rt vol. 6, no. 4 looking up in the uplands

7/31/2019 RT Vol. 6, No. 4 Looking up in the uplands

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Rice TodayOctober-December 2007 Rice TodayOctober-December 2007

dont have alternatives. The onlyland they can use is on these steep

slopes. With very little income,they have no choice but to eke out aliving by growing their food here.

What we want to do,says Dr. Pandey, is to help

them develop options.And the key that can unlock

alternatives for the farmers isricespecically, increased riceproductivity. Dr. Pandey sees

producing more rice on less land, andwith less labor, as one of the mostpromising entry points for breakingout of what IRRI calls the vicious

circle and moving into the virtuouscircle (see gures on page 12).

There are several key constraints

to agricultural production anfor farmers on sloping uplan

visibly obvious is the unforgifragmented topography, whicpeople to work on gradients othan 25 degrees up to a back45 degrees. The predominan

of agriculture on these slopesshifting cultivationotherwiknown as slash-and-burn farThis involves farmers clearin

burning a patch of land on w

grow crops for a few seasons leaving the land fallow and mon to another patch of land. Aa time, they return to the ori

area, cycling through as manof land as are available, and the mountainsides in northe

HA DinH tuAn (front)ad Sshl padylad h rsarcham alog a mo-a ral orhrVam.

The land around PangCang village of Suoi

Giang Commune inVietnams northernprovince of Yen Bai is

eep. To give you an idea of just howeep, when the locals cycle down

Van Chan, 12 kilometers away,me of them hook a tree branch toe back of their bike to act as antra brake. Some dont even bothereping a chain on their bikesyou

her roll downhill or walk up.ding uphill is not an option.

Seeing this terrain for the rstme, one cant help but ask: why

earth would anybody want torm this land? On hills that mostople would refuse to hike, people

thats thrown at itfrom seedsto arduous, spirit-crushing

laborand offers little in return.Who would do that if they had

other options? asks Sushil Pandey,senior agricultural economist at theInternational Rice Research Institute

(IRRI). Dr Pandey, leader of IRRIsRice policy support and impactassessmentresearch program, isleading two projects in Vietnam andLaos, as well as India and Nepal (see

Who, what, and where on page 15).The research team is investigating

ways of improving food security,reducing poverty, and minimizing

environmental degradation in theuplands. His question is rhetorical.The point is that most people here

Looking up in the UplandsStory by adm Brcly, photos by ariel Jvelln

plant rice, maize, tea, cassava,soybeans, peanuts, and more. There

is no irrigation for these slopinguplands; farmers rely solely on the

wet-season rains that (they hope)begin in May or June. And theseslopes are not farmed for their

high yields. In some cases, 100kilograms of seed produces a mere800 kilograms of rice at harvest.The answer, then, is that nobody

would wantto farm herethey do

it because they have no choice.Not far away, in the agriculturally

and climatically similar uplandsof northern Laos, the situation

is the same. Through a lack ofalternatives, families are forced tofarm land that sucks in everything

In the mountains of

Vietnam and Laos, life on the

farm is tough. But more productive

rice crops can give farmers thesecurity they need to improve their

income and help the environment.

A SweepinG View across mo orhr Vam aks acomos of h rc ladscrc lad o s slos, orc cros, fors, ad falloha hav b clard for f


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12 Rice TodayOctober-December 2007

Laos and Vietnam their distinctivegreen-brown-black patchwork look.

The endemic poverty in theseareas means that farmers either

cant afford or are unwilling to buybasic inputs such as fertilizer. Livingconditions are as austere as theycome. Many people live in small hutswith a few basic possessionslittlemore than some cooking pots and afew utensils. This tenuous day-to-dayexistence means that farmers in theseunfavorable areas are risk-averse andeither unable or reluctant to invest intechnologies that may help them later.

The harsh weatherlong,dry, cold winters and very wet,hot summersis another majorconstraint. Pests and weeds are

tHe VirtuouS CirCle avsh way ssaa cdc ad ds awaywh h vcs cc, whchas d scy,vy, ad vadgada.

