey slum, came up with aninnovative recycling ideawhere garbageglass,plastic, and old newspa-

persis collected by theslum dwellers and traded for

eggs, rice, and other food.I believe a cooperative

project like this can help theurban poor improve their

standard of living and self-esteem and the communitys

appearanceall at thesame time, he says.

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