Rice Today Vol. 7, No. 2

8/9/2019 Rice Today Vol. 7, No. 2

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ISSN 1655-5422 US$5.00

www.irri.org

International Rice Research Institute April-June 2008, Vol. 7, No. 2

Ar ig prics r t stay?

Trade troubles in ThailandLess water, more rice,

happy farmers

Preparing for doomsday

After the stormBangladeshi farmers pick themselves up


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contents

International Rice Research InstituteDAPO Box 7777, Metro Manila, PhilippinesWeb (IRRI): www.irri.org; www.irri.org/ricetodayWeb (Library): http://ricelib.irri.cgiar.orgWeb (Rice Knowledge Bank): www.knowledgebank.irri.org

Rice Todayeditorialtelephone: (+63-2) 580-5600 or (+63-2) 844-3351 to 53, ext 2725fax: (+63-2) 580-5699 or (+63-2) 845-0606; email: a.barclay@cgia

cover photo Jose Raymond Panaligan

publisher Duncan MacintosheditorAdam Barclayart director Juan Lazaro IVdesigner and production supervisor George Reyescontributing editors Gene Hettel, Bill Hardy, Meg MondoedoAfrica editor Savitri Mohapatra (Africa Rice Center WARDA)photo editorAriel Javellanaphoto researcher Jose Raymond Panaligancirculation Chrisanto Quintanaprinter Print Town Group

Rice Todayis published by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the worldsleading international rice research and training center. Based in the Phil ippines and withofces in 13 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 should not be construed as expressing IRRI policy or opinion on the l egal stacountry, territory, city, or area, or its authorities, or the delimitation of its fboundaries.

Rice Todaywelcomes comments and suggestions from readers. Potential coare encouraged to query rst, rather than submit unsolicited materials. Rassumes no responsibility for loss of or damage to unsolicited submissions, whbe accompanied by sufcient return postage.

CopyrightInternationalRice Research Institute 2008

This magazine is copyrighted by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and islicensedor use undera Creative CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0License(Unported).Unlessotherwisenoted, usersareree tocopy,duplicate,orreproduce,anddistribute,display,or transmitanyo thearticlesor portionsothe articles,andto maketranslations,adaptations, orother derivative worksunder the ollowing conditions:

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EditoriAl ................................................................ 4

Weathering the perect storm

NEwS ........................................................................ 5

Rice prices spiral upward; no end in sight

Quiet genes or better rice

Funding paradox or IRRI

Gates Foundation steps up to support rice research

PEoPlE ..................................................................... 8

New research director at IRRI

Achievements

Moving on

Keeping up with IRRI sta

thE ultimAtE bACkuP ........................................10

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, designed as a last-resort backup or Earths most important crops,has accepted its rst samples, including more than70,000 dierent types o rice

riCE forum ExAmiNES kEy PoliCy iSSuES ....12

troubliNg trAdE ...............................................13

It would be easy to think that the escalating priceo rice is a boon or exportersbut, in a Thailandexclusive, RiceToday reports on the chaos that hasThai traders reeling

AftEr thE Storm ................................................18

In the atermath o Cyclone Sidr, the rice armers osouthern Bangladesh are struggling to get back ontheir eet. Immediate relie is needed, but sciencecan provide technologies that help minimize thedamage caused by the next disaster.

SNAPShot .............................................................24

Rising rice prices put clouds on the horizon

thE big SquEEzE ..................................................26

As well as improving armersincomes andproductivity, water-saving technologies can alsohelp to ease social tensionsbut not without localexperts who champion the cause

huNgry for kNowlEdgE .................................32

Every year in Bangladesh, millions o rural amiliessuer the privations omonga, the period ater theprevious seasons ood has run out and beore thenext seasons harvest. Now, several technologies arehelping to close the window o hardship.

mAPS ......................................................................34

The Asian exception: irrigation

thE riCE AidS of AfriCA ....................................36

Poor armers in Arica call it the rice AIDSbecauseo its potential or devastation. But a strategyblending cutting-edge biotechnology with regionalknowledge may yet stife the impact o rice yellowmottle virus.

illumiNAtiNg thE gAP ......................

The new science o metabolomics is shininthe dark space between a rice plants gresultant qualities we appreciate when

thE irri PioNEEr iNtErviEwS ..........

Carolyn Moomaw Wilhelm: refections o

NEw bookS ..........................................

Rice, water, and orests

Rice black bugs

Descriptors or wild and cultivated rice

Global rice and agricultural trade libe ralis

Science, technology, and trade or peace a

Improving agricultural productivity in ricesystems o the High Barind Tract o B an

riCE fACtS ............................................

The power o policy

Saer and more eective pesticide use armers provides a striking example ogood policy, but good research must b

point

grAiN of truth .................................

The revolution keeps rolling

on e ce:Arice marketin LosBaos,Philippines,displaysprices that

are continuing to rise,stirring upturmoilaroundthe world.


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NEWS http://ricenews.irri.org

Rice TodayApril-June 2008

As global rice stocks dwindle andprices rise to levels not seen sincethe 1970s food crisis, governments of

rice-dependent countries are becomingincreasingly anxious. Amid growingsigns of civil unrest due to rising foodprices in general, national leaders are

hustling to ensure rice supplies for theirpopulations.

To guarantee domestic suppliesand keep local pr ices down, the worldstwo largest rice exporters, Thailand

and Vietnam, have capped exportsbelow previous years levels. India hasset a $1,000-per-ton minimum exportpriceeffectively limiting exports to

premium basmati varietiesand Chinais taxing grain exports in an effort tokeep staple foods in the country.

In February, Philippine PresidentGloria Macapagal Arroyo took the

unprecedented step of asking Vietnamto ensure rice supplies. In March,Thailand and Vietnam agreed to letthe Philippines draw from their stocksin the Association of Southeast Asian

Nations emergency reserve. Thailandannounced in late March that it wouldreserve some of its stockpile to be soldto consumers at cost price. The Philip-

pine government has even asked fast-food restaurants to offer half portionsof rice to prevent wastage.

Several factors are conspiring toamplify the rise in prices. As rice land

and irrigation water continue to be lostto industrialization and urbanization,

Asias burgeoning urban middle class,especially in India and China, is de-manding more meat and dairy, which is

diverting production from food grainsto animal feed. Growing demand from

Africa, where rice is an increasinglyimportant stapleNigeria alone now

imports more than 2 million tons of riceannuallyis pushing up prices; many

African countries face difculties in

securing adequate supplies.Weather- and pest-related prob-

lems have also helped force pricesup. Insect and disease outbreaks in

Vietnam, ooding and a major cyclonein Bangladesh, ooding in Indonesia,drought in the Philippines and Austra-lia, and record-breaking cold weatherin Vietnam and Chinaevents that are

expected to increase in frequency andseverity with climate changehave allaffected global production. Higher oilprices are both increasing the cost of

food production and prompting manyfarmers to switch to biofuel crops,further reducing the area planted to

food crops.The [rice] price will have to rise

to the point where rice can compete,nancially, with fuel crops, said VichaiSriprasert, former president of the ThaiRice Exporters Association. I believethe domestic price of rice will triple,

and will reach $1,000 per ton on theexport market, just to catch up withoil prices.

The price increase is also hitting

aid agencies, such as the United NationsWorld Food Program (WFP), which arebeing forced to scale down their opera-tions at a time whenbecause of thehigh pricesthe people they help are

most in need of support. WFP ofcialswarned in February that climbing foodprices were pushing up the agencys

budget requirements by several milliondollars a week.

Although hoarding by traders mayhave contributed to the problem, thisis not all about speculation, said SushilPandey, agricultural economist at the

International Rice Research(IRRI). Longer term demanimbalance is clearly indicated

tion of stock that has been goseveral yearswe have been cmore than we have been prod

The current price rise is s

a background of ever-increaulation sizes and stagnatgrowth, compounded by a l

withdrawal of government asupport for public-sector ag

research.Ultimately, however, ac

supply-demand balance at a rrice price will require a steadment in development and d

tion of new technologies and management practices to r

yields and lower the unit cost otion, said Randy Barker, head

Social Sciences Division.IRRI Director General R

gler noted that, when the foothe 1970s struck, new high-yie

varietiesproducts of the

research after it was creat1960swere already beinguted. That success may hagovernments complacent,Zeigler. Now, were paying

for decades of neglect of agresearch.

Rice prices spiral upward; no end in sight

Source:FAORicePriceUpdateMarch2

Export prices for rice

JoseRaymondPanaligan

Rising pRices mrk L B, pl.

630

580

380

330

280

230

US$/ton

US 2/4%

Thai 100%B

Viet 5%

Pak Irri-25%

Thai A1 Super

Feb-

07

Apr-07

Jun-07

Aug-07

Oct-07

0

430

480

530


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NEWS http://ricenews.irri.org

Rice TodayApril-June 2008 Rice TodayApril-June 2008

The Bill & Melinda Gates Founda-tion has awarded US$19.8 millionto IRRI to develop technologies that

can reach 18 million households withimproved rice varieties and increase

yields by 50% within 10 years.The funding, to be granted over 3

years, aims to harness major scienticadvances and address some of t he big-gest unsolved problems in agriculture.The project, Stress-tolerant rice for

poor farmers in Africa and South

Asia, will help develop and distributeimproved varieties of rice that can begrown in rainfed ecosystemswherefarmers have little or no access to irri-

gationand withstand environmentalstresses such as drought, ooding, andsalinity.

Within 3 years, the project aims tohave 300,000 farmers in South Asia

and 100,000 farmers in sub-SaharanAfrica adopt the initial set of improved varieties. The grant was part of a

Anew tool that allows scientists toinactivate individual genes couldlp researchers develop improved rice

rieties with favorable characteristicsch as increased nutritional value andst resistance.

With IRRI colleag ues, scientists at

e Max Planck Institute for Develop-ental Biology in in Tbingen, Germa-, published their ndings in March

008 in the online journalPLoS ONEwww.plosone.org/doi/pone.0001829).

For crop breeders, gene silencing,the technique is known, is a ke y toolthe development of new varieties. Theproach enables breeders to rapidly

vestigate the role of individual genesithout having to perform lengthyoss-breeding experiments.

The new technique uses so-calledicroRNAs (miRNAs), short RNA

olecules involved in regulating genetivity in both animals and plants

RNA is a form of nucleic acid, likeNA). The scientists constructedticial miRNAs with sequences that

rrespond to a particular gene. TheiRNAs degrade the rice plants own

gh-protein ricey crossing cultivated rice, Oryza

tiva, with a wild species, scientiststhe U.S. and India have developed

gh-protein rice, according to a studyported in the 23 January issue of t he

merican Chemical SocietysJournalAgricultural and Food Chemistry.ossing IR64, a popular cultivated

ariety, with wild O. nivara resultedrice with a protein content of 12.4%.

his is 18% and 24% more protein,spectively, than the parents. Proteinrichment in rice could help millions

of poor and malnourished people indeveloping countries who depend on

staple food for most of their nutrition.

Rodent ringtonesFormer IRRI information technology

head Paul ONolan has alerted RiceToday to an article in the 2 Februaryissue of The Economist. The story,about the Internet in China, discussesthe prevalence of mobile phones and

the prots being made by selling ringtones and jokes for a few cents each tomillions of people. A recent hit, generat-

ing more than US$10 million in sales,was Mice love rice. Unfortunately,

IRRI rodent experts conrm that thisis all too true.

Euro import regulation easedThe European Union (EU) no longerrequires member states to test uponarrival all imports of U.S. long-grainrice for the presence of the geneticallymodified Liberty Link (LL) Rice601

trait. The new regulation requires onlythat the rice be tested prior to ship-ment from the U.S. Only rice that tests

negative at the 0.01% level of detectionis permitted to be shipped. U.S. rice

exporters hope that the change will helpthem re-establish the EU market.

Chinese honor for IRRIIRRI has been named as a recipient ofthe Chinese International Award forScience and Technology. The award,recommended jointly by the ChineseMinistry of Agriculture and hybrid rice

expert Yuan Longping, recognizes theInstitutes efforts in scientic researchand training for Chinese agriculture.

New journalJapans National Institute of Agrobio-

logical Sciences (NIAS), in collabora-tion with Springer Publishing Co.,recently announced a new internationalscientic journal,RICE, which aims to

ll a glaring void in basic and appliedplant science publishing. The journal,due to be launched in mid-2008, will

be the worlds only high-quality serialpublication for reporting advances in

rice genetics, structural and functionalgenomics, comparative genomics,molecular biology and physiology,

molecular breeding, and combiology.

Aroma boost patentedResearchers who identied a cresponsible for aroma in rice h

awarded a U.S. patent for a mesubsequently developed for ifragrance. The team, from TKasetsart University, was grpatentalso led in Austral

Philippines, Thailand, JapanIndia, France, and the EuropeOfcein November 2007.

$306 million package of agriculturaldevelopment grants announced on 25January 2008 by Bill Gates, co-chair of

the foundation, at the World EconomicForum in Davos.

IRRI will work closely with othernational and international agricultural

research centers, including the AfricaRice Center (WARDA), which will beIRRIs main partner in implementingthe projects African component. Theproject will also build the capacity

of researchers and seed producers inpoor rice-dependent countries. Thenew funding comes at a vital timefor rice farmers, who are now facing

major production pressures and risingprices that threaten Asias continuedeconomic growth.

If we are serious about endingextreme hunger and poverty around the

world, we must be serious about trans-forming agriculture for small farmers,said Mr. Gates.

IRRIs project will target the poor-est rice farmers in Africa and South

Asia, who have little or no access toirrigation and who are totally relianton sufcient, timely rains. These farm-ers are regularly exposed to drought,

ooding, or salinityconditions thatreduce yields, harm livelihoods, andfoster hunger and malnutrition. Withminimal access to irrigation and fertil-izer, these farmers, who own small plots

on marginal land, are inevitably mostexposedand most vulnerabletopoor soils, too much or too little rain,

and environmental disasters

IRRI Director General Zeigler emphasized that, witchange threatening to wo

frequency and severity of thlems, the need for insuranc

form of stress-tolerant cropood-tolerant rice recently dat the Instituteis growingingly urgent.

Scientists have been co

by the challenges of stress for decades, said Dr. Zeiglerrice-science community in geIRRI in particular have recen

signicant steps forward throsion breeding to develop stres

varieties.The project was ofcially

in March at meetings at WA

Cotonou, Benin, and at the Agricultural Science CenteDelhi, India.

Gates Foundation steps up to support rice researchuiet genes for better rice

messenger RNAsmolecules thatcorrespond to genes and are involvedin the synthesis of enzymes, regulatory

factors, or other proteins. By degradingthe messenger RNA, miRNAs preventthe expression of the gene in question.This is also a natural process in plants;

the new technique allows researchers toeasily target genes of interest.

As well as helping breeders todetermine the function of genes, silenc-ing can in itself also produce desirable

traits. For example, it took the IRRIteam just a few weeks to generate rice

with a deactivatedEui1 gene. Suchplants have a taller top section, which

facilitates the fertilization of neighbor-ing plants and thus helps in hybridrice production. Introducing the trait

into other varieties using conventional breeding techniques originally took

several years. According to the researchers,

the technique will allow breeders toinactivate genes of interest with un-precedented specicity. The team also

anticipates that the method can be ap-plied to other crops.

Several major donors have recentlypledged support to IRRI at the sametime that some traditional donors are

withdrawing funding. The cuts willhit hard at a time when steeply risingprices and major production challengesare threatening food security for many

of the worlds poorest people.Significant grants have recently

come from the government of Japan ($5million for ood tolerance in Southeast

Asia), Germanys Federal Ministry for

Economic Cooperation and Develop-ment in combination with the EiselenFoundation ($1.6 million for salinitytolerance), the International Fund for

Agricultural Development ($1.5 millionfor sub-Saharan Africa, in partnership

with the Africa Rice Center), and the

Biotechnology and Biological SciencesResearch Council and UK Department

for International Development ($1.5million to develop rice resistant toclimatic stresses, in partnership withthe National Institute of AgriculturalBotany.

In March, however, the U.S. Agencyfor International Development warnedthat it may cut funding to the networkof Consultative Group of International

Agricultural Research centers, includ-ing IRRI. Despite the new funding,support for public agricultural researchhas steadily declined over the past fewdecadesperhaps due to complacency

after research investment in the 1960sand 1970s underpinned lower pricesthroughout the 1980s and 1990s.

Funding paradox for IRRI

iRRi/WaRda

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5/25

PEOPLE


Keeping up with IRRI staff

oving on

Former IRRI principal scientist SantVirmani has won a Padma Award,given to Indian citizens to recognizedistinguished public contributions. Dr.

Virmani, recognized in the science andengineering category, was among 71eminent Indians who received Padma

Awards on 25 January 2008.Niranjan Baisakh, former IRRI

Ph.D. scholar and postdoctoral fellow inPBGB, has won a Tipton Team Research

Award from the Louisiana StateUniversity Agricultural Center, along

with his colleagues from the CentersSchool of Plant, Environmental, andSoil Sciences. The team was recognized

in December 2007 for its work indeveloping coastal plants to aid incoastal reclamation projects.

Ac h i m D o b e r m a n n , a ni n t e r n a t i o n a l l y r e c o g n i z e dricultural research scientist withany years experience working withce in Asia and Europe, has beenpointed as IRRIs new deputy directorneral for research. Already at IRRI as

ader of the Institutes program onustaining productivity in intensivece-based systems: rice and thevironment, Dr. Dobermann began

s new role on 1 April 2008.After beginning his ca reer as a soil

ientist, Dr. Dobermann expandeds research interests to cover a richray of crop and social sciences. He

a Fellow of the American Society ofgronomy and Soil Science Society ofmerica, and recipient of numerous

Samarendu (Sam) Mohantyhas been appointed head of IRRIsSocial Sciences Division (SSD), ef-fective 1 June 2008. Dr. Mohanty, anagricultural economist, moves from his

position as associate professor in theDepartment of Agricultural and Ap-plied Economics at Texas Tech Univer-sity in the U.S. Before moving to Texas,he worked for 5 years at the Center for

Agricultural and Rural De velopment atIowa State University.

Elizabeth Woods, Australia, became chair of the IRRI Board of

Trustees (BOT) on 1 January 2008,replacing outgoing Chair Keijiro Ot-suka, Japan, who had served on theBoard since 2002. Also joining the BOTon 1 January were new members Mut-

suo Iwamoto (Japan), Seong-HeeLee (Korea), andAchmad Suryana (Indonesia).

In March 2008, IRRI bade farewelltoPhilippe Herv, molecular biologistin the Plant Breeding, Genetics,

and Biotechnology Division (2005-08). Dr. Herv played a key role inupgrading the Institutes facilities forrice biotechnology and established

collaborative ties with advancedresearch institutes.

Also departing in March wasDeborah Templeton, i m p actassessment specialist in SSD (2005-

08). Dr. Templeton helped IRRIscientists develop impact-focusedresearch projects and undertook impactassessments of IRRI projects.

Senior molecular biologist John

Bennett left IRRI in December 2007(nd out more about Dr. Bennett inWhere science meets art on pages17 to 19 of Rice Today Vol. 6, No.

4). Entomologist Yolanda Chen, who performed innovative researchto i ntegrate ecology and hos t-

Ray Wu , professor at CornellUniversity in New York and onethe fathers of genetic engineering,

ssed away in Ithaca, New York, ate age of 79. A professor of molecularology and genetics, Prof. Wu used

national and international awards.Dr. Dobermann received his

Ph.D. from the Institute of TropicalAgriculture, University of Leipzig,Germany. After working at IRRIfrom 1992 to 2000, he moved to theUniversity of Nebraska (Lincoln) in the

U.S. and rapidly rose to the rank of fullprofessor. During his time in Nebraska,he maintained strong research linkages

with East, Southeast, and South Asian

colleagues.T.P. Tuong, who served as interim

deputy director general for researchfollowing the departure of previousdeputy director general for research

Ren Wang, returns to a senior researchrole in IRRIs Crop and EnvironmentalSciences Division.

ew research director at IRRI

plant resistance in rice stmanagement, also left in Dec

In February 2008, the

welcomed new staff memberSenger, who will work as bioinsoftware project manager inResearch Informatics Lab

and postdoctoral fellowJaEtten, who joins the geinformation systems unitDigna Manzanilla joineJanuary as a postdoctoral fell

the Japan-IRRI SubmergencBas Bouman became

division head of Crop and mental Sciences Division on

2008, with an initial appoin5 years. Edwin Javier, formdinator of the Internationalfor Genetic Evaluation of Ric(1999-2006), became inte

variety development coordinaAsian Vegetable Research andment Center in March.

Achievements

biotechnology to develop high-yieldingrice varieties resistant to pests andtolerant of drought, salinity, andtemperature stresses. Born in Beijing,

Prof. Wu moved to the United Statesin 1948.

L. Dale Haws, a former crop

production specialist at IRRI (1974-85), died on 4 January at the age of 81in Logan, Utah. Rosendo Palis, whoserved as IRRIs agronomist and liaison

scientist to Burma (now Myanmar)from 1980 to 1993, died on 21 Februaryin Sacramento, California, at age 73.

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6/25


On Monday 21 January 2008,

ight LH3134 left Manila,Philippines, for Oslo, Norway,counting more than 35 million

ains of rice among its cargo.

eaded not for Scandinavian dinnerates, these grains would continue onthe Norwegian island of Svalbard,rth of the Arctic Circle, only 1,000ometers from the North Pole.

The seeds, from the Internationalce Genebank of the Internationalce Research Institute (IRRI),presented 70,180 samples ofaditional and modern rice varieties

d their wild relatives bound fore newly constructed Svalbardobal Seed Vault. In total, morean 200,000 crop varieties from

ia, Africa, Latin America, ande Middle Eastdrawn from seed

collections maintained by centers

of the Consultative Group onInternational Agricultural Research(CGIAR)were shipped to Svalbard.

IRRIs contribution included

the rst box placed in storage byNorwegian Prime Minister JensStoltenberg and 2004 Nobel PeacePrize Laureate Wangari Maathaiduring the vaults opening ceremony

on 26 February 2008. PrimeMinister Stoltenberg describedthe vault, which cost around US$9million to build, as a Noahs Arkfor our biological heritage.

The facilitydubbed thedoomsday vault by the worldsmediais owned and administered

by the Ministry of Agriculture and

Food on behalf of the Kingdom ofNorway and was established as aservice to the world community.The Nordic Gene Bank will operatethe facility and maintain a public

online database of samples.Constructed in the permafrost

of the Svalbard mountains, thevault is designed to store duplicates

of seeds from seed collectionsaround the globe. RuaraidhSackville Hamilton, head of theInternational Rice Genebank, saidthat the new vault provides the

ultimate safety backup, locatedwhere all riskspolitical, geological,climaticare extremely low.

He added, For long-term

survival, seeds need to be storedat low temperature. This is mosteconomical in a place like Svalbard,

where the ambient temperature is

low and the insulation is high.Further, he said, the risks

faced by IRRI and Svalbard arenot just independent but almostmutually exclusive. It is almost

inconceivable that any risk couldsimultaneously destroy thetwo copies of the collection.

IRRI itself holds the worldslargest and most diverse collectionof rice: nearly 110,000 accessionsfrom 123 countriesaround 20% of

the total holdings of rice conservedin all genebanks around the world.

Rice agriculture depends onthe vast diversity seen in the ricegenebank. If a new rice disease

appears, researchers can search thegenebank for resistant varieties. Thegenes required to make rice moretolerant of drought, for example,

exist within the varieties containedin the collection. The genebankcontains the genetic diversity weneed to respond to changes inclimate, consumer expectations,

agricultural technologies, andgovernment priorities.

Any new rice research project

or rice breeding program typicallystarts with a scientist asking the

seed bank to supply the types ofrice required for their research,said Dr. Sackville Hamilton.

The immeasurable value of seed

banks has been seen many timesin the past. One notable exampleis the use of Cambodian rice

varieties stored in IRRIs genebankto re-establish Cambodias rice

industry after it was devastatedduring years of civil strife in the1970s, when a starving populationate the nations seed stocks.

The CGIAR collections are

the crown jewels of internationalagriculture, said Cary Fowler,executive director of the Global CropDiversity Trust, which covered the

costs of preparing, packaging, andtransporting CGIAR seeds to the

Arctic and will provide support forongoing operations. They includethe worlds largest and most diversecollections of rice, wheat, maize, and

beans. Many traditional landracesof these crops would have beenlost had they not been collectedand stored in the genebanks.

IRRI Director General Robert

Zeigler, who attended the vaultopening, pointed out that Svalbard

was neither built to make upfor low standards nor an excuse

to lower existing standards.If we assemble all the worlds

crop diversity in Svalbard and usethat as an excuse to stop conservingit elsewhere, wed be in an even worse

situation, since then all availablediversity could be destroyed bya single event, said Dr. Zeigler.

Moreover, the seeds in Svalbard arenot accessible to anyone except the

depositor. To realize the potentialbenets of crop diversity, our farmers,scientists, and breeders must be ableto use the seed easily. Seed banks

such as IRRIs must therefore bemaintained at locations around the

world where they are most needed.IRRIs collection is itself

protected to the highest possible

standards. The facility is raisedabove ood levels and is designedto withstand an earthquake of up to7 on the Richter scale or a nuclearaccident in a warship in Manila

harbor 60 km away. IRRI has twolevels of electricity backupone setof generators for the whole Instituteand one specically for the genebank.

To address the risk of e quipmentfailure, the Institute maintains

backup systems, for example, usingtwo compressors for cooling, so that,if one fails, the second takes over.

Spare parts of all key operationalcomponents are kept on-site.

The high standard ofconstruction and protection was

conrmed during the devastatingTyphoon Milenyo of October 2006,

which caused severe damage tothe Philippine national seed banksituated a few kilometers away

but left our facility unscathed,said Dr. Sackville Hamilton.

Despite this, Dr. Sackville

Flora de GuzmanLydia AngelesImelda BoncajesNerissa BoonggalingPriscila CabralJane CarandangIsabelita De MesaMinerva EloriaAurelio GambaEvangeline GonzalesPatria GonzalesMinerva GuldeEmerlinda HernandezCarlos HuelmaJose IbabaoAriel JavellanaNora Kuroda

Melencio LAlicia LapiJuan LazarWilma LumYolanda MaGilbert MaVeronica MVioleta MaBernardo MBogs PanaRoniella PrJacquelineRenato ReaDigna SalisTeresita SaAnthony TeLiza Yonzo

Makin it appen

Preparing or the Svalbardinvolved an enormous amounwork by many people or many mosta who made the shipment polisted below.

svalbard global seed Vault:te number

The vault is located 120 meters into therock, ensuring that the vault roomswill remain naturally rozen even i themechanical cooling system ails or iexternal air temperatures rise because oclimate change.

The distance rom the ront door o theportal building to the back o the vault is145.9 meters. The width o each vault is

9.510 meters and the height is 6 meters.Each vault is approximately 27 meterslong.

The vault has the capacity to store 4.5million seed samples. Each sample containsan average o 500 seeds, so a maximum o2.25 billion seeds can be stored. The seedswill be stored at minus 18 degrees Celsiusin specially-designed our-ply oil packagesthat will be placed in sealed boxes. Thelow temperature and low moisture levelwill ensure that the seeds stay viable ordecades, centuries, or even thousands oyears.

Hamilton cautioned that it isimpossible to protect against

threats, which is why Svalbaonebut only oneof the eselements of a global system fefcient and effective conser

and use of crop diversity.For such an important c

we have to take all risks, no mhow remote, into account, hFor example, news of politic

unrest is common in the capcity Manila, and in the southisland group Mindanao. Migpolitical activity one day escto threaten IRRI? It is unlike

but who knows? We are closeinactive volcano, Makiling. Mthis volcano one day erupt agMight we suffer a force-10 ea

one day? The evidence suggein the near future, but even e

volcanologists and seismologcannot guarantee zero risk, acannot make long-term pred

Among the VIPs and digat the vaults opening, EulogiGipo Sasi Jr., a 64-year-old rice farmer, represented the

without whom all the seeds iworld would be of little use. that the knowledge that goesthe seeds will not just be storin ice, said Tay Gipo, addres

the international audience,but further enriched by givisupport to the work of farme

T ultiat backuphe Svalbard Global Seed Vault, designed as a last-resort backup or Earths most important crops, has

ccepted its rst samples, including more than 70,000 diferent types o rice

globalCRoPdiveRsitytRust

the sVaLBaRD gLoBaL sd Vl, bl m rk, wll rm blw rz v v wr lr.

tenDing the opening svlbrd vlr (lft t rght) Dr. Zlr, irl pr Brd cr Jm gdr, d glbl crvr tr ev Drr cr Fwlr.

JoseRaymondPanaligan

DR. sacKViLLe haMiLtonl ld iRRi d rr r f svlbrd.


7/25


i

ncreasing rice productivity is

the only long-term solutionthat can provide high returnsto farmers while keeping

e price of rice low for poornsumers. This was the consensus

participants at theForum once policy research: key issuesom national perspectives, heldthe International Rice Research

stitute (IRRI) in Los Baos,hilippines, on 18-19 February 2008.

The forum, held in the midst ofce-price rises not seen since the70s, aimed to identify key policy

sues relevant to the rice industryom the perspective of nationalstems, prioritize the identiedlicy issues for research, establish

network of rice policy researchers,

d develop a collaborativerangement for conducting policysearch on high-priority issues.

Senior policy researchers from

ia (Bangladesh, China, India,donesia, Nepal, Philippines,

hailand, and Vietnam) and AfricaMozambique and Tanzania)tended the forum along with

presentatives of the Africa Riceenter (WARDA), the Food andgriculture Organization of thenited Nations, and the private

ctor. Sixteen papers were presented various aspects of rice policy, and

panel discussion on the implicationsrising rice prices was held.

The participants largely agreed

at rice is seen by most governmentsa political commodity although

e national perspectives on rice

policy issuesvaried amongcountriesdepending

on nationalincomes and theperformance ofthe rice industry.

Most countriesviewed theworld market

as thin and unstable, meaningthat a relatively small percentage of

total rice produced is bought andsold internationally, and that exportprices are prone to large swings.

Thus, governments mostly seek ahigh degree of self-sufciency.

Given this broad scenario,policy tools to promote the riceindustry in different countries werediscussed. The policy research

agenda identied during the forumincluded assessment of allocationof resources for research anddevelopment, analysis of comparativeadvantage in rice production in

different countries and rice-growingenvironments, policies to provideadequate returns to farmers whilekeeping the rice price low forconsumers, provision of safety nets

for the poor, and reorganization ofagriculture for greater efciency.

Although the current risingrice price was seen as benecial

for farmers who grow a reasonablesurplus that they can sell on themarket, poor farmers with smallor no surplus and poor urbanconsumers will continue to lose

out if the price continues to rise.Mahabub Hossain, executive

director of the Bangladesh RuralAdvancement Committee, pointed

out that marginal farmerswhoare net buyers of riceare alsohurt by increasing fertilizer andpesticide costs, which are climbingin line with rising energy costs.

According to forum organizerSushil Pandey, who leadsIRRIs Rice Policy and Impact

Program, prices are likely tocontinue to rise for some time.

Longer term demand-supplyimbalance is clearly indicated by

depletion of stock that has been goingon for several yea rs, said Dr. Pandey.We have been consuming more than

what we have been producing and

research to increase rice productivityis needed to address this imbalance.

The importance of research intotechnologies that boost productivity

was underscored by Randy Barker,

head of IRRIs Social SciencesDivision. Even before the spikeof prices in the 1970s, high-yield

variety technology was well underway to widespread adoption, said

Dr. Barker, who emphasized thateffective research and developmentrequires long-term planning.

One implication of this, according

to Leo Sebastian, executive directorof the Philippine Rice ResearchInstitute, is the need for increasedinvestment in agricultural research.

Impact of technologies is a

driver of increased rice production,whether a country exports orimports, said Dr. Sebastian.But everybody is saying thatinvestment in agricultural research

is small or limitedand somethingneeds to be done about this.

Dr. Pandey said that theInstitute has identied technological

and policy opportunities andchallenges for addressing therising rice prices. We are tacklingthe issue head-on by developingand promoting interventions

to increase the productivity ofthe rice industr y, he said.

The forum participants agreedto establish a network of rice

policy researchers to facilitaterapid exchange of ideas andinformation. The network willdevelop linkages with the existingagricultural policy networks in

Asia and Africa. Proceedingsof the forum are expected to bepublished by the end of 2008.

Ric ru xains ky plicy issus

International rice trading is not a

business for the faint-hearted.Thailands exporters knew

that well. They also knew, whenthey prepared in November

2007 for what was supposed to be a

boom year ahead, that prices werelikely to rise. Little did they realize

how steep that rise would be.Poor weather and domestic

supply concerns had severelyrestricted competition on the worldsmarkets from Vietnam and India,

Thailands main export rivals.China, Egypt, and Australia had also

restricted their rice exports. So, 2008

amounted to a one-horse race, and,as the 2007 harvest began to roll infrom the elds, Thailands exporters

began their wheeling and dealing,

with buyers clamoring at the door.You can only make money if

you speculate properly, says veteran

exporter and former president of theThai Rice Exporters Association

Vichai Sriprasert. At the time ofthe deal, we expect to make $5a ton. Nobody has 100% of thestock in hand. We hope to buy therest. If I end up making $1 per

ton, then Im happy with that.It was their forward-orders

practice that let them down,

sellers market the likes of whthey had never experienced bLocal and export prices wereeven as they struck their dea

deliver in three or four montwhen they still had to buy ththey had just sold. In some ca

the small prot margins theyhappy to accept disappeared

a few hours. Then, they couldwatch in despair as the spiraprices battered at their solvenorder to honor their commitmsome were forced to buy mill

at a ruinous US$200 per tonthan they had agreed to sell i

It would be easy to think that the escalating price o rice is a boon or expor tersbut,

in a Thailand exclusive, Rice Today reports on the chaos that has Thai traders reeling

Trubling trad

Story and photos by Bob Hill

paRBoiLeD Rice ldd rvrdBkk. i wll b ld dw cRvr gl tld, b lr bd r ar.

the Rise r rw k m d r lrm iRRi



8/25


In the few months fromovember to February, 30 to 40porters, many of them among theuntrys most experienced traders,st an estimated $128 million.

Worse still, supplies of paddynmilled rice) all but dried up inte February, leading to claims thatrmers and millers were hoarding

to speculate on even higherices. The government ordered ancial check of its own stocks aftere discovery that 12,000 tons ofddy had disappeared while in

e storage custody of millers, andporters scoffed that 12,000 tons

as the tip of a very large iceberg.he accusations rumbled back

d forth through a shell-shockeddustry, bleeding on the one handd proting on the other. At theme time that many exportersced heavy losses, farmers, local

ddy traders, and many millersoted like never before.

Unable to nd supplies and

badly scared, many of Thailandssmaller exporters withdrew fromtrading in March, to brood and

wait for the second crop to comein, later that month and in April.

Others cautiously accepted orders nomore than one month in advance.

Had they kept an eye on worldfood prices, they might have been

forewarned. The price of wheat hasdoubled since April 2007 and the foodprice index of the United NationsFood and Agriculture Organizationclimbed by almost 40% in 2007.

Demand is outpacing supply and theworlds stocks of cereals like rice aredwindling to the point at which theycan no longer provide an effective

buffer in years of poor production.Although population growth

is the fundamental cause, theproduction and pricing problems arealso partly due to weather problems

linked to climate change as well asrising oil prices boosting demandfor biofuels. Changing diets in fast-

developing countries such as Chinaare also a factor, with more landneeded to raise livestock to meetincreasing demands for meat.

The force of the technology that

created the Green Revolution hasrun out, says Mr. Vichai. Worldstocks of rice have been fallingfor 4 or 5 years, and consumption

of rice exceeds production. Thisis a very dangerous situation. Weneed a new level of technologyin the rice elds of the world, sothat we can meet the demand.

In 2007, Thailand exportedabout 9.5 million tons of rice. In the4 months from November 2007 toFebruary 2008, exports accelerated

to 1 million tons per monthwellabove the expected monthly rate of800,000 tons. Some of Thailands

biggest rms, such as CP Intertrade,part of the giant Charoen Pokphand

conglomerate, say that rice exportswill bring them a bonanza. Otherbig rms that bought rice at auction

from the Thailand governmentsstocks and were still holdingsizeable amounts also raked in

big prots in the early months of

the year. Smaller exporters simplydidnt have the money to do that.

The Thailand government hasset a target of 8.75 million tonsfor rice exports this year, and a

senior government ofcial closeto the rice trade says he is quitepositive the target will be reached.

The country has about 400

licensed rice exporters. Of these, 185belong to the Thai Rice ExportersAssociation, and, according to itssecretary-general, Korbsook Iamsuri,this group accounts for more than

80% of the countrys rice trade.The association says that, in the 3

months from 6 December 2007 to 12

March 2008, the f.o.b. prices of majorThai export grades of rice rose way

beyond expectations. The price of 5%white rice rose from $348 to $544 perton; Hom Mali 100% B climbed from

$606 to $771; parboiled 100% wentfrom $380 to $604; and broken A1super rose from $321 to $512. At lastreport, the pace of the escalation was

undiminished. (f.o.b. stands for freeon board, which means the seller

bears the cost of loading goods ontoa ship or other form of transport, ata given port or point of departure.)

Making the trading positionof Thai exporters much moredifcult is the need to conduct alltransactions in U.S. dollars. Not

only is the dollar growing weaker,but their home currency, the Thaibaht, is appreciating against thedollar and showing no signs ofslowing down. In January 2006,

one U.S. dollar bought 40.77 baht;in January 2007, 35.55 baht; and inmid-March 2008, just over 31 baht.

As difcult as making a modestprot has become, it is often further

eroded by a volatile exchange rate.The exporters are scared,

admits the government ofcial,

who asked not to be named. must wait and see what happMeanwhile, there is speculathoarding. The exporters can

rice, so this is a difcult timeexporters and millers. The fathink prices will continue to

Normally, the annual crototals 18 to 19 million tons of

milled rice. Nine million tonconsumed domestically, eighnine million tons are exporteand the rest is held in stock.

We dont know where thharvest is, complains Ms. KAt this time last year, I could100,000 bags per day withoutrouble. Today, Im lucky if I

10,000 bags. She accuses farand millers of hoarding stockspeculate on higher prices.

should be selling it now, if thgoing to sell it at all, because

getting a 500% markup. But is hitting the market. Its mad

Ms. Korbsook is also chi

thai Rice err a srr-grl Krbk imr (rght), w l v Kmlkj gr m, vr l bd rbld r bd r nr dB Kmlkj Bkk l.

paRBoiLeD Rice rll Bkk l Km cm, bd r nB, ar.


9/25


ecutive of the Kamolkij Group

Companies, having taken overe family rm from her father.

claims to be the worlds largestporter of parboiled rice (which isaked and steamed before milling),ipping 400,000 tons per year to

arkets such as Nigeria and India.In an effort to shift the paddy

to the market, the exporterssociation has urged the governmentset aside its controversial price

tervention program, a move it saysould save Thailand billions of bahtr year. The association suggestsat, without a price guarantee aspsychological backstop, farmers

ay opt to sell, easing pressure onmestic prices and dealing withe current supply shortage.

The price intervention program

s existed for some years, butgan to play a signicant role ine countrys rice production andarketing system as one of the earlyopulist policies of the deposed

haksin administration. Since theilitary takeover in September 2006,aranteed prices have sunk farlow market prices. But, since the

ection of the new government inecember last year, populism is onceore a driving force in Thai politics.

Under the scheme, farmers cant to sell to the government at a

aranteed price or sell to traders orillers if they can make more money.years of low market prices, the

program has seenthe governmentgather hugestocks of up to

ve million tons,spread aroundthe countryin countless

warehouses, many

of them privatelyowned. The stockshave then beensold from time

to time by anelectronic auctionsystem. In March,the governmentsstocks were

ofcially 2.1million tons.

The exporters association

warns that, if the new governmentuses the program to once again set

high guaranteed prices, it will affectboth local and export markets.

The intervention scheme hasencountered many problems, the

least of which were claims thatrice entering the program had

been mixed, with lower-gradedrice mixed with premium grades.This led not only to extensive

accusations but also to widespreadDNA testing to ensure that buyers

were getting what they paid for.There have also been repeated

claims that quantities of government

stocks being held in privatestorage have gone missing.

Ms. Korbsook dismisses theprogram as riddled with corruption

and losses, and says that quantitiesof rice have been sold, switched,or mixed. Maybe the politicianshave beneted, she says, but itmeans that the farmers dont go

for quality. They can sell anythingat all at the guaranteed price. Itdiscourages improvement. Thefarmers dont care when the

market needs better quality.In theory, concedes the

government ofcial, it is notgood, because we should let supplyand demand work. We shouldnt

intervene in the market.But realistically, the program

is suitable for the character and

circumstances of Thailand.Developed countries subsidize theirfarmers directly, but we dont havethat much money. We have 3.6 million

farming families in rice alone, so wecant afford subsidies. We dont puta lot of money into this intervention.

We absorb some surplus quantities.They keep the rice everywhere,

says Mr. Vichai. Private millersare holding a lot of it, and themillers sell the paddy belongingto the government rst. When the

government releases stocks, theyscramble to replace it, and instead ofthe price going down, it goes up!

The exporters are also quick, intheir current frustration, to refute

the notion that middlemen haveconsistently squeezed farmers dry.Mr. Vichai, whose company, Riceland

International, began in the toughtimes of the Great Depression of the

early 1930s and who took over fromhis father after studying economicsin the U.S., says that, even in the

best of circumstances, the prot

margins of rice exporters are guredin fractions of 1%. Thai farmers, onthe other hand, often make 100%percent prots on their rice crops.

The truth is, they will still be

poor because they dont have enoughland, he says. They will not earnenough for a good life. We have toomany people and too little land.

The exporters claim that

producing paddy costs farmers about5,500 baht per rai (0.16 hectares),

which at a recent exchange rate isabout $1,100 per hectare. Even if a

farmer plants 2.5 hectaresaroundthe national average farm sizeand

both his yield and selling price areoptimum, his 100% prot will still

be only about $172 per month.

The price rises also came toolate for the poor rainfed farmers,

whose harvest was in October andNovember. The main proteers

have been the irrigated farmersof Thailands central region,

who plant three crops a year.In the midst of the turmoil,

Thailands rice industry has become

intensely introspective. Governmentdepartments feel that developmentof the countrys rice industry still

has a long way to go, particularly inthe effort to build yields and reduce

water use. There has been talk ofbringing the industry together to

discuss its future, in the hope ofachieving some kind of unity.

Theres also a plan to implementa zoning system in which farmers

will be compelled to grow varieties

that perform well in their localfarming conditions and that arein market demand. The seniorgovernment ofcial said the plan

needed another 4 or 5 years to setup, but, once operating, it wouldhelp overcome present problemsand assist in the marketing ofThailands crop. The exporters

are skeptical, pointing out thattheres not a farmer born who takeskindly to any kind of compulsion.

Whatever might happen,prices are still rising.

It is purely a matter of supplyand demand, Mr. Vichai says.Higher oil prices mean that farmersare changing to fuel crops, and these

crops will need more land and morewater. Rice prices have to go up, orhumanity will have nothing to eat.The price will have to rise to the point

where rice can compete, nancially,

with fuel crops. I believe the domesticprice of rice will triple, and will reach

$1,000 per ton on the export market,just to catch up with oil prices.

Maybe, at some point, theThailand government will interveneto protect domestic consumers.

The seniorgovernmentofcial disagrees

with the expectedmove to fuel crops.

Shifting to fuelcrops is not ea sy,he says. You needsuitable land and

conditions. Ourculture demandsthat we still musthave rice as ourstaple food. It

is our soul andour spirit. In the

beginning, wegrew rice for our

own consumption,and we expandedto become worldleaders in riceproduction. No

matter whathappens, we willstill grow rice.

In one way, both Ms. Korand Mr. Vichai are typical of

standing rice exporters in Ththey come from family rmshave been operating for sevegenerations. Their companiehave diversied their busine

purely because of the huge riand difculties of rice tradinits own, and the businesses h

been kept within the family.Ms. Korbsook believes a

complete overhaul of the ruleregulations surrounding Thaentire rice industry is long ovand she is scathing in her cri

of what she claims is the indulack of ordinary integrity. Rhas so many steps to pass thrand theres fraud, theft, andmismanagement all along the

Mr. Vichai sees what is has a disruptive situation.

Too few people acknowlit takes integrityan integrit

up over generations of reliabsurvive in this kind of situatihe says. This is a crucial timIt will tell the story of who wsurvive and who will not surv

Bob Hill is a Thailand-based writer

specializing in science and technolo

Governm

interventi

Farmers

Farmer

cooperativesBrokersPaddy traders

Millers

BrokersExporters Whole

Retai

DomestiExport market

Ms. KoRBsooK v Kmlkj gr m, wlm b wrld lr rr rbld r.

thai Rice expoRteR V srrr.

t r w t r r

w rm rmr ld rr dm l.Source: Thai Rice Exporters Association.


10/25


the winds started to pickup during the afternoon of

what should have been anormal Thursday in southern

Bangladesh. There had been warningsof a storm, somewhere out in the Bayof Bengal, heading toward the coast.But the people of Chornajir Villagedidnt think things would get too bad.

Besides, there was work tobe done in the elds and thenearest shelter was a long walkaway, especially for the youngchildren. If it rains, so be it.

Hopefully, the crops will be OK.As evening approached, though,

it became clear that 15 November2007 would not be a normal

Thursday. Chornajir, like most ofthe villages in Patuakhali District, is

poor. People scrape by from seasonto season, trying to grow enoughrice to feed themselves and maybesell a little if theyre lucky. Its a

precipitous existence: one failed crop,one big ood, and it can send peoplespiraling into destitution. And, atthis level of poverty, the channelsof communication, which should

bring news of oods and storms,dont always work like they should.

Cyclone Sidr, a category-4brute with peak winds of 250kilometers per hour, slammed into

the southern Bangladesh coastin the evening. By the time the

villagers of Chornajir, around 20kilometers inland, realized this was

more than a common storm, it wastoo late to get to the shelter safely.

If youve never been toBangladesh, you may not knoat the country is. Apart fromin the southeast and northea

land rarely gets more than a meters above sea level. The ceffectively an enormous delta

by the conuence of the GanBrahmaputra, and Meghna r

and their tributaries, which cthe Himalayan snowmelt andtheir way toward the Bay of B

Hundreds of rivers and scrisscross their way out to se

end result being an entire cothat oods like a bathtub if ittoo much. Add to that a cycloinduced tidal surge and you s

understand how devastating storm can be here. In 1970, akilled up to half a million peoof the largest single disastershuman history. In 1991, anot

cyclone killed more than 130terms of the cost to human li

was not as brutal, causing thof around 4,000 people (tho

a major disaster by any denFortunately, it struck at low tthe surge was not as powerfumight have been. And, despitcommunication breakdowns

Chornajir residents in grave dgreat number of people madeof the many cyclone shelters

AfTeR The SToRmStory and photos by Adam Barclay

In the aftermath of Cyclone Sidr, the rice farmers of southern Bangladesh

are struggling to get back on their feet. Immediate relief is needed, but

science can provide technologies that help minimize the damage caused by

the next disaster.

asiRuDDin Khan rv w l r r w dvd b cl sdr

nvmbr 200.

modisRaPidResPonsePRoJeCtatnasa/gsFC

cycLone siDR 14 nvmbr 200,d br lmmd Bld

MiLLions oF southeRn Bld

wr rd mk rcl sdr drd r m.


11/25


en built in the past three decades.As the wind strengthened and

e rain hammered, the oodwatersew. First, the rice crops went

nder, then the lower houses and

uts. Some people, such as Hasinad her husband, tried to make it

the nearest shelter. Soon afterey set off, the water had risenove the level of the road. Hasinas

usband carried their 7-year-old

ughter. Just staying on the now-visible road was almost impossible;lding onto a child at the same

me proved too much. Amid theaos, deafened by the screaming

nd, Hasinas daughter was sweptway. Like thousands of others, sheasnt found until it was too late.

It was a sickening blow to amily already doing it tough. There

as precious little time to grieve,oughin the wake of tragedy,asina and her husband were forcedturn their thoughts to nding food

d caring for their remaining family.Nazma Begum was luckier. Her

usband and son made it throughnscathed. But her livelihood waswept away in t he muddy water.

he small hut in which she and hermily lived was ruined. Her 0.8-ctare rice eld, from which shed her husband expected to harvest

e food that would prevent themom going hungry, was destroyed.he seeds she had stored to use thellowing season were gone as well,ong with the familys few chickens,

eir vegetable crop, and almostof their personal belongings.

In all, Sidr affected around 2

did not produce grain.Farmers chances of recovering

some of the crop depended on afew days, really, in terms of crop

development, says Dr. Johnson.Sidr prompted millions of

Bangladeshis to wonder how theywould feed themselves until thenext harvest and, perhaps worse,

with so many farmers losing theirseed, they were unable to sow theirboro crops, the seedling nurseriesfor which should have been planted

in November and Decemberfor transplanting in January.Compounding the problem was thedestruction ofboro seedbedsinPatuakhali, around 60% were

affectedand damage to irrigationcanals, which allowed highly saline

water into the fresh water being

stored for the dry season. Barring

how can rice reearc

Following their visit to southern Bin December 2007 to assess thin areas hit by Cyclone Sidr, IRRIAbdelbagi Ismail, Zainul AbedJohnson, and M.A. Hamid Miwith their BRRI counterparts, preliminary plans or research mitigating this sort o disaster.

The researchers discussobservations at a series o meetthe Secretary o the Ministry o AMd. Abdul Aziz, the Bangladesh AResearch Council (including Director Nurul Alam), and the BRural Advancement Committee Executive Director Mahabub Hoss

Suggested intermediate-termprotect and enhance arm proincluded

1. New varieties with suciento submergence, salinity, andfooding, but with higher yield

current local varieties need toand out-scaled in cyclone- aprone areas. These include foovarieties already developed byBRRI, and salt-tolerant varieticurrently being developed. Brewith tolerance o submergencefooding, and salinity shoultested with armers to seleclines or urther evaluation an

2. Crop management and crop intestrategies could help raise prto ensure higher and more staband ood security. Increasing tor dry-season (boro and aus) ras other upland crops (such asweet potato, maize, and wawould help reduce reliancvulnerable aman-season ricyields are oten low and suscharsh conditions. Diversiichelp ensure sucient ood aor armers i they lose most otheir aman rice produce.

further disasters, many farmers arelooking at a November-December2008 aman harvest or, at best, anaus crop (grown by some farmers

between the wet and dry seasons),to be harvested in mid-2008.

But thats only half the problem.

Each wet season, the farmers heresave their crops best seeds, with

which they plant the next wetseasons crop. Following Sidr, eventhough some farmers managed tosalvage some rice, it was of such poor

quality as to be useless for seed.Urgent short-term measures

are needed to ensure sufcientseed supplies for these farmers,particularly for 2008, explained

IRRI scientist Abdelbagi Ismailduring his visit to Patuakhali inDecember 2007. This is becausemost farmers lost their rice cropand the grain yield of the remaining

crop is expected to be very low, andwill mostly be consumed withina few months. Besides, harvestedgrain is likely to be unsuitable for

seed for the next transplanted amanseason because of low quality.

Condemned to as much as ayears reliance on food aid, familiesare left wondering how theyll

manage. Moreover, most of thecrops grown in these areas are local

varieties adapted to saline andwaterlogged conditions. Seeds of

these varieties are hard to replace.It looks like Ill get less than half

a ton from my 6 acres [2.4 hectares],lamented Nasiruddin Khan, a ricefarmer from Purbohajipur Village,

Patuakhali. Last year, I got 5 tons.I dont know how well get enoughfood in the coming months.

WhenRiceToday visitedPurbohajipur inDecember 2007,

Nasiruddin washarvesting whatmuddy, attene drice remainedin his eld. He

said he woulduse the straw foranimal feed butthat much of the

recoverable grainhad begun to rot and tasted bitter.

Nasiruddins neighbor, AliAkbar, harvested 10 tons fromhis 4 hectares in 2006. In 2007,

he was expecting around 1 ton. Itwas a story repeated over and overacross southern Bangladesh.

A recent report issued by theCentre for Policy Dialogue and

Bangladesh Rural AdvancementCommittee (BRAC) warns that,following the cyclone and twomajor oods earlier in 2007, the

country is now facing a shortageof at least 3 million tons of rice.

We usually have a rice shortageof 11.5 million tons a year, but,

because of recurrent natural

disasters, there will be an additionalshortage of 1.9 million tons,Mahabub Hossain, BRAC executivedirector, said in January 2008.

Adding to the burden for the

millions aficted, the shortages

have come at a time of high arising global rice prices, resuhigher prices for consumers,

whom have already lost everThe countrys dire situation

was recognized by the Food aAgriculture Organization (FA

United Nations, which in De2007 added Bangladesh to a of 37 countries facing a food and requiring external assist

To see what role IRRI mi

play both in response to thisand to mitigate the effects ofcyclonespredicted to occur

million familiescomprisingaround 9 millionpeople. More

than 1.5 millionhomes weredestroyed. Justas distressing,around 1

million hectaresof cropspredominantly

wet-season

(known astransplantedaman) rice

were damaged or ruined. Across thewhole affected area (see map, below),

average crop loss was 50%. Close torivers and the coast, though, farmerssuffered complete loss of their crops.

International Rice ResearchInstitute (IRRI)

weed scientistDavid Johnson,

who visited theSidr-affected

area in December2007, pointsout that anothercritical issue wasthe stage of plant

growth whenthe oods hit,

which happenedto be around theowering period.

The effects onthe rice cropappeared to bequite different,

depending onwhether it wasat, before, orafter owering,

which lasts about

a week. Farmersrecovered atleast some rice ifthe crop was hit

before or afterowering. If theoods and windshit a oweringcrop, though, the

plants becamecompletelysterile and

iRRis ZainuL aBeDin lk b sdrm w Mmm Kdj Bm(fr rght) rm Mlbd Vll r Bld.

the cycLone DestRoyeD rdr r Bld.i m , lm mk r w drwd w mbkm lld.

a giRL FRoM Mlbd Vll, w w rd b sdr.

nuMBeR oF peopLe d b cl sdr.t ld l d lvk klld rjrd, d dmd r drd m,bld, rd, d r.

Source: Disaster Management Information Centre, Disaster Management Bureau,

Bangladesh Ministry of Food and Disaster Management


12/25


eater frequency because of climate

angeInstitute scientists Dr.mail, Dr. Johnson, Zainul Abedin,

d M.A. Hamid Miah traveledsouthern Bangladesh on 14-16

ecember 2007. They were joined bypresentatives from the Bangladesh

ce Research Institute (BRRI),e Department of Agricultural

xtension, and two nongovernmentalganizationsAction Aid and

PEED Trustworking on the

RRI-coordinated Food Securityr Sustainable Householdvelihoods (FoSHoL) project.

All groups, along with several

others, including BRAC, are helping

affected families get back on theirfeet. It is an enormous task. BRRI and

BRAC both jumped in immediatelyto distribute seeds, but getting holdof enough was proving difcult, witharound 20,000 tons required to meet

the expected shortfall. Abu Saleque,principal scientic ofcer andhead of the BRRI Research Stationin Barisal District just north ofPatuakhali, says that, to cover losses

due to Sidr, BRRI is helping farmersto grow transplanted aus rice.

BRRI is supplying boro seeds tofarmers and is also encouraging more

farmers to growboro rice, explains

Dr. Saleque. In Barisal District,only 40% of the rice area (107,000

hectares) is planted to boro rice.One major constraint, says

Dr. Saleque, is that farmersmust be organized. For example,

water allocation is a problem,as is the practice of allowinglivestock to graze on aman cropresiduefarmers would need tocoordinate to ensure that animals

dont eat newly planted boro rice.If the coming rice seasons are

to be successful, the bare minimumneeded by farmers is seeds, fertilizer,

and help with land preparation. If

draft animals werent killed in thecyclone, their feed was most likely

lost. As a result, many farmers haveeither lost or ceased to keep animals.

Although any rice crop hitdirectly by a full-force cyclone is sure

to be damaged, new varieties withsufcient tolerance of submergence,salinity, and oodingbut withhigher yields than currentlygrown local varietiesneed to be

developed, tested, and out-scaledin southern Bangladesh and othercyclone-prone areas. Subsequentincreased production, combined with

storage facilities that can withstand

ooding, can buffer Bangladeshifarmers against future catastrophe.

For this kind of disaster, itsvery difcult to design varietiesthat can withstand this kind ofdevastationeven human beings are

not able to do that, says Dr. Ismail.But you can develop certain traitsthat can mitigate the effects. We canalso see what varieties are availablethat can be used immediately after

the ood, because we expect tosee residual salinity, high iron,and other changes in surface soildue to debris brought by seaw ater.

Tolerant varieties will at leas

a good start to the next seasoAccording to Dr. Johnso

important role in IRRIs reseis to reduce the vulnerabilityrice production systems and,through that, the vulnerabili

of peoples livelihoods.We saw a gradient from

areas that were seriously affeto areas that were less so, hesays. One hope is, if improv

materials are available with gtolerance of some of the strescaused by an event like this, proportion of the area that isseriously affected will be sma

Dr. Hossain points out, hthat the Sidr aftermath alsooffers an opportunity to implivelihoods in the long run. A

of crisis, thats the time to sunew ideas to far mers, he say

During the IRRI scientisin December 2007, discussiopredominantly about action

distribution, next seasons crpreparation, research to devtechnologies to minimize losafter the next cyclone, and so

Importantly, says Dr. Abedinare not the types of action thcreate dependence: they are to not only get people back ofeet, but also keep them ther

Cash relief, he says, issomething people will use todthey need something for tom

Ri ab slq.

iRRi Dvd J dabdlb iml (rght) l-dmdr ild Vll.

caL ResiDentsrd rm r rddsdr rd lw lm r

r Bld.

one Month r l, rrr wr wll dr w.

eVen at the BRRi Rrs Brl100klmr ld rmr bmrd r r d mr.

Rice exposeD sdr wd dfd w vl dmd, lk ml bl rmr(lft) rm ild Vll.

soMe things v l llb l rk r lr rvr br wr wd drd mr ld b l rm r.


13/25

Unloading rice at Manila Harbor: for the Philippinesthe world's largest rice importerhigh prices spell clouds on tTodayApril-June 2008, Vol. 7, No. 2


14/25

Rice TodayAl-Ju 2008 Rice TodayAl-Ju 2008

In 1998, the farming communityof Canarem, 120 kilometers

north of Manila in the Philippineprovince of Tarlac, had reasonto celebrate. The Philippine

ational Irrigation Administration

NIA) funded the construction ofdeep-well pump, designated P-8, that would allow the farmers torigate their rice elds. Previouslypendent on rain or shallow

bewell pumps, which often run dry,38 promised to help Canaremsveral dozen farmers produce

higher-yielding, more reliable crops.Sure enough, P-38 did improve

things. Farmers had access tomore water and started growing anadditional dry-season rice crop each

year. But the celebration was muted.

NIA paid in advance for the dieselthat fueled the pump, with farmersrepaying with a portion of theirharvest at the end of the season. Witha steady source of irrigation water

and no need to pay up-front fuelcosts, farmers adopted a too muchis better than not enough policy.

As new members joined thecooperative, enticed by P-38s

promise, each farmers wait betweenirrigationswhich should have been7 daysgrew to almost 2 weeks. Inthe dry season, the interval became

so long that elds dried out andthe soil began to crack. Some of theincreasingly anxious farmers wouldsneak out at night and divert waterinto their own elds by placing holes

underneath their paddy dikes. Othersturned to alcohol. Village ofcials

were called in to resolve conicts.

For 3 years after the constructionof P-38, tensions and distrust grew

among the families of Canarem.Then, in 2002, two events

conspired to turn things around.First, with the rising cost of fuel,

NIA announced it would no longerpay for diesel, which had morethan quadrupled in price sinceP-38 began operating. Second,a team of researchers arrived,

hoping to introduce a water-savingtechnology known as alternate

wetting and drying, or AWD (also

called controlled irrigation).Scientists at the International

Rice Research Institute (IRRI)and the Philippine Rice ResearchInstitute (PhilRice) had established

that rice need not be continuouslyooded. It can be ooded to a lesserextent than usual (to a depth of

35 centimeters instead of up to10 centimeters), allowed to dry

to a degree, then re-ooded, withthis cycle repeated throughout theseason if the soil remains oodedthroughout the all-important

owering period. Up to a quarterless water is needed and there is nodrop in yield. Importantly, farmersdont need to make any other majorchanges to the way they manage

their crop (see also The benets ofa hole in the ground, on page 29).

The practice, conrmed inexperimental elds, needed to beextended to real farms. So, IRRI

and PhilRice initially teamed upwith NIA staff to introduce AWDto farmers. Canarem seemed the

ideal place to start but, accorto Vic Vicmudo, manager of NTarlac Groundwater IrrigatioSystems Reactivation Projecthis was easier said than don

For centuries, farming iPhilippines has been based oidea that, the more water, the

the yield, says Dr. Vicmudo.not easy to reverse that belief

But the plain fact is that,areas, rice far mers simply dohave enough water. Bas Boum

water scientist and head of IR

Crop and Environmental SciDivision, says that it was thisunderstanding that drove nothe initial collaboration but aparticipation of other organi

such as state colleges and unIt started in 2000 with

and PhilRice on a very smallrecalls Dr. Bouman. Step bymore and more partners cam

boardnow, we can barely cothe number of partners involMany of these attended a trasqueezeThe bigStory by Adam Barclay,photos byRaymond Jose Panaligan

s well as improving armers incomes and productivity, water-

aving technologies can also help to ease social tensionsbut

ot without local experts who champion the cause

The main canal rPt Rrvrrrt r 90,000tr t Pppctr l r.

iRRis Ruben lamPayan pt t r, wf t ctr l, wrwtr-v t p rr rwr- rp.

sTanding in RonT t P-38 p-w pp r(left to right) R g, dr at, m apprt, trrr, rtr,rptv, t P-38 irrt srv cprtv.


15/25


urse we ran in 2004, and took

from there on their own.Dr. Bouman says the urgency

ems from farmers lack of choice.

We often get asked, How can younvince farmers to save water? My

andard reply is that we dont needconvince them to save what theynt have. These technologies areally about helping farmers who

e unable to keep elds oodedget the best out of the limited

ater they have, he explains.Jump forward to the present, and

anarem is a different place, says

anuel Apolonio, secretary of the38 Irrigation Service Cooperatived owner of a 2-hectare farm.

There used to be so manynicts between cooperative

embers and managers, Mr.polonio recalls. Now, the farmersow how to manage water. Before,the soil started to crack, people

thought the crops would die. Now,they know that small cracks are OK.

In a way, farmers werepracticing AWD before it was

formally introduced. But it was anuncontrolled AWD, forced ontofarmers by insufcient and poorlymanaged irrigation. With theknowledge of how to use water more

efciently, the yields obtained byCanarems farmers using AWD, at56 tons per hectare, are the sameas when they tried to maintain

continuously ooded elds.Ramon Ganiban, P-38

cooperative president and ownerof a 4-hectare farm, says that

when the researchers and NIA

staff introduced them to AWD,many of the cooperatives 61farmers were skeptical. Now, the

cooperatives success has inspiredneighboring communities.