(IFAD) and the Consultative Group onInternational Agricultural Research(CGIAR) Challenge Program on Waterand Food (CPWF)aim to develop,

validate, and deliver technologies forpoverty reduction through improvedmanagement of rice landscapeswhile also improving the way wateris used in poor farming areas.

The rice landscapes approachcalls for intensication of foodproduction in favorable pockets of theuplands so that pressure to intensifyproduction in the less favorable, morefragile areas can be reduced. Thesefavorable pockets include productivewetland paddies in valley bottomsand terraced elds (or uplandpaddies) where irrigated rice can begrown. They also include dry terracesand elds with lower slopes that arebetter able to retain moisture andnutrients than the steeply slopingareas. Dr. Pandey emphasizesthat, rather than being limitedto the management of rice eldsalone, these projects are about ricelandscape management as a whole.

By increasing rice

productivity, farmerscan free up land

and labor for cashcrops or otherincome-generating

activities. If a familyis assured enough rice to

feed itself each year, farmerscan consider other componentsof agriculture that may be moreappropriate for these steeply slopingareas, such as animal husbandry, tree

constant problems and weedmanagement requires intensivelabor (manually weeding at eldsis a thankless task in itself; imagine

doing it in the scorching, humidsummer on muddy, 45-degree slopes).

Compounding the problem ofpoor productivity is inadequateaccess to markets. Even if farmersdo manage to grow a cash crop or arice surplus, many farms are severalhours along narrow mountainfootpaths from the nearest placewhere they can sell their produce.

The research, which representsIRRIs strategic efforts to reducepoverty and improve environmentalsustainability in uplands, focuseson managing rice landscapes inmarginal uplands. The projectspartly funded by the InternationalFund for Agricultural Development

A riCe Armer as addsa Sa lg vag, na

bg C, Va.

riCe terrACeS ad ad fdssha h cs h Kah phaVay, Y ba pvc, Va.


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13Rice TodayOctober-December 2007

plantations, or forestry production.There are other ow-on

effects that stem from increasedrice productivity. Ultimately, itwill mean that the amount ofland used for shifting cultivation,which encroaches on forests andcontributes to environmentaldegradation, will decrease.

Chanh Tuln (pictured) is a armer who lives

in Muka village, Oudomxay Province, in

northern Laos. The 57-year-old has our

children: three sons, 26, 24, and 22, and a

daughter, 13. His arm comprises 0.5 hectare o

lowland (irrigated) area and 1 hectare o upland

(rained) area. But that will soon change.

In 2006, Mr. Tuln was orced by a lack o

labor to cultivate rice on only 0.3 hectare o

his lowland arm. From this, he harvested 900

kilograms. Because o poor rainall, his upland

arm oered him a mere ton o rice. Despite

these low yields, he and his amily coped. A

recently constructed road has linked Muka to

other villages and, thereore, to markets where

Mr. Tuln was able to sell his nonrice crops.

But 2006 also marked the beginning o

Mr. Tulns move away rom upland arming.

He received rom the Oudomxay ProvincialAgriculture and Forestry Ofce 5 kilograms

o B6144, an improved upland variety that

armers have ound grows well under lowland

conditions also. This nonglutinous variety

yields higher than the traditional glutinous

(sticky) varieties avored by most people in

this region.

The seeds were part o 1,500 kilograms

o modern and purifed traditional varieties

supplied as part o the Managing landscapes

in marginal uplands for household food security

and environmental sustainabilityproject to 150

armers in 22 villages or an initial demonstration.

Mr. Tuln planted hal o his seeds in his lowland

felds and gave hal to his brother. Each o them

harvested 100 kilograms.

Were very happy with B6144 because

its high-yielding, says Mr. Tuln. I saved 30kilograms o seed and this year will sow 10

kilograms. Ill give 20 kilograms to relatives

and keep 70 or eating.

Because o B6144s increased yield, Mr. Tuln

planned to plant only this variety in lowland

felds in 2007. This will allow him to use his

upland plots to plant more cassava and maize,

which require less weeding (and thereore

less labor) than rice, and which he can sell.

Consequently, Mr. Tuln is anticipating a higher

income in 2007, which will allow him to buy

medicine and clothes or his amily and help

pay or his daughters schooling.

