rice today special supplement for japan's minister of finance and the world bank's...

8/9/2019 Rice Today Special Supplement for Japan's Minister of Finance and the World Bank's Executive Director

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Special Supplement for Japan’s Minister of Finance and the World Bank’s Executive Director

The new Green Revolution:

A bigger rice bowlCreating an oasis with riceSwarna-Sub1: Odisha’s foodfor a goddess



editor-in-chief Gene Hettel

managing editor Lanie Reyes

associate editor Alaric Francis Santiaguel

Africa editor Savitri MohapatraLatin America editor Nathan Russell

copy editor Bill Hardy

art director Juan Lazaro IV

designer and production supervisor Grant Leceta

photo editor Isagani Serrano

circulation Antonette Abigail Caballero, Lourdes Columbres, Cynthia Q

Web masters Jerry Laviña, Lourdes Columbres

printer CGK formaprint

Rice Today is published by the International Rice Research Institute(IRRI) on behalf of the Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP).

GRiSP provides a single strategic plan and unique partnership platformfor impact-oriented rice research and development. IRRI is the world’s premiere research organization dedicated to reducingpoverty and hunger through rice science; improving the health andwelfare of rice farmers and consumers; and protecting the rice-growingenvironment for future generations. Headquartered in the Philippinesand with offices in 16 countries, IRRI is a global, independent, nonprofitresearch and training institute supported by public and private donors.Responsibility for this publication rests with IRRI. Designations used inthis publication should not be construed as expressing IRRI policy oropinion on the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area, or itsauthorities, or the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

Rice Today welcomes comments and suggestions from readers. RiceToday assumes no responsibility for loss of or damage to unsolicitedsubmissions, which should be accompanied by sufficient return postage.

The opinions expressed by columnists in Rice Today do not necessarilyreflect the views of IRRI or GRiSP.

International RiceResearch Institute2014

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Rice Today editorialtelephone: (+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],[email protected]

RiceToday Editorial Board

Bas Bouman, GRiSP

Matthew Morell, IRRI

Eduardo Graterol, Latin American Fund for Irrigated Rice

Marco Wopereis, Africa Rice Center

Mary Jacqueline Dionora, IRRI

Osamu Koyama, Japan International Research Center for AgricultuErna Maria Lokollo, Indonesian Agency for Agricultural Research a

Pradeep Kumar Sharma, CSK Himachal Pradesh Agricultural Unive

Gonzalo Zorrilla, National Institute of Agricultural Research (INIA)

contents

COUNTRY HIGHLIGHT: JAPAN ................................4

REASSESSING JAPAN’S DEVELOPMENTASSISTANCE ......................................................... 6

A development economist calls for a strategicapproach f with emphasis on developing humancapital

APPEASING “NINE DRAGONS”ENRAGED BYCLIMATE CHANGE ................................................ 8

One of Southeast Asia’s top rice exporters finds waysto deal with the wrath of climate change

BANGLADESH COMBATS THE WHITE PLAGUE ... 10Salt may be a b lessing to good cooking, but, in rice cultivation, it is a deadly sin

MAKING RICE LESS THIRSTY .................................14New drought-tolerant lines developed at IRRI give

hope to farmers in drought-prone areas in eastern India and the Philippines

GRAPPLING WITH COLD ........................................18IRRI, in collaboration with the Republic of Korea, is

developing new rice varieties

that will soon warm up to cold temperatures

SCUBA RICE.............................................................22New versions of popular varieties of rice, which can

withstand 2 weeks of complete submergence, are set to make a big impact in South Asia

DREAMS BEYOND DROUGHT ