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ISSN 1655-5422 US$5.00

www.irri.org

International Rice Research Institute July-September 2008, Vol. 7, No. 3

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contentsVol. 7, No. 3

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

Rice Todayeditorialtelephone: (+63-2) 580-5600 or (+63-2) 844-3351 to 53, ext 2725;fax: (+63-2) 580-5699 or (+63-2) 845-0606; email: [email protected]

cover photo Jose Raymond Panaligan

publisher Duncan MacintosheditorAdam Barclayart director Juan Lazaro IVdesigner and production supervisors Grant Leceta, George Reyescontributors Gene Hettel, Bill Hardy, Meg Mondoedo, Tess Rola

Africa editor Savitri Mohapatra (Africa Rice Center WARDA)photo editorAriel Javellanaphoto researcher Jose Raymond Panaligancirculation Chrisanto Quintanaprinter Print Town Group

Rice Todayis published by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the worldsleading international rice research and training center. Based in the Philippines and withofces in 13 other countries, IRRI is an autonomous, nonprot institution focused onimproving the well-being of present and future generations of rice farmers and consumers,particularly those with low incomes, while preserving natural resources. IRRI is one of15 centers funded through the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research(CGIAR), an association of public and private donor agencies. For more information, visitthe CGIAR Web site (www.cgiar.org).

Responsibility for this publication rests with IRRI. Designations used in this publicationshould not be construed as expressing IRRI policy or opinion on the legal status of anycountry, territory, city, or area, or its authorities, or the delimitation of its frontiers orboundaries.

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

Copyright International Rice Research Institute 2008

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 der ivative works under the ollowing conditions:

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

ncra:This work may not be used or commercial purposes.

sarA: I this work is altered, transormed, or built upon, the resulting work must bedistributed only under the same or similar license to this one.

For any reuse or distribution, the license terms o this work must be made clear to others. Any o the above conditions can be waived i permission is obtained rom the copyright holder. Nothing in this license impairs or restr icts the authors moral rights. Fair dealing and other rights are in no way aected by the above. To view the ull text o this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

editoRiA l ................................................................ 4A grain whose time has come

news ........................................................................ 5Some relie but higher rice prices remain

Building a new generation o rice scientists

Intensive rice production is sustainable

China honors IRRI

Hybrid rice to beneft rom new public-private partnership

Pests thrive on pesticide

new books ............................................................. 8Philippine rats: ecology and management

people ..................................................................... 9Awards and recognition

Keeping up with IRRI sta

the Rice cRisis: whAt needs to be done? ..... 11In early 2008, skyrocketing rice prices put the grain

on the ront pages o major newspapers across theworld. Rice Todayexplains the reasons behind therapid increase in rice prices and what must be done toachieve reliable, plentiul supplies o aordable rice.

lost in tRAnsmi ssion ....................................... 13Have recent dramatic increases in world rice prices

been bad or consumers and good or producers?Well, yes and no. The real answer seems to be: I tdepends. Rice Todayanalyzes the situation.

A peRect mAtch ................................................ 16Water-saving technologies fnd their way to the

province o Bohol in the Philippines and prove tobe a perect match or the regions climate and

irrigation systems

supeRchARging the Rice engine ................... 20An ambitious project to re-engineer rice

photosynthesis has the potential to transorm riceproduction as much as, i not more than, any singleadvance since agricultural research began

snApshot ............................................................. 22High prices have hurt urban consumers

giving ARming A chAnce ............................... 24A youth feld school in the Philippines trains youngstudents in rice arming and agriculture in the hopeo perpetuating the nations dying breed o armers

mAps ...................................................................... 28The price o rice in Madagascar

the iRRi pioneeR inteRviews ........................... 30Nyle C. Brady: The problem solver

oppoRt unity Rom cRisis ............................... 32From the chaos o the recent rice crisis comes

opportunity or Arican countries intent on boostingproduction o the continents astest growing staple

no sex, pleAseweRe Apomicts .................. 34Despite its yield advantage, hybrid rice is shunned

by many poor armers because o the need topurchase new seeds every season. Work to developapomictic hybrid rice aims to solve that problem.

decipheR ing the code ...................................... 36An international drive to generate data on tiny genetic

dierences will help scientists develop high-yielding,high-quality rice varieties that can better withstandpests, diseases, and environmental stresses

nAvigAting A seA o Rice ................................. 38Amid the cutthroat world o rice trading, one Thai

company has chosen a dierent path

Rice Acts ............................................................. 41Running out o steam

One cause o todays high rice prices is slowingproductivity growthsuggesting it is time to stepup investment in international agricultural research

gRAin o tRuth ................................................... 42A lesson rom nineteenth-century naturalists

o r:A Filipino woman

collects subsidizedrice at a market in

Quezon City, Manila.High prices have hit

the urban poor, manyo whom spend a

large proportion otheir income on

rice alone.


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NEWS http://ricenews.irri.org

Rice TodayJuly-September 2008

At IRRI to sIgn a mmradum arm imprvi ric prduci (from left toright), Piippi scrary AricuurArur Yap ipc a xprima fdwi Prid Arry, Dr. Zir, ad IRRIir cii Dara Brar.

After continuing to climb in May2008, rice exports have fallen fromtheir peak of more than US$1,000per ton, but, as of late July, remainedaround double the December 2007price. With the Food and Agriculture

Organization of the United Nations(FAO) projecting a 2.3% growth inworld paddy (unmilled) rice productionto 666 million tons in 2008, economistsare predicting that, assuming normalweather patterns, prices could dropfurther. Nevertheless, agriculturaleconomists are warning that the worldmust get used to higher prices.

My personal view is that prices will continue to decline but wontreturn to the pre-crisis level, said SamMohanty, head of the Social Sciences

Division at the International RiceResearch Institute (IRRI).

Although Vietnam contributedto the easing of prices by ending itsexport ban, the country has imposeda minimum export price of $800.With India indicating that its exportrestrictions would remain at least untilthe wet-season harvest in October orNovember, and with continuing high oiland fertilizer prices, the internationalmarket remains under pressure.

Poor consumers are still hurting, with domestic prices across Asiaremaining high. Civil unrest broke outin several countries as prices spikedin April and May. Several people werekilled in rice riots in Haiti, promptingthe senate to re Prime Minister Jacques

Edouard Alexis. Also in April, 20,000Bangladeshi textile workers riotedover high food pricesparticularlyriceand low wages.

High prices also threaten to worsenmalnutrition among the poor. Already,

the Philippines has been forced to scaledown its Food for School Programwhich distributes iron-fortied rice tochildren in public schoolsfrom 40 to20 provinces.

C y c l o ne N a rg i s d e v a s t a t e dMyanmars Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy)Delta area on 3 May 2008, leaving morethan 130,000 people dead or missingand causing an estimated 1.2-million-ton (6%) drop in rice production,jeopardizing the countrys exports.News of the disaster caused rice prices

to jump in an already jittery market.The food crisis of early 2008 has

pushed agriculture high onto thepolitical agenda for the rst time indecades. Several countries, including thePhilippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia,have announced major initiatives, eachof around $1 billion, to increase riceproduction and productivity throughinfrastructure development, technologyand knowledge dissemination, andagricultural research.

During a 2 May 2008 visit to IRRIwith President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo,Philippine Secretary of AgricultureArthur Yap and IRRI Director GeneralRobert Zeigler signed a memorandumof agreement committing IRRI and theDepartment of Agriculture to a 5-year

Some relief but higher rice prices remain

cooperative agreement to carry out thePhilippines rice self-sufciency plan.

Many other agencies and leaderscalled for a reinvestment in agriculturaresearch and development. The FAOhosted a High-level Conference on World Food Security in June, andfood issues were high on the agenda atthe July G8 summit in Japan, wherethe G8 leaders pledged to promoteagricultural research and developmentand the training of a new generationof developing-country scientists andexperts focusing on the disseminationof improved, locally adapted, andsustainable farming technologies, inparticular via the Consultative Groupon International Agricultural Research[which includes IRRI], and throughpartnerships such as the Alliance for aGreen Revolution in Africa.

According to IRRI Developmen

Director Duncan Macintosh, thesentiment is welcome but must befollowed up. IRRI has been calling forreinvestment in agricultural researchfor years, and it has taken record pricesto really get the message across, saidMr. Macintosh. Now, if organizationssuch as IRRI and its national partnersare to develop technologies that can helpavert future crises, the promising talkneeds to result in genuine action fromgovernments and funding agencies.

1100

1000

600

500

400

300

US$/ton

US 2/4%

Thai 100%B

Viet 5%

Pak Irri-25%

Thai A1 Super

Jun-07

Aug-07

Oct-07

Dec-07

Feb-08

700

800

900

200

Apr-08

Jun-08

er r r r

Source: FAO Rice Price Update July 2008

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Rice supercomputerIBM and researchers at the Universityof Washington have launched aprogram to develop improved rice varieties. With processing powerequivalent to the worlds third-most-powerful supercomputer, IBMsWorld Community Grid will harness

the donated power from nearly onemillion personal computers in theNutritious Rice for the World project.The initiative will help researchersdetermine rice protein structuresand use the information to breedvarieties with improved traits, suchas increased nutrition. The project,helped by a $2 million grant from theU.S. National Science Foundation, willachieve in 2 years what would takemore than 200 years using existing

conventional systems. IRRI researchersare helping to determine which proteinsto target. Anyone with a computer andInternet access can donate unusedcomputer time by registering atwww.worldcommunitygrid.org.