The news o success stories like Mr. Tulns

has traveled rapidly through Oudomxay

Province. More and more armers are keen to

obtain seeds o improved varieties and try

them or themselves.

But most armers in upland areas have very

small areas o lowland felds or none at allRestricted to growing rice in sloping upland

areas, they need rice varieties that can produce

higher yields. Several upland armers involved

in the project are already seeing increased

yields through their use o purifed stocks

o popular traditional varieties such as Nok

Makhinsong, and Chaomad (see Appropriate

technologies on page 14).

Only when poor armers achieve a secure ood

supply can they can begin to think about how to

increase and diversiy their income by, or example

growing cash crops or raising livestock.

moving down to ove up

The basic motto of our work isincome growth with household foodsecurity, says Dr. Pandey. Oftenthese are seen as competing goals.What we are saying is that you canhave income growth built on thefoundation of food security. If youcan use fewer resources to grow food,you free up resources so that you can

start the process of income growth.There have been attempts in the

past to encourage upland farmersto reduce the amount of land theyplant to rice and grow crops that canbe sold on the external market, thusraising income and allowing peopleto buy the extra rice they need tofeed themselves. IRRI social scientist


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Appropriate technologies

Oering armers appropriatetechnologies can help themshit rom the vicious to the

virtuous circle. Such technologiesinclude

New and improved seeds. Theseare improved aerobic varieties suitedto upland conditions that producehigher yields than the varietiescurrently being grown (suitableaerobic varieties can achieve 11.5tons per hectare more than the 11.2tons per hectare yield o traditional varieties).

New breeding lines. Through the International Network or Genetic Evaluation oRice, Lao and Vietnamese national research institutes have received breeding lines thatare being used to identiy improved rice varieties adapted to both paddy (irrigated) andupland (nonirrigated) conditions.

Purifcation o seed stocks o traditional rice varieties. Most armers in the slopinguplands plant rom a mixed seed stock. Identiying the best traditional varieties or theprevailing conditions and management practices, and using pure stocks o these, result inbetter yields. Local agricultural agencies will have the responsibility o training armers tomaintain pure seed stocks. In Laos, where NAFReC has done most o the seed purifcation

and multiplication work, there is interest in setting up a community-based seed productionsystem to meet local seed requirements.

Best-practice management o rice cropping systems. For example, the addition o short-duration legume crops such as soybean or mungbean, or direct seeding o rice in rainedlowlands, may allow armers to harvest earlier and grow a second rice crop in one year.

Alternative cropping systems. These are crop combinations with upland rice andimproved allow rotations that reduce soil erosion and weed inestation, enhance soilertility, and generate income. These systems include rice-based rotations with leguminouscash crops such as pigeon pea and paper mulberry, and rice-beans. Besides grain production,pigeon pea may also serve as a host or the insects that secrete sticlac, which is usedas an industrial resin and etches a good market price. Ater several years o harvesting

sticlac, pigeon pea can be incorporated into the soil as a green manure in preparation ora return to rice or other crops.

Restoration o weed-inested areas. For example, this involves combining appropriateherbicide use to control the perennial grass Imperata, which commonly invades land

under short allow rotations, and subsequently establishing pigeon pea to preventreinestation. Technologies or soil ertility maintenance. In combination with ertilizers, rice crops

can be interspersed with crops that add nitrogen to the soil and/or deep-rooted speciesthat enhance nutrient cycling.

Technologies or improved water use. Aerobic rice varieties, which require less waterthan irrigated varieties, are an example o an important technology or increasing waterproductivity. Rice irrigation regimes, such as alternative wetting-and-drying similarly canincrease water productivity by enabling armers to plant a larger area o irrigated rice thanwould be possible otherwise.

Hari Gurung cautions that thesestrategies are often perilous, though.

One option might be toencourage upland farmers to stopgrowing rice and grow cash cropssuch as tea, coffee, or rubberbutthat can be socioeconomicallydisastrous, says Dr. Gurung. Thesubsistence-oriented highlandcommunities are already vulnerable;rapid exposure to markets anductuating market forces can increasetheir vulnerability. If the marketcollapses, not only will people be leftwith nothing to eat, but they will alsolose the basis of their livelihoods.

