Rice Today Vol. 8, No. 1

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1Rice TodayJanuary-March 2009US$5.00ISSN 1655-5422

www.irri.org

International Rice Research Institute January-March 2009, Vol. 8, No. 1

RICEANDTH

FINAN

CIALCRISIS

Revisi t ing China

The geography of so i l

World Rice Com m erc e 2008

Ric e you dont eat : ar t , sock s, and shampoo

How much

water does

rice need?


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Rice TodayJanuary-March 2009


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contentsVol. 8, No. 1

International Rice Research InstituteDApo Bx 7777, Metr Mania, phiiinesWeb (IRRI): www.irri.rg; www.irri.rg/ricetdayWeb (library): htt://riceib.irri.cgiar.rgWeb (Rice Knwedge Bank): www.knwedgebank.irri.rg

Rice Todayeditriateehne: (+63-2) 580-5600 r (+63-2) 844-3351 t 53, ext 2725;fax: (+63-2) 580-5699 r (+63-2) 845-0606; emai: [email protected]

cver htAriel Javellana

ubisher Duncan MacintosheditrAdam Barclayart directr Juan Lazaro IVdesigner and rductin suervisr Grant Lecetacntributrs Gene Hettel, Meg Mondoedo, Bill Hardy

Africa editr Savitri Mohapatra (Africa Rice Center WARDA)ht editr Chris Quintanaht researcher William Sta. Claracircuatin Lourdes Columbresrinter Print Town Group

Rice Today is ubished by the Internatina Rice Research Institute (IRRI),the wrds eading internatina rice research and training center. Based in thePhilippines and with offices in 13 other countries, IRRI is an autonomous, nonprofitinstitutin fcused n imrving the we-being f resent and future generatins frice farmers and cnsumers, articuary thse with w incmes, whie reservingnatura resurces. IRRI was estabished in 1960 by the Frd and RckefeerFundatins with the he and arva f the Gvernment f the phiiines.Today, IRRI is one of the 15 nonprofit international research centers supported, inart, by members f the Cnsutative Gru n Internatina Agricutura Research

(CGIAR www.cgiar.rg) and a range f ther funding agencies.Resnsibiity fr this ubicatin rests with IRRI. Designatins used in this

ubicatin shud nt be cnstrued as exressing IRRI icy r inin n the egastatus f any cuntry, territry, city, r area, r its authrities, r the deimitatinf its frntiers r bundaries.

Rice Today wecmes cmments and suggestins frm readers. ptentiacntributrs are encuraged t query first, rather than submit unsicitedmaterias.Rice Todayassumes n resnsibiity fr ss f r damage t unsicitedsubmissions, which should be accompanied by sufficient return postage.

Copyright International Rice Research Institute 2009

This magazine is copyrighted by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and islicensed or use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0License (Unported). Unless otherwise noted, users are ree to copy, duplicate, or reproduce,and distribute, display, or transmit any o the articles or portions o the articles, and to maketranslations, adaptations, or other derivative works under the ollowing conditions:

Attribution:The work must be attributed, but not in any way that suggests endorsementby IRRI or the author(s).

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EDITORI AL ................................................................ 4Hidden treasure

NEWS ......................................................................... 5Southeast Asian nations endorse Rice Action Plan

Vietnam to host International Rice Congress

A global voice or the global grain

Pest outbreaks in India

Waterproo rice set to make waves in South Asia

NEW BOOKS .............................................................. 8Rural poverty and income dynamics in Asia and Arica

TRAINI NG COURSES AT IRRI ................................... 8

PEOPLE ...................................................................... 9Awards and recognition

Keeping up with IRRI staff

Obituary

SPECIA L REPORT .................................................... 11World Rice Commerce 2008: price volatility set to

continue

MAKING SCIENCE WORK .......................................13A communication campaign designed to link rice

production with relevant science promises tohelp Arican armers and processors boost theirproductivity

SOWING THE SEEDS OF ART ................................. 14When is a paddy not a paddy? When its a canvas, o

course. In Japans Aomori Preecture, rice is ar morethan mere ood.

RICE ON THE CUTTING EDGE ................................ 18Sometimes the best inventions are accidental. In

northeastern Thailand, armers are adopting aweed-control method frst taught to them by theiranimals.

THE IRRI PIONEER INTERVIEWS ........................... 20Dedicated scientistsa childs inspiration

SNAPSHOT .............................................................. 22From arm to market

RICE IN THE DRAGONS SHADOW ........................ 24The political turmoil o the 1970s ormed the backdrop

to the frst visits o International Rice ResearchInstitute staff to China. Agricultural economistRandy Barker, one o the team o scientists whoventured to the worlds largest rice producer,recounts the experience.

HOW MUCH WATER DOES RICE USE? ................... 28Rice Todayexamines this oten-asked (and oten poorly

answered) question

MAPS ....................................................................... 30Soil quality in rained lowland rice

LOVE AT FIRST SITE ................................................ 32One Filipino armers experience with a better way o

managing his crops ertilizer needs could inspirechange across the nations rice felds

MORE THAN MEETS YOUR RICE ............................ 35Rice Todayventures to Japan to fnd an astonishing

range o rice products, most o which you wouldntwant to eat

SEAL OF APPROVAL ............................................... 36Hermetic storage o rice is becoming increasingly

popular across Asia, and or good reasonaswell as being transportable, it is better than air-conditioned storage and almost as good as a coldroom, at a raction o the cost o either

BUY A HOUSE ON A HILL ....................................... 38

As Earths climate changes, so does the way weapproach agriculture. The head o the InternationalRice Research Institutes applied photosynthesislaboratory offers his observations on the currentstate o play.

RICE FACTS .............................................................. 40Rice and the global fnancial crisis

What are the short- and long-term impacts on riceproduction and ood security?

Investing in the utureHow will uture investment in agriculture affect riceprices?

GRAIN OF TRUTH ................................................... 42

Food security and ertilizer

On the cover:Terraces and channels

intertwine to eedwater to rice in paddies

in Vietnam.


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NEWS http://ricenews.irri.rg

5Rice TodayJanuary-March 2009

Export prices for rice

Source: FAO Rice Price Update December 2008

1,100

1,000

600

500

400

300

US$/ton

US 2/4%

Thai 100%B

Viet 5%

Pak Irri-25%

Thai A1 Super

No

v-07

Jan-08

Ma

r-08

Ma

y-08

Ju

l-08

Se

p-08

No

v-08

0

700

800

900

Southeast Asian nations endorse Rice Action P lan

The worlds biggest rice-exportingand -importing nations haveendorsed a new Rice Action Plantargeting many of the problems thattriggered 2008s rice price crisis.

At a meeting of the ten-nationAssociation of Southeast AsianNations (ASEAN) in Hanoi, Vietnam,in November, ministers of agricultureunanimously endorsed a seven-point action plan presented by theInternational Rice Research Institute(IRRI). ASEAN includes the worldstwo largest rice exporters, Thailandand Vietnam, and several importingnations, including the Philippines,the worlds largest importer.

The endorsement, announced

at the 30th annual meeting of theASEAN Ministers of Agricultureand Forestry, it was presentedas part of a comprehensive foodsecurity strategy being developedfor the region, home to morethan 500 million rice consumers,including some of Asias poorest.

The message is very clear, IRRIDirector General Robert Zeigler said.We have the scientic expertise,knowledge, and partnerships to growthe rice Asia needs, and nowwiththis endorsement by these nations

we have strong political support. Theonly things missing are the nancialresources needed to implement this.

Dr. Zeigler told the ministersthat IRRI needs an additional US$15million a year for the next 10 yearsto adequately support the ASEANRice Action Plan. At a time of

trillion-dollar bailouts for the globalnancial sector, $15 million a year is

barely the annual bonus of a formerWall Street executive, he said.

The Rice Action Plan wasdeveloped by IRRI earlier this

year during the rice price crisisin consultation with its partnersaround the region. It includesthe following measures:1. Bring about an agronomic revo-

lution to reduce existing yield gaps2. Accelerate the delivery of

new postharvest technologiesto reduce losses

3. Accelerate the introduction andadoption of higher-yielding rice

varieties

4. Strengthen and upgradebreeding pipelines for developingnew varieties and hybrids

5. Accelerate research on theworlds thousands of ricevarieties so scientists can usethe vast reservoir of untappedgenetic resources they contain

6. Develop a new generation of ricescientists and researchers forthe public and private sectors

7. Provide rice policy support.Although in the last quarter of

2008 rice prices continued to slidefrom earlier spikes, prices remained

well above those of less than 2 yearsago. Recent estimates by the Foodand Agriculture Organization ofthe United Nations show the 2008food crisis has reversed a decliningtrend in the global proportionof undernourished people. The

percentage has risen from a recordlow of 16% in 2003-05 to about 17%.

There are also concerns that theglobal nancial crisis could increasedemand for rice and put furtherpressure on production as farmersstruggle to access credit for inputssuch as fertilizer and people increaseconsumption of staples in preferenceto higher-priced, more nutritiousfoods such as meats and vegetables.

For more on the impacts of thenancial crisis on rice productionand food security, see Rice and theglobal financial crisis on page 40. Formore information on the Rice ActionPlan, including detailed budgets,please visit http://solutions.irri.org.


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Vietnam will host the 3rdInternational Rice Congress(IRC2010) in Hanoi in 2010. The

worlds largest gathering focused onrice, the event will also mark the 50thanniversary of the International RiceResearch Institute (IRRI).

The decision was announcedin a joint statement by MinisterCao Due Phat of VietnamsMinistry of Agriculture andRural Development (MARD) andIRRI Director General RobertZeigler in Hanoi on 24 October.

The IRC2010 themeTheFuture of Ricewill aim to increasepublic and private support to help

Pest outbreaks in India

Brown planthopper (BPH)outbreaks were observed inseveral rice-growing areas innorthern India in 2008, causingsignicant damage, especially tohigh-value Basmati rice. The y-like brown insect pierces the softtissue of plants to extract sap,damaging the plant and making itsusceptible to viral infestation.

According to Zubair Ahmad fromthe Department of Zoology of AligarhMuslim University in Uttar PradeshState, recent abnormal weatherpatterns may have contributedto the unusual outbreaks of BPH,along with insecticide misuse.

Indiscriminate use of pesticideshas disrupted the action of naturallyoccurring biological control agents,said Dr. Ahmad. The pesticideskill off the natural enemies of

BPH, allowing subsequent cohortsof BPH a predator-free period in

which to develop. Because theirpopulations develop more quicklythan the predators, outbreaksoccur, causing devastating losses.

Also in late 2008, more than33,000 hectares of rice elds in theMekong Delta region were infested

with BPH. Severe BPH outbreakshave caused problems in severalcountries in recent years, including

major producers China and Vietnam.

The theme or this 2-day event is How is the regional business evolving amid volatilesupplies & changing climate?

Key issues to be covered will include global grains market outlook & where it is heading;can the biouels mandate roll back with rising ood prices?; agriculture policy &investment outlook; will the center o commodity exchange shit to Asia?; commodityprice risk management; reight markets & impact on grains movement.

The contact person is Hafzah Adam ([email protected]; +65 63469218)

For more inormation: www.cmtevents.com/aboutevent.aspx?ev=090206&.

Vietnam to host International R ice Congress

The voice of ricethe grainthat feeds half the worldhasbecome even stronger with thenew partnership between IRRIand The Rice Trader, Inc. (TRT),publisher of the worlds premierpublication on rice trade issues.

For 7 years, Rice Todayhaskept the world informed aboutdevelopments in rice researchto help millions of poor farmersimprove their rice production andpull themselves out of poverty.For 18 years, TRT has brought itssubscribers crucial informationon world rice trading through itspublication The Rice Trader, a

weekly summary of market anddata analysis. Now, at a time whenrice issues are capturing majorglobal attention more, the two

poor rice farmers and consumers.Dr. Zeigler said he was very

pleased that IRC2010 would be heldin Hanoi considering Vietnamssuccess with rice production overthe past 2 decades. Vietnamsrice industry is outstanding andMARDs commitment to researchand the best science is an examplefor others to follow, he said.

IRC2010 will incorporatethe 28th International RiceResearch Conference, 3rd WorldRice Commerce Conference, 3rdInternational Rice Technologyand Cultural Expo, and the 50thanniversary celebration of IRRI.

A global voice for the global grain

organizations are joining forces.Jeremy Zwinger, president of

TRT, and Achim Dobermann, IRRIdeputy director general for research,announced the new partnershipat a signing ceremony at WorldRice Commerce 2008 in ChiangMai, Thailand, 20-22 October.

The Rice Trader Inc. will publishRice Today, adding new content andresources that will showcase the

vital partnership between researchand trade. IRRIs continued rolein Rice Today, blended with TRTscommercial focus, will take a world-class publication to new heights.

The rst issue ofRice Todayto bepublished under the new arrangement

will be Vol. 8, No. 2, AprilJune2009. Existing subscribers willcontinue to receive the magazine.

IRRI


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Waterproof rice set to make waves in South Asia

Indnesia rject aunched

Improving rice productivity in Southand Southeast Sulawesi, an IRRI-led project funded by the AustralianCentre for International Agricultural

Research, was launched with astakeholder meeting and planning

workshop in Maros, South Sulawesi, on16-17 October. The project aims to boostrice production in the two provincesand contribute to the national plan toincrease Indonesias rice production

by 5% per year from 2007 to 2010.The initiative will help increaseproduction through optimization of riceproductivity, the use of high-qualityrice seeds, as well as training for and

advice from extension workers, who

are responsible for disseminatingtechnologies and information tofarmers.

Rice-for-oil deal a first

In a rst for global trade, Thailandindicated in October that it planned to

barter rice for oil with Iran. The Foodand Agriculture Organization of theUnited Nations said such government-to-government deals were likely toincrease in number as lack of creditfor trade becomes a factor. Thailandis the worlds largest rice exporter,controlling a third of the globalmarket, while Iran is one of the top 10importers. In 2007, Iran bought some

600,000 tons of rice from Thailand.

Waterproof versions of popularvarieties of rice, whichcan withstand 2 weeks' completesubmergence, have passed tests infarmers elds with ying colors.Several varieties are now close torelease by national and state seedcertication agencies in Bangladeshand India, where farmers suffer majorcrop losses because of ooding of upto 4 million tons of rice per yearenough to feed 30 million people.

The ood-tolerant varietiesare effectively identical to theirsusceptible counterparts, but recoverafter severe ooding to yield well.

A 1-9 November tour of researchstations and farms in Bangladesh

and India led by David Mackill,senior rice breeder at IRRI, markedthe successful completion of aproject,From genes to farmers

fields: enhancing and stabilizingproductivity of rice in submergence-prone environments, funded for thepast 5 years by Germanys FederalMinistry for Economic Cooperationand Development (BMZ).

The new varieties were madepossible following the identicationof a gene responsible for most ofthe tolerance. Pamela Ronald, aUniversity of California (UC) at Davis

professor, worked with Kenong Xuto isolate the gene, dubbedSub1A.

Julia Bailey-Serres, a geneticistfrom UC Riverside investigating how

Sub1A confers ood tolerance, saidthat the gene effectively makes theplant dormant during submergence,allowing it to conserve energyuntil the oodwaters recede.

On 5 December, Drs. Mackill,Bailey-Serres, and Ronald werehonored for their work by the U.S.

Department of Agriculture with itsprestigious 2008 National ResearchInitiative Discovery Award.

Several national organizations,including the Bangladesh RiceResearch Institute and IndiasCentral Rice Research Instituteand Narendra Dev University of

Agriculture and Technology havecollaborated closely on the project.

The potential for impact is huge,said Dr. Mackill. In Bangladesh,for example, 20% of the rice land isood prone and the country typicallysuffers several major oods each year.Submergence-tolerant varieties couldmake major inroads into Bangladeshsannual rice shortfall and substantially

reduce its import needs.Because theSub1 varieties

were developed through precisionbreedingknown as marker-assistedselectionthey are not geneticallymodied organisms and are notsubject to the regulatory testing thatcan delay release for several years.

OnceSub1 varieties are released,the key will be dissemination tosmallholder farmers in ood-prone areas. IRRI is leading thisinitiative through grants from theBill & Melinda Gates Foundation andJapans Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Brunei rice exansin

The Brunei Department of Agriculturehas identied 3,000 hectares of low-lying land with good potential to bedeveloped into large-scale rice elds.

The country aims to increase local riceproduction to 20% of national require-ments by 2010 and 60% by 2015.

As well as expanding rice area, theDepartment plans to improve infra-structure and promote the adoptionof high-yielding rice varieties. Annualper-capita rice consumption in Bruneiis estimated at around 80 kg perperson. In 2007, national production

was just under 1,000 tons, or around3% of requirements. Imports cost the

country around US$34 million.

BANGLADESHi FARMER Mostafa Kamal (right)and Bangladesh Rce Research instttescentst Dr. M.A. Mazd n Mr. Kamals field offlood-tolerant rce.

ADAMB

ARCLAY


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8 Rice TodayJanuary-March 2009

Basic experimental design and data analysis

using CropStat

IRRI Training Center, Los Baos, Philippines, 2-6 February 2009

The course acquaints researchers with principles of experimentaldesign (particularly for rice research), analysis of variance, andregression and correlation analysis. It also introduces CropStat, acomputer-based statistical package for experimental data analysis.For more details, contact Dr. Thomas Metz ([email protected]) or Dr.Noel Magor ([email protected]).

Leadership Course for Asian Women

in Agriculture R&D and Extension

IRRI Training Center, Los Baos, Philippines, 2-13 March 2009

Topics include Asian women in the workplace; mainstreaming genderconcerns in the workplace; leadership and management; personalitydevelopment; developing work-related knowledge and skills; andrelating to others.For more details, contact Dr. Thelma Paris ([email protected]) or Dr.Noel Magor ([email protected]).

Ecological management of rodents, weeds,

& rice diseasesbiological & social dimensions

IRRI Training Center, Los Baos, Philippines, 16-27 March 2009

The themes for the course are ecologically-based pest managementwith an emphasis on rodents and weeds; applying social scienceknowledge in decision analysis of pest and disease problems; farmerparticipatory research. Presenters at the course include EmeritusProfessor Charles Krebs, Dr. Grant Singleton, Dr. David Johnson, Dr.Serge Savary, Dr. Flor Palis, and Dr. K.L. Heong.For more details, contact Dr. Grant Singleton ([email protected]).

Rice: research to production

IRRI Training Center, Los Baos, Philippines, 18 May-5 June 2009

The course aims to create a new generation of plant scientists thatunderstand the importance of innovative plant science in addressingglobal problems. Topics include an understanding of the basicsof rice production in Asia; germplasm exchange and intellectualproperty; the research issues of IRRI and its developing partners;hands-on skills for rice breeding, molecular genetics, and genomics;structuring effective international collaboration; and workingeffectively as part of the international research community.For more details, contact Dr. Hei Leung ([email protected]) or Dr. NoelMagor ([email protected]).

2009 Global Rice Science ScholarshipsQualified students from developing countries about to conduct theirPhD research are invited to apply for Global Rice Science Scholarships

at IRRI. The 3-year scholarships are for PhD thesis-only research. One scholarship supported by Pioneer Overseas Corporat ion for

applicants from India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, or thePhilippines. This scholarship will emphasize rice breeding coupledwith entomology, physiology, or biotechnology.

Three scholarships for applicants from India, Bangladesh, Nepal,or Pakistan, to conduct research as part of the Cereal SystemsInitiative for South Asia. Priority given to students whoseresearch focuses on rice breeding, soil and water management,systems agronomy and modeling, and/or plant pathology withemphasis on host plant resistance and leaf pathology.

Applications close 8 Febrary 00For more information, please contact [email protected] or visitwww.irri.training.org.

TRAINING COURSES AT IRRI

To the Editor:

Thank you for 4 years ofRice Today. It has been a fantastic resource for

teaching undergraduate environmental health students. I have used

articles in case studies in areas ranging from environmental health

equity and the social determinants of health, resource allocation within

and between countries, and the transfer of science research to practice.

One particular article, Fear and loathing drive needless insecticide use(Rice TodayVol. 3, No. 2) gets a guernsey each year with my second-

year environmental chemistry students as I use it as the basis for one

of their assignments. And, of course, there are the great centerfolds.

Dr. Kirstin Ross

Lecturer, Environmental Health

Department of Environmental Health

School of Medicine

Flinders University

South Australia

Letter

Rural poverty and incomedynamics in Asia andAfrica

Edited by Keijiro Otsuka,Jonna Estudillo, and Yasuyuki

Sawada; published by

Routledge; 256 pages.

Although there is much

interest in poverty reduction,

there are few agreed-upon

strategies to eectively reduce

poverty. In this new book,

the editors have gathered

together evidence on poverty

dynamics, based on data from

the Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, and sub-Saharan

Africa. The major nding is that rural households in sub-Saharan

Africa are beginning to experience the same pattern of structural

change in income composition and poverty reduction that Asian

households have experienced over the past 25 years. The book

explores how the spread of the Green Revolution triggered the

subsequent transformation of rural economies, including poverty

reduction through the adoption of modern rice technology

and subsequent higher rates of education for childrenand

the gradual diversication of income sources away from farm to

nonfarm activities. The editors contend that the Asian experience

provides valuable lessons for sub-Saharan Africa. For ordering

information, visit http://tinyurl.com/6kh62s or Amazon.com.

NEW BooKSwww.irri.rg/publicatins


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Bui Chi Buu , director generalof the Institute of AgriculturalScience for Southern Vietnam,

received the Senadhira Rice ResearchAward for 2008 for his outstandingcontributions to the development ofpopular rice varieties in Vietnam. Dr.Buu (pictured below), who receivedthe award at IRRI headquarterson 3 December, has enjoyed adistinguished career in rice breeding,during which he has emphasizedgrain-quality improvement, salttolerance, and resistance to pests anddiseases such as blast fungus, bacterial

blight, and brown planthopper. Hisefforts have led to the certicationof many popular rice varieties

grown by farmers throughout theMekong Delta. The award is namedafter Dharmawansa Senadhira,one of IRRIs most successful rice

breeders, who died tragically in aroad accident in Bangladesh in 1998.

J.K. Ladh a , InternationalRice Research Institute (IRRI)

representative for India, and S.K.De Datta , former IRRI agronomist,have been named American

Association for the Advancement ofScience (AAAS) fellows. In 2008,486 members, who are due to behonored at the 2009 AAAS AnnualMeeting in Chicago in February, wereawarded because of their scienticallyor socially distinguished efforts toadvance science or its applications.Dr. Ladha received his award for

distinguished contributions to

pEoplE

international agriculture throughhis research, training, and extensionactivities in sustainable managementof natural resources for increasingfood security and environmentalquality. Dr. De Datta, now at

Virginia Polytechnic Institute andState University, was honoredfor distinguished contributionsto global food security, the greenrevolution, and environmentalstewardship in a global context.

Another Vietnamese researcher,Vo-Tong Xu an , became the rstrecipient of the Dioscoro L. Uma li

Achievement Award in AgriculturalDevelopment. Dr. Xuan, professor ofagronomy, former IRRI researcher,and former rector of An GiangUniversity, was recognized for his

signicant role in invigoratingthe rice industry in Vietnam andsharing his expertise in Africa.This regional award is aimed atpromoting agriculture by recognizingexemplary individuals who haveadvanced agricultural development inSoutheast Asia. The award is namedafter the late Dr. Umali, a NationalScientist of the Philippines, formerassistant director-general of the UNFood and Agriculture Organization,and former consultant to IRRI.

IRRI Senior Scientist T.P.Tuong (below rightwith Tai CheolKim, Professor, Chungnam NationalUniversity, Korea) received theInternational Society of Paddy and

Water Environment Engineering(PAWEES) Award 2008 for hisoutstanding work on natural resourcemanagement that has had impacton poor people and on protectingthe environment, especially inacid soils and coastal areas. Dr.

Tuong, who received the award at

the PAWEES 2008 InternationalConference on 27-29 October inTaiwan, was also recognized forhis innovative integrated strategiesfor increasing water-use efciencyand combating water scarcity,

which have inuenced the agendaof research programs globally.

Also in Taiwan, IRRI SeniorScientist Hei Leung (below right

with NCHU president Jei-Fu Shaw)was recognized as a Chair Professoron Molecular Breeding in theDepartment of Agronomy at NationalChung Hsing University, where hepresented a lecture in October.

The IRRI-led InternationalNetwork for G enetic Evaluationof Rice (INGER) was named the2008 winner of the ConsultativeGroup on International AgriculturalResearch (CGIAR) award forOutstanding Scientic SupportTeam. The award was presentedon 2 December at the CGIAR

Annual General Meeting in Maputo,Mozambique. A global partnershipof national and international centers,INGER facilitates the exchange andevaluation of elite rice breeding

materials worldwide. It is coordinatedglobally at IRRI by Edilberto Redoaand a team including ConnieToledo, Cel Laza , FrancoNazareno, Glenn Alejar, Virgilio

Ancheta, Jose Angeles, FeDanglay, Cenon Lan ao, NestorLeron ,Virgilio Magat , JoseMarasigan, Honorio Oboza ,Renato Pizon ,Allan Sa labsabin ,Ernesto Sumague , and Joseph

Vicente. The recognition comes

with a US$10,000 cash prize.

Aw ards and recognition

Bui Ch B

IASSV

pAweeS

NCHU


10/44

Keeping up with I RRI staff

IRRI Director General RobertZeigler has accepted a second5-year contract, beginning in 2010.IRRI Board of Trustees ChairElizabeth Woods said that theBoard members were impressedand pleased by the enthusiasmand talent that Bob Zeigler has

brought to IRRI, adding that, Wecan now be condent of strongleadership to take IRRI forwardinto what will be exciting times.

Kyu-Seong Lee, former IRRIresearcher seconded from KoreasRural Development Administration(RDA), has been appointed asthe director of the ReclaimedLand Agricultural Research

Division, Department of Rice andWinter Cereal Crops, NationalInstitute of Crop Science, RDA.

Susan a Poletti and RamaiahVenuprasad, postdoctoral fellowsin IRRIs Plant Breeding, Genetics,and Biotechnology Division,

departed the Institute in October.Dr. Poletti generated and analyzedtransgenic plants for bioforticationand gene expression measurement.Dr. Venuprasad worked on thedevelopment of drought-tolerantrice.Adam Barclay, managingeditor ofRice Today, science

writer and editor, and, from May2008, IRRI spokesperson andmedia relations manager, leftthe Institute in December.

Kay Sumfleth joined as avisiting research fellow working ongeographic information systemsto identify regional heat-stresshotspots and analyze climate changeimpacts in major rice-growingareas. Madonna Casimero joinedIRRIs Irrigated Rice Research

Consortium as a project scientistto work on farmer participatoryresearch and development, do

benchmarking, identify pathways forthe dissemination of rice productiontechnologies, and analyze the factorsinuencing adoption by farmers.

The Institute welcomed three newpostdoctoral fellows: Amelia Henryhas joined the project Stress-tolerantrice for poor farmers in South Asia;Suk-Man K im will map tungroresistance genes; and Dong-JinKang has joined the Crop andEnvironmental Sciences Division.

Obituary

Sukumar Mall ik , 52, ricebreeder at the Rice ExperimentStation in Chinsurah, West Bengal,India, died tragically of a heartattack on 17 November. Dr. Mallik,a close colleague and friend ofmany IRRI staff and winner of the2004 Senadhira Rice Research

Award, contributed enormouslyto the development of varieties for

ood-prone areas. He had recentlyplayed a leadership role in the seedmultiplication, evaluation, anddissemination ofSub1 varietiesin West Bengal and other Indianstates. He is survived by his wife,Supti, and 2-year-old son, Argha.

pEoplE


1. KASRA, KuROSH, Bta, Kara, and Karssa Avendao (left toright) find Rice Todaymch more compellng than Hong KongDsneyland.