Rat plague continues

The rat plague that has devastatedrice production in the Indian stateof Mizoramjeopardizing the foodsecurity of around 1 million peopleisnow threatening tens of thousands ofpeople in Myanmars Chin State. Every50 years, the owering of native bambooin Mizoram and neighboring areas ofMyanmar and Bangladesh causes aboom in the rat population. Once thebamboo food source is exhausted, therats move into rice elds, destroying

entire crops. According to the ChinFamine Relief Committee, the UnitedNations Development Programme hasbeen providing limited food assistancesince the infestation began. Mizoramsagriculture department has estimateda 75% rice shortfall for 200708.

Gene for yield potentialR e s e a r c h e r s f r o m H u a z h o n gAgricultural University in China havepinpointed a gene that plays a majorrole in determining yield potential inrice, as well as the plants adaptabilityto cooler climates. The study waspublished in the 4 May 2008 issue of Nature genetics. Rice productivity isdetermined by several traits, includingnumber of grains per panicle, the heightof the plant, and its owering time. By

Acourse designed to inspire youngscientists will develop the researchleaders who can help prevent foodcrises such as that seen in 2008. TheRice: research to production course,held for the second time on 19 May6June at IRRI, brought together 29 par-ticipants from 13 countries across thedeveloped and developing world.

Sponsored by the National ScienceFoundation in the United States, theGatsby Foundation in the United King-dom, and IRRI, the course also seeksto reverse the one-way trafc that hasseen thousands of young scientists fromthe developing world taking jobs in thedeveloped world.

Building a new generation of rice scientists

Many developed-country re-searchers are unaware of the impacttheir work can have in helping peoplefrom poorer countries overcome prob-lems that farmers in richer areas couldhardly imagine, said Susan McCouch,who conceived the course with IRRIDirector General Robert Zeigler andplant pathologist Hei Leung.

By experiencing the challengesthemselves, and meeting and spendingtime with people from Africa and Asiawho have to deal with these challenges,the students gain insights and inspira-tion that are nearly impossible from thecomfort of their home, said Dr. Mc-Couch, a professor in the Department of

hArristumAwis

the lARgest, ar-pwrd ric mi i Ui-d sa: Miubii ecric & ecric UsA,Ic. a prvidd mr a ,00 pvaicmdu r a -mawa ar cric yma Far W Ric Mi i n, Cairia. tym i xpcd divr 1,440,000 kiwaur (kW) a yarapprximay 7% pa a ry d.

Plant Breeding and Genetics at CornellUniversity in the United States.

Countries worldwide are strug-gling to attract people into agricul-tural research careers. Some Africancountries rely on a single rice breederto develop locally adapted improved

varieties. Many countries in Asia andLatin America also suffer a dearthof qualified researchers and plant

breeders.The course, which will run again

next year, hopes to secure funding tocontinue beyond 2009.

MelAnIe sAnBoRn, rm Uid sa, ri i p a caraba (Piippi war

bua) i prpari a ric fd r pai.


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7Rice TodayJuly-September 2008

screening thousands of rice plants, QifaZhang and his colleagues were able toidentify a gene on rice chromosome7 that influences these three traits.Deletion of the Ghd7gene causes plantsthat are shorter and have fewer grainsper panicle. The researchers also foundthat natural mutants with reduced

Ghd7 function were better suited tocooler, temperate regions.

Radio soap cleans upThe Environmental Soap Opera forRural Vietnam drama series has beenawarded the Commendation Certicateby One World Broadcasting Trust foroutstanding and unique contributionto the communication of sustainabledevelopment and human rights. Theprogram, which started as IPM Radio

in 2005, broadcast 235 episodes overthe Voice of Ho Chi Minh City and veprovincial radio stations. Farmers wholistened to the drama used 30% fewerseeds for sowing, 9% less nitrogenfertilizer, and 60% less insecticide. IRRIentomologist K.L. Heong and formerIRRI researcher Monina Escalada led

the campaigns development.

Basmati bluesNorman Ellstrand, a geneticist fromthe University of California, Riverside,has been recruited to check the scriptof Basmati bluesa lm about love,adventure and ... genetically modiedrice for the accuracy of its scienticcontent. Using GM agriculture as abackdrop, the lms story centers on ayoung American woman who works for

a U.S.-based company working on GMrice in India. While in India, she getscaught up in a love triangle involvinga scientist and a government ofcialThe lm, which is expected to be in U.Stheaters in mid 2009, will be dubbedinto Hindi for Indian audiences.

Egypt joins Africa Rice CenterEgypt is the Africa Rice Center's(WARDA) newest member and thefirst from North Africa. WARDAsmembership now stands at 22 countriescovering West, East, Central, andNorth Africa. Amin Abaza, Minister o Agriculture and Land Reclamation oEgypt, wrote in his request, We wishto commend the Africa Rice Center asa continental organization serving alAfrican countries.

Intensive, continuous rice productionwith good management can maintainor even increase soil health. Thatis the main message from a studypublished in the Soil Science Societyof America Journal (Soil carbonand nitrogen changes in long-termcontinuous lowland rice cropping inVol. 72, No. 3, May-June 2008), whichdocuments changes in soil carbon andnitrogen under long-term continuousrice cropping in four long-term trialsmanaged by IRRI.

Further, under tropical conditions,maintaining soil organic matter incontinuous (two or three crops peryear) rice systems requires neither theapplication of manure or other organicmaterials nor retaining large amounts

of straw.According to IRRI Deputy General

for Research Achim Dobermann,the research shows that, with goodmanagement and the right amountof fertilizer, farmers can sustainablyproduce 18 or more tons of rice peryear.

We have been doing this in themost intensive way for 45 years andwe routinely produce about 80% of thetheoretically possible yield, explainedDr. Dobermann. The average irrigatedrice farm in Asia is at about 6065%.

The system is sustainable becauseof the prolonged ooding of the elds, which allows conservation of soilorganic matter and a free input ofnitrogen from water and biologicalxation sources amounting to about120 kilograms per hectare per year

the equivalent of a grain yield of about9 tons per hectare over three crops.No other of the

worlds major croppingsystems has theseunique features, saidDr. Dobermann. Itis for these reasonsthat rice monoculturesystems have beenaround for thousandsof years and sustainedwhole civilizations.

Intensive rice production is sustainable China honors IRRI

China has given one of its mostprestigious scientic awards to IRRIfor making an important contributionto improve grain output, agriculturaefciency, and (the) income of farmers.IRRI Director General Robert Zeiglerreceived the International Scienceand Technology Award of the Peoples

Republic of China from China StateCouncilor Liu Yandong at a speciaaward ceremony in Beijing on 5 June2008 (pictured, above). Since ofciarelations were established in 1981IRRI has helped China develop higheryielding rice varieties, train and educatehundreds of Chinese rice scientists andresearchers, and played a key role inthe creation of the China NationaRice Research Institute. Today, IRRIcoordinates and works on a wide rangeof scientic projects across China.Ar

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RICe Is gRoWn r im a yar iIRRI -rm ciuu crppixprim.


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Edited by G.R. Singleton, R.C. Joshi, and L.S.

Sebastian; published by the Philippine Rice

Research Institute; 215 pages.

The Philippines is home to more than 60species o rats and mice, only a ew specieso which are serious crop pests. Those that do

cause prolems, though, can e deastating.

This ook documents current knowledge

on Phil ippine rodents, their ecology,

systematics, diseases, and management. It

coers a wide array o topics, including the

shit in the management o rodent pests

rom heay reliance on chemical control to

the emergence o ecologically ased rodent

management; iology and management in

complex agroecosystems; ecology o pest and

natie rodent species; and their impact on

arming communities.

Philippine rats: ecology and management

neW BooKPiippi ra: cy ad maam

inc ludes inormation on major social

consequences o rodents in rural enironments

such as orgoing the planting o a second rice

crop, sporadic acute production losses (oten

3060%), and the loss o laor and income

ecause o diseases transerred to humans y

rodents (including leptospirosis).

The ook comes with two CDs: simple

identifcation keys to quickly dierentiate pest

and nonpest rodent species in rice and nonrice

haitats in the Philippines, and a searchale

comprehensie iliography and dataase on

Philippine rodents.

For more inormation, contact Grant

Singleton ([email protected]). For

ordering inormation, see http://tinyurl.

com/5eady or contact Necitas Malaanan

o PhilRice: phone +63 44 456 0651; email

[email protected].

Amajor new partnership aims toincrease rice production across Asiavia the accelerated development andintroduction of hybrid rice technologies.The new effort comes at a crucial timefor Asia as the region struggles with

high rice prices caused by stagnatingyields.

IRRI hosted the inaugural meetingof the Hybrid Rice Research andDevelopment Consortium (HRDC) on34 April 2008. Hybrid rice varietieshave the potential to raise yields andthus overall rice productivity andprofitability. Successful deploymentof hybrid varieties, however, requiresmore effective cooperation betweenpublic research institutions and private-sector companies to overcome current

constraints.