Strategies to improve riceproduction in the sloping uplands(seeAppropriate technologies, left)

include the introduction of superiorseeds (either higher-yielding modernvarieties or pure seed stocks ofhigh-quality traditional varieties)and improved management optionsthat maintain or rejuvenate soilfertility. This approach includesbetter fallow systems in whichlegumes, for example, are plantedand later incorporated into the soil.

Although the projects are st illin their early stages, people in some

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ackakg wk.

riCe terrACeS a pag Cagvag, S Gag C,Va, aw a scd yayc c.

rAnDY ritzemA s waacvy a a sach s lag paag, las.


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1Rice TodayOctober-December 2007

who, hat, and here

Two projects on rice landscape management are currently being managed by IRRI aspart o a broader initiative in the uplands o Asia. The projects involve a wide range ointernational and national organizations: Assam Agricultural University, Assam, India Chiang Mai University, Thailand Nepal Agricultural Research Council, Nepal Institute o Agriculture and Animal Sciences, Nepal Indian Council o Agricultural Research Center or North-Eastern Hills Region, Meghalaya

National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute, Laos Northern Agriculture and Forestry Research Center, Laos Northern Mountainous Agriculture and Forestry Science Institute, Vietnam Thai Nguyen University o Economics and Business Administration, Vietnam World Agroorestry Center (ICRAF) French Agricultural Research Centre or International Development (CIRAD) University o Caliornia, Davis Yunnan Academy o Agricultural Sciences, Yunnan, ChinaThe research program is unded through grants rom the International Fund orAgricultural Development and the Challenge Program or Water and Food.

areas are already adopting improvedtechnologies. In the Lao province ofOudomxay, for example, farmers are

increasingly growing several varietiesbeing promoted by the project. Someof these are improved varietieswhile others are local varietiesadapted to upland conditions.

In 2006, the projects supplied1,500 kg of seeds of improvedand adapted traditional varietiesto 150 farmers in several villagesin northern Laos for an initialdemonstration. The farmers are nowexpanding the area on which theygrow these varieties. Neighboringfarmers are also interested andhave obtained seeds from the 2006harvest. Thus, the disseminationof these varieties at the villagelevel has already commenced.

Alternative cropping systemsare being explored to identify cropcombinations and rotations with

upland rice that reduce soil erosionand weed infestation, improvesoil fertility, and generate income.These alternative systems, whichinclude rotations such as rice-pigeon pea, rice-ricebeans, andrice-paper mulberry, are also beingvalidated and made available tofarmers. In other areas, farmershave started to grow spring rice (a

second annual rice crop planted inFebruary and harvested in June)or plant spring legumes such assoybean, peanut, or pigeon pea.

According to Damien Jourdain, aHanoi-based agricultural economistseconded to IRRI from the FrenchAgricultural Research Centre

for International Development(CIRAD), the project is implementedin partnership with farmers whoare involved in the conduct andevaluation of various eld trialsmany of which are managed bythe farmers themselves. Farmersare regularly invited to researchtrials to offer feedback on what theysee as the technologies with thegreatest potential. Thus, the projectsavoid wasting time and moneyon technologies that may be well

intentioned and scientically sound,but would stand little chance ofadoption. Examples include improvedvarieties that offer pest resistanceand high yields, but have poorcooking quality, or nonrice wintercrops that improve soil fertility butare prohibitively labor intensive.

Dr. Jourdain, whose projectrole includes supervision of severalVietnamese postgraduate students,points out that the work is valuablenot only because it directly assistsfarmers but also because it helpsbuild the capacity of the localresearch institutions. I wouldntunderestimate the impact of workingtogether with research partners andstudents, he says. Its not just thewhole impact of the project, but alsothe process of tackling a researchquestion together. You can bring insome new ideas, some new methods.

According to KhamdokSongyikhangsuthor, agricultural

scientist at Laoss NorthernAgriculture and Forestry ResearchCenter (NAFReC), as shiftingcultivation fallow periods growshortera trend accelerated bygovernment policies of limitingthe area under slash-and-burn-farmingthere is a growing need forvarieties suited to the shorter fallowcycles. Already, NAFReCs work topurify stocks of traditional seeds hasresulted in higher yields for farmers.

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DAmien JourDAin (left) ssss h ac wkg wh as. b Sas dscsss ad a-g s wh h vags mka, h la vc odxay.


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NAFReC Director HoumchithsavathSodarak, who has been a championfor the project in Laos, notesthat the Center is also evaluatingseveral improved upland varietiesgenerously provided by the YunnanAcademy of Agricultural Sciences.

This has allowed farmers tostart or increase the planting of cash

cropsfruit trees, maize, soybean, forexamplewhich can get good pricesat the market, says Mr. Khamdok,who adds that, through the Laoprovincial agriculture and forestryofces, NAFReC is also distributingimproved nonglutinous (nonsticky)varieties. Although most Laoethnic groups prefer the glutinousrice, he says, many farmers arestarting to grow the nonglutinousrice because of its higher yields.

Farming in irrigated paddieseither at areas in valleys or terracedslopesis considered lowlandfarming, even if its high in themountains. These irrigated paddies,although limited in area, can producemuch higher yields because offavorable conditions for rice growth.Often, farmers are unable to fullyuse such land for rice production dueto a shortage of water, especially inthe dry season. One of the projectaims is therefore to develop and test

water-efcient rice technologies, suchas aerobic rice (rice that yields wellwhen grown in at but nonoodedelds) and alternate wetting-and-drying irrigation regimes.Such approaches have potentialto ensure against unpredictablerainfall or allow farmers to growa second rice crop each year.

Irrigation in the mountainousareas is also very poor, says HaDinh Tuan, deputy director general

will help increase rice productionand support income growth.

The problem is, most farmersin these mountainous areas donot have access to at land wherepaddy rice can be grown.

Even though our objectiveis to give people options that will

draw them away from the slopinguplands, says Ben Samson, anagronomist based in IRRIs ofcein the northern Lao city of LuangPrabang, we are still doing workin these unfavorable areas becausethere is limited at land available.

Both projects are now in theirsecond year and the major thrustso far has been assessment andunderstanding of the relationshipsamong rice production, landscapemanagement, poverty, and water

access and use. Dr. Samson saysthat once this phase is completed,researchers and farmers willdevelop and test technologies thatcan provide the transition fromthe vicious to the virtuous circle.

We are already testingtechnological interventions, evenas we undertake the assessmentand understanding phase of theupland work, he says. We are ableto do this by using and building onprevious collaboration between IRRIand the Lao National Agricultureand Forestry Research Institute.

The research team is optimisticabout the projects impact. If we areable to put appropriate technologiesin place, it shouldnt be too longbefore we see signicant gains,says Dr. Pandey. A similar approachpromoted by the Chinese governmentin Chinas Yunnan Province sawmajor improvements to farmfamilies livelihoods in 57 years

(seeA mountainous success on pages30-35 ofRice Today Vol. 5, No. 1).

Having enough food is oneof humanitys most fundamentalrequirements. Food insecurity acts asa wall between an arduous hand-to-mouth existence and a more fulllinglife. By providing options that helppeople feed themselves and theirfamilies, Dr. Pandey and his teamhope to give upland farmers the boostthey need to get over that wall.

SlASH-AnD-burn agecaches ess adces eveadegada.

KHAmDoK SonGYiKHAnGSutHor s a agcasces a las nhe Agce ad fesyreseach Cee.

of Vietnams Northern MountainousAgriculture and Forestry ScienceInstitute (NOMAFSI). We arewasting water. If we can preservewater better, we could avoid watershortages during the dry season.This requires a very big investmentand the current irrigation systemsare inadequate and may be

uneconomical in some localities.Environmental systems analyst

Randy Ritzema, a University ofCalifornia, Davis, Ph.D. student,is based in Luang Prabang, wherehe is investigating how waterows in upland farming areas.Using computer modeling andgeographic information systems(mapping), he is looking at howland use in these areas has changedover time and how this is likely toaffect water ows downstream.

Rice production must be seen inthe context of general environmentalresource managementand thecentral resource is water, says Mr.Ritzema. Once we understandwhere the water goes and howits managed, and how thatsrelated to land use, we can see ifchanging different components

rt vol. 6, no. 4 looking up in the uplands

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