Ironically, having farmers payfor their own fuel was a key to thetechnologys success, as it provideda nancial incentive to use less

water. Before they learned aboutAWD, farmers ran the pump for1012 hours to irrigate a singlehectare. That has been reduced bymore than half, to 45 hours.

AWD rice crops also require lesslabor and are 2025% cheaper tomanage than continuously oodedcrops, meaning higher prot forfarmers. In fact, under AWD, some

Canarem farmers have gone frombarely breaking even from ricefarming to making a modest income.

Theres really been a big change

in the farmers mind-set and culture,says Mr. Ganiban. Now, people

know that, if theyre short of moneyfor fuel, they can just ash-oodthe crop and it will be OK. We dont

need to prove AWD anymore: wevedone it for 6 years and we know it

works. AWD has really strengthenedthe cooperative. There are no moreconicts and farmers understandeach others needs much bet ter.

Armilito Lactaoen, one ofNIAs senior technical staff, works

with farmers in the nearby GP-125Irrigation Service Cooperative.He cautions that, although AWD

can solve the problem of greed inirrigating, it needs good peoplemanagement. Some cooperativeshave failed to adopt AWD, hesays, because of human resource

problems, such as a lack of strongco-op leadership or managementproblems within the co-op.

NIA is working with farmer

groups at 72 irrigation systems acrossTarlac. Around 20% of the farmershave adopted controlled AWD (asopposed to uncontrolled AWD, whichhas been forced onto Tarlacs farmers

through a lack of water), but somesystems have seen 100% adoption.Dissemination is now the mainchallenge. Dr. Vicmudo is optimistic,

pointing out that, once farmersare convinced, they themselves

become key disseminators.NIA, PhilRice, and IRRI have

held several harvest festivals,

he says. Yields from farmsusing traditional irrigation and

AWD were directly compared,

so farmers could see that theresnothing hocus-pocus, no magic.

Just north of Tarlac in NuevaEcija Province, IRRI, PhilRice,and NIA are working with farmer

groups that get their irrigation waterfrom subcanals running off the

main canal of the Upper PampangaRiver Integrated Irrigation System(UPRIIS). Fed by PantabanganReservoir in the foothills of northern

Nueva Ecija, UPRIIS irrigates anarea of around 90,000 hectares inCentral Luzon, the region north ofManila (the area will soon undergo a35,000-hectare expansion), and is the

countrys largest irrigation system.One of the biggest challenges of

managing UPRIIS is ensuring thatthe farms farthest from the reservoirand the main canal receive their

share of water, especially given thatthose closest to the source tend touse more than they need. EvangelineSibayan, agricultural engineering

division head at PhilRice, likens theproblem to 50 people sharing a 10-liter bottle of water. The people whodrink rst need to take into accountthose who will drink later, she says.

Ms. Sibayan says that ndingfarmers to try AWD in 2007

was extremely difcult. It took ademonstration trial at PhilRice

and, ultimately, a promise tocompensate farmers for any yieldloss compared with 2006 productionto convince a farmer group serviced

by a subcanal named Lateral F.

The result? Perhaps the bestevidence is the fact that PhilRice

barely paid out any compensation.

To help armers move to alternaand drying, IRRI devised a simcheck when a crop needs water. Aholes drilled into it is pushed parthe rice-feld soil. Farmers can thethe water level, irrigating when a certain distanceusually acentimetersbelow the surace.above that level, the plants rootsthe water and the crop will betool is simple enough or armersconstruct it rom cheap local matas PVC or bamboo. Ater one or twarmers no longer need the tubable to judge when to irrigate looking at the crop. I a new trelies on complex, difcult-toexpensive methods, it is bounSimple, adaptable toolslike a hgroundare crucial.

T ft l t ru

Not only were yields as high asthey had been under continuous

ooding, but 2007 was also therst year for many during whichdownstream farmersthose

farthest from Lateral Fdidntcomplain about a lack of water.

The Malaya IrrigatorsAssociation (MIA), a group of 264farmers covering 265 hectares inthe municipality of Santo Domingo,

also adopted AWD in 2007. Thefarmers here also agree that thepractice has reduced tensionsand improved social ha rmony.

With AWD, theres better

unity among MIA members,says MIA President VictorinoErese. Before, people lookedout only for themselves.

Prior to AWDs introduction,

60% of MIA farmers grew dry-seasonrice. Despite initial doubts, thatgure has increased to 80% afteronly one year. An unanticipated

bonus is that lenders now have morecondence in the MIA membersability to repay loans and thusare happier to offer credit.

One major difference between

implementing AWD in an areaserviced by a gravity-fed irrigationsystem like UPRIIS versus a deep-

well system like P-38 is direct

economic incentive. In Canarem,where farmers pay for their own fuel,the less water they use, the highertheir income. In Santo Domingo,farmers pay a at fee, regardless

of how much water they use. So, ifyoure an upstream farmer with goodaccess to water, why conserve it?

Ms. Sibayan argues thatfarmers recognize and value social benets. If downstreafarmers didnt get water, she

danilo esTeban, v prt tirrtr at, k t wtaWd r f.

nia art lt. Vic Vicmudo,r niaTr grwtrirrt stRtvtPrjt.

malaya iRRigaToRs atPrt Vtr er.

hildRen Play ttt p- pp P-38.


16/25


ys, at night they would walkpstream, armed with their bolos

aditional Philippine knives],d reposition the ow.

In this light, Ms. Sibayanscribes AWD as a peace-making

chnology. And, as well as fostering

maraderie among farmers, AWDallowing downstream farmers to

ow two rice crops per year and thusmprove their income. Previously,

any downstream farmers couldow rice only in the wet season.

We need to make AWD part ofe farmers culture, says Jovinoe Dios, supervising sciencesearch specialist at PhilRice.

Mr. De Dios is condent that,

th wise water management, thetire UPRIIS can be successfully

rigated, but he stresses the need toucate the farmers in the UPRIISpansion area before the system

comes operational. If they farm

without water-saving knowledge,without good technology, farmerstend to irrigate wa stefully, he says.

PhilRice and NIA aim to

convert the 50,000 or so ricefarmers in the UPRIIS area to AWD

by 2010. There are also plans tospread the technology through theneighboring Magat River Integrated

Irrigation System service area. Itsan ambitious goal, but, if it can beachieved, a quarter of the entirePhilippine irrigated rice system will

be under AWD. Then, says Ms.Sibayan, hopefully, it will trickledown to smaller systems too.

Ruben Lampayan, IRRIpostdoctoral fellow and leader of the

IRRC Water-Saving Work Group,has been involved with the researchand dissemination of AWD for the

past 7 years. He says that AWD hasenormous potential not only in the

Philippines but also across Asia.In many Asian countries,

we see the same problems, samemind-set, same challenges,

explains Dr. Lampayan. Peopleare aware of the problems but theyare astonished when told of theirtrue extent. If we are successful,UPRIIS can be a model that can

be replicated throughout Asia.To help AWDs impact reach its

full potential, IRRI anthropologistsFlor Palis and Rica Flor are lookingat how and why (or why not) AWD

is being adopted. Dr. Palis says

that adoption of new technologiesis almost always a challenge. Weneed to understand what enablesadoption, she says. What are the

social and cultural factors as well aseconomic factors, and what allowsfaster diffusion of the technology?

The point is, even if a technologyworks in experimental trials, it still

may not succeed. For example, thereare areas where AWD has failed

because of free ridersfarmerswho managed to obtain the water

without paying their share of thecost. In this case, strong leadershipfrom cooperative managers is thekey to success. The decision by theP-38 leaders to make farmers pay

for their own fuel not only providedincentive to use less water but alsoeliminated the free-rider problem.

What happens, though, if farmershave access to neither gravity-fed

nor pump irrigation? Such is thecase in many areas of BulacanProvince, immediately north ofManila. At Bulacan Agricultural

State College (BASC), researchersbelieve the answer is aerobic ricegrowing rice in unooded elds,much like wheat or maize, insteadof transplanting seedlings into a

ooded eld (for more on aerobicrice, seeHigh and dry on pages28-33 ofRice Today Vol. 6, No. 4).

Junel Soriano, director for

research, extension, training, andproduction at BASC, has led thecolleges aerobic rice project since it

began in 2004. He says that farminglife can be extremely difcult in an

area such as Bulacan, where farmersare almost entirely reliant on rain.

The benet of aerobic rice, says

Dr. Soriano, is that you can establishwet-season rice in early May, up toone-and-a-half months earlierandtherefore harvest earlierthan

transplanted rice, which needs muchmore water before it can be planted.Then, following harvest in Augustor September, theres still enoughrainfall to establish another crop.

Dr. Soriano says the ultimategoal of the project is to increasecropping intensity. Without aerobicrice, Bulacan farmers manage asingle rice crop per year. The project

results so far suggest that as manyas three-quarters of those farmers

who adopt aerobic rice, which needsirrigation only once a week or so, will

be able to plant a second rice crop.So far, farmers yields have

been around 4.5 tons per hectare,which is similar to what theyachieved with transplanted rice.

One constraint is seed availability,but two 1-million-peso (US$25,000)projects, funded by Japan throughthe Philippine National Economic

Development Authority and b

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