Hybrid rice to benet from new public-private partnership

the lAtest WoRK Japa- cupr Miuaki taab,wic cmmmra sva-bard gba sd Vau ( Theultimate backup pa 10-11Rice TodayV. 7, n. 2), wib prmay dipay a gba Crp Divriy tru ad-quarr i Fd ad Aricu-ur oraizai (FAo) buidii Rm, Iay. Mr. taab, wa a a cupur a IRRIadquarr i Piippi,i r 1 Apri 200,

uvii wrk, amd Aseed of wild rice MOMI-2008.

Participants at the meetingwhichincluded 15 public-sector institutionsfrom across Asialearned about newplant genetic resources available orunder development at IRRI, reviewedresearch on hybrid rice management,

discussed new research priorities,and made decisions on other HRDCactivities such as capacity building forboth sectors.

Achim Dobermann, IRRIs deputydirector general for research, said thatrice farmers in Asia will benet fromaccelerated access to hybrid rice-basedtechnologies such as more and betterhybrids, quality seed, knowledge, andservices that can be provided by thenew public-private partnership.

For more information, visit

http://hrdc.irri.org.

Pests thrive on pesticide

Pesticide overuse is, ironically,a major cause of planthopperinfestations. This was a key messageat the International PlanthopperConference, attended by 88 scientistsat IRRI headquarters on 2325 June.

Problems caused by planthoppers,a major insect pest that can destroy one-fth of a rice harvest, have intensiedacross Asia in recent years, ravagingmillions of hectares of rice in southernChina and Vietnam and causing the lossof thousands of tons of the grain at acrucial time for global production

Planthoppers are normally kept incheck by natural biological phenomena,such as other animals that prey onthe pest. Over the past 20 years,developments such as integrated pest

management, reducing unnecessaryi ns e c t i c i d e u s e , a nd b re e d i ngplanthopper-resistant rice varietieshave helped keep the pest undercontrol. However, increasing insecticideresistance is becoming a concern.

One of the key problems is overuseof pesticide, said IRRI entomologistand conference organizer K.L. Heong.

Peter Kenmore, chief of plantprotection services at the Food and Agriculture Organization, said thatfarmers often overuse insecticides forfear of losing their production.

GlobalCRoP

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PEOPLE


Awards and recognition

Sant Virmani, former IRRIprincipal scientist, received thePadma Shri Award from Indian

President Prathiba Patil on 10 May inNew Delhi (pictured, right). The awardhonored his contributions made at IRRI

to the development and disseminationof hybrid rice technology in tropicalcountries, including India. Dr. Virmaniwas also honored by the city of Plano,Texas, where he now resides. PlanoMayor Pat Evans proclaimed 22 Juneto be Dr. Sant Singh Virmani Day inPlano. He was awarded a plaque fromthe Netlink Foundation in honor of hisservice to humanity in combating hun-ger and poverty around the world.

IRRI Deputy Director General forResearchAchim Dobermann is the

recipient of the 2008 InternationalFertilizer Industry Association (IFA)International Crop Nutrition Award.The award recognizes Dr. Dobermannspioneering research to ne-tune fertil-izer and crop management practices toimprove productivity of rice, maize, andsoybean production systems in an en-vironmentally sustainable way. He washonored at the IFA Annual Conferenceon 20 May 2008 in Vienna, Austria.

Reiner Wassmann, coordina-tor of IRRIs Rice and Climate ChangeConsortium, has been formally recog-nized by the United Nations Intergov-ernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) for substantial contributionsto the IPCCs NobelPeace Prize award.The IPCC and formerU.S. Vice PresidentAl Gore were award-ed the Nobel PeacePrize for 2007 fortheir efforts to build

up and disseminategreater knowledgeabout man-made cli-mate change, and tolay the foundationsfor the measures thatare needed to coun-teract such change.Dr. Wassmann wasone of the authors ofthe new guidelinesto quantify national

greenhouse gases emissions (the 2006IPCC Guideline on National GreenhouseGases Inventories).

IRRI associate scientist RomeoCabangon is the 2008 OutstandingFilipino Agricultural Engineer in theeld of soil and water management.He was recognized for his contributionto the advancement of science in theeld of soil and water conservation,specically the development of water-saving technologies in rice-productionsystems in Asia.

Eugenio Castro, associate scien-tist at IRRIs Training Center, was namedthis years Outstanding Professional ofthe Year in the eld of agricultural en-gineering. The award recognizes Mr.Castros expertise, manifested throughhis work in the design, development,

and improvementof technologies insmall-, medium-,and large-scalefarming.

IRRI weedscientists werehonored at the

Annual Confer-ence of the PestM a n a g e m e n tCouncil of thePhilippines heldin Puerto Prin-cessa, Palawan,on 69 May. JoelJaniya receivedthe Pest Man-agement Awardin Research in

recognition of his outstanding achieve-ments on crop protection researchRolly Fuentes won the Best PaperAward in Weed Sciencein collaborationwithAurora Baltazar and FloriniaMerca of the University of the Philip-

pines. Teodoro Migo was electedpresident of the Weed Science Societyof the Philippines for 200809.

IRRI also received awards at the38th Crop Science Society of the Phil-ippines (CSSP) Annual Conference on1216 May in Iloilo City. Honors includ-ed Best Poster (Upstream Research)Best Poster (Downstream Research)Best Paper (Upstream Research), anda CSSP Achievement Award for Tech-nology Development, won by PlanBreeding, Genetics, and Biotechnology

(PBGB) Division associate scientistAlvaro Pamplona. Renato ReaoCSSP president in 2006-07, received aTestimonial Award.

IRRIs 2007 nationally recruitedstaff awards were presented during theInstitutes Board of Trustees meetingon 11 April.Alice Laborte, associatescientist in the Social Sciences Divi-sion won the Award for OutstandingScientic Achievement for her work onland-use modeling. Norberto Quil-loy, research technician in PBGB, wonthe Award for Outstanding ResearchSupport for his work in plant breedingactivities. Happily forRice Today, themagazines production and distributionteamGeorge Reyes, Juan LazaroAriel Javellana, Jose RaymondPanaligan, Meg Mondoedo, Em-manuel Panisales, and Chris Quin-tanawon the Award for OutstandingAdministrative Support.

Rice Today also had an excellent year in the Association for Com

munication Excellence (ACE) Cri-tique and Awards Program, win-ning Gold (first place) awards formagazines and periodicals in thePublishing category ( Rice Todayproduction team), for photographyin the Feature photo category (ArielJavellana), and for writing for maga-zines in the Writing category (AdamBarclay). Mr. Javellana also won asilver award in theEnvironmental portrait or personality photo category.

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Keeping up with IRRI staff

Recent arrivals at IRRI includeplant pathologist Serge Sa-vary, senior scientist in the

Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Bio-technology (PBGB) Division; plantpathologist Laetitia Willocquet,

scientist, PBGB; agricultural economistSamarendu Mohanty, new headof the Social Sciences Division (SSD);Digna Manzanilla, postdoctoralfellow in SSD; Deepinder Grewal,postdoctoral fellow in PBGB;KrishnaJagadish, postdoctoral fellow inPBGB; Matthieu Conte, postdoctoralfellow in the Crop Resource Informa-tion Laboratory; Xiangqian Zhao,postdoctoral fellow in the Grain Qual-ity, Nutrition, and Postharvest Center;Sarah Covshoff, postdoctoral fellow

in PBGB; Xinai Zhao, postdoctoralfellow in PBGB; Nobuko Katay-anagi, visiting research fellow in theCrop and Environmental SciencesDivision (CESD); and Yohei Koide,

visiting research fellow in PBGB.U.S. Singh has become IRRIs

South Asia regional project coordinatorfor developing abiotic stress tolerance.Based in New Delhi, he will help imple-ment the project to reduce poverty and

hunger and increase food and incomesecurity of resource-poor farm fami-lies and rice consumers in South Asiathrough the development and dis-semination of rice varieties tolerant ofabiotic stresses. The work is supportedby the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundationproject Stress-tolerant rice for poorfarmers in Africa and South Asia.

Recent departures include GaryJahn, entomologist and coordinatorfor the Greater Mekong Subregion;Christine Kreye, international

research fellow in CESD; YuichiroFurukawa, project scientist in CESD;and Hector Hernandez, head ofHuman Resource Services. ParamjitSachdeva is acting head of HRS until

the arrival ofFiona Farrell, who isscheduled to begin in September.

David Johnson, senior scientistin CESD, is the new coordinator of theConsortium for Unfavorable Rice En- vironments, taking over from David

Mackill . Bas Bouman has beenappointed leader of IRRIs program on Sustaining productivity in intensiverice-based systems: rice and the envi-ronment. He remains CESD head. JKLadha has returned to the IRRI-IndiaOfce in New Delhi after a successfulyear-long fellowship at Cornell Univer-sity. He remains IRRI representativeand coordinator for the Rice-WheatConsortium.

Federico Ramos, former su-perintendent of the IRRI Farm (now

the Experiment Station), 196185 andfather of University of the PhilippinesPresident and IRRI Board memberEmerlinda Roman, passed away on13 May.

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11

The poorest of the worldspoor are the 1.1 billion peoplewith income of less than adollar a day. Around 700

millionalmost two-thirdsof thesepeople live in rice-growing countriesof Asia. Poor people spend up to halfof their income on rice alone and,

in many cases, receive more thanhalf of all their calories from rice.

The world price of Thai rice, 5%brokena popular export gradeinDecember 2007 was $362 per ton. ByMay 2008, the price had tripled (seegure on page 12), breaking throughthe $1,000 mark. As the Asianharvest brought new rice into themarket in June, prices began to comedown but, by July, remained arounddouble the December 2007 price.

In early 2008, in response to

supply problems, major exportingcountries such as Vietnam and Indiaimposed export bans or restrictionsto protect their domestic consumers.By thus reducing the supply of rice inthe world market, these restrictionsaccelerated the price rise. Conse-quently, importers rushed into themarket to buy more rice to meet theirconsumption needs and build theirown stock. Hoarding and specula-tion by traders added fuel to the re.

wa ar r ra?We are consuming more thanwe are producing.Many fac-tors, both long- and short-term, havecontributed to the rice crisis. At afundamental level, the sustainedrise in the price over the past 78years indicates that we have beenconsuming more than we have beenproducing. Rice stocks are be-ing depleted, with current stocksat their lowest since the 1970s.

Annual growth in yield isslowing.A major reason for theimbalance between the long-termdemand and supply is the slowinggrowth in yield, which has decreasedsubstantially over the past 1015years in most countries. Globally,yields have risen by less than 1%per year in recent yearsslowerthan population growth and downfrom well over 2% during the GreenRevolution period of 197090 (also

In early 2008, skyrocketIng rIce prIces put the graIn on the front pages

of major newspapers across the world. Rice TodayexplaIns the reasons

behInd the rapId Increase In rIce prIces and what must be done to achIeve

relIable, plentIful supplIes of affordable rIce.

seeRunning out of steam on page 41).Reduced public investment

in agricultural research, devel-opment, and infrastructure.The slowdown in yield growthhas been exacerbated by reducedpublic investment in agriculturalresearch and developmentthevery engine that drove productiv-ity growth to begin with. Invest-ments in irrigation, which peakedduring the Green Revolution pe-riod, have decreased substantially.Existing irrigation infrastructurehas deteriorated considerably.

Little room for expansionof rice area.The possibility of in-creasing the rice areais almost exhausted

in most Asian coun-tries. In many areas,highly productive riceland has been lost tohousing and indus-trial development.

Demandgrowth. Three key factors havecontributed to steady growth indemand for rice, which is increasingglobally by around 5 million tons eachyearmore if rebuilding of stocks

is taken into account. First, popula-tion growth is outstripping produc-tion growth. Second, rapid economicgrowth in large countries such asIndia and China has increaseddemand for cereals, both for con-sumption and for livestock produc-tion. Third, rice is an increasinglypopular food in Africa, with importsinto Africa accounting for almostone-third of the total world trade.

Oil prices.The price of oil hasincreased rapidly during the pastyear. This has pushed up freight costsfor countries that import rice. Theworld price of oil-dependent fertil-

izersessential forrice productionhasincreased sharply,with the price of

urea exploding (seegure on page 12).The rapid growthof the biofuelindustry has alsoincreased pressureon international

trade of grains and livestockfeed, as well as on agricul-tural land in some countries.

Extreme weather. Naturaldisasters, such as ooding, drought,

THe RiCe CRiSiS:WHaT neeDS To be Done?

Productivity growth

through improved

technologies is the key

long-term solution or

ensuring that afordable

rice is available to poor

rice consumers

joSe

RayMoND

PaNalIGaN



12/44

12 Rice TodayJuly-September 2008

and typhoons, have contributed torecent production shortfalls. Climatechange is expected to increase the se-verity and frequency of such extremeweather events. Global warming isalso projected to hurt rice production.

Reoccurring pest out-breaks. Many pests that caused

major problems for rice intensica-tion programs in the 1970s and 1980shave returned as major threats toproduction, primarily due to break-downs in crop resistance and theexcessive use of broad-spectrum,long-residual insecticides that disruptnatural pest control mechanisms.

h r r ar r r?Although more expensive rice mayhelp farmers who produce more

than they consume, a rise in theprice of rice is equivalent to a dropin real income for the majority of thepoor who are net consumers of rice.Higher prices increase the num-ber of poor people and push peopledeeper into poverty and hunger,forcing them to sacrice essentialssuch as more nutritious food, healthcare, and childrens educationthuscondemning future generations toa vicious poverty cycle. Higher foodprices also affect the poor indirectlyas international relief agencies areforced to reduce or cut programs.

h r r-a a r r?Given the structural reasons thatcontributed to the price rise in 2008,rice prices are not expected to fall toanywhere near their historic lows.And, without the buffer of highstock levels, there is an increasedrisk of additional sharp price rises.

The best strategy for keepingthe price of rice low is to ensurethat production increases fasterthan demand. Rice production canbe increased by expanding the areaplanted to rice, by increasing the yieldper unit area, or by a combination ofthe two. With limited opportunityfor increasing Asias rice area, themain source of additional produc-tion will need to be yield growth.

Productivity growth through the

developmentand dissemina-tion of im-proved technol-ogies is the onlykey long-termviable solutionfor bringing

prices down,preventing fu-ture increasesin price, andensuring thataffordable riceis availableto poor riceconsumers.

To achievethis, a second Green Revolution isneeded now as much as the rstwas needed to avoid famine and

mass starvation. Increased researchinvestment together with policyreforms that make rice markets moreefcient will help bring rice pricesdown to a level affordable to the poorand, ultimately, reduce poverty.

wa ?Recent advances in science andtechnology offer unprecedented op-portunities to not only solve currentproblems but also develop agricul-tural systems that can help millions

of rural poor lift themselves out ofpoverty. In the near term, urgentactions from national governments

and international agencies are neededon two fronts: rapidly exploitingexisting technological opportunitiesfor increasing rice yields and policyreforms to improve poor peoplesfood entitlements. Rice produc-tion can be revitalized, but thereare no silver bullets. Investment bythe world community is essential.

For more information, visithttp://solutions.irri.org

The internatonal Rce Research insttutes acton plan

Some o the ollowing actions deal with the immediate crisis while others providelong-term solutions to prevent uture crises.

1. Bring about an agronomic revolution in Asian rice production to reduce existinggaps between achieved and potential yield. Yield improvements o 12 tons perhectare can be achieved through the use o better crop management practices,particularly in irrigated environments.

2. Accelerate the delivery of new postharvest technologies to reduce losses.Postharvest includes the storing, drying, and processing o rice. New and existingtechnologies can substantially reduce the considerable postharvest lossesin terms

o both quantity and qualitysuered by most Asian armers.3. Accelerate the introduction and adoption of higher yielding rice varieties.4. Strengthen and upgrade the rice breeding and research pipelines.The steady

decline in unding or the development o new rice varieties must be reversed inorder to develop the new varieties and crop and resource management systemsrequired or sustained productivity growth.

5. Accelerate research on the worlds thousands of rice varieties so scientists can tapthe vast reservoir of untapped knowledge they contain.

6. Develop a new generation of rice scientists and researchers for the public andprivate sectors. Asia urgently needs to train a new generation o rice scientists andresearchersbeore the present generation retiresi the regions rice industry isto successully capitalize on advances in modern science.

0

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Sep2007

Jan2008

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Urea

Petroleum, spot average crude price

Thai rice (5% broken)

RIsIng WoRlD pric ric, ura, ad di u, 2000-0.Source o raw data: Pinksheet, The World bank, arious issues


13/44


World market rice pricestripled between April2007 and April 2008,with most of the increase

coming early in 2008. While theworld market price is an importantindicator of scarcity, rice-consumingand -producing households do

not buy and sell directly on theworld market. Thus, an importantquestion for food security is theextent to which changes in worldprices are transmitted, or passedthrough, to domestic consumersand producers. Price transmissionfrom world to domestic markets isinuenced by many factors, but twoof the most important are exchangerates and government policies.Inadequate infrastructure can alsoplay an important role, but this isless relevant in the Asian context,where infrastructure is much betterthan in Africa, for example.

ea raEven before the sharp increase inearly 2008, world rice prices had beensteadily increasing since early 2004:they increased 44% from the rstquarter of 2003 (Q1 2003) to Q1 2007in ination-adjusted US-dollar terms(see the leftmost column in Figure

1). But, for many Asian countries,this headline price increase wasillusory because the US dollar wassteadily depreciating against a widerange of regional currencies. Forexample, during these 4 years, thePhilippine peso strengthened againstthe dollar from 54.2 in 2003 to 46.1in 2007. Thus, the world price asmeasured in Philippine pesos did notincrease nearly as much as the worldprice as measured in US dollars. In

n transmssonHave recent dramatic increases in world rice prices been bad or consumers and good or producers?

Well, yes and no. The real answer seems to be: It depends. Rice Todayanalyzes the situation.

by David Dawe

Figure 1, the left column for eachcountry makes this adjustment (usingination-adjusted exchange rates),showing that world rice prices duringthis time typically increased muchless in ination-adjusted domestic-currency terms than in ination-adjusted US-dollar terms, althoughBangladesh was an exception.

gr In addition to exchange ratemovements, domestic rice policies

such as procurement, storage, andvariable tariffs also determinehow world prices are transmittedto domestic markets. Many Asiancountries actively try to stabilizedomestic prices, and the right columnfor each country in Figure 1 showsthat, for several countries, the changein domestic consumer (either retailor wholesale) prices was much lessthan the change in world pricesduring this time, even when the

change in world prices is adjustedfor exchange rate movements.

Bangladesh, India, thePhilippines, and Vietnam all fallinto this category of countries thatstabilize domestic prices. For allof these countries, the volatility ofdomestic consumer prices duringthe past few years has been less thanthat of world prices, thus justifyingthe use of the term stabilizer. Asone example of the results of thistype of stabilization, Figure 2 shows

the evolution of monthly domesticretail rice prices in India between2003 and 2007. Clearly, domesticprices were more stable thaninternational prices during this time.

Historically, Indonesia hasalso stabilized domestic rice prices,but, in recent years, its trade policyhas been dominated by domesticpolitical considerations that haveserved to destabilize domesticprices by restricting imports.

50

40

30

20

10

0

-10

World

Bangladesh China India Indonesia Philippines Thailand Vietnam

World price DC

Domestic price DC

Percentage change

DC = domestic currency

Lost

Fi. 1. Cumuaiv prca ca i ra ric pric, fr quarr 2003fr quarr 2007.

Data or vietnam are annual, not quarterly, and reer to change etween 2003 and 2006.


14/44


Thus, in Indonesia, the increasein domestic consumer prices fromQ1 2003 to Q1 2007 was actuallygreater than the increase in worldprices in real rupiah terms.

Thailand and China during thistime acted more as free traders.Thailand has some governmentintervention in terms of procurementand storage, but domestic pricesnevertheless follow world prices veryclosely (see Figure 3). China does not

allow the private sector to trade at all,much less without restriction, so itis not a free trader in the sense thateconomists use the term. But, at leastthrough the early part of 2007, it wasallowing changes in internationalprices to be reected more or lessfully in domestic consumer prices.

R Many countries, including India,Vietnam, and Cambodia, restricted or

banned exports in late 2007 or early2008. These moves led importers toaggressively enter the world marketin fear that supplies would becomeeven more constrained in the future,which exacerbated the shortagesand caused prices to soar. Thiswas a major factor in world pricessurging from $393 per ton in January2008 to $1015 per ton in April.

Because very few tradestook place at the high world

prices, domestic prices did notincrease nearly this rapidly; again,transmission was only partial.But domestic prices neverthelessincreased substantially. In real terms,domestic rice prices in April or Mayof 2008 were 47% and 30% higherin Bangladesh and the Philippines,respectively, compared with pricesin April or May a year earlier.Domestic prices increased even morein Thailand and Vietnam, where

the increases were 131% and 85%,respectively, over the same period.Price increases were more restrainedin India (14% year on year). All ofthese price changes were above andbeyond the reported increases inthe general consumer price index,which indicates the overall level of

ination of consumer good prices.The substantial increases

in domestic prices in a range ofcountries suggest that, in many cases,government policies can insulate thedomestic economy from externalshocks, but only for a limited periodof time. For example, releasingstocks from storage can dampenprice increases, but eventually stockswill run out. Import tariffs can belowered for a time, but eventuallyhit a lower bound at zero. Once the

tariff reaches zero, it is possible tosubsidize imports, but as the worldprice increases, the subsidies maybecome scally unsustainable.General market psychology mayalso make it difcult to dampenprice transmission: if prices arerising rapidly on the world marketand are expected to continue rising,farmers, traders, and households maybegin to hoard supplies, thereforereducing domestic supply andforcing domestic prices up. Thus,even when price transmission isless than complete, events on worldmarkets eventually have importantrepercussions for food security.

There is no doubt that pricechanges of this magnitude can havesubstantial adverse impacts on thepoor, many of whom buy most oftheir food on markets and oftenspend 2040% of their income ontheir staple food in normal times.Poor families must thus cut spending

on other essential items in order tomaintain a minimal level of energyintake. A study in rural CentralJava in Indonesia found that whenrice prices increased in the late1990s, mothers in poor familiesresponded by reducing their caloricintake in order to better feed theirchildren, leading to an increase inmaternal wasting.

1Furthermore,

purchases of more nutritious foodssuch as eggs were reduced in order

Domestic price

World price

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15

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M120

03

M320

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M520

03

M72003

M92003

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M12004

M320

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M12005

M32005

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M11

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M32006

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M72006

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M11

200

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M12007

M32007

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M72007

M920

07

M11

2007

Price (real rupees per kg)

Month

Fi. 2. My dmic ric rai pric i Idia ad wrd ric pric, 200307.

M12003

M32003

M52003

M720

03

M92003

M11

2003

M12004

M32004

M52004

M720

04

M920

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M32005

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M32006

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M12007

M32007

M52007

M720

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M920

07

M11

2007

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World price

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Fi. 3. My dmic ric wa pric i taiad ad wrd ric pric, 200307.


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to afford the more expensive rice.This led to a measurable declinein blood haemoglobin levels inyoung children (as well as in theirmothers), increasing the probabilityof developmental damage. A negativecorrelation between rice prices andnutritional status has also been

observed in Bangladesh.2

Anotherstudy estimated that a 20% increasein food prices would increasethe number of undernourishedpeople in Asia by 158 million.

3

Ar a r r rf ar r?While many people worry thatprices may be increasing forconsumers but not for farmers(with traders increasing theirmargins), the evidence for Asia in

recent years does not support thesefears. Figure 4 shows that, for arange of countries, the percentagechange in farm prices has beennearly identical to the percentagechange in consumer prices.

rzr rUrea is the main source of nitrogenfor Asian rice farmers and is theirmost important fertilizer input.

Fi. 4. Cumuaiv prca ca i ra ric prducr ad cumr pric, 200307.

Data or the Philippines compare March to May 2003 with March to May 2008.

World urea prices have increasedsubstantially since 2003; indeed,they have increased even more thangrain prices on world markets. Aswith grain prices, some of theseincreases have been mitigated byexchange rate appreciation, but theincreases in real domestic currency

terms have still been substantial.Because fertilizer accounts for

only a small share of gross revenuefor farmers, equivalent percentagechanges in output prices and fertilizerprices would increase farmer prots.Data collected at the InternationalRice Research Institute in thelate 1990s showed that the shareof urea fertilizer in gross revenuewas often about 10%. This impliesthat a 10% increase in urea priceswould be fully offset by just a 1%

increase in the output price.In the Philippines, between

March-May 2003 and March-May 2008, farm prices for paddy(unmilled) rice increased by20% in real termsmore thanenough to offset the impact of anapproximately 60% increase inreal urea prices. However, ureaprices began increasing in thePhilippines long before farm paddy

1Block S, Kiess L, Webb P, Kosen S, Moench-Panner R, Bloem MW, Timmer CP. 2004. Macro shocks and m icro outcomes: child nutrition during Indonesias crisis.

Econ. Hum. Biol. 2(1): 2144.2Torlesse H, Kiess L, Bloem MW. 2003. Association o household rice expenditure with child nutritional status indicates a role or macroeconomic ood policy in

combating malnutrition.J. Nutr. 133(5): 13201325.3Senauer B, Sur M. 2001. Ending global hunger in the 21st century: projections o the num ber o ood insecure people. Rev. Agric. Econ. 23(1): 6881.

prices, which have increased onlyrecently. Thus, even though farmprotability has increased now, itwas most likely declining for thepast few years. Further, the costsof other farm inputs, includingfuel (for irrigation and transport,for example), other fertilizers, and

wages have also risen. Thus, it isquite possible that the protabilityof rice farming has decreased eventhough output prices have increased.

As in the Philippines, much ofthe increase in world urea prices hasbeen passed through to farmers inVietnam. In Bangladesh, however,the government kept nominal ureaprices roughly constant throughlate 2007, implying a decline inthe ination-adjusted domesticurea price over the past few years.

Coupled with higher farm prices,it seems likely that rice productionhas become more protable inBangladesh in the short run.

l rIt is not yet clear how world anddomestic rice prices will changefor the rest of 2008 and beyond.However, rice prices have alreadyincreased in some countries byenough to substantially hurt the poor,even if prices subsequently fall laterin the year (as has already startedto happen in some countries). Inaddition, as long as world oil pricesremain high and volatile, rice pricesare likely to behave in a similarmanner due to the new linkages thatbiofuel demand has forged betweenenergy markets and agriculturalmarkets. This will present challengesfor governments to manage theseprice uctuations in order tominimize the impact on the poor.

Dr. Dawe is a senior economist

at the United Nations Food and

Agriculture Organization.

35

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0Bangladesh China Indonesia Philippines

Producer price

Consumer price

Percentage change


16/44


With three majorreservoir-fedirrigation systemsoperating in the

area, its easy to think that Bohol,one of the biggest rice-growingareas in the Philippines Visayasregion, is free of water problemsfor irrigated rice. Think again.

Despite these dams, the rice

farmers of Bohol have been strugglingto irrigate their crops, for the simplereason that the province does nothave enough water. Bohol haswhat is known as a Corona climatetype IV, characterized by evenlydistributed rainfall throughout theyear. There is no clear-cut wet ordry season, though there is a higherlikelihood of heavy showers fromNovember to January. The averageannual rainfall is estimated at

around 1,600 millimeters per year.The three national irrigation

systems operating in Bohol, coveringa total area of 10,260 hectares, arethe Capayas Irrigation System inUbay (1,160 hectares), the BoholIrrigation System 1 (BIS 1; 4,960hectares), and the Bohol IrrigationSystem 2 (BIS 2; 4,140 hectares).

The Malinao Dam of BIS 1 inPilar, the Bayongan Dam of BIS 2 inSan Miguel, and the Capayas Damin Ubay are all reservoir-type dams.

However, Bayongan Dam, which wasconstructed under the Japan Bankfor International Cooperation (JBIC)loan program, was built in such a waythat it had to rely primarily on BIS1.Water from Bayongan Dam will comemostly from the excess water owingfrom Malinao Dam. The technicalfunctionality of BIS 2 is thereforevery much dependent on the efcientoperation and management of BIS 1.

Since the start of operations in

1998, however, BIS 1 has performedpoorly because of inefcient wateruse. The dam has been beset byproblemsdeclining available water,asynchronous farming activitiesresulting in wasteful use of water,and poorly maintained irrigationfacilities. All of these have, in turn,affected farm productivity andcontributed to low farmer incomes.

A JBIC mission conducted inMarch 2005 reported that waterfrom BIS 1 failed to cover the

designated irrigation area and thatthe nonirrigated areas are mostlylocated farthest from the canals.

Usually, there is insufcientwater available during the yearssecond cropping (November to April),especially for downstream farmerswho live farthest from the dam.This problem is aggravated by thepractice of unequal water distributionand unnecessary water use byfarmers who insist on continuous

story by m m

photo by Ra J paaa

wa-saving nologis ind i way o povin

o Bool in Pilippins and pov o b a p

a o gions lia and iigaion syss

A Perfect

the MAlInAo DAM i Piar, Piippiiad B, a b prai ic 1bu a b uab uppy u war irria i 4,0-car rvic ara.


17/44

mAtch

tWo BoYs padd ir way acr Maia Dam.

IRRIgAteD RICe fd ar w Carm, B.

Rice TodayJuly-September 2008 17


18/44


ooding to irrigate their rice crop.In the face of declining irrigated

rice production in Bohol since2000, the National IrrigationAdministration (NIA) createdan action plan for the BoholIntegrated Irrigation System.The plan focused on improving

water distribution equity andefciency; improving operations;strengthening coordination amongthe NIA, irrigators associations(groups of farmers who sharean irrigation canal), and localgovernment units; rehabilitating andupgrading irrigation facilities; andestablishing demonstration farmson water-saving technologies.

A major component of thisplan was the implementation of aproject to improve the performance

of irrigation systems and increasewater productivity. Thus, a water-saving project team for Bohol wasestablished, with NIA as the leadagency. To achieve its goal, theproject made use of water-savingtechnologies developed by scientistsof the Irrigated Rice ResearchConsortium (IRRC) Water-SavingWorkgroup based at the InternationalRice Research Institute (IRRI).

After our initial success inTarlac (see The big squeeze on pages26-31 ofRice Today Vol. 7, No. 2),the national ofce of NIA got holdof the technologies, says RubenLampayan, IRRI postdoctoral fellowand leader of the Water-SavingWork Group. Since Bohol didnthave enough water to irrigate theirrice area, despite its three dams,NIA decided to bring water-saving

technologies, specically alternate

wetting and drying (AWD), to Bohol.Consequently, the introduction

of AWD (also called controlledirrigation) debunked the widespreadbelief that rice has a continuous,insatiable thirst for water. In fact, ricecan be ooded to a lesser extent thanusual (to a depth of 35 centimetersinstead of up to 10 centimeters),allowed to dry to a degree, thenre-ooded, with this cycle repeatedthroughout the season as long as thesoil remains ooded throughout theowering period. Up to a quarterless water is needed, there is no dropin yield, and farmers dont need tomake any other major changes inthe way they manage their crop.

Many farmers came to realizethat rice doesnt need lots of waterthroughout its life cycle, says NIAEngineer Edmund Mendez. They

saw rst-hand, from the demo plots,that rice doesnt have to be ooded allthe time. It only needs puddled waterduring the critical stages of growth.

In Pilar, a municipality in theprovince of Bohol, where the projectwas rst launched, water fromthe dams started to decline 34years ago. Only upstream farmers(those near the main irrigation

canals) could get sufcient water,leaving downstream farmerswith almost nothing. Water fromthe dams was not enough toserve all the farmers elds.

Today, about 150 farmersin Pilar alone are using AWDto grow rice twice a year.

We really saw the need forAWD and aerobic rice technologies,says Jardy Bolanio, head of a localfarmers group in Pilar. Even during

FARMeRs FRoM CARMen, B,r ir ric ar arvi.

IRRI WAteR-sAVIng rarcr

Rub lampaya.

nAtIonAl IRRIgAtIon Admii-rai eir edmud Mdz.

PIlAR FARMeRs' rup adrJardy Bai.

BIs sUPeRIntenDent oympigaaaa, Jr. i a a armr.


19/44

the rainy season, we still neededto save water in the reservoirs asbackup for drier days to come.

So far, our yields using AWDhave been the same as those we getfrom growing rice in ooded elds,he says. However, weeds have beena minor problem. Since ooding

controls weeds, AWD is more proneto weed growth because of the drystages. But it can be solved easilythrough manual weeding. Theweed problem is nothing comparedwith the water we save and theconsistent income we now get.

AWDs success didnthappen overnight though. Withmany farmers resisting theswitch from ooded methods,NIA and its partners carriedout information campaigns,

farm-level demonstrations, andfarmers eld days where thetechnology was introduced.

Farmers were scared thatAWD might reduce their yieldand they would not earn asmuchbut it didnt happen.

There was no disadvantage fromusing AWD, says BIS SuperintendentOlympio Galagala, Jr., who alsofarms rice in Pilar. Our yieldswere the same, and, best of all,our water problem was solved.

According to Dr. Lampayan, AWDin Bohol was adopted by farmers notbecause they liked it. It was adoptedbecause it was forced on them in away, as a solution to the weaknesses

of the water delivery systems, heexplains. Before the project wasimplemented, the NIA people triedto rotate the water in such as waythat everyone would get a fair share,at least within an area served byone dam. AWD complemented that

water rotation scheme becausethe demand for water becamelower and farmers became lessworried about their crops dyingif they didnt get enough water.

Farmers always thoughtthat the more water they

had, the more yield theywould get. AWD proved thiswrong. The farmers are happynot only because they dontworry about water anymore,but also because life ismore harmoniousthey nolonger compete for water.

With more and morefarmers seeing the benetsof using AWD, the Boholexperience could be a potential

model for success of the Water-Saving Work Groups countrysites across Southeast Asia.

There is so much potentialin AWD because water scarcityis a real threat, stresses Dr.Lampayan. People are aware ofthe water problem, but they dontrealize its extent. Our next stepis to scale out and spread thetechnology to other problematicareas, not just in the Philippines.

While the IRRC helps Boholwith the water shortage problem, it

also recognizes the need to addressother production constraints such assoil fertility, labor, and postharvestlosses. Through the IRRCs CountryOutreach Program, initial effortshave been made to integrate AWDwith other IRRC technologies tooptimize rice farmers incomes.

As the number of Boholfarmers who use AWD grows,the IRRC continues to searchfor the next perfect match.

1

ChIlDRen PlAY ar a pi ricrai i ir backyard i Piar, B.

the enDAngeReD Piippi arir(Tarsius syrichta), dmic ur Piippi, icudiB, i wrd maprima.


20/44

In his 1988 Nobel Prize inChemistry acceptance speech,German scientist HartmutMichel, quoting the Royal

Swedish Academy, describedphotosynthesis as the mostimportant chemical reaction onearth. Dr. Michel, who solved thethree-dimensional structure of theprimary protein complex responsiblefor the initial light capture inphotosynthesis, knows a thingor two about the means by whichplants derive energy andhappilyfor we humansconvert carbondioxide to oxygen in the process.

The sheer importance ofphotosynthesis is a plain truththat we tend to ignore in spiteof constant reminders: the treesoutside our windows, the ingredientsof the food we ingest, the energywe expend on the sports eld,and even the intellectual powerthat goes into formulating simplesentences. One way or another, allof this derives from the chemicalenergy synthesized from solarirradiation by photosynthesis.

The energy captured from lightduring photosynthesis is used toconvert atmospheric carbon dioxideinto different sugar moleculesthat are used in diverse metabolicpathways and conveyed via thefood chain to humans. However,the process of photosynthesis is notthe same for all plants. Whereasspecies such as rice have anancestral mode of photosynthesisin which the capture of carbon

dioxide is relatively inefcient,many crop species, such as maizeand sorghum, have evolved a muchmore efcient (and, in evolutionary

terms, newer) photosyntheticpathway. This mechanism, knownas C4 photosynthesis because ofthe initial formation of a moleculepossessing four carbon atoms, canbe distinguished from the ancestralC3 photosynthesis by the initial3-carbon compound formed.

