Rice Today Volume 3 number 2

8/14/2019 Rice Today Volume 3 number 2

1/40

ISSN 1655-5422

www.irri.org

International Rice Research Institute April-June 2004, Vol. 3 No. 2

The tao of Tom:A philosophers

life in science

Taking part:Farmers guidecrop selection

Rice year forum:

Farm and marketissues in Rome

CRYING TIMEWomen learn to cope when their menfolk leave the farm

Ofcialpublication

InternationalYearofRice2


2/40

iRice

Sciencefor a BetterWorld

Rice is

LifeI N T E R N A T I O N A L Y E A R O F R I C E 2 0 0 4


3/40

contentsVol. 3, No. 2

should ot be costrued as expressig IRRI policy or opiio o the legal status of aycoutry, territory, city or area, or its authorities, or the delimitatio of its frotiers orboudaries.

Rice Todaywelcomes commets ad suggestios from readers. Potetial cotributorsare encouraged to query rst, rather than submit unsolicited materials. Rice Todayassumes o resposibility for loss or damage to usolicited submissios, which shouldbe accompanied by sufcient return postage.

Copyright Iteratioal Rice Research Istitute 2004

International Rice Research InstituteDAPO Box 7777, Metro Maila, Philippies

Web (IRRI): www.irri.org; Web (Library): http://ricelib.irri.cgiar.org;Web (Riceweb): www.riceweb.org; Web (Rice Kowledge Bak):www.kowledgebak.irri.org

Rice Todayeditorialtelephoe (+63-2) 580-5600 or (+63-2) 844-3351 to 53, ext 2401;fax: (+63-2) 580-5699 or (+63-2) 845-0606; email: [email protected]

Rice Todayis published by the Iteratioal Rice Research Istitute (IRRI), the worldsleadig iteratioal rice research ad traiig ceter. Based i the Philippies ad withofces in 11 other countries, IRRI is an autonomous, nonprot institution focused onimprovig the well-beig of preset ad future geeratios of rice farmers ad cosumers,particularly those with low icomes, while preservig atural resources. IRRI is oe of15 ceters fuded by the Cosultative Group o Iteratioal Agricultural Research(CGIAR), a associatio of public ad private door agecies. For more iformatio,visit the CGIAR Web site (www.cgiar.org).

Resposibility for this publicatio rests with IRRI. Desigatios used i this publicatio

Cover Peter Fredenburg

Editor Peter Fredenburg

Deputy editor Adam BarclayArt director Juan Lazaro IVCotributig editors Duncan Macintosh, Gene Hettel, Bill HardyDesiger ad productio supervisor George ReyesPhoto editorAriel JavellanaCirculatio Al BenaventePriter Primex Printers, Inc.

IntroducIng IrrI. 4Proud to lead the way

donors corner . 5Agriculture and poverty reduction: The UnitedKingdoms Department for InternationalDevelopment unlocks the potential

news. 6Three Reductions project wins

Vietnamese Award

Gurdev Khush honored in Iran

Korea gives direct seeder to IRRI

Donors increase support foragriculture group

rIce In the news. 8International Year of Rice makes news

Rural poverty in Asia undermines stability

Asias rice industry in crisis Jakarta Post

Philippine columnist rethinks rice imports

Bangladesh government urged topayfor the penny

cryIng tIme

10As migrant workers across Asia leavefarmwives home alone, three womenin a poor Vietnamese village shed lighton the socioeconomic and food-securityimplications along with a few tears

the tao of tom. 16A lifes journey of nearly 3 decades in rice

research brings this beloved scientist-cum-philosopher full circle

takIng part 22Rice breeders for dicult environments

are improving cultivar adoption ratesby securing farmersearly participationin the selection process

sil i: . 27

InternatIonaL year of rIceRice experts converge ona rare opportunity

in Rome

Ringing in International Year of Rice

Rice conference in Japan set for November

Photo contest highlights rice

International Year of Rice contactsoutside Asia

Conferences, meetings, workshopsand training

peopLe. 35Last farewell for rst board: Paul Ma, aged 97

Partners in progress

Keeping up with IRRI sta

new Books. 36IRRI adds three new titles to its inventory of

publications on rice research and related topics

Former IRRI soil scientist Guy Kirk releasesThe Biogeochemistry of Submerged Soils

rIce facts. 37Rice imports come with the territory:

Exporters plant more than half of their croparea to rice importers less than half

graIn of truth. 38Fear and loathing drive needless

insecticide use


4/40

InTRODuCInG IRRI

Proud to leadthe way

The world was a terrify-ing place in 1952-53. Theperiod saw the rst use ofpopulation explosion in

Time magazine and a cruel irony therst detonation, over the Pacic Ocean, of

a hydrogen bomb. It also brought acrossthe Pacic two senior Rockefeller Founda-tion agriculturalists to study how to end

2 decades of stagnating rice yields in Asia.By 1960, the population explosion was acover story in Time, and the InternationalRice Research Institute (IRRI) was estab-lished in the Philippines to shore up globalfood security in the face of exponentialpopulation growth.

Along with the other midwife of theGreen Revolution, the Mexico-basedInternational Maize and Wheat Improve-ment Center, IRRI was a prototype for aglobal network of research centers that,since 1971, have found common purpose

within the Consultative Group on Interna-

tional Agricultural Research. With morethan US$400 million in annual fundingfrom its 63 cosponsors and member statesand organizations in particular the

World Bank and developed countries inNorth America, Europe and theAsia Pacic the 15-center

group represents the worldslargest investment in mobiliz-ing science to generate publicgoods for poor farm com-munities.

Since IRRIs release in1966 of the rst modernrice variety, the insti-

tute has led the way indeveloping improvedrice cultivars and other

agricultural technologies tobenet Asias 200 million rice farmers

and the billions of rice consumers who

depend on them for reliable, affordablesupplies of their staple food. IRRIs work,on its research campus at Los Baos andacross Asia in collaboration with the na-tional partners it has nurtured, has greatlycontributed to the near doubling of the

Asian rice harvest since 1970.Today, the institute combines rice-

biodiversity conservation, gene discovery

and plant breeding with natural resourcemanagement, integrated pest manage-ment, agricultural engineering andpostharvest technologies, and social andpolicy studies to develop ecologicallyand economically sustainable strategiesto reverse a troubling new stagnationin rice-yield improvement. This trendoccurs in the contexts of slowing popula-tion growth and Asian farmers enjoyingan average yield more than double that oftheir parents and grandparents at IRRIsfounding. It nevertheless threatens to

undermine the indispensable agricultural

foundation of development, thus sabotag-ing the prospects of todays 500 millionpoor in rice-producing Asia and a largeportion of the billions to be born in theseveral decades before the global popula-tion nally stabilizes.

People at IRRI take pride in howthey, their colleagues and their prede-cessors going back to the shell-shockedmiddle of the 20th century have helpedto make the world a more prosper-ous, safe and hopeful place. But muchremains to be done to achieve the UnitedNations Millennium Development Goalsand so alleviate hunger, want, prevent-

able disease, ignorance, inequality andenvironmental degradation. With contin-ued support, IRRIs 1,000 scientists, ad-ministrators, support staff and contract

workers will contribute much more thantheir share.


5/40

The United King-doms Departmentfor International

Development (DFID) isthe government depart-ment responsible forpromoting sustainabledevelopment and reducingpoverty. The central focusof policy, explained intwo white papers of 1997and 2000, is to achieve

by 2015 the internation-ally agreed Millennium

Development Goals. Theseseek to:

Eradicate extremepoverty and hunger,

Achieve universal

primary education,

Promote genderequality and empower

women,

Reduce child mortality,

Improve maternalhealth,

Combat HIV/AIDS,malaria and other

diseases, Ensure environmental sustainability,

Develop a global partnership for devel-opment.Agriculture, in its broadest sense,

is responsible for making the connec-tions among these areas, especially in

the poorest countries whose economieshave not yet diversied and where thegreat majority of people still live in ruralareas. Furthermore a study on agriculturalproductivity and poverty alleviation thatappeared a few years ago inDevelopment

Policy Review showed that growth in

agriculture benets the poor more thangrowth in any other sector, and that yieldincreases of just 1% reduce the proportionof people living on less than $1 per day by0.6-1.2%.

Regional disparitiesSince 1970, largely due to technicaladvances made by agricultural research

organizations throughout the world, globalfood production outstripped populationgrowth, but the average gures disguise

DOnORS CORnER

big regional disparities. In Southeast Asia,Green Revolution technology saved millionsof lives and lifted millions out of poverty byproviding a platform for diversied econom-ic growth. In contrast, agricultural produc-

tion declined by 5% in sub-Saharan Africabetween 1980 and 2001, and the number ofpeople suffering hunger increased by half.Even in Asia rates of productivity growthare slowing, and many people have never

beneted from Green Revolution technol-ogy. In India alone some 300 million peoplestill live in extreme poverty.

Basically, agriculture has performed

badly in areas where it needs to work well.Consequently in recent years donor fund-ing for agricultural research investmentsin rural development has declined dra-matically in real terms, and the relevanceof agriculture has been called into question.DFID has been working on policy options

to harness renewed interest in agricultureby developing-country governments andinternational agencies.

The U.K. recognizes that more aidspent on agriculture will on its own achieve

little and has prioritizedthe need to identify andadopt practical measures

that will unlock thepotential of agriculturefor poverty reduction. Theinternational develop-ment community needsto work together to ndapproaches that can

work in situations far lessfavorable to smallholderfarming than those expe-rienced in the rst Green

Revolution in Asia.

PartnershipsEven in the past de-cade, when funding for

research became muchtighter, DFID main-tained its support forinternational agriculturalresearch. Total contri-

butions in 2002 to theConsultative Group onInternational Agricul-tural Research (CGIAR),

IRRIs parent organization, were around15 million, making DFID one of thelargest donors after the World Bank. Inaddition, many CGIAR centers alreadyparticipate in research conductedthrough bilateral research programs. Itis anticipated that such productive part-

nerships will continue under the newresearch strategy that DFID is currentlydeveloping.

Recent work by the InternationalFood Policy Research Institute, partlysupported by DFID, has shown the

widespread and diverse impact of

international agricultural research bythe CGIAR, much of which has directly

beneted the poor. An important ndingis that increased returns for farmersoften make up only a small proportion ofthe benets, the main gains arising fromlower food prices due to supply increas-es, which benet both urban and ruralpoor. Such impacts were an inuential

factor in the decision to increase DFIDsupport to the CGIAR by 30 millionover the next 3 years.

Agriculture and poverty reduction:unlocking the potential byJona t han Wadswor t h

Dr. WaDsWorth, ul livelid dvie in e Cenl reec Depmen DFIDPlicy Diviin, dped i clumn DFID plicy ppe wi e me ile publiedin Decembe 2003 nd vilble unde Publicin www.dd.gv.uk.

DFIDDepartment forInternational

Development

Rice TodayApril 2004


6/40


7/40

Briefy Briefy Briefy

Rice TodayApril 2004

ate Study and Research in Agriculture in LosBaos, Dr. Padolina stressed the importanceof managing biological and environmentalrisks associated with food and agriculturein a globalized world.

Basmati grow i PhilippiesFarmers in the Bicol region of the Philip-pines have begun planting basmati rice andplan to promote the aromatic South Asian

variety, which was introduced by Bicolfarmer Rodolfo Tuanqui, in surroundingareas. Growers are currently purifying theirlines and hope that the rice will be ready formarket this year.

Improvig livelihood i IdiaIRRI and the International Maize and

Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)held a workshop on Accelerating technol-ogy adoption to improve rural livelihoods

on the rainfed Eastern Gangetic Plainsin February in New Delhi, India. The

workshops 58 participants from Bangla-desh, India, Nepal, CIMMYT, IRRI andthe World Agroforestry Center identied

technologies that have the potential to en-hance productivity and conserve resources and so improve rural livelihoods foreach of the projects 11 sites. A work planfor farmer participatory research was devel-oped to validate and disseminate the identi-ed technologies. Participants also formeda research team of technology innovatorsand promoters for each site.

Cheaper fuel from riceMany Indian and Thai cement exporters arenow heating their kilns with rice husks. Thisalternative fuel reduces fossil fuel emissionsand, if transport distances are not too great,is relatively cheap. Burning rice husks can

potentially save millions of dollars per yearand has attracted interest in China (the

worlds largest producer of both rice andcement), Vietnam, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. One of the pioneers, Thailands Siam

City Cement, now saves as much as US$6.1million a year after investing $380,000 innew equipment 3 years ago.

Bra ew road surfaceJapanese scientists have used rice waste tomake roads that absorb noise better, drainmore quickly and are less susceptible toextremes of temperature than conventionaroad surfaces. The new surface contains rice

bran, the brown by-product left after polishing rice grains, which is usually used ascattle feed or simply thrown away. Mixing

bran with resins results in a material that ishard and resilient but also light and porous

when added to asphalt or aggregate.

Three Reductios projectwis Vietamese award

Acommunications project designed tomotivate farmers to reduce their seed,fertilizer and pesticide use has won the Viet-namese Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment 2003 Golden Rice Award for

best agricultural innovation. The team that

developed the Three Reductions Initiativereceived the winners plaques in Decemberfrom Vice Minister Bui Ba Bong during theCantho International Agricultural Fair. The

IRRI-led No early insecticide spray proj-ect, which used a similar approach to reduceinsecticide use, won the 2002 award.

The project led by Nguyen Huu Huan,vice director general of the Plant ProtectionDepartment, since its start in 2000 de-

veloped a poster, a leaet, and radio and TVdramas. Supplemented by farmer interviewsand game shows, these reached thousandsof farmers and prompted three provincial

governments and the Danish InternationalDevelopment Agency to allocate additionalresources to extend the project.

The picture below shows (from left)Tran Van Hai (Cantho University), NguyenHuu Huan (Vietnam Plant Protection De-

partment), Pham Van Quynh (Cantho PlantProtection Sub-Department), Pham Sy Tan(Cuu Long Delta Rice Research Institute),Monina Escalada (IRRI), K.L. Heong (IRRI,

see Grain of Truth, page 38),Nguyen Van Ngau (CanthoDepartment of Agricultureand Rural Development),

Pham Van Du (Cuu LongDelta Rice Research In-stitute). Not pictured areIRRI scientists Vethaiya

Balasubramanian and Ro-land Buresh, Ha Anh Dung

(Cantho provincial extension center), andNguyen Hong Linh (Cantho television).

After being launched on 8 March 2003the Three Reductions practices spread tomore than 90% of the farmers at the targesites, Omon and Vi Thuy, in Cantho Province. Most farmers found that they couldreduce input costs by as much as US$50-100

per hectare per season.Capitalizing on the success of the

program, IRRI entomologist K.L. Heongled a drama script-writing workshop using

the entertainment education approach inVientiane, Laos, in December.

thrEE rEDUCtIoNs: scieni m IrrI, swi agency Develpmen nd CpeCuu Lng Del rice reec Iniue, nd Vienm Miniy agiculue nd rulDevelpmen celebed Ineninl Ye rice n Febuy in My tn Nm, niled villge in e Mekng Del pvince tien Ging in wic 13 me wpciced tee reducin ecnique enjyed bumpe cp nd impved p.


8/40


9/40

Abdul Bayes, professor of economics atJahangirnagar University and contribu-tor to The Daily Star, urged in a columnpublished on 2 December that Bangladeshcease to be a nonpaying member of theConsultative Group on International Agri-cultural Research (CGIAR).

The Bangladesh government shouldnow pay the membership fees every year and

should earn its voice in the deliberations ofthe CGIAR, he wrote, adding that an annualsubscription of half a million dollars would

be appropriate. This is miniscule in terms

of the costs but would, possibly, raise theimage of the country substantially in theinternational forum.

Dr. Bayes cited research by MahabubHossain, a fellow Bangladeshi economistand head of IRRIs Social Sciences Division,measuring the benet that has accrued totheir homeland from rice research. Dr. Hos-sain estimates a benet averaging $652 mil-lion per year in the 3 decades to 1993, with

In a series of meetings and media interviewsin Australia in February, Keijiro Otsuka,chair of the IRRI Board of Trustees, warnedthat lagging development in the Asian ricesector threatens stability in Asia, especiallyin Indonesia and the Philippines. Dr. Otsuka

also outlined how new technologies fromIRRI promise to lift Asian rice farmers outof poverty and still their restlessness caused

by a lack of opportunity.National, metropolitan and regional

print and radio media picked up his mes-sage, includingRadio National Bush Tele-

graph,National Commercial Radio RuralNews, and major rural press publications.The April/May issue ofAsia Today Inter-nationalmagazine (www.asiatoday.com.au)

was expected to carry an article on the issuesraised during the visit, and a related opinionpiece by Dr. Otsuka (www.onlineopinion.co

m.au/view.asp?article=2027) was slated toappear in The Canberra Times in March.

After headlining on 16 January the arrival of International Year of Rice withUN grants to rice its due recognition, the

Bangkok Post, the leading English-languagedaily in the capital of Thailand, the worlds

biggest rice exporter, ran on the front page

of its 25 January issue In appreciation ofthe Year of Rice. This guest perspective

by IRRI Director General Ronald Cantrelspelled out the signicance of the foodthat feeds almost half the world on a daily

basis and how the International Year oRice promises to focus attention on the con

cerns of poor rice farmers and consumersespecially in Asia.

Perhaps 2004 will be the year whenthe people of Asia realize that we share onecommon value or belief a deep appreciation of rice, Dr. Cantrell wrote. More thanpolitics, religion or culture, rice is the one

thing that truly denes Asia.Dr. Cantrell pointed out that sustain

able economic development depends onlifting rice farmers and the rural, landlesspoor out of poverty. He then outlined severaissues, challenges and opportunities now affecting rice research, from the sequencing othe rice genome and the complex questionof national claims on rice varieties, to scien

tists efforts to augment the micronutrientcontent of rice and to help farmers use water more efciently. Finally, he underscoredhow a funding crisis is undermining the

work of rice scientists and other public

sector agricultural researchers.In Japan, Kyodo News, the Associated

Press and The Japan Times were amongthe news organizations that reported comments made on 20 January by Dat VanTran, senior rice agronomist for the Foodand Agriculture Organization (FAO) of theUnited Nations and executive secretary ofits International Rice Commission.

Dr. Tran, who was in Tokyo for aworkshop marking International Year o

Rice, expressed hope that the Japanesegovernment would redouble its efforts toraise global awareness of the issues affect

ing rice farming and the need to supporresearch in developing countries. He addedthat 500 million of the worlds 840 millionchronically hungry live in areas dependenton rice.

We eat rice almost every day, the Vietnamese FAO ofcial added, referrinto his Japanese hosts and other AsiansBut in Europe and America, we raise theissue, but they are not aware. I think Japanshould try to be more involved in globalawareness.

Meetings with Bob Clements, executivedirector of the ATSE Crawford Fund, and

with senior personnel from the AustralianCenter for International Agricultural Re-search provided further opportunities todiscuss events associated with the Interna-tional Year of Rice, current and proposed

IRRI projects, and additional prospects forpartnerships and collaboration.

cost savings in rice production accountingfor almost half. In the same period, the av-erage total investment in rice research andtechnology transfer in Bangladesh was $18million per year.

The benet-cost ratio is estimatedto be 16.6 if only the cost saving in rice pro-duction is considered, wrote Dr. Bayes,counting among the additional gains foreign

exchange savings from reduced rice importsand the expertise earned by Bangladeshi ag-ricultural researchers.

The cost savings in rice production

and faster growth in rice supply comparedwith population growth have contributed toa fall in rice prices by about 1.6% a year,Dr. Bayes observed, adding that the main

beneciaries of lower rice prices were urbanand landless rural poor. Lets pay, partlyat least, for the penny that we earn or savethrough the stewardship of CGIAR institu-tions and make ourselves proud of being apaid member.

Year of Rice makes newsin Thailand and Japan

Rural poverty in Asiaundermines stability

Bangladesh government urged to pay for the penny

9Rice TodayApril 2004

Keiji ouk.

erring ny degee on IRRI Director GeneralRonald Cantrell; ormer IRRI Director General (1982-88) M.S. Swaminathan; R.S. Paroda, ormer directorgeneral o the Indian Council o Agricultural Research(ICAR); Mangala Rai, current director general o ICAR;M.C. Saxena, assistant director general o the Inter-national Center or Agricultural Research in the DryAreas; social and religious activist Swami Kalian DoeJig; and social worker Jagdish Prasad Mathur.

Glden rice, the provitamin A-rich rice whosetropical versions are now under development at IRRI,continues to be a lightning rod in the ongoing debate

over this and other products o biotechnology, orgenetic modifcation (GM), as in Nao Nakanishis storyposted by Reuters on 19 February,Is Golden Rice thecrop to prove GMs worth?, and Cecil Morellas storyposted by AFP on 30 November, Scientists harness ricegene in global battle against poverty. Morella ollowedup on 7 December with another story or AFP, whichwas picked up by the Sun.Star network o communitynewspapers in the Philippines, on how unding cutsare undermining the competitiveness o IRRI andother producers o international public goods asbiotech frms muscle in on rice research.


10/40

ariel javellana10 Rice TodayApril 2004

When they comecalling in a village,Truong Thi NgocChi and TranThi Ngoc Mai

bring the refreshments. They dothis because the poor rice-farmingwomen who receive them would behard pressed to offer nuts and rice

cakes to nibble on while sharinginformation, tea and sympathy. Chi,an associate scientist at the CuuLong Delta Rice Research Institute,and Mai, a researcher at the sameMekong Delta-based institute,are researching how Vietnamesewomen cope with the demands ofrice farming when their husbands

migrate away to earn extra income.Were looking at how farm

families are bearing up as modernforces restructure rural economiesacross Asia and redene the place ofrural people in national societies,explains Thelma Paris, a genderspecialist in the Social SciencesDivision of the International Rice

Story and photography by Peter Fredenburg


11/40


As migrant workers

across Asia leave

farmwives home

alone, three womenin a poor Vietnamese

village shed light on

the socioeconomic

and food-security

implications along

with a few tears

Research Institute (IRRI), who coordinates theresearch in southern Vietnam with parallel workin Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia and India.The results have implications for formulatingpolicies to manage change in a way that broadlymaintains and improves social welfare. And theresearch should provide early warning if rapidchange in the countryside is undermining thenational and regional food security that weve

thaCh thI sEUubnd nd elde

n le e un emily m in 199

wen ey k upm wge lb in enex pvince, viiing

me 3 4 imepe ye.


12/40

aileend

elrosario-rondilla

12 Rice TodayApril 2004

worked so hard over the past severaldecades to achieve.

Results to date show that thewomen left behind generally copewell with their expanded roles. Theycertainly welcome the opportunityto tell social scientists about theirsuccesses and failures, their abidinghopes and loneliest fears. Butgaps still open up in conversation,potentially awkward moments thatthe refreshments help to ll.

The women, Chi observes,often cry.

The southern Vietnamese hamletof Gia Tieu consists largely of thatchhuts with oors of packed earth. A

sun-scorched, rutted track along anirrigation canal provides two-wheeledaccess from the road a couple ofkilometers away. The tiny rice farmsof Gia Tieu, typically measuring1 ha or less, are poverty traps despiteirrigation. Small wonder that manyresidents here, especially men, seekoff-farm employment.

It is an old story that workersthroughout the developing worldmigrate to nd jobs in cities and remit

earnings to relatives back home. Thisstudy found, however, that morethan two-thirds of the migrants fromfamilies in the study area in BacLieu Province, one of the poorestin the Mekong Delta, work not incities but in other rural districts,mostly in agriculture but also inconstruction. More than a third ofthe women receive no remittancesbecause their husbands can barelysupport themselves on the US$1-2they earn for a days work. Others faresomewhat better, and remittances

typically account for a quarter ofthe income of farm families withmigrants, bringing their average percapita annual income to $190. This ishigher than the $145 gure for farmfamilies without migrants, but stillbelow the Bac Lieu per capita grossdomestic product of $296.

In short, migrant families startout poor and usually stay that way.Nearly half of the women left behindcite their childrens education as theonly real benet of migration. Almostas many say they gain nothing. Somereport that their neighbors beliefthat they are better off actually makesgetting loans more difcult.

Despite everything, womengenerally manage to maintain theproductivity of their rice elds, albeitat the cost of considerable effort andanxiety. Pest control is especiallychallenging, as womens traditionalinexperience in identifying pestsand the appropriate pesticide to useis compounded by the difculty ofcarrying a bulky backpack sprayer.They hire help for this and other heavywork such as preparing land, applying


13/40


fertilizer and hauling sacks of grain often going into debtto do so.

Still, they feel vulnerable to theft and violence,says Chi. Many cant manage water as efciently as theyshould because theyre afraid to go out to their elds aloneat night.

Just sad

Thach Thi Seu describes her farm management as onlyso-so since 1996, when her husband and eldest son starteddoing farm labor mostly threshing and hauling rice half a days drive away across the Mekong Delta inCantho Province. Her husband visits 3 or 4 times per year,staying for as many days each time. He remits $20 permonth, which Seu goes to Cantho to collect when there isno convenient traveler to deliver the money. She dependson neighbors and shopkeepers for advice on fertilizers andpesticides, which she hires labor to apply.

Mostly Im just sad because my husband is absent,says the 46-year-old mother of ve. But I have to bearit because were poor. I used to worry that he might be

unfaithful but not any more.En route to the next interview, Chi quietly laments

that the head of the hamlet womens association is sitting

traN thI NGoC MaI ke ne tc ti seu ell lie me-lne mwie; (inset, from left) Mi, neigb cild, seu nd tung ti Ngc Ci pe inn seu' ue. (Continuing clockwise) Ci en-lled in ecen cue n ledeip ain wmenin giculue eec nd develpmen in e tiningCene IrrI; wmn w pduce mke in BcLieu Pvince; Ci ineview Pn ti Be.


14/40


in, precluding discussion of suchhighly personal concerns as sexuallytransmitted disease. Ill come back forthat another time, she says.

Phan Thi Be is thin and visiblyweak, her spindly neck bandagedwhere a tumor was recently removed.Despite her frail appearance and

wistful manner, this 52-year-oldmother of three makes most of thedecisions regarding her familys0.65 ha of rice land and does much ofthe work. After her two grown sonsand hired hands do land preparationand planting, she lls the gaps inplanting and pulls the weeds. And,after they harvest and thresh the rice,she dries it.

My husband didnt have anyskills when he migrated, she recalls.We grew rice and raised ducks, but

disease killed most of the ducks 3years ago. That left us in debt, somy husband decided to migrate. Heand my daughter went to Ho ChiMinh City. A neighbor knew aboutconstruction work there. The bossassigns my husband easy jobs likecleaning bricks because hes 49 andtoo old for heavy work. The mailservice is slow, so we write only ifsomeone can hand-carry the letter.He comes home once a year duringthe Tet holiday for a week or 10 days.

Our daughter was also doingconstruction, but now she works in abakery, she adds. She doesnt makeenough to send home money, but shecomes to stay with me when Im sick.

Be who lives with her youngerson, his wife and their 2-year-olddaughter regrets that her husbandswork comes irregularly and thathe can remit only $20-25 every 4or 5 months. All of the money goesto repaying the family debt, which

peaked at $500 and is now down to$300, despite 6% monthly interestand a new loan last year for acorrugated berglass roof to replaceleaking thatch. We cant spend thismoney, she says. I worry becauseof debt. She pins her hopes on heryounger sons plan to raise shrimp,a venture perhaps inspired by hisseasonal work in the neighboringprovince of Soc Trang, where heoperates pond-digging machinery.

I feel overworked, admitsanother interviewee, Nguyen Thi Le,an apparently healthy and energetic36-year-old mother of four, aged 5 to16, whose husband has spent mostof the past 5 years building houses25 km away from Gia Tieu. Besideshousework and taking care of the

children including helping themwith their lessons in the evening I have to manage most of the ricefarming. After my clothes get dirtyfrom working in the eld, I just wearthem in the canal while netting sh.Fishing isnt difcult, and each time

I get a bowl of small sh, which isenough for a meal with vegetablesthat I gather from around thehomestead. I also do farm labor forothers, mainly hand-weedingand gap-lling. We own a boat,so when the weather is fair I ferrypassengers usually students and

other villagers to the road.Les husband returns once

or twice a month for 1 or 2 days coming home more frequently andstaying longer when it is time to sowor harvest their 0.78 ha of rice. Heraspirations? Id like to earn enough


15/40


so that my husband could stay here allof the time, so we could be together asa family, she replies. And I hope mychildren can nd steady jobs.

Children leaveLes desire to see her childrenleave rice farming echoes theresults of a parallel preliminarystudy, funded by the DanishInternational Development Agency,in northeast Thailand. Dr. Parisand Nongluck Suphanchaimat, herThai collaborator, note that labor

migration to the nonfarm sectoris common among young laborersaged 15 to 20, and this will continueto take educated persons awayfrom agriculture. How the statusof farming has evolved in northeastThailand may offer a foretaste of whatto expect in less-developed Vietnamand later in Cambodia and Laos.

Weve completed extensivestudies to monitor the socialconsequences of male labor out-

migration in selected villages in India,Philippines and Indonesia, Dr. Parisreports. With funding from theAustralian Center for InternationalAgricultural Research for 2004 to2006, were conducting similarlyextensive studies in Vietnam andnortheastern Thailand. We need tounderstand more fully the impact of

migration on the efciency of Asianrice production. Finally, we need toexpand our efforts to provide thesewomen with proper training inimproved farming methods.

Meanwhile, every day sees morewomen in Vietnam and other Asiancountries left behind on the farm tolearn how to cope alone.

NGUYEN thI LE end e eld (shown here afterthe harvest with Chi), eie vele beween ed nd e villge (below), nd c ne dinne (opposite) en mue e enegy elp e cilden wi ei len.


16/40

A lifes journey of nearly 3 decades inrice research brings this beloved

scientist-cum-philosopher full circle

The tao ofTOM

b y A d a m B a r c l a y

Because his discoverieshave improved the lives ofmillions of poor rice farmersand consumers, its perhapssurprising that Tom Mew

never wanted to be a scientist. He hada different dream.

When I nished high school, Iwanted to go into liberal arts, saysthe 64-year-old plant pathologist.My rst choice was philosophy. But

my family wasnt nancially secure,so my father insisted I should studysomething that would guarantee asteady income.

Dr. Mew will retire in Augustafter 29 years at the InternationalRice Research Institute (IRRI),including 22 years as the head of itsEntomology and Plant PathologyDivision. His distinguished career hasearned him the admiration of


17/40


18/40


19/40


youre doing and go to the eld withhim, Dr. Mew recounts. So thatswhat they did. When youre a youngscientist, that really gives you a warmfeeling.

At Dr. Chandlers urging, Dr.Mew applied in 1975 for an openingat IRRI. While in Malaysia on home

leave, he received a telex from Dr.Chandler asking him to go to IRRIfor the International Rice ResearchConference and as Dr. Mewlearned only upon his arrival a jobinterview. Entering IRRIs gates forthe rst time was memorable.

Walking around the IRRIcampus wow! These were peopleI admired from afar and hoped oneday to be one of, Dr. Mew recalls.In those days, if you worked ininternational agriculture even for

only a few years you knew all thenames, who was who.

Go to the feldLater that year, Dr. Mew took up hisduties in the plant pathology division,then led by S.H. Ou, a renowned plantpathologist and another big inuenceon Dr. Mews scientic outlook.

Right off, he told me to go to theeld more often, recalls Dr. Mew.See the problem in the eld. Youcant make good observations juststaying in the lab. You wont knowwhat the crop is all about. You wontknow how rice grows. Learn how thedisease develops, then start designingyour project.

Another IRRI plant pathologist,Hei Leung who was recruited andmentored by Dr. Mew conrms that

Ensuring good seed

health requires armers

to select high-quality

seeds with care and to store

them correctly.

We recognized seed-

related problems in riceproduction as early as the

1970s, says Tom Mew,

noting that rice seed, like

any other, harbors microbes,

some that are benefcial and

many that are pathogens.

We worried about it, but no

one actually tried to apply

seed-health management to

control pests and diseases. I armers start with good seed that produces a healthy crop,

it solves many production problems. So, in the early 1980s, I started looking at armers

options to manage seed health in the Philippines.

Research revealed that many traditional but waning arm practices incorporated

basic elements o seed-health management. Ater saving seeds rom the best plants inthe crop, armers oten stored the panicles near the kitchen stove, the heat rom which

kept them relatively dry. As a bonus, smoke rom the stove umigated the seeds, reducing

pest problems. In recent decades, however, with younger men leaving the arm and the

resulting labor shortage, armers have become less careul about selecting and storing

seed. Seed quality deteriorates rom one season to the next, lowering yields.

Dr. Mew recently studied the benefts o seed health improvement in a subproject o

Poverty Elimination Through Rice Research Assistance, a bilateral project in Bangladesh

managed by IRRI and unded by the United Kingdoms Department or International

Development (see page 5). He ound that educating Bangladeshi armers on how to choose

and store seeds can increase yield by 10%.

dont think we could nd anyone elselike him in our discipline anymore,because were so specialized now.

Dr. Mews eagerness to get out ofthe lab and work closely with farmershas been instrumental in bringinglong-overdue focus on managingseed health (see sidebar above). Hiswork in seed health is a down-to-earth thing that has had tremendousimpact, comments Dr. Leung.

More broadly, Dr. Mews successin making the Entomology and PlantPathology Division a world leader

has depended on his ability to bothmaintain a big-picture perspectiveand stay ahead of the curve regardingmodern trends toward specialization.Tom had the vision to know that,if you want to be a player in ricepathology, youve got to have strengthin individual disciplines, explainsDr. Leung. So, after he became head,he assembled a team with me onhost-pathogen relationships usingmolecular biology, Hiroyuki Hibino

Dr. Ous message still comes throughloud and clear.

What impresses me most isthat, when you take Tom to the eld,hes at home, says Dr. Leung. Hesprobably the most knowledgeablerice-eld pathologist living. And heswilling to look at things outside hisarea. That ability to appreciate sciencein general is a huge advantage. I

arieljavellana

Dr. MEW nd me IrrI ine rge rle ( left) dicu eedel wi lcl me 2001 wkp in Inn, Pilippine.

Begin with a seed

Dr. MEW EXaMINEs ice leeced by bceil le ek.


20/40


21/40


some armers in the southwestern

Chinese province o Yunnan have tra-

ditionally planted dierent varieties o

rice alongside each other to control pests

and diseases. Techniques varied rom place

to place, and the mechanism at work was a

mystery. The practice became less common

with the arrival o modern, pest-resistant

hybrid rice varieties.

In 1998, Tom Mew and his collaboratorsset out to learn how well biodiversity in ricecontrols disease, which techniques are most

eective and how the process works. Cooperating armers interplanted 812 ha with a modernhybrid resistant to the ungal disease rice blast and a traditional glutinous (sticky) ricevariety that etched a good price but was highly susceptible to the disease. In the traditionalvariety, blast incidence dropped to 5% rom an average o 55% seen in monoculture. Theollowing year, the interplanted area expanded to more than 3,000 ha, and armers reportedan average o US$281 more income per hectare compared to growing hybrids alone.

Not only do rows o hybrids block the transmission o the blast ungus between

rows o glutinous rice, but the presence in the feld o susceptible rice plants appears to

lengthen the useul lie o improved, resistant varieties. Susceptible plants provide reuge

to pathogens, reducing selective pressure on them to overcome plant resistance. Farmers

both achieve better plant protection with minimal ungicide use and preserve populartraditional varieties, once endangered outside o genebanks, as proftable feld crops.

By 2002, more than 200,000 ha in 101 counties o Yunnan were sporting the distinc-

tive pinstripes made by individual rows o tall traditional varieties between 5 or 6 rows

o shorter hybrids. The New York Times described the project as a stunning new result

rom what has become one o the largest agricultural experiments ever. The technique

is now being applied in other countries and has helped quell outbreaks o tungro virus in

the Philippine province o Iloilo.

After he hangs up his IRRI labcoat in August, Dr. Mew aims tostay active in research. With hissecond wife, Teresita, and theirtwo daughters, he will stay in thePhilippines. Perhaps he will indulge,at least for a while, his taste forreading Shakespeare and collectingne Chinese tea services. His rstproject will be a comprehensiverevision ofRice Diseases, thepathologists bible originally writtenby the same Dr. Ou who advised himto get out of the lab and into the eld.

Dr. Mews 29 years of workingon rice, the staple food of half of

humanity, has allowed him to achievemore than he would likely havedreamed of as a young Ph.D. workingon mung beans in Taiwan. Andphilosophys apparent loss has turnedout to be sciences gain, becomingthe yin that guided his personal andprofessional development in tandemwith the yang of scientic training.

To be a good scientist,he reminds us, you need to besomething of a dreamer.

A different stripe

arieljavellana

aileend

elrosario-rondilla

irri

INtErPLaNtING in Yunnn Pvince, Cin.


22/40


Rice breeders for difcult environments

are improving cultivar adoption rates by securing

farmers early participation in the selection process

Rice breeders who targetrainfed areas struggleto emulate the successof breeders for irrigatedconditions, who see their

products rapidly adopted by farmers.This success stems from breedersclear understanding of the needs andpreferences of farmers who growirrigated rice and their ability toreproduce the irrigated productionenvironment on the research station.

Taking partTakingpartby Gary At l in


23/40


By comparison, developingimproved rice varieties fornonirrigated areas has been slow andfrustrating. Farmers who dependentirely on rainfall farm a bewilderingarray of environments, from thecraggy mountains of northern Laosto the tidal ats of Bangladesh.They are often much poorer thanthose in irrigated areas because theyproduce only one rice crop per yearand eke out yields that are lower on

average than those of irrigated-ricefarmers. They sell less of their output,depending heavily on their rice cropfor basic household food security.Because their cash income is low,and they risk losing crops to droughtand ood, farmers in rainfed areasminimize risk by applying muchless fertilizer than do irrigated-ricegrowers.