. A GOLDEN GATE for a golden gran; Emmy Ballesfin wth RiceTodayn San Francsco, Calforna, uSA.

3. DiSNEY ON RiCE: Marna Bennght (left), Doreen Salon (center),and Kelse Aggen wth Rice Todayn Walt Dsney World nFlorda, uSA.

. NOT LOOKiNG for Condoleezza: Anna Dlc (left) and LaneOrslak wth Rice Todayat the unted States Captol.

5. GLORiA HARDY (left), Sofia Hardy (center), and Clara Ayerbewth Rice Todayn Cal, Colomba, drng a Colomban indepen-

dence Day (0 Jly) march.

LOUIeAVeNDAO

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11/44

Sustained price

volatility was theconclusion at the7th World Rice

Commerce 2008 Conferenceheld in Chiang Mai, Thailand,on 20-22 October.

Addressing businessconcerns facing the riceindustry, the event broughttogether representativesfrom export giants Thailand,

Vietnam, India, Pakistan,and the United States,

who joined key marketparticipants (including theNational Food Authority ofthe Philippines and PerumBulog of Indonesia) and apanel of experts representingthe worlds most prominenttraders. Participants analyzed theskyrocketing market prices witnessedup to May 2008 and the slide downsince, and tried to glimpse the future.

Stability was key as participantsrecognized sustainable supply,growing demand, and a stable priceas the foundations necessary to

build a rice industry that can ablyovercome food security concerns andoffer an affordable staple for some of

the worlds poorest people. However,current record crops in Southeast

Asia, India, and China conspired witha seemingly elastic demand (that is,demand decreases as price increases)to lower prices and raise concernsabout long-term stability of supply.In short, if prices continue to bouncearound as they have for the past yearor so, future plantings are likely toexpand and contract accordingly.

Commenting on the events

leading up to the May highs in

food price and the downwardtrend since, Apiradi Tandtraporn,director general, Departmentof Foreign Trade at ThailandsMinistry of Commerce, describedthe situation as a wakeup call. It isthe cumulative effect of long-termtrends in supply and demand andnot any sudden effect, she said.

In an environment of fallingprices, keynote speaker Ms. Apiradi

voiced her fears for food securityas falling prices threatened to curbfuture plantings. She revealed thepressures facing policymakers(managing Thailands rice retentionprogram, for example) in achievingconsistent supply and availabilityof rice, as well as a genuinecommitment to develop Thailandas the rice bowl to the world.

Rice is produced by poorcountries and consumed by

poor people; lets help solve the

dilemma, said Ms. Apiradi,emphasizing the need forstability and a price thatalso takes into accountfarmers living conditions.

Food security and

maintaining productionMulyo Siddik of the East AsiaEmergency Rice Reservehighlighted the challengesin maintaining production(such as its susceptibilityto weather and otheruncontrollable factors), withproduction failure resultingin consequences reaching

beyond food security tonational security. A long-term strategy was seen as

vital in supporting pricestabilization, encouraging production,and enhancing yield. Dr. Mulyosaid that this must be combined

with long-term reserves to preventunnecessary price volatility andconsequent production responses.

Reluctance from buyers expectingeven lower prices unveiled a majoraw in the balance between the needsat destination (demand) markets andat origins (exporters). This imbalance

threatens to disrupt supply and addto the already daunting long-termchallenge facing policymakers andresearch organizations in deliveringsufcient rice to the world.

Solutions for the long runAchim Dobermann, deputydirector general for research atthe International Rice ResearchInstitute, revealed that, A 50%increase in rice prices may throw

30

100 million people in Asia back

Last Octobers World Rice Commerce conference heralded a coming together of often

disparate sections of the rice industryRice Todayreports

Rice TodayJanuary-March 2009 11

WORLD RICE COMMERCE 2008:

PRICE VOLATILITY SET TO CONTINUE

SPECIAL REPORT by V. Subramanian

THe RICe TRADeR

LiEN DAi of the VetnamFood Assocaton (left)wth V. Sbramanan.


12/44


into poverty. With rice yield growthrunning below population growthsince 1992, Dr. Dobermann describedthe industrys urgent need to x aproblem that is not new, and thatreached a global audience only afterexport prices surpassed US$1,000per ton in May 2008. According toDr. Dobermann, a generation gapunderscores a shortage of youngrice scientists as the world grapplesto meet the target of raising globalrice production by 89 million tonsper year between now and 2020.

The voice of tradeWhile there was an uncomfortableagreement that the record plantingsseen in 2008 were a result of farmers

being motivated by the high prices

of April-May 2008 along with somevery favorable weather conditions,Jeremy Zwinger, president of TheRice Trader, cited several factors thatcould throw markets into a period ofsustained volatility. The key concernsare overcondence by governmentsand those in charge of food andfarm policy in assuming that lowerprices mean crisis solved combined

with the psychological impact of thecurrent fall in prices, rising inputcosts, a growing global population(meaning increasing demand), andthe fact that very little changedfundamentally in rice markets. Manyof the issues raised by the 2008 priceshocksuch as insufcient wateravailability, population growth,increasing demand, the need forimproved varieties, improvedtolerance of extreme weather, andthe need for long-term availabilityand affordability in the face of anexpanding populationhave been

around for 15 years or more.Robert Papanos, editor ofThe

Rice Trader, pointed to just how easyit was for demand to overwhelmsupply. Unreliable and oftenquestionable production statistics,inefciencies in the methodology ofcrop surveys, high fertilizer prices,and continued weather problemseven during the current harvestsoffered a glimpse at just how tightsupply and demand are right now,

making volatility unavoidable.

Mr. Papanos also reected onhigh-priced stocks held currently

by traders and the impact of thecredit crunch as important short-term elements that will affect buyingpatterns as buyers increasingly

face a hand-to-mouth situationcreated by the credit situation.

The road ahead reveals an urgentneed for research to increase yieldsand develop strong postharvest andcrop-management solutions that getmore from current rice varieties, as

well as for efforts to get policy rightand keep farmers in rice productionat a time of tight supply and demandand volatile prices. Demand isexpected to arrive in spurts as

demand and supply perform an

awkward dance to discover price.If there are positives to emerge

from the craziness of 2008, theyinclude across-the-board recognitionthat long-term strategies arerequired and agreement among

farmers, traders, researchers, andpolicymakers that production andprice stability are crucial for the riceindustrys livelihoodalong with thatof the billions of people who dependon the grain for their sustenance.

Mr. Subramanian is vicepresident for Asia of The RiceTrader. He can be contacted at

[email protected].

ROBERT PAPANOS, Achm Dobermann, Jeremy Zwnger, and V. Sbramananfollowng the annoncement that Rice Todayand The Rice Traderwereteamng p (see A global voice for the global grain on page ).

ViJAY SETiA, presdent of the All inda Rce Exporters Assocaton (left photo), speaks. Rt Sbnran, vcepresdent of the Tha Rce Mllers Assocaton and charman of the exectve board of Patm Rce Mll andGranary Pblc Company Ltd. (left in right photo), and Korbsook iamsr, secretary general of the Tha RceExporters Assocaton and CEO of the Kamolkj Grop of Companes, presde over a dscsson panel.

THeRICeTRADeR(3)


13/44

videos in Mandinka (The Gambiasmain language) in 2007 and 2008.

To revive agriculture in war-tornvillages in northern Uganda, the Agri-cultural Productivity EnhancementProgram showed the videos to morethan 7,000 farmers living in refugeecamps. In addition, Sasakawa Global2000 distributed local-language

copies to extension (training, educa-tion, and technology dissemination)services and farmer associations andalso engaged policymakers, a TVstation, and a farmers newspaper.

In Benin, mobile cinema vansreached more than 50,000 farm-ers. Interactive programs on ruralradios and a question-and-answerservice helped promote the videosand make use of audience feedback.

To assess the videos impact,200 women were surveyed in Benin.

After watching a video on parboil-ing rice, over 90% cleaned and driedtheir rice properly (compared with20% in a group who did not watch the

video), and 42% adopted improvedrice parboiling (compared with 5% inthe nonvideo group). Not only did ricequality improve, allowing the womento obtain a higher price, but they alsolearned to work better as a group.

The Rice Rural LearningCampaign creatively combines

educational video with mass media.The initiative has already mobilizeda vast network of local actors tothe benet of African rural com-munities, and is set to continuethis success in the years to come.

Dr. Van Mele is program leader,Learning and InnovationSystems, at WARDA. To seerice videos, visit www.warda.

org/warda/guide-video.asp.

The best agricultural researchin the world wont help asingle farmer if it stays onthe shelf. To ensure that

good science gets real-world results,the Africa Rice Center (WARDA) andpartners have developed educationaltools as part of a Rice Rural LearningCampaign to communicate relevant

science and to stimulate learning allalong the path from eld to market.By promoting better access to scien-tic results, the campaign is helping

African rice farmers and processorsimprove both rice productivityand marketing opportunities.

The campaign aims to triggerrural learning by enhancing ruralcommunities awareness of promisingrice technologies developed by

WARDA and partners related toland, water, crop, and postharvestmanagement. By linking video withmass media, the initiative stimulateslocal adaptation of the technologies,nurtures local ownership, and buildson existing capacities and networks.

In 2005, WARDA, in collabora-tion with UK-based CountrywiseCommunication, trained a team inBenin to produce farmer learning

videos. In 2007, WARDA also taughtpartners to produce rural radioscripts, which, as well as teaching

about rice production, also adver-tise video distribution points.

By 2008, 20 educational ra-dio and video programs had beenproduced. WARDA distributed the

videos to 80 partners in 28 Africancountries, who in turn shared them

with over 300 local organizations.Canada-based Farm Radio Inter-national distributed radio scriptson rice technologies to more than300 rural radio stations across

Africa, and monitored their use.

A communication campaign designed to link rice production with relevantscience promises to help African farmers and processors boost their productivity

SCIENCE

Partners translated the videos andradio programs into, respectively,20 more than 40 local languages.The two media were creativelycombined to reinforce the messages.

By strengthening 380 organiza-tions, the videos helped train morethan 2,500 trainers and benetmore than 100,000 rice farmers

and processors across Africa. Theradio programs' potential audienceconstituted millions of farmers.

The Rice Rural Learning Cam-paign, which is funded by the Interna-tional Fund for Agricultural Develop-ment, the Government of Japan, andthe Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,has already enjoyed much success. InGuinea, for example, the nongovern-mental organization Associationpour la Promotion Economique deKindia (APEK) trained thousands offarmers using campaign videos beforereinforcing the lessons throughRadio Guine Maritime, which airedinterviews with farmers about whatthey had learned. The resulting radioprogram reached up to 800,000 peo-ple. Gambian TV also broadcast the

by Paul Van Mele


RK

pAULVANMeLe,wARDA

CinmaNumriquAmbulant,Bnin

SHORT EDuCATiONAL rce vdeos

are shown and dscssed n rralvllages by moble cnema nts.

RiCE RADiO programsfacltate learnng andmake farmers andservce provders awareof edcatonal vdeos.


14/44


THiS FAMOuS Edo-Perod prnt, orgnally createdbetween 183 and 18 by Katsshka Hoksa,s spectaclarly reprodced (belowand opposite)n rce at inakadate Vllage n 007.


15/44

Mysterious crop circles ofincredible complexitythat appear overnight,

or a baseball park as inthe 1989 lmField of dreamswhoknows what you might come acrossin your local rural idyll these days?

But travel some 600 kilometersnorth of Tokyo, then take a driveoff the beaten track. There, in a

village in verdant Aomori Prefecture,who would ever expect to ndexquisite Edo Period artworkssprouting amid a swaying greensea of enormous rice paddies?

Its neither a dream, nor asupernatural mystery, nor ction.

Instead, by precisely plantingfour varieties of rice with differentlycolored leaves in elds their ancestorshave farmed for centuries, the peopleof Inakadate Village in 2007 grewremarkable reproductionsof famous woodblock prints

by Katsushika Hokusai(1760-1849). And this isno cheap gimmicktheimages from the artists

Fugaku Sanjurokkei(36views of Mount Fuji) onthe 15,000-square-meterpaddies are nothing if notspectacular in both theirscale and detaileven asevery day brings themnearer to annihilation inthe September harvest.

From ground level,the artistic paddies spreadout before the Inakadate

Village ofce building

by Yoko Hani

are, like crop circles that occurin England, invisible. However,

by scaling a 22-meter-high mock

castle tower that overlooks theelds, visitors are rewarded witha view that takes their breathaway. The spectacle also boosts thelocal economy, with hundreds ofthousands of visitors now drawn tothe village of 8,700 people each year.

People who see this for the rsttime often ask me if we made this bypainting colors on green rice plants,says Akio Nakayama, who leads therice-paddy art project, while viewingthe multicolored rice elds fromthe village ofce. Mr. Nakayama,an ofcial in the ofces industriessection, has been working on theart project for more than 10 years.

This years [2007s] Hokusaidesign was very challenging, he

When is a paddy not a paddy? When its a canvas, of course. In JapansAomori Prefecture, rice is far more than mere food.

says. We werent sure if we couldreally pull it offbut we did.

Inakadate Village started to

create rice-paddy art in 1993 as alocal revitalization project. No one

will take credit for the idea, whichseems to have just grown out of

village committee meetings.In the rst 9 years, the village

ofce workers and local farmersgrew a simple design of MountIwaki in Aomori Prefecture every

year, accompanied by the wordsInakadate, a village of riceculture. Then, by planting rice

varieties with different leaf colorson about 2,500 square meters ofrice paddies, they quite literally

brought their designs to life.But, as time went by, the

locals horizons widened and thepictures they tried to transform

into elds of art becameever more complicated.Not surprisingly, overthe years, more andmore people also beganto pay attention to their

extraordinary endeavors.Then, in 2005, after

agreements betweenlandowners allowed thecreation of enormous,15,000-square-meterrice paddies, the villagerspainstakingly plotted theirplanting on paper plansand created huge-scalereproductions of EdoPeriod ukiyo-e works by

Sharaku and Utamaro.


INAKADATeVILLAGeOFFICe(6)


16/44


That year, around 130,000 visitorssought out this beautiful backwaterto marvel at the arable artwork.

In 2006, another revolutionoccurred in this creative corner of thenorthernmost prefecture of Honshu,the largest of Japans islands, whenthe organizers for the rst timeused computers to precisely plotthe planting of the four differentlycolored rice varieties. The result wasan astonishing set of reproductionsof paintings from the famousFujin

Raijin Zu Byobu (Wind God andThunder God screens) by the earlyEdo Period artist Tawaraya Sotatsu.

Around 200,000 visitors came toInakadate to view the images.

I feel happy to see manypeople come to see our rice

paddies because, here in InakadateVillage, rice and peoples livesare very closely connected, Mr.Nakayama says, noting that theidea came out of the villagesancient history of rice cultivation.

In 1981, when we didconstruction work for a new road,

we dug up some rice paddies thatarchaeologists dated as being about2,000 years old. That impressedus local people a lot, because werealized how long people have beengrowing rice in this place. So then wethought that we had to do somethinginvolving rice to revitalize this area.

From that germ of an ideasprang the paddy-art project,

which has come to involve notonly local farmers but also manyof their friends and neighbors.

Now, the project starts in Aprileach year, when the pictures to beplanted in Inakadate Villages ricepaddies are decided upon at local

meetings. After that, six staff at thevillage ofce make an elaborate planof how to plant different colors of riceto create the image. They calculateand plot the precise areas whereeach different color of rice needsto be planted in the paddies, andproduce a printout of the design thatat rst just looks like a mass of dots.

Each year, the six village ofceworkers spend several weeks of theirown private time, working until late

at night, to complete the planting

plan. Their calculations are not justsimple painting-by-numbers layouts,

but include sophisticated use ofperspective so that the paddy picturesappear perfectly proportioned when

viewed from the observation point.Using computers has greatly

shortened the time it takes tocalculate the position of onedot on the rice paddies, Mr.Nakayama says. At the sametime, it has made it possible tocalculate many more dots to draw


the picture more precisely.The 2007 Hokusai design

included 6,100 dots, compared with1,500 dots in 2005. If we have moredots for a picture, we can reproducethe original more precisely on therice paddies, says Mr. Nakayama.

Dots on a printout are all verywellbut the most sensitive anddifcult task is digging reed sticksinto the bare spring paddies atexactly the right points so that those

who plant the rice know where to

iNAKADATES 008 effort featred mofDaikoku (god of wealth; left) and E(god of fishers and merchants).


17/44

17Rice TodayJanuary-March 2009Rice TodayJanuary-March 2009 17

position each of the four varieties.This year, ve groups of six village-ofce staff dug 6,100 reed sticksinto the ground, then strung plastictape between them to create theareassome large, some as small asone square meterin which to plantthe rice varieties. Altogether, the tasktook three full, backbreaking days.

Then, on 27 May 2007, 700people helped plant the rice. Dividedinto teams, they used four kindsof rice: two traditional varietiesnamed ki ine (yellow rice) andmurasaki ine (purple rice) thatgrow into yellow- and brown-leafedplants, respectively, and also moremodernbeni miyako (red miyako)

and tsugaru roman, an Aomorivariety with a fresh green color.

Then, nature took control ofthe artwork as the seedlings grew,transforming them in varying huesinto Hokusais famous wave.

Mr. Nakayama says that lateJuly is the best time to enjoy theart. Referring to 2007s image, heexplains why, and in doing so offersa sense of the works intricacy.

In August, he says, the lengths

of each kind of rice are different due

to their different growth rates. Wecannot clearly see the drops falling offthe waves, as the yellow rice for thedrops is shorter than tsugaru roman.So [by August], the drops have begunto sink into the green background.

The number of visitorsocking to Inakadate to view thepaddy-artists amazing, livingcreations keeps on rising.

Oh, its so busy, says Mr.Nakayama. Visitors have to waitin line for about an hour to go upthe observatory, and staff are busytalking to them. But I feel that ourefforts are being rewarded when I seeso many people enjoying the art.

At the end of September,

Inakadate braces itself for anotherinux of people. Then, as the cool

breezes of autumn bathe the land,visitors arrive to take part in theannual harvest. In 2006, around900 people from across the countryharvested about 2 tons oftsugaruroman rice, which was given to those

who took part and to those whohelped with the spring planting.

The 2008 effort, Inakadates16th since the custom began in

1993, featured images of Daikoku

(god of wealth) and Ebisu (godof shers and merchants). Anaccompanying image of the logo ofJapan Airlineswhich sponsoredthe event in 2008also provided adose of controversy. Part way throughthe season, the logo was removedfollowing complaints by the ownerof the elds that it contradicted thecommunity nature of the tradition.

Following the harvest, as oneyears transient beauty is cut down,Mr. Nakayama and other Inakadateofcials turn their minds to the next

years artistic crop. These days, theyalso host seminars at the requestof other farming communitiesaround Japan on the practical

details of creating rice-paddy art.Mr. Nakayama expects that the

spectacle will continue to grow.One things for sure, he says.

We have more ambitious plans forour rice-paddy art every year.

Yoko Hani is a staff writer atthe Japan Times. Edited versionreprinted with permission

from the Japan Times.

iN 005, inakadate replcated ukiyo-e works

(a style of Japanese woodblock prntng andpantng prodced between the 17th and the0th centres) by Sharak and utamaro.

iN 00, the inakadate vllagers reprodced FujinRaijin Zu Byobu (Wnd God and Thnder God screens)orgnally created by the early Edo-Perod artstTawaraya Sotats.


18/44

If performed correctly, thepractice of planting rice by

broadcasting rice seeds directlyinto unooded soil offers

several advantages over the usualpractice of transplanting seedlingsinto ooded elds. Farmers can savetime and labor, less water is required

to establish the crop, and dry direct-seeded rice suffers less from early-season drought. These are importantadvantages, especially in rainfed rice,and dry direct seeding is gainingpopularity in a number of areasacross Asia. According to the ThaiOfce of Agricultural Economics,around 38% of rainfed rice (reliant onrain with no irrigation infrastructure)in northeasternThailand in 2005

was planted todry direct-seeded rice, andthis gure isgrowing.

by Yothin Konboon

Rice on the

Sometimes the best inventions are accidental. In northeastern Thailand, farmersare adopting a weed-control method first taught to them by their animals.

The main problem withdirect-seeded rice is weed control.Transplanting seedlings gives ricea head start over weeds, and acontinuous layer of water suppresses

weed growth. In northeasternThailand, the methods used tocontrol weeds differ from place

to place. Some farmers followofcial agriculture departmentrecommendations while othersdevelop their own methods.

One of the most promisingfarmer-initiated controls is ricecutting, a method rst studied in1998 in deepwater rice by Thairesearcher Tawee Kuptkarnjanakul.Because deepwater rice is planted

very early in the season, the periodbefore owering is long, resultingin excess growth of leaves andshoots. Farmers would cut theleaves just above the water surfaceprimarily to use as animal feed.

In northeastern Thailand, ricecutting began around 10 years ago,

but not as a result of transfer fromdeepwater rice systems. Early-seasondrought is a regular occurrence inthe region and direct-seeded cropsfrequently suffer. When this occurs,some farmers give up on theircrop, leaving it for their animals

to graze. Over the years, farmers

have discovered that, when therains nally resume, the grazedcrop recovers well and ends up

yielding a reasonable harvest.After a few years of trial and

error, farmers in different areasdeveloped their own rice-cuttingmethods, which all include cutting

down weeds as well as rice earlyin the season. In some places,cutting is done primarily to reduce

weed competition; in others, itis to improve soil fertility. Thepractice is spreading throughfarmer-to-farmer communication,media campaigns, and extension

workers (the people responsiblefor technology dissemination).However, farmers and researchersunderstanding of the benets of ricecutting, and the conditions under

which it succeeds or fails, is stillvery limited. Therefore, ThailandsUbon Ratchathani Rice ResearchCenter (URRC)with assistancefrom the Consortium for UnfavorableRice Environments (CURE), agroup of national and internationalinstitutions led by the InternationalRice Research Institutehasrecently conducted farm surveysto study and test this technology.

Farmers who practice rice cutting

say that it boosts their rice yieldssubstantially, with some claimingthat it also improves soil fertility.They tend to use the method withtall, photosensitive rice varietiesthat is, varieties that ower inOctober independent of the sowingdateincluding Thailands famous

jasmine rice. Once the rice crop hasbeen established, it is managed asusual until late Julyearly August

when the rice cutting is conducted.

This leaves around 50 days before

cutting edge


CuTTiNG RiCE wth aswng grass mower canhelp control weeds.

YOTHINKONBOON


19/44

the development of the panicle (thepanicle bears the grain later on). Thecutting time is crucial for success.Cut too early and it has no effect on

weed and rice growth because theplants are too small. Cut too lateand the rice plant may not recoversufciently to produce a good yield.

Using a swing grass mower (seephoto, opposite), farmers cut riceand weeds at a height of around 5cm above ground. Thus, the waterlevel in the eld should not risemuch higher than that. In elds

where deeper water levels occurregularly, the water will suppress

weeds adequately without the needfor cutting. If the rice plants arecut much higher than 5 cm, thestimulating effect on the number ofstems (which carry panicles later)does not occur. Therefore, the method

works best in middle terraces wherethe water level is low enough foroptimum cutting but sufcient toallow good crop growth after cutting.The practice is not recommendedon upper and lower terraces.

The uses of the cuttings differfrom farm to farm. Some farmersleave the residues in the eld forsoil mulching and to recycle plantnutrients. Others use the cuttingsas animal feed. A few days after

cutting, farmers usually apply

fertilizer to boost crop growthand promote the decomposition ofresidues. By 1015 days after cutting,the rice crop has regrown to thesame height as before the cutting.

To evaluate the effect of ricecutting, URRC conducted on-farmtrials in 2007-08, targeting farmers

who had not previously practicedrice cutting. Two treatmentsricecutting in dry-seeded broadcast riceand the normal farmer practice ofdry-seeded broadcast ricewerecompared in 23 farmer elds. Initialresults showed that rice cutting

was effective in suppressing weedsand average rice yields improved by12% over the no-cutting treatment.However, variation was considerablefrom farm to farm and somefarmers had no yield increase.

Discussions among farmers and

researchers revealed several otherbenets aside from increased yield:reduced weed competition alsolowered the labor needs for weeding,fewer pest problems occurred becauseof a less dense and more aeratedcrop canopy, and harvesting waseasier because of the more uniformplant height and owering time.

In conclusion, rice cutting canhelp increase the productivity ofrainfed rice in northeastern Thailand

and, importantly, can be integrated


into the existing rice productionsystem. Especially in areas with poorsoils and severe weed problems, rice

cutting offers new opportunities tosustain and improve productivityand farmer livelihoods, as wellas to benet the environment.

And, nally, rice cutting providesa great example of how farmersknowledge and modern research cancombine to stimulate new insightsinto rice production systems.

Dr. Konboon is an agronomist

at URRC in Thailand.

A FARMER GROuP dscsses the rce-cttng method.

THE AuTHORwth a swnggrass mower.

YOTHIN

KONBOON

PRAJUAB

DUANGPAKDEE


20/44

THE IRRI pIoNEER INTERVIEWS

Dedicated scientistsa childs inspiration

J

eRBYAGUIHON(3)

Conducted by Gene Hettel

Growing up

D

uring my stay at IRRI, Ireally grew up. Comingfrom India [Tamil Nadu

Agricultural Universitywhere my father was based], Ihad the opportunity to interact

with new cultures that I found tobe friendly and warm. We weregreeted with great smiles and weremost fortunate to make some verygood friends during our stay.

Although I was only 10 yearsold, I had the opportunity toobserve many dedicated scientistsat work. I was impressed withthat dedication, exemplified by

my own dad who was out of thehouse all day working very hard.In one way or another, all thescientists focused on one plantasingle crop, rice, which is the mostimportant one in the whole world.I thought a lot about plants then.Plants play such important rolesin our lives in many dif ferent ways

besides just giving us food. It wasfor these reasons, the dedicationof the IRRI scientists and the

importance of plants, that I decided

During the summer of 2006, Usha Rani Palaniswamy returned with her father, K.M. Palaniswamy, to the International

Rice Research Institute (IRRI) for the rst time in 35 years. In 1968, as a young child, Dr. Palaniswamy moved from India

to Institute headquarters in Los Baos, Philippines, when her father was assigned to IRRIs Statistics Department. Fondly

recalling those days through the mind and eyes of a child, she relates how the experience inuenced her future career in

science. When interviewed, she was an assistant professor of plant physiology at the University of Connecticut. Today, sheis chair of the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at Excelsior College in Albany, New York. She also pays loving

tribute to her father, who at age 78 died tragically in a road accident in India on 5 December 2007, a little over a year after

his own Pioneer Interview (see box) during the same 2006 IRRI visit. She is the co-author (with her father) ofA handbook of

statistics for teaching and research in plant and crop science and more recently ofAsian crops and human dietetics.

to become a scientist myselfspecifically, a horticulturist.

IRRI provided our entirefamily with a unique opportunityto interrelate with new cultures andto learn about the world and thepeople in it. I look back at my time atIRRI and see it as one of the greatestperiods of my life. I really maturedas I had interactions with not onlythe great cultureof the Philippines

but also othercultures that

were partof IRRIsinternational

community,includingKoreans, Thais,and even Indiansfrom differentstates in myhome country

whom I wouldnot have hadthe opportunityto meet if mydad had left us

in Tamil Nadu.

Warm local cultureI fondly remember the largetrees with white owers at IRRIheadquarters and the green grasson which we would have picnicsand share our snacks in the evening

with my dad and his colleagues[see photo, below]. We would cometo IRRI on the bus and enjoy thefountain, the lights, and the cool


HAPPY DAYS at iRRi crca 170: usha Palanswamy (with white headband andglasses) enjoys snacks wth her father Kodver (to her left), mother indran (infront of her), her three sblngs (from center to right in back row) Meera Dev,Vjayaraghavan, and Rajeswar, Statstcs Department research assstant Rosa-lnda Alcbsan Graham (second from left in back row), hsband Bll, and famlyfrend Verna Estapha (left foreground).

pALANISwAMYFAMILYARCHIVeS


21/44

air-conditioned lounge. We came forthe movies screened in the ChandlerHall Auditorium and were greatlyappreciative of the gifts that we littlekids would get at Christmas time.

The local people with whomwe interacted were so kind. AsHindus, we never really appreciatedChristianity or celebrated Christmas

before coming to the Philippines. Westayed at the Gonzales Compoundoutside of IRRI and the landlady

would knock on our door and offerus rice and different desserts. Sincemy mom is a vegetarian, our hostsmade a point of offering us many

vegetables and fruits that weregrowing in their gardens. We hadgreat appreciation for the localculture, which is so very warm and

friendly. I look back on this all withfond memories, enjoying it all.

A model for researchI returned to IRRI [in 2006] tolook into including the Institute asa model of successful agriculturalresearch outside the United Statesin a curricular development andinnovation project Im working on[funded by the U.S. Departmentof Agriculture/Cooperative StateResearch, Education, and ExtensionService International Scienceand Education Competitive GrantsProgram]. I hope to inspire youngstudents to become agriculturalscientists just as I once was yearsago by my IRRI experience.IRRI can truly be an educationalmodel to show that real-worldissues and problems can be solvedthrough science and research.

Agriculture is the most basic ofprofessions that has touched the lives

of people since time immemorial,since antiquity. That will continueand it is very important that wekeep the younger generation excitedabout agriculture and that theyconsider agriculture as a desirablecareer option. My effort here is toincorporate IRRIs techniques in mycurriculum design and universityteaching. Many universities in theUnited States should be very excitedabout research thats happening

overseas and making students

aware of it, as well as thinking aboutplaying an important collaborativerole in alleviating poverty throughscientic efforts in agriculture.

A tribute to dadMy dadmy inspiration and rolemodel in my lifewas very passionateabout rice. We both shared fervorfor the plant sciences. He enjoyed

watching farmers working in theirelds in the early morning. As Ihave been living outside of Indiafor a long time (in the United ArabEmirates since 1982 and the U.S.since 1994), I had not had much time

with him. So, I took advantage of oursummer 2006 excursion to IRRI.

We went out for morning walksand watched the workers in theIRRI rice plots. His face wouldlight up immediately as he would

smell the air and start talking aboutthe importance of agriculture inthe human experience. During hisscholar days at IRRI and the nearbyUniversity of the Philippines at LosBaos, he studied under Dr. KwanchaiGomez, IRRIs chief statistician [seeFigures, fake guns, and fund-raising,on pages 16-19 of Rice Today Vol. 7,No. 4]. So, it was no surprise that,even 35 years later, he was quick topoint out the importance of statistical

methods in eld experiments. He

Excerpt from K.M. Palaniswamys Pioneer Interview:On IRRIs fastidious but accommodating director

During my stay at IRRI, I had several occasionsto accompany Dr. Robert Chandler [IRRI directorgeneral, 1960-72] in and around the Institute. Iobserved that he had a keen interest in keeping

the IRRI grounds very clean and neat. Once, whenI was walking with him in the caeteria, he saw acigarette butt on the floor. He bent down, picked itup, and carried it all the way to a waste bin. It wasvery surprising to see a person o his stature cleaning up the area. But it was amemorable lesson [teaching by example] or all o us watching.

One very important event I remember was the moon landing by theAmerican astronauts on 20 July 1969. At that time, Dr. Chandler opened thelounge so all the staff rom IRRI and the University o the Philippines at LosBaos could watch the landing on the TV. Everyone was silent and watched verykeenly. When the landing was over, we expressed our joy and happiness withsmiles all around. It was a great event in history that, thanks to Dr. Chandlersaccommodating orethought, we all had a chance to witness.


could immediately pick out an off-type in a plot and say how importantit is to rogue a plot [remove infectedor undesirable individuals froma pure population] that is beingused for producing good seed orobtaining good experimental results.

Dad was a self-made manwho raised all his children to bescholars. He continued to learnand obtained his PhD. He heldseveral key positions as departmenthead of physical sciences at TamilNadu Agricultural University;professor of statistics at KhartoumUniversity, Sudan; and an expert

with the United Nations EconomicCommission for Western Asia in Iraq.

Since retirement, he wasworking on a book, Guidelines forrice researchers in the estimation ofsome plant parameters. I contributed

some of the chapters and hope tocomplete it soon in his memory.

He was in excellent health so hispassing, due to the road accident inCoimbatore, was all too sudden forany of us to grasp as being real.

Go to www.irri.org/publications/today/Pioneer_Interviews.asp forthis and other Pioneer Interviewsas IRRI approaches its 50th

anniversary in 2010.

JeRBYAGUIHON


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Rice TodayJanuary-March 2009ce TodayJanuary-March 2009, Vol. 8, No. 1


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3Rice TodayJanuary-March 2009rmers from Sylet Division, Bangladesh, struggle with a bicycle rickshaw heavily laden with rice sacks. The transport of rice from farm tarket continues to be a major issue facing rural communities throughout Asia.


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party ofcials, including Maos wife,Jiang Qing. The other members wereZhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and

Wang Hongwen. They were chargedwith a series of treasonous counter-revolutionary crimes. What we

witnessed, however, in the meetings,the entertainment, the confessionson the wall, even the drab gray-bluelook-alike clothes that people wore,

was still a part of the soon-to-endCultural Revolution (1966-76).

The route that we followed inChina was the same as that assignedto professionals and touristsalikeBeijing, Nanjing, Shanghai,and Guangzhou. Our visit was acombination of professional activities,meetings, and sightseeing. We visitedresearch institutions and communes,

were briefed by staff at the NationalAcademy of Agriculture and ForestryScience, and held discussions

with agricultural scientists.One of the most surprising visits

was to the Institute of Microbiology,

where they collected species of fungi.We were ushered into a room withdrawers full of species that had beencollected over time. Our interpreterpulled open a drawer randomly toshow us what was inside. The fungusin the drawer had been collectedand classied by S.H. Ou from1934 to 1936 while he was workingat the Institute of AgriculturalScience in Jiangsu Province. Youcan imagine Ous excitement.Other drawers were opened upand two or three also contained

T

he rst person-to-person contactbetween the International RiceResearch Institute (IRRI) and

China occurred in 1974. On thatoccasion, IRRI Director General NyleBrady joined a delegation of plantscientists for a 1-month tour during

which he provided China with seedsof IRRI-developed rice varieties. InMarch and April 1976, a team of eightChinese agricultural scientists visitedIRRI twice. With the success ofthese visits, the Chinese governmentinvited an IRRI team to China in July1976. However, Chinese ChairmanMao Zedongs illnesswhich resultedin his death on 9 Septemberforcedthe trips postponement until October.

The seven of us who madethe journey (see map,page26) represented a good mix ofnationalities and disciplines: NyleBrady (director general, UnitedStates), Mano D. Pathak (entomologist,India), Shu Huang Ou (plantpathologist, China), Shouichi Yoshida(plant physiologist, Japan), GurdevKhush (plant breeder, India), Surajit

K. De Datta (agronomist, India), and I(economist, United States).

Beijing, 7-12 OctoberWe took the train from Hong Kongto Guangzhou (Canton) on 7 October,changing trains at the Chinese border

before flying to Beijing. Unbeknownstto us at the time, the infamous Gangof Four had been arrested in a coupdtat on 6 October. The Gang ofFour was a leftist political faction

composed of four Chinese Communist

Rice in the Dragons shadowThe political turmoil of the 1970s formed the backdrop to the rst visits of International Rice Research Institute

sta to China. Agricultural economist Randy Barker, one of the team of scientists who ventured to the worlds

largest rice producer, recounts the experience.

by Randy Barker

FORMER IRRI STAFF who made the 1976 trip to China (left to right): rice breeder Gurdev Khush,entomologist Mano Pathak, and plant pathologist S.H. Ou.

THE AUTHOR (left) around the time of the 1976 Chinavisit and Nyle Brady, IRRI director general 1973-81.


25/44


species that Ou had collected.We had our rst glimpse of

agriculture at the Double-BridgeCommune 25 km east of Beijing. Thepopulation of 40,000 was situatedon 90 square kilometers, including3,600 hectares under cultivation.There were six production brigadesand 62 production teamsa structure

that to me seemed comparable withthat of the U.S. army. The main crops

were wheat, rice, vegetables, andfruits. Livestock included dairy, pigs,ducks, and shponds. Vegetable, fruit,and livestock products were shippedto nearby Beijing. At harvest time,the factories were required to providelabor to the commune free of charge.

From Beijing,we took the nighttrain to Nanjing.Except for us, the onlyother passengers on thetrain were soldiers. At thetime, movement in China wasstrictly controlled. Most people wereassigned to communes and given

ration cards for food. Grain wasrationedabout 15 kg per month forcity folk and double that for a persondoing hard work in the commune.There was almost no opportunityfor civilians to travel. At 6 a.m., we

were woken by loudspeakers blaringwords of wisdom from Mao Zedong.Later in the morning, we passed

through AnhuiProvince, historically

one of the poorest areasin China and the setting for

Pearl Bucks bookThe Good Earth.