The inefciency of C3photosynthesis means that thepotential growth rates and yieldsof rice are lower than those of a C4crop such as maize. Considering thatmore than 90% of the worlds riceis consumed within Asia and is themajor staple for hundreds of millions

of poorand often undernourishedpeople, improving the efciency ofphotosynthesis in rice could havean enormous benecial impact.

Driven by the need to improverice yields, International RiceResearch Institute (IRRI) scientistJohn Sheehy and his team areembarking on an ambitious butrealistic goal to develop rice with C4photosynthesis. Due to the magnitudeof the task and the multi-facetednature of converting a plantscomplete photosynthetic pathwaywhich entails changes in leaf anatomy,photosynthesis biochemistry, andplant physiologyIRRI formed aninternational consortium of someof the worlds leading experts onphotosynthesis including Julian

an ambItIous project to re-engIneer rIce photosynthesIs has the potentIal to

transform rIce productIon as much as, If not more than, any sIngle advance

sInce agrIcultural research began

by Dilantha Gunawardana

rIce engIne

Suphai th


WReAth-lIKe cfurai bud a ad mpy c arudvi i a maiz a.

Mesophyllcells

Bundlesheathcells

kraz Aa

abIGaIl

elMIDo-

MabIlaNGaN


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Hibberd of the University ofCambridge, Jane Langdale of theUniversity of Oxford, and Tom

Brutnell of Cornell University.C4 photosynthesis is distin-

guished from its C3 equivalent bythe presence of unique anatomicalfeatures within leaves, known asthe Kranz Anatomy. The capture ofcarbon dioxide and its conversionto a four-carbon compound isperformed by so-called mesophyllcells in concert with bundle sheathcells, which synthesize six-carbonsugars, the building blocks of mostbiological polymers. Rice and otherC3 species do possess these two celltypesthough in ratios, and withaccompanying underdevelopedstructures (mostly chloroplasts), thatmake carbon capture inefcient. Oneof the primary goals in the missionto deliver C4 rice is to identify orconstruct the cellular architectureof C4 plantsthe Kranz Anatomyin rice leaves. This will includemicrostructural analysis of manyplant lines including Oryza sativa

(cultivated rice) and many wild ricespecies. Initial studies with wildrice have demonstrated that somefeatures of C4 photosynthesis, suchas close spacing of leaf veins andfavorable ratios of the two cell typesof Kranz Anatomy, do exist in rice.

C4 photosynthesis evolved fromC3 photosynthesis within the past2532 million years, a relatively shorttime frame in terms of evolutionaryadaptation (by comparison, the two

basic structuralforms of plants,monocot anddicot, divergedfrom a commonancestor as earlyas 200 millionyears ago). The

relatively shorttime scale ofC4 evolution,coupled withthe presenceof remnant C4photosynthesisgenes in rice(genes that donthave a C4 function

in rice, but evolved such functionsin C4 plants), has the consortiumoptimistic that the incorporation

of the C4 photosynthesis pathwayinto rice is a realistic goal.

Dr. Sheehys team is also lookingfor the genetic basis of the reversalof C4 photosynthesis back to theancestral C3 pathway. The team hasinduced random genetic mutationsin the C4 crops sorghum and maizeto investigate the changes in leafstructure away from Kranz Anatomy.By analyzing the genomes of thosemutant plants that diverge fromC

4-ness, the researchers should be

able to gain insights into which genes

are responsible for regulating thedifferentiation between C3 and C4.

Decline in carbon dioxide levels,higher temperatures, low availabilityof water, and high soil salinity are allreasons attributed to the evolutionof C4 photosynthesis. Consideringthe success of C4 plants in such

unfavorable environments, it isanticipated that C4 rice, as well asgiving higher yields, will also havelower requirements for water andnitrogen (fertilizer). Therefore, thepotential benets of C4 rice are notrestricted to boosting productivity;they also include environmentalsustainability and climate control.

Creating C4 rice will requireconsiderable effort and the forecasttime for reaching a prototype plantis at least 15 years. However, given

the encouraging initial results,the next year is likely to providemany more answers in the quest tosupercharge the rice engine. If theproject succeeds, the benets forthe poor of such an improvementin the face of increasing worldpopulations, increasing foodprices, and decreasing naturalresources would be immense.

Rice TodayJuly-September 2008 21

teChnICIAns i C4 rup akamp maiz av i fd.

UnDeRstAnDIng wrki maizwicu mr fci C4 pyiicrucia dvpi a C4 ric pa. hr,rarcr Frc Daia mu a maiz a a micrcp.

IRRI

Dr. Gunawardana is a postdoctoralfellow working on IRRI's project todevelop C4 rice.


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Rice TodayJuly-September 2008, Vol. 7, No. 3


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oung boy with rationed rice in Quezon City, Manila , Philippines. Government-subsidized rice has become a necessity for the urba n po


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Giving arming a

Story by Meg Mondoedo and photos by Jose Raymond Panaligan

A youth eld school in the Philippines trains young students in rice arming andagriculture in the hope o perpetuating the nations dying breed o armers

chance

Farmers are getting olderand older. When they aregone, who will producethe food? Few farmers

today want their children to becomefarmers or even agriculturists.The farmer will just say: there isno future in this for my child.

In 2007, ICDAI, in partnershipwith the Philippine Rice ResearchInstitute (PhilRice) and theInternational Rice ResearchInstitute (IRRI), launched theYouth Field School (YFS) as partof the PhilRice-IRRI project onImproving knowledge exchange

This is the bleak reality, asexplained by Father Francis B.Lucas, president of the InfantaIntegrated Community DevelopmentAssistance, Inc. (ICDAI), acommunity-based nongovernmentalorganization (NGO) in Infanta, inthe Philippine province of Quezon.

24 Rice TodayJuly-Stmb 2008


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Rice TodayJuly-Stmb 2008

and decision making among ricestakeholders through information-

and-communication-basedtechnology promotion and deliverysystems, better known as thePhilRice-IRRI Cyber Village project.

The project, which started in2006 and is scheduled to nish in2008, tests and develops approachesthat deal with the range of problemsfaced by farmers. It then takes theseapproaches and makes them morewidely known at the village andmunicipal levels through the use of

information andcommunicationtechnology (ICT).The project alsolooks into theeffectiveness ofcomputer-basedinformation

and knowledgedisseminationto rural farmersand extensionworkers(who take technology andtraining to farmers).

In Infanta, one of the projectspilot sites, the YFS was an off-shootof ICDAIs long-running program, theFarmers Field School, which startedin the 1980s. In these schools, a teamof agriculturists and farmer-trainers

gave training courses and workshopson ecological pest management,integrated soil management, livestocktraining, and other agriculturalservices in villages and townsupon request of organized farmergroups. The Farmers Field Schoolwas a tremendous success; however,through the years, fewer and fewerfarmers attended, so ICDAI developedanother strategythe Youth FieldSchoolwherein the transfer ofagricultural technology was deliverednot to farmers but to their children.

Seventy percent of thepopulation of Infanta is below 21

years old. Whyare we teachingonly the farmersand not theirchildren? asksFather Lucas.The technologytaught to the

older generationwill die withitand not onlythe technology,but the

wonder in appreciating the sourceof life: its food and agriculture.

We wanted to start the studentsearly in agriculture, he says,so the Grade 6 student can say:Wow! Farming is a global pursuit!We are connected nationally andinternationally! We want them to

see that agriculture is not only abouttheir own farms, its a global issue.These children do not even knowhow many people in the world eatrice. Hopefully, with the YFS, theywould want to become farmers.

Che-Che Morilla, head of ICDAIssustainable agriculture program,which handles the YFS, explains,We just want the students toappreciate the farming activities, tolove the farmers, their parents whoare farmers. We are also very happythat these students are helping us byteaching their families. In effect, theybecome very good extensionistsvery

25

HigH scHool students h Bi sh Q, Phpp, m h- x p mm h h py.

cHe-cHe Morilla, h icdaib pm.

FatHer Francis lucas,p ii cmmydpm a,i., k b hb h Yh F sh.

70% Inanta'

ppulatin i belw

21 year ld. Why

are we teaching nly

the armer and nt

their children?


26/44


effective trainers for their families.

Ms. Morilla says that becausestudents also learn how touse the Rice Knowledge Bank(RKB)IRRIs digital repositoryof information on rice production(www.knowledgebank.irri.org)they are becoming the conduits ofinformation to their farmer-parents.

The connection betweenthe PhilRice-IRRI Cyber Villageproject and the YFS lies in theuse of the RKB as the source ofcomputer-based information andknowledge dissemination. InInfanta, however, students, not justfarmers, are given direct accessto agricultural information.

The YFS was incorporatedinto students regular subjects andgraded just like, say, mathematicsor science. On Thursdays, YFSfacilitators, composed of ICDAI staffmembers and farmer-volunteers,teach the young students aboutgrowing rice, managing pests and

diseases, using the RKB, and manyother aspects of growing rice.

To the happy surpriseof ICDAI staff members, thestudents enjoyed the eld schoolsubjects so much that they beganattending school more often.