The highly productive, fertilizer-responsive varieties bred for irrigated

conditions cannot tolerate theooding and drought that commonlyafict rainfed areas, which requirevarieties specically adapted tothem. Asian breeding programs haveproduced many such candidates, butonly a few have been widely adoptedby farmers notablyMahsuriandSwarna in India and Bangladesh, andTDK 1 in Laos and then onlyin relatively favorable rainfed areas.In the driest uplands and the most

A tribAl womAn la p p J a x a a a. t d p aa apapa xp p p up a d, . A a (opposite) ak a a fd da a luaPaa, u a pa-pa aa d ua a.

peter fredenburg (2


24/40

brucelinquist(2)


ood-prone lowlands, farmers

continue to grow traditional varieties.Two reasons explain why rainfed

rice farmers are slow to adoptimproved varieties. One a problemmore of extension than breeding isthat many farmers simply cannotget seed of new varieties. Anotherreason is that the varieties may notperform well in the challengingrainfed environment or else lacka characteristic of unanticipatedimportance to farmers, such aspalatability the day after cooking orease of threshing. The complexitiesof developing acceptable cultivarsfor variable and stressful rainfedenvironments require that breedersbecome deeply familiar with farmersneeds and preferences.

To keep improved varieties from

languishing on the shelf, breeders areadopting new methods that involvefarmers in varietal development at anearlier stage than traditional methodshave done, testing the performance ofnew lines under farmer managementand soliciting farmer opinion aboutthe full range of production and end-use characteristics. These methodscomprise a suite of techniques calledparticipatory varietal selection (PVS).

Conventional rice breedingprograms usually seek farmer inputonly at the very end of the process,when newly released varieties, usuallyonly one or two per year, are evaluatedin on-farm demonstration trials.

The innovation of PVS is toinvolve farmers early in the selection

process, toensure that theylike releasedvarieties wellenough to adoptthem. What

distinguishesPVS from simpleon-farm testingis the emphasison systematicallycollecting farmeropinions andpreferences. Thisinnovation isnot really new. Inthe early 1990s,the International

Rice Research Institute (IRRI) andits Cambodian partners annuallyconducted hundreds of on-farmvariety trials in which farmers wereasked to rate the varieties. But theincorporation over the past decade ofPVS as a standard step in the breedingprocess has revitalized many Asian

rice breeding programs.IRRI and its collaborators

have enjoyed substantial successwith a set of simple techniquesfor institutionalizing farmerparticipation. At the beginning of aPVS program, focus group discussionsreveal the varietal preferences andrequirements of farmers, bothmen and women. Then farmergroups identify preferred varietiesin a researcher-managed trial of arelatively large number of advanced

breeding lines.

Preference analysisIn a balloting procedure knownat IRRI as preference analysis,farmers vote for their preferredvarieties by depositing a ballot ina box or envelope placed in frontof each variety (men and womenuse ballots of different colors toreveal gender differences, if any, invarietal preference). The method isfast, simple and effective, even withilliterate farmers, because it doesnot require them to write. Nor doesit require researchers to take notesor survey individual farmers. Andparticipants enjoy it Philippinefarmers often call the process abeauty contest.

After the vote, farmers andresearchers discuss the mostpreferred and disliked varieties todetermine what made them so. Inthe following season, researchers

distribute the preferred varietiesto farmers to evaluate on their ownfarms, under their own management.Usually, each participating farmerreceives two or three test varieties.These baby trials (the motherbeing the earlier researcher-managedtrial) are repeated many times. Byminimizing their own involvement,researchers ensure that the trials aremanaged in the same way as the restof the farmers crop and always an

FArmers in northern lAos aua a upad, d fd, a a papa aa a ad (bottom) a adda a p a ua.


25/40

thelmaparis

h.n.singh


important consideration in rainfed

rice research minimize the cost pertrial.

Rather than harvesting andweighing crop samples, researchersoften identify preferred lines byrelying on farmer ratings of thevarieties. In addition to questionsabout yield and quality, farmers areasked whether they plan to grow thevariety next year or have given seedto friends or relatives. Eagerness togrow a variety again and neighborsdemand for it are strong indicationsthat it is widely preferred.

In India, IRRIs collaborativebreeding networks facilitate theadaptation of PVS for rainfed ricebreeding. Since 1992, breeders ineastern India, for example, haveworked with IRRI through theEastern Indian Rainfed LowlandShuttle Breeding Network to developimproved varieties for ood- anddrought-prone areas. The networklinks small and isolated rainfed rice

breeding programs and allows themto exchange promising breeding linesand evaluate them in a broad rangeof environments. It serves a vast area,encompassing eight states with 24million ha of rainfed rice lands, andhas been an excellent laboratory forintegrating participatory methodsinto rainfed breeding programs.

V.N. Singh, a rice breederat Narendra Deva Universityof Agriculture and Technology

(NDUAT), located near Faizabad in

eastern Uttar Pradesh, works withAbha and H.N. Singh, a husbandand wife team of social scientists, aswell as with Thelma Paris, an IRRIsocial scientist, to develop varietiesfor ood- and drought-prone rainfedareas. They have established astrong relationship with farmers inseveral villages in Siddharthnagar,a district near the border withNepal. New lines from NDUATand other centers in the breedingnetwork are evaluated by farmersat central locations in each village.The following year, each interestedfarmer grows larger plots of one ortwo promising varieties.

Farmers have identied several

varieties with better yield andsubmergence tolerance than thewidely grownSwarna, and these arenow undergoing advanced testingin state and national cultivar trials.Similar programs underway at mostsites in the eastern Indian breedingnetwork aim to ensure that varieties

released by the formal breeding sectorare both agronomically productiveand valued by farmers.

The NDUAT program featuresstrong collaboration between breedersand social scientists. Abha and H.N.Singh see to the inclusion of womenand farmers from disadvantagedsocioeconomic groups in the selectionprocess, and they have taken thelead in monitoring farmer-to-farmerspread of introduced breeding lines togauge farmer preference.

Training in methodsUnfortunately, not all rainfedbreeding programs enjoy the servicesof social scientists, but experience atFaizabad and elsewhere has shownthat, with training and experience,breeders and agronomists canthemselves boost farmer participationin the selection process. Trainingin PVS methods including surveymethodology and the art of elicitingfrom farmers, not least women andmarginalized groups, informationuncontaminated by leading questions is now part of the IRRI TrainingCenters advanced plant-breedingcurriculum.

insPecting A rice pa Ua Pad, ida, a (from left) Aa s, a a a nada Da U Auu ad t (nDUAt); ta Pa, a irria ; saja s, a pa d a nDUAt; ad a a. Aa s ad uad, h.n. s (bottom, right), a nDUAt a , a a a-ad papa aa sddaaa d, a npa d.


26/40


Similarly, PVS is helping toheighten the impact of improvedvarieties of upland rice, which growsas a rainfed dryland crop like wheat.

In an upland rice-growing area ofBatangas, a few dozen kilometersfrom IRRI headquarters, and in theArakan Valley of Mindanao, IRRI hasbeen working directly with Philippinefarmers to identify acceptablevarieties and, not incidentally, torene PVS methods.

A PVS program initiated in2001 tested both improved, input-responsive modern upland varietiesand puried seed of traditionalMindanao tropical japonicatypesvalued for their quality. Farmersin Mindanao, who still grew or atleast remembered the traditionalvarieties, rated the puried traditionalvarieties very highly. Farmers inBatangas, who no longer grow suchvarieties, strongly preferred fertilizer-responsive improved varieties

with high yield potential. Thus,farmers in similar agroecologicaland socioeconomic environmentscan have markedly different varietal

preferences. PVS can help breederstailor varieties to local needs andpreferences.

PVS is having an impact ineven the most extreme rainfedenvironments. In the highlands ofnorthern Laos, farmers grow uplandrice on steep hillsides using shiftingcultivation. However, populationexpansion has forced farmers toshorten the soil-regenerating fallowperiods between rice crops, reducingsoil fertility and intensifying weedpressure.

The long-term solution isto develop diversied croppingsystems that include rice grown onpermanent elds in scattered pocketsof atter, more fertile land. In themeantime, though, Lao farmersneed varieties that can tolerate theinfertile, drought-prone conditionsthey currently face. Because most Laostrongly prefer local types, notablyhigh-quality glutinous (sticky)

varieties rarely found outside of Laosand Thailand, the search for suchvarieties has focused on screeningthe large national germplasmcollection for traditional varietieswith particularly good agronomicperformance under unfavorableconditions.

In the mid-1990s, Lao andIRRI researchers started screeningupland rice in agronomic trials atthe upland research station at Luang

Prabang. They soon recognized thatthe material had to be quickly movedoff the research station and intothe hands of farmers for identifyinguseful varieties.

PVS trials began in 2001under the leadership of Lao-IRRIagronomist Bruce Linquist and in

collaboration with Lao extensionworkers from district agriculture andforestry ofces. Each year saw 10 to16 varieties, previously identied ashigh yielding in researcher-managedtrials, tested on dozens of farmsthroughout northern Laos. Throughballoting, farmers of different ethnicgroups expressed strong preferencefor large-seeded varieties with bigpanicles (grain clusters). Researchersand extension workers also collectedyield data from these multilocation

trials, which identied the traditionalupland varietyNok as a farmerfavorite for its grain quality andperformance in infertile elds.

Ongoing impactPVS is having an ongoing impacton the working style of breedersand agronomists serving farmersin difcult rainfed environmentsall over Asia. Most breeders usedto consider their work nishedonce high-yielding varieties wereidentied in multilocation trials andrecommended to national releasecommittees. Now there is widespreadrecognition that breeders and farmersneed to work together through muchof the selection process to ensurethat the varieties released by nationalprograms meet the needs of farmersin difcult environments.