Nanjing, 13-15 October

In Nanjing, we visited the SoilsInstitute of the Chinese Academy ofSciences, which had been protectedfrom the Cultural Revolution. Staffmembers there were particularlyproud of their library, whichcontained some foreign publications.This raises an interesting point: itseems that before and during the

HINA 1976

THE IRRI TEAM with some of their Chinese hosts at Tai Lake, Wuxi, on 17 October 1976.Front row: S.K. De Datta (far left), S.H. Ou (third from left), then-IRRI Director GeneralNyle Brady (center), Randy Barker (fourth from right), and Mano Pathak (third from right).

Back row: Gurdev Khush (left) and plant physiologist Shouichi Yoshida (right).

iRRi(6)


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Cultural Revolution, agriculturalresearch in general was protected.For example, semidwarf rice

varieties (which resisted lodging, orfalling over, just like the rst GreenRevolution semi-dwarf varietyIR8, bred by IRRI) were rst bredin China (including Taiwan) in thelate 1950s and early 1960s usingdifferent parents. We now know thatthe Chinese and IRRI semidwarfsall have the same dwarng gene.The Chinese also developed andreleased hybrid rice in the 1970s,using IRRI varieties IR24 and IR26as fertility restorer parents. Hybridrice varieties would soon coveraround half of the countrys rice area.

Basic research was conductedat the provincial and county level

with extension of research ndingscarrying down to the commune,

brigade, and production teamlevel. We visited Jiangsu Academyof Agricultural Sciences (JAAS),

which had a staff of 600 and 67hectares of experimental elds.This was the same institute whereS.H. Ou had worked before leavingmainland China for Taiwan. Iphotographed Ou sitting in his oldofce chair (see photo on page 24).

Also at JAAS, we met a modelfarmer, Mr. Chen, who was carrying

out research. He was selected asa national hero in 1954 when heachieved a record rice yield. He useda system of nutrient managementcalled three yellows and three

blacks, which referred to the greenand yellow coloring of the variousstages of growth. In a techniquesimilar to that employed with IRRIsleaf color chart today, farmersmade crop management decisionsaccording to the colors of the plant.

Wuxi, 16-18 OctoberWe took the train from Nanjing toWuxi on the morning of the 16th.I had brought along a copy of JohnLossing Bucks seminal workLandUtilization in China . I read thepages where he described the area

we were traveling through, the lowerYangtze River Basin. As I looked outthe window, the cropping patternsseemed much as Buck had describedthem. Buck was the husband ofPearl Buck and together they taughtat the University of Nanking from1920 to 1933. From 1929 to 1933,Buck organized a survey of 38,256farm families in 22 provinces,

which provided the materials for thebook. The three-volume book wasrst published by the University ofNanking in 1937. His demarcation

of the agriculturalregions of China remains

basically the same today.We visited two

communes near Wuxi,where the main annualcropping pattern was wheat-rice. These two communeshad a plan for developing theland, which began in 1970 and

was to extend up to 1985. Thisinvolved an enormous amount ofhuman labor to move soil, dig andstraighten irrigation and drainagecanals, and level land. The land

was originally divided into about15 elds per hectare, but, when

we were there, each hectare wasjust a single eld. The irrigationwater was piped underground.

One evening, we attended aChinese movie. It was much likean American melodrama. At onepoint, a Chinese and a Vietnamesenaval ship were approaching eachother. It was easy to make out the

villains by their sinister looks. Apeasant on the Chinese ship wasabout to re at the Vietnameseship when the party secretary puta hand on his arm and said, Wedont shoot until they shoot rst.

My most vivid memories were oftwo events, one peaceful and one notso peaceful. First, we took a boat tripon the famous Tai Lake (see photoon page 25), and I can remembersitting on the lakes edge watchingthe sun set. Second, and even morememorable, on the day we arrivedin Wuxi, S.H. Ou and Shouichi

Yoshida read signs on the wall andtold us that something big was afoot.This was the beginning of the massmovement against the Gang of Four.

On the morning of the 18th, on theway to the railroad station, we passeddemonstrators parading in the streetscarrying signs condemning the Gangof Four. Our interpreters said verylittle. But I was sitting next to oneof our interpreters, Mr. Huang, who

was obviously pleased. As he put it,The masses know what is best.

Shanghai, 18-21 OctoberAfter visiting a doll factory, we

boarded the train for Shanghai at

clyDieP.PASiA


27/44


about 10:15 a.m., arrivingtwo hours later. The wholecity was buzzing withdemonstrators. Signs on

every wall denounced theGang of Four. Crowds of

people were either reading thesigns or forming ranks to march

behind red banners. Shanghai hadbeen the headquarters for the Gangof Four. The demonstration was very

well organized and a great victory forthe people (meaning Deng Xiaoping,about whom I will say more later).

We were asked to stay in our hotelexcept when escorted by our hosts,and to take no photos. However, we

were able to hold discussions withscientists and make visits to twocommunes. We learned quite a bit

more about the accounting systemand taxation procedurescommune,

brigade, production teammuchof which carried over into todaysfarm and village structure with thedismantling of the commune system.

One evening, members of S.H.Ous family came to visit him. Hemet them in the lobby, which hefelt was safer than meeting in hisroom. When I asked him later

what the family thought of thedemonstrations, he said: We didntdiscuss this, only family matters.

Guangzhou, 21-26 OctoberOn the 21st, we flew from Shanghai toGuangzhou, where authorities werepreparing a celebration of the peoples

victory over the Gang of Four. Toavoid the crowds, we were taken to ahotel at the Zhonghua hot springs.

We were briefed at theGuangdong Provincial Academyof Agricultural Sciences by a rice

specialist, Lao Yanhai, who hadbeen to IRRI. A main focus ofplant breeding was on the three-crop system of rice, which theyclaimed would yield 16 tons ormore per hectare per year overthree crops. They were even tryingto introduce a fourth annual crop,rice followed by wheat, soybeans,or rapeseed. The breeding stressedearly maturity, resistance to insectsand disease, and high yield.

At this point, I want to digress

and point out that each briengwas preceded by a short politicalspeech. One of the Chinese scientists

began his talk as follows:Since the liberation, under

the guidance of Mao Zedong,following the movement to deepenthe criticism of Deng Xiaoping, therightist revolutionary, following theprinciple of learning from Dazhai,and carrying on our work in a self-reliant way, we reformed the croppingsystem to grow three crops of rice.

It was quite a mouthful.Later, I asked our Mr. Huang ifDeng Xiaoping was wrong in hisagricultural policy. He answeredthat Deng had the wrong attitudeabout Dazhai. Dazhai was a brigadein Shanxi Province that had, as

the saying goes, pulled itself upby its bootstraps, although somesaid they received a lot of help fromthe government. Everywhere we

went, there were big red bannersproclaiming: In agriculture learnfrom Dazhai. Apparently, DengXiaoping felt there should be moreemphasis on economic developmentrather than taking the conceptof self-reliance, as expressedin Dazhai, to the extreme.

Deng Xiaoping, of course, havingoutmaneuvered the Gang of Four,

would soon become de facto leaderof China, replacing his long-timefriend, Zhou Enlai, who died ofcancer in January 1976. Althoughhe never held ofce as the head ofstate or the head of government,Deng served as de facto leader from1978 to the early 1990s. Under hisleadership, China established an openmarket economy and abolished thecommunes in favor of small family

farms. The increase in productivitywas dramatic and, a decade laterin the late 1980s, Vietnam wouldfollow the Chinese policy, also

boosting productivity remarkably.One evening, we were taken

to see an opera. This was notthe kind of Chinese opera that we

were familiar with. Instead, it wasa play in which the Communists

were ghting the Nationalists.At one point, it seemed that the

Nationalists had the Communists

pinned down. Go over to the nexthill and get the Party Secretary!He will tell us what to do.

At all of the major stops, wehanded out publications and rice

varieties and received publicationsin return. We also brought hand-operated fertilizer placementmachines. In 1976, as in 2008, there

was a worldwide energy and fertilizershortage. IRRI was experimenting

with methods of placement toimprove fertilizer-use efciency.

On the next to last day of ourtour, we visited the Syin Hwa PeoplesCommune about 40 km northwest ofGuangzhou. S.K. De Datta and I wereat a brigade research station. I saidto S.K., You see that implement overin the corner? That looks just like

our fertilizer placement machine.We began asking questions, andlearned in our discussions thatdeep placement had been widelypracticed in southern China sincethe late 1960s. Shouichi Yoshida toldus that a Japanese team discussedthis method with the Chinesein the mid-1960s. His uncle hadhelped to popularize the methodin Japan during World War II.

Homeward boundOn the 25th, Nyle Brady left forHong Kong and then Washington,D.C. On the morning of the 27th,the rest of us boarded the train forHong Kong and left as we had come.The trip marked the beginning ofdramatic changes in China and ofa close relationship between Chinaand IRRI. Back at IRRI, we met thestaff at the guesthouse to report onour trip and later published a reportin English and Chinese (with a red

cover),Rice research and productionin China: an IRR I team s view ,

which detailed our observations.

Dr. Barker headed the Departm ent of

Agricultural Economics at IRR I from

1966 to 1978. In 200 7-08 , he return ed

to IRR I as acting head of the Social

Sciences Division. He extends his

thanks to those who m ade the trip

w ith him and others for their useful

comments.


28/44

byBas Bouman


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