My co-teachers and I werevery pleased to see the impact of theYFS on the lives of our students,relates Eva Crisostomo, teacher andguidance counselor at the Binulasan

Integrated School in Infanta, an

ICDAI pilot school for the YFS. Theywent to the eld, they cleaned, theyplanted, and they were very eagerto learn. Normally, our classes donot have full attendance, but, everyThursday, the rooms are full!

Ludie Ligutan, a volunteerYFS facilitator and a farmerherself, explains that ICDAIgives her materials with whichto teach a particular topic, suchas seed health managementor sustainable agriculture.

I try to make the classroomlessons interesting by making jokesand telling stories, says Ms. Ligutan,but once its time to go out into theeld, the students are uncontrollable!They dive into themud and startidentifying theinsects andmemorizingtheir names.They prefer

hands-on

exercises to lectures, they like seeing

how the lessons are applied in theactual eld.

For the students, the rewardscome in the discovery that theycan make a real differenceto their families lives.

The YFS has helped me a lotbecause my father is a farmer,says Sheena Orozco, a high-schoolstudent at Binulasan. I tell himwhatever I learn from the eld, likehow and when to apply fertilizer,and which are the harmful insectsand which are the good ones.

Her classmates are quick to agree.We really learn a lot! enthuses

Kristell Barrival. Whenever myparents have a question, Ilook it up in the RKBand I know theanswers are there.

The YFShelps not only thestudents learnabout rice farming

and agriculturebut also theirparents.

26

eva crisostoMo, h B ish.

ludie ligutan, m YhF sh , by h f,hh h h m h p. B m mk mh h hh .

sh o

a rmk


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Sometimes there areparents who dont listen to thefield lectures, says Ms. Ligutan,but their children listen, andat home, when its their ownchildren who tell them about thelessons, they listen and learn.

Alvin Romantiko, also a high-school student in Binulasan, sumsit up perfectly. Since they startedwith the YFS, theyve taught us a

lot, he says. We learned aboutrice and vegetables, but ricewas the most important to me. Irealized that if all of us becamesuccessful engineers, lawyers, or ITspecialists, then who would plantrice: who will feed us? If we allthink of becoming professionals,then who will become farmers?Everybody needs to eat. Even themost successful businessmen and

scientists need to eat. We shouldmake sure there is food security rst,and everything else will follow.

It is encouraging to know thatthese students are giving farminga chance, helping to lessen theworry that farming will become anendangered profession. However,many challenges remain.

According to Father Lucas, alot of poor people are victims ofindustrialization. When industriescome in, people get sucked intotheir centers, he says. Whenthat happens, the environment isneglectedthe basis of food andproduction is neglected becausewhen you remove the farmer, theysell the land, hoping to have theirchildren study anything other thanagriculture. At the end of the day,

though, they lose: they dont haveland and they dont have jobs, andnobody can break the cycle.

Breaking this cycle is what theYFS aims to achieve. By trainingschool students in farming andagriculture early on, young peoplelearn about the importance offood, and, more specically, theimportance of rice in the lives ofmillions not in only in the Philippinesbut also around the world.

Rice TodayJuly-Stmb 2008 27

HigH scHool students irri r KBk m b p h

B i sh mp m, hhh b 20 mp.

Quizzes in tHe Field p hYh F sh pm. sxp f f-h k f pbm.

K B


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MapS

Rice is the staple food of Madagascar, and 60%of the workforce is involved in rice farming.The crop is grown all over the country, exceptin the arid southwest of the island (Map 1).

The principal rice production areas are in the centralhighlands. About 1.25 million hectares are planted torice each year, with an average yield of 2.8 tons perhectare. Rice is produced mainly in ooded conditionsand is mostly rainfed with limited opportunities forirrigation. Slash-and-burn agriculture characterizesMadagascars steep eastern slopes, threatening

The price of ricein Madagascar

remaining refuges of the countrys unique ora andfauna. There is also nonooded rainfed rice in morepermanent agricultural elds on the high plateau.

Around 60% of Madagascars population earns lessthan a dollar per day. The price of rice, therefore, hasa major impact on the welfare of both rice producersand consumers. Here we illustrate how rice prices varybetween regions and seasons, using data from communecensuses of 2001 and 2007 in which the rice price wasrecorded for each quarter

1(Madagascar is subdivided into

more than 1,500 communes). Rice prices in Madagascarare lowest after the main April-June harvests andthen increase by about 40% in December. The highprices during the hunger season reect the increasingdemand and the cost of storage, capital, transportation,

handling, and losses. During this period, the rice priceis effectively capped by the price of imported rice.

Many households sell rice after the harvestsbecause they need cash, only to buy rice again later inthe year. In April-June, only 18% of these communeshave more households that buy rice than sell rice. InOctober-April, however, 77% of communes have a

by Robert Hijmans and Alice Laborte

IRRI Social Sciences Division

1The 2001 commune census is described by Minten B, Randrianarisoa J- C, Randrianarison L (eds.) 2003. Agriculture, pauvret rurale et politiques conomiques Madagascar (USAID,

Cornell University, INSTAT, and FOFIFA). This insightul book, which contains a wealth o inormation on rice and agriculture in Madagascar, includes 54 maps and is available atwww.ilo.cornell.edu/ilo/book.html. For a thorough discussion o rice prices in Madagascar, see also Bart Minten and Paul Dorosh (eds.) 2006. Rice markets in Madagascar in disarray:policy options or increased efciency and price stabilization. Arica Region Working Paper Series 101.World Bank. www.worldbank.org/ar/wps/wp101.pd.

Mp 1. e mj -p M.

s : gm M (M ex F),1994. i eq F n, 1994.

Mp 2. P hh by , y m h y2007, mm M.



29/44

Mp 4. M m (% h m p) h p mm M. a 2001 2007.

majority of rice-buying households. Map 2 shows thepeak percentage of households that buy rice at anytime during the year (in most communes, the peakbuying time occurs in the rst quarter of the year).

Large differences in prices and in price uctuationsexist between regions. Map 3 shows a spatial priceindex, based on an average over four trimesters for2001 and for 2007. The national average has an index

of 100. Areas with low rice prices are in blue and areaswith high prices are in red. Eleven percent of thecommunes have a price that is, on average, 20% higherthan the national average, and 10% of the communeshave a price that is 20% lower than the nationalaverage. The highest prices tend to occur in the moreisolated areas where there is little rice production.

Map 4 shows the temporal variation in prices,computed as the average within-year variation of therice price, expressed as the average deviation fromthe mean annual price. Areas with a stable pricethroughout the year are colored blue, and areas withlarge uctuations are colored red. Half the communes

have an average yearly price variation of 20% or more.In the harvest season, the price of rice tends to be

2Such data are currently collected by the Observatoire du riz, an impressive government program that tracks weekl y rice prices throughout markets in Madagascar.

higher near cities because of lower transportation costsfrom farm to market. In other words, in the harvestseason, rice in more remote areas is sold at lower prices tomake up for higher transportation costs to the market. Incontrast, because storage tends to be in larger towns, off-season prices tend to be highest in remote areas becauseof additional transportation costs. This partly explainswhy spatial and temporal variabilities in rice prices are

not at all correlated (correlation coefcient = 0.1). Manyadditional factors play a role in determining rice prices.Flooded roads in the wet season, which isolate some areasare particularly disruptive, while the northern part of thecountry is vulnerable to cyclones. Each year, such eventscause the formation of enclavestemporally isolatedareas that can experience sharp hikes in the rice price.

Rice production in Madagascar has not kept upwith population growth, despite a decrease in per-capita rice consumption. About 10% of the countrysrice is imported and the government has called for aGreen Revolution to change this situation. Knowledgeof the factors that shape spatial and temporal variation

in the rice prices2 could help guide investments tohelp people who are most vulnerable to high prices.

Mp 3. a p p mm M. a 2001 2007.

Rice TodayJuly-Stmb 2008 29


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The irri pioneer inTerviewS

T blm lv

Gene

Hettel

(3)

Conducted by Gene Hettel

cm t irri

Having worked at thenearby University of thePhilippines at Los Baosas a visiting Cornell

professor, I knew of the area andthe plans of Bob Chandler [IRRIsrst director general] and hisgroup to set up the Institute inthe early 1960s. In 1972, Frosty[Forrest F., Ford Foundation vicepresident of overseas development]Hill,chairman of IRRIs Board ofTrustees, asked me if I wanted thejob of director general [DG]. I hadbeen working at Cornell Universityas director of research in the Collegeof Agriculture. I asked a few friends

what they thought and they saidthat it would be a good thing. So, Idecided to try it. Of course, I alsohad to get permission from my wife[Martha] and she was delighted togo back to the Philippines with me.

cll vmt

In those days, I thought the greatestchallenge for IRRI was to inuence,to the degree it could, qualityresearch for our collaborators in

After 26 years at Cornell University in the United States, Nyle C. Brady became the International Rice Research Institutes

(IRRIs) third director general in 1973. During 8 years at the helm, he pioneered new cooperative relationships between the

Institute and the national agricultural research systems in Asia. After IRRI, he served as senior assistant administrator for

science and technology at the U.S. Agency for International

rice today vol. 7, no. 3

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