To do this, breeders areincreasingly moving off the researchstation and adopting methods

that were previously viewed as theproprietary tools of social scientists.This sea change in the breedingprocess is generating impact indifcult rainfed environments.Progress will accelerate as researchersrene PVS methods and expose morebreeders to them.

Dr. Atlin, a rainfed lowland rice breeder at IRRI, is chair

of the working group for drought-prone lowlands of the

Consortium for Unfavorable Rice Environments.

brUce linqUist ad la-irri papa- aa a la.

trainingcenter

At A PArticiPAtory aa taa, Ppp, a (a , dfd p dpd a- aa), ga A (left), au a, a d a u papa u p A laa ( center), naa iaAda a da .

peterfredenburg


27/40


28/40


in the Italian capital. Each of veregional zones in the exhibit Europeand North America, Latin America,Asia and the Pacic, sub-SaharanAfrica, and the Near East and NorthAfrica explored the rice-relatedissues of food security, nutrition, agro-biodiversity, environment, livelihood,

science and culture.Calling the International Year

of Rice a rare opportunity for theglobal community to work togethertowards fullling the MillenniumDevelopment Goals and the objectivesof the World Food Summit, LouiseFresco, assistant director general ofthe FAO Agriculture Department,said that success depends uponglobal collaboration and internationalownership. This is an actioncampaign, she added, a chance for

us to make good on our promise to thebillions of people for whom rice is life.

The rst day of the conferencefocused on rice in global markets.Among the issues addressed were thestate of the international rice market,the likely impact of multilateral tradenegotiations, and expanding marketsfor value-added rice products.

Mahabub Hossain, head ofthe Social Sciences Division of theInternational Rice Research Institute(IRRI), got the ball rolling with anoverview of long-term prospects for

the global rice economy. He predictedthat growth in demand for rice willslow substantially, particularly inmiddle- and high-income countries inAsia and Latin America, as population

control takes hold and prosperitybrings more varied diets. Demand forrice will increase by 1.1% per year inthe next 3 decades, he said, or less thanhalf of the 2.4% annual increase in riceconsumption in the last 3 decades.

Even if the demand grows at aslower rate, Dr. Hossain cautioned,global rice production must reach800 million tons of unhusked rice by2030 to match demand an increaseof 200 million tons over the peakproduction level reached in recentyears.

Constraining production growthis the worsening scarcity of land, laborand water for rice. Dr. Hossain sawlittle scope for expanding irrigatedarea but vast long-term potential forincreasing yield in rainfed areas. Onebright spot, he said, was the newrice for Africa (NERICA) developedby the West Africa Rice DevelopmentAssociation The Africa Rice Center.He noted, however, that NERICA

varieties target only 4 million out of150 million ha of global rice land.

The impact of [NERICA] onglobal rice production will not besignicant, he predicted. It will havea substantial effect on rice productionfor individual countries in WestAfrica [] but is unlikely to offset theincrease in demand in sub-SaharanAfrica.

David Dawe, IRRI economistand former food-policy adviser to the

Indonesian government, examinedthe changing structure, conduct andperformance of the world rice market,starting with todays historically lowprices.

Because the poorest Asians arelandless rural dwellers who mustpurchase their daily rice, low foodprices are important for povertyalleviation in Asia, Dr. Daweexplained, adding that other rice-decit farm households and the urbanpoor also benet.

Increased competitionNot only are world rice prices muchlower than in years past, they arealso much more stable, he reported,crediting improved stability of percapita production, a pronounceddeepening of the world market, andthe renewed commercial orientationof several major exporters. In termsof tonnage traded, world trade inmilled rice increased from an averageof 13.5 million tons in 1984-93 to anaverage of 23.9 million tons in 1994-2003, a near doubling of the market.

Citing his coauthor, Tom Slaytonof Slayton & Associates in the United

States, Dr. Dawe noted the diminishingroles of governments and large tradingcompanies in the international ricetrade. Today, there are more smalltrading companies, he observed,which has increased competition anderoded trading margins.

Despite progress towardliberalizing the international ricetrade, serious distortions remain.Japan, Korea and Taiwan (China)have all increased their level of

fabiOacOni

duncanmacintOsh


29/40


imports as part of the World TradeOrganization negotiations, butprotection in these countries isstill extraordinarily high as thegovernment effectively controls thequantity of imports through very hightariffs or quotas, Dr. Dawe reported.

Dr. Dawe was speaking to an

audience of more than 300 delegatesrepresenting all of the major rice-producing and -consuming countriesin the world mostly from Asia, butalso from Africa, North and SouthAmerica, Australia, and Europe.The conference was one of the rsttimes that most principal membersof the international rice industryhave gathered to consider issues ofcrucial importance such as trade andprotectionist policies, the loomingwater crisis, and the poverty that

aficts most rice farmers.Delegates focused on the need

for the International Year of Riceto achieve tangible results in termsof improving farmers livelihoodand ensuring that growing ricebecomes more environmentallyand economically sustainable. Theyhighlighted the impact of unfair tariffsand taxes, and several delegates calledon governments to recognize thedifculties facing poor rice farmers.

More than 100 invited guestsjoined delegates on the rst eveningof the conference for a gala receptionin the FAO atrium, where theexhibition on rice was on display.The reception buffet, provided byrepresentatives of the Thai and Italianrice industries, presented an arrayof exotic rice dishes for delegatesand guests, who treated the informalevent as an opportunity to debatemany of the issues raised in the dayspresentations.

The focus of the conferenceon the second day moved to thechallenges and opportunities posedby sustainable rice-based productionsystems. Gurdev Khush, formerprincipal rice breeder and head ofIRRIs Plant Breeding, Genetics andBiochemistry Division, presenteda keynote address on harnessingscience and technology for sustainablerice-based production systems.

In spite of all the achievements

of the Green Revolution, seriousfood problems exist in the world,said the worlds most celebratedrice breeder. Chronic hunger takesthe lives of 2,400 people every day.Currently there are more than 800million undernourished people in thedeveloping world.

New plant typeDr. Khush outlined the breedingstrategies available for boostingthe yield potential of rice. Afteraddressing conventional hybridizationand selection procedures, hedescribed the ideotype breedingstrategy with which he designedthe new plant type (NPT) for lowtillering, no unproductive tillers,200-250 grains per panicle, darkgreen leaves that are thick and erect,

and a vigorous and deep root system.Three NPT lines have been releasedin China and one in Indonesia, hereported, adding that other nationalpartners are evaluating and furtherimproving NPT lines.

Turning to heterosis breeding, Dr.Khush reported: Rice hybrids with

a yield advantage of about 10-15%over the best inbred varieties wereintroduced in China in the mid-1970sand are now planted on about 45%of the rice land in that country. []Increased adoption of hybrids in thetropics should contribute to increasedproductivity.

Dr. Khush lauded the emergingarea of wide hybridization, orwedding crop cultivars with wild ricespecies (seeRice Today 3:1, pp 14-19)Wild species of rice are a rich sourceof genes for resistance breeding,he said, adding that diseases andinsects damage annual yields by asmuch as 25%. In the realm of geneticengineering, he predicted that alteringthe photosynthesis pathway of ricefrom C3 to the more efcient C4 type,by introducing cloned genes from the

C4 crop maize, could boost the yieldpotential of rice by 30-35%.

Looking beyond rice, PrabhuPingali, director of FAOs Agriculturaland Development Economics Division,considered the opportunities andconstraints affecting agriculturaldiversication.

duncanmacintOsh

conFerence volUnteers Fa A aD t a p. A a up (opposite top, from left) a guauu gu, ad

a w Aa r Dp A; e Kua, ad FAo cp agaad s; maud s, ad

Pa Pdu ad P ; ad Da va ta, xu

a iar c a FA

maau ha (

site bottom, secon

right), ad irsa s D mada.


30/40


The rice sector in Asiais facing the dual challengeof sustaining high rates ofrice productivity growthwhile at the same timetransforming itself froma subsistence-orientedmonoculture system to a

diversied, market-oriented system,observed the former IRRI economistand later director of the EconomicsProgram at the International Maizeand Wheat Improvement Center.

Dr. Pingali cited risk aversionas a signicant impedimentto diversication, adding thatthe diversication start-upphenomenon, of high prices forseveral seasons leading to oversupplyand a consequent collapse of

in most developing countries isbecoming more and more obsoletewith economic growth, Dr. Pingaliaverred. The relevant developmentparadigm for the 21st century isone of food self-reliance, wherecountries import a part of theirfood requirements in exchange fordiverting resources out of subsistenceproduction. Future emphasis ofagricultural policy ought to beon maximizing farm householdincomes rather than generating food

surpluses.Other issues considered in the

course of the second day includedbiodiversity in rice-based productionsystems, water use, biotechnology,upland rice environments, rice-sh systems and hybrid rice. IRRIDirector General Ronald Cantrellmade the rst of ve presentationson regional perspectives on riceproduction and poverty alleviation.He naturally focused on Asia, where56% of humanity including 70%of the worlds 1.3 billion poor people grows and consumes 92% of theworlds rice.

Dr. Cantrell outlined IRRIstwo-pronged strategy of increasingproductivity in favorable environ-ments while developing ricetechnologies that have minimaladverse effects on the resource baseof fragile environments to meet thegoals of ensuring food security andalleviating poverty while protecting

the environment. He touched on the

range of research areas bywhich IRRI pursues thesegoals, including naturalresource management,integrated pestmanagement, agriculturalengineering andpostharvest technologies,

and social and policy studies. Hismain focus, however, was on theinstitutes traditional core areasof plant breeding and germplasmconservation and use.

Rice genomicsThe sequencing of the rice genome,and then discovering the functionsof individual genes and combiningthem to accelerate crop improvement,is revolutionizing rice science, hesaid. IRRIs roles as a producer

of knowledge and a catalyst intechnology development and transferamong various public institutions and increasingly between the publicand private sectors are importantas never before to assure strengthin both sectors and that a balance ismaintained.

IRRI catalyzed the formation ofthe International Rice FunctionalGenomics Consortium, he explained,to engage developed and developingnations alike in the functionalcharacterization of all agronomicallyimportant genes in rice. Activeparticipation by developing countrieswill ensure access to the new sciencein the future, he said. IRRI canserve as the unbiased broker betweenrice-improvement institutions inthe developing world and advancedresearch institutes.

IRRI, Dr. Cantrell concluded, isuniquely placed to ll this role as theinstitute strives to bring to the poor

the benets of new technologies.

The United Nations creates international years

to encourage governmental and

nongovernmental attention to important issues,

rather than just urgent ones.

Posted on www.onlineopinion.com.au by Keith Suter, a consultantto the Wesley Mission, Sydney, Australia

rUngthiP thongmAlAi taad ak Apa a x r.

prices, is all too common. Otherdisincentives to farmers investmentin diversication include insecureland rights, rigid design and inexiblewater delivery in existing irrigation

systems, and high labor requirementsfor cash crops.

A recent FAO/World Bankstudy on farming systems andpoverty nevertheless suggested thatdiversication is the single mostimportant source of poverty reductionfor small farmers in South andSoutheast Asia, he said.

The paradigm of staple foodself-sufciency that has been thecornerstone of agricultural policy

International Year of Rice contacts outside Asia

Ricegrowers Association ofAustralia (www.rga.org.au). Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation(Embrapa), Dr. Beatriz da Silveira Pinheiro ([email protected]). Ivan Angulo Chacon, FAO CostaRica ([email protected]). Cte dIvoire, Maurice Ossieny, administrateur de M12 (Minitre Ministre)

([email protected]) and Dr. L. Akintayo of WARDA ([email protected]). Eduardo Martinez Oliva,

Asociacion Cubana de Tecnicos Agricolas y Forestales ([email protected]) and Ana Maria Navarro, FAO

Cuba ([email protected]). Dr. Badawi A. Tantawi, Egypt National IYR Committee (Badawi_a_tant

[email protected]). Italy, Giacomo de Ghislanzoni Cardoli, president, Agriculture Commission of the

Chamber of Deputies ([email protected]). Martin Smith, FAO Madagascar ([email protected]).

Uruguay, Robert Frugoni, general manager, Asociacion de Cultivadores de Arroz ([email protected]).

duncanmacintOsh


31/40

T

he Secretariat of theAssociation of SoutheastAsian Nations (ASEAN)

ofcially launched itscelebration of International Yearof Rice on 13 January in Jakarta,Indonesia. Joko Budianto, then-director general of the IndonesianAgency for Agricultural Research andDevelopment, delivered a keynoteaddress on behalf of Minister ofAgriculture Bungaran Saragih.

Rice cannot be separated fromthe livelihoods of most Indonesians,he said, adding that more than halfearn their livelihood in rice elds.

And the rich cultural heritage ofdifferent ethnic groups in this countryis based on rice.

About 100 participants at theevent represented ASEAN membersBrunei Darussalam, Cambodia,Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar,Philippines, Singapore, Thailandand Vietnam; the plus three statesJapan, China and South Korea; theFood and Agriculture Organization(FAO) of the United Nations;IRRI; and local schools. SjarifudinBaharsjah, chairman of the IndonesiaRice Foundation; William Padolina,IRRI deputy director general forpartnerships; and Tsukasa Kimoto,FAO representative in Indonesia,were among those who spoke onthe signicance of rice in ASEAN. Arice exhibit included displays fromIRRI and the Asia Rice Foundation,Indonesia Rice Foundation, FAO,Web-based trading hub Agritani,World Food Program and Indonesian

Ministry of Agriculture.We take rice for granted all the

time, said ASEAN Secretary GeneralOng Keng Yong, who pointed outthat the ASEAN logo contains 10 ricestalks representing member states.But, when we are hungry, we realizehow important this simple thing is.

More than 2 billion Asians obtain60% of their calories from rice and itsderived products, according to FAO.In most Asian countries, the average

person con-sumes 150-200kg of rice per

year. Whilethe numberof chronicallyundernour-ished peoplein ASEAN fellrapidly be-tween 1971 and2002, some 66million people,or 13% of theregions popu-lation, still go

to bed hungryevery night.

Althoughthe share ofagriculture inthe GDP of ASEAN nations has beensteadily declining to around 11.5%, theproportion of the economically activepopulation in ASEAN dependenton agriculture is still over 50%,said He Changchui, FAOs assistantdeputy director-general and regionalrepresentative for Asia and thePacic. They must meet the spiralingneeds of over 3 billion Asian peoplewithin less than a third of the worldsarable land.

Brainstorming sessionIn India, the Directorate of RiceResearch (DRR) launched theInternational Year of Rice on 1January with a traditional Hinduworship service led by ProjectDirector B. Mishra, the chanting of

hymns from holy scriptures, and theplanting of a sapling. The afternoonwas devoted to a brainstormingsession on the theme of Rice Researchfor the Future.

The Hyderabad-based DRR,the Indian Council of AgriculturalResearch (ICAR), and the CentralRice Research Institute (CRRI)in Cuttack have proposed severalactivities to mark the year, pendingapproval by Mangala Rai, secretary

of the Department of AgriculturalResearch and Education and ICARdirector general, who also serves aschief patron of the International Yearof Rice organizing committee.

Scheduled for March was a groupmeeting on boro rice in Tripurafocused on developing high-yielding,high-quality rice suited for the boroseason.

April promises to be a busymonth, beginning with an open dayat DRR on 2 April, which is DRRFoundation Day, for displayingrice-production and crop-protectiontechnologies to the public. Annual ricegroup meetings in New Delhi on 11-14April will focus on the progress madeand challenges to be met throughthe All India Coordinated Research

Program on Rice. Finally, the 8thNational Rice Biotechnology Networkmeeting in New Delhi on 15-17 Aprilis expected to attract 100 participantsengaged in basic and applied ricebiotechnology research.

A 1-day national symposium onStrategies for Enhancing SustainableRice Exports, in Hyderabad in June,will attract 30 stakeholders in riceexports.

On 2-4 October, an international

Ringing in International Year of Rice


hUsKing rice a AseAn a iaa ya r Jakaa a(from left) o K y, a a, h cau ad Jk buda.


32/40

symposium on Rice: From GreenRevolution to Gene Revolution willtake place in Hyderabad with 200participants expected, including20 foreign delegates. Two specialawards will be announced at thesymposium. There are plans to release

a commemorative postage stamp onWorld Food Day on 16 October.

Thirty participants will takepart in a 1-day national seminar inNovember on Drudgery Reductionfor Women in Rice Farmingorganized by the National ResearchCenter on Women in Agriculture inBhubaneswar.

Meanwhile, state departmentsof agriculture and agriculturaluniversities are being encouragedto organize farmers days and othercelebrations at the state and regionallevel to generate awareness andtransfer available technologies torice farmers. On 4 February, theRice Research Station at Chinsurahmarked both the International Yearof Rice and its 50th anniversarywith West Bengal Chief MinisterBuddhadeb Bhattacharjee and stateAgriculture Minister Kamal Guha inattendance. Ten days later, the AllIndia Young Farmers Association

held a function in Haryana for 5,000farmers marking International Yearof Rice. R.K. Singh, IRRI liaisonscientist, was the keynote speaker,and the guest of honor was theJapanese agricultural attach.

ICAR plans to produce severalspecial publications, including acomprehensive, multi-authoredtreatise onRice Research andDevelopment in India Pastand Future and another on rice

biotechnology.In addition, DRRand CRRI willpublish about 15special bulletinsand technical andresearch-paperseries.

China, theworlds largestrice producerand consumer,is planningan exhibition

on Chinese Rice Culture andAchievements in Rice Science andTechnology during the Asia andPacic Regional Conference of theFAO in Beijing on 17-21 May. Factsheets on rice science in Chinawill spread the message, as will

International Year of Rice newspaperarticles, television programs, andlinks on the homepages of the ChineseAcademy of Agricultural Sciences(CAAS) in Beijing and China NationalRice Research Institute (CNRRI) inHangzhou. Middle-school studentvisits to CNRRI are also planned.

Origin of riceA national Rice Production andFood Security workshop is slatedfor April in Hainan Province. Aninternational symposium on Scienceand Technology in Agriculture:Current and Future will be organizedby CAAS and the World Food PrizeFoundation, to take place on 10-12July in Beijing. The Chinese capitalwill also be the venue in Septemberof an international workshop onThe Origin of Rice and Its VarietyDevelopment. CNRRI will organizean international symposium onSustainable Rice Production and

World Food Day on 15-18 Octoberin Hangzhou. Finally, rice scientistswill return to Beijing in Novemberfor an international symposiumon Heterosis Application and RiceQuality.

On 10 January, CAAS set upa working group for InternationalYear of Rice chaired by PresidentZhai Huqu, with Vice President QuDongyu ([email protected])serving as vice chairman, and

Department of InternationalCooperation Director General LiangQu as secretary general (ChineseAcademy of Agricultural Sciences,No. 12 Zhongguancun Nandajie,Beijing 100081, China. Tel [86-10]68919476 [International CooperationDepartment]; fax [86-10] 62174060;

68975184). Membership includesCNRRI Director General ChengShihua, Institute of Crop SciencesDirector General Wan Jianmin, andKaijun Zhao, IRRI liaison scientist forChina ([email protected] [email protected]).

In the Philippines, IRRIcommenced its celebration ofInternational Year of Rice witha concert on 19 January thatfeatured two of the countrys mostdistinguished international concert

pianists, Ingrid Sala Santamaria andReynaldo G. Reyes. The programincluded concerto excerpts fromTchaikovsky, Grieg and Liszt.

This was the rst of at least vemajor musical events planned to markthe year in the Philippines, includinga Rock for Rice concert in July ledby IRRI, MTV Asia and FAO, anda Department of Tourism concertfor the World Heritage-listed riceterraces of Banaue in October. Alsoconnected with rice culture are rice-paper-making activities organizedfor April and May by the NationalCommission for Culture and the Artsand a year-long rice exhibit occupyingan entire oor of the NationalMuseum in Manila.

There will be several week-long

drr

albenavente


At the DirectorAte r ra a a (from left) s.v.suaa, ad a; c. Kaa rdd, ppa pa p-; ad b. ma, pj d.

AFter PerForminirri, pa (frid saa saaad rad g. p waa, irri dpua paad , c


33/40

events, including Rice Researchand Development Week led by thePhilippine Rice Research Instituteand the Bureau of AgriculturalResearch on 5-9 April; Rice andEnvironment Week in Juneorganized by the Department ofEnvironment and Natural Resources;

National Scienceand TechnologyWeek in July underthe Departmentof Science and

Technology and thePhilippine Councilfor Agriculture,Forestry and NaturalResources Researchand Development;Agriculture andFisheries Researchand DevelopmentWeek in October ledby the Departmentof Agriculture

and the Bureau of AgriculturalResearch; and UN Week on 18-24October organized by the UnitedNations Information Center with theDepartment of Education and theCommission on Higher Education.

The commission will alsoorganize a conference on rice farmingand biodiversity on 25-26 June.

In addition to the Department ofAgricultures World Food Day events,October will see a rice fair organizedby Agrilink and the Foundation for

Resource Linkage and Development,and an organic rice festival led by theAsian NGO Coalition for AgrarianReform and Rural Development.

In Myanmar, the Ministry ofAgriculture and Irrigation and theMyanma Agriculture Service areheading up the national committeefor the year and planning exhibitionsat the Myanma Rice Research Centerin Hmawbi and the AgriculturalMuseum in Yangon. Plans were to

start one exhibition on 2 March,which is Myanmar Peasants Day.For more information, contact IRRIAdministrative Coordinator DawOhnmar Tun ([email protected]) or the national coordinator,Dr. Tin Hla, at IRRI RepresentativeOfce, P.O. Box 1369, Yangon,Myanmar. Tel (95-1) 663590; fax (95-1) 642341.

Laos is planning several riceeld days for national VIPs includingmembers of Parliament, ministers

and provincial governors, as wellas for donors who missed a similarseries last October. The 10th ASEANSummit, with plus three countriesJapan, China and South Korea, willtake place in Vientiane in November.The Ministry of Agriculture andForestry is planning to organize elddays and other events for ASEANdelegates and other specially invitedguests including international donorsand IRRI representatives.


The World Rice Research Conference, organized by theJapanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fish-eries, will be the worlds leading scientic celebration

of the International Year of Rice. Including the 25th In-ternational Rice Research Conference, the event will bringtogether the worlds leading rice scientists to exchangeinformation on the latest research of potential benet tothe worlds 200 million rice farmers and the billions ofconsumers who depend on them for their daily rice.

The opening symposium and keynote speecheson 4 November in Tokyo will raise the main themes of

the conference. They are 1) innovative technologies forboosting rice production, 2) perspectives on the place ofrice in healthy lifestyles, 3) adaptable rice-based systemsthat improve farmers livelihood, and 4) the role of ricein environmentally sustainable food security. English/Japanese simultaneous dual translation will be availableon the opening day. Scientic symposia in nearby Tsukubaon 5-7 November will take place in English.

Japanese parties co-organizing the conference alongwith IRRI, and under ministry leadership, are the JapanInternational Research Center for Agricultural Sciences(JIRCAS), National Agriculture and Bio-oriented ResearchOrganization, National Institute of AgrobiologicalSciences, National Institute for Agro-EnvironmentalSciences, National Institute for Rural Engineering,National Food Research Institute, and the ministrysPolicy Research Institute.

Registration and further information are availableat www.irri.org/wrrc2004. The deadline for submittingabstracts for oral or poster presentations is 1 March.Contacts are: Dr. K. Toriyama, JIRCAS ([email protected]), 1-1Ohwashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8686, Japan. Tel (+81-29) 838-6345, fax (+81-29) 838-6342.

Dr. K.L. Heong, IRRI ([email protected]),International Rice Research Institute, DAPO Box 7777,Manila, Philippines. Tel (+63-2) 580-5600 (ext. 2726), fax(+63-2) 580-5699.

Rice conference in Japan set for November

duncanmacintOsh

lAUnching internAtionAl yeAr r Japa, r wa (center), irridpu d a a, a pa pak f da a 21-23 Jaua kp tk d suaa u a-uua u ad aa u a. t Kj Kaua (left), s cu cua gup iaa Auua ra, ad Da vata (right), xu a iaa r c a FAo.


34/40

b exn dn n d any 1 3-7 my g mln/v boo/

un irristat fo Wnow s m

Scientic Writing and Presentatin, IRRI HQ 2 17-28 May D Shires/A Arbleda

Intrductin t the SAS System, IRRI HQ 1 21-25 Jun G McLaren/V Bartlme/

s m

*Intensive English 1, IRRI HQ 12 5 Jul-10 Sep A Arbleda/D Gavin

Genetic Engineering, Fd Safety & Awareness 1 Sep S Datta/D Gavin

r pouon ii 2 6-17 s v b/e co

W mnn 1 O b boun

Leadership Curse fr Asian Wmen in Ag R & D 2 8-19 Nv T Paris/G Zarsadias

Analysis f Unbalanced Data 1 15-19 Nv G McLaren/V Bartlme/s m

*Intensive English 2, IRRI HQ 3 15 Nv-3 Dec A Arbleda/D Gavin

Grain Quality Management 1 TBA J Rickman/D Gavin

In-country courses

Grain Quality Management, Cambdia 1 TBA J Rickman

Grain Quality Management, Bangladesh 1 TBA J Rickman

Water Management, Myanmar 1 TBA J Rickman

Tractr Training, India 1 TBA J Rickman

Integrated Pest Management, Malaysia 2 TBA KL Heng

Integrated Pest Management, Vietnam 2 TBA KL Heng

Integrated Pest Management, Thailand 2 TBA KL Heng

Integrated Pest Management, Iran 2 TBA KL Heng

Rice Technlgy Transfer Systems in Asia (RDA) 2 TBA J Lapitan/G Zarsadias

TBA = to be arranged. * = after 5 pm classes only. For details, email [email protected].

cDai

tag dacdia()/

(wk) failia

2004 IRRI GRoUP TRAINING CoURSES (TENTATIVE LISTING)


Entry is free and open tothe nationals of all FAO membercountries. Professional and amateurphotographers will compete inseparate categories. Plans not yetconrmed call for FAO DirectorGeneral Jacques Diouf to presentawards to the best three in eachcategory at a World Food Day specialevent in Rome on 16 October.

Participants may submit onlyone photograph, which shouldbe recent and clearly tied to therice is life theme. Entries shoulddemonstrate creativity and technicalskill in conveying the role of ricein food security, cultural heritage,indigenous knowledge, sustainablerice production, biodiversity,environment, scientic advancement,

labor and/or livelihood.Entries may be color or black-and-white but not multiple exposuresor composites. Images should notbe manipulated or altered except bysuch darkroom (or equivalent digital)techniques as brightness, contrastand color adjustments, dodging andburning. Submitted prints shouldmeasure between 20x25 cm (8x10inches) and 30x40 cm (12x16 inches).

For more details on requiredsubmission specications, see

www.fao.org/rice2004/en/ph-001.htm.

Each photograph must beaccompanied by a completed andsigned entry form available at theWeb site above. Participants in theprofessional category must includea bibliographical description and/orcurriculum vitae. FAO assumes allintellectual property rights, includingcopyright, on submissions andwill ensure due recognition to thephotographer. Submitted materials

will not be returned.Entries should be forwarded by

registered mail or prepaid courier(write no commercial value on thepackage) not by email. Addressentries to International Year of RiceSecretariat, IYR Global PhotographyContest Rice Is Life, Room C-789,FAO, Viale delle Terme Caracalla,0100 Rome, Italy. The deadline forarrival at the secretariat is 15 June.

o om a 27 CoNFERENCES, MEETINGS AND WoRKSHoPS

ev ca Da/Lai

Nutrient Management in Agricultural http://cnference.ifas.u.edu/ 24-26 May / Teagasc Research

Watersheds A Wetland Slutin nutrient/index.html#meeting%20site Center, Ireland

in' W dn mnn confn [email protected], www.wdm2004.rg 30 May-3 Jun / Amman, Jrdan

IFDC 2004: Indigenus Resurce [email protected], [email protected], 31 May-4 Jun / Dakar, Senegal

Develpment fr the Fertilizer Sectr www.ifdc.rg

The 7th Internatinal Cnference n Philippine [email protected], www.iias.nl/i

Date post:	30-May-2018
Category:	Documents
Upload:	marco
View:	217 times
Download:	0 times

Rice Today Volume 3 number 2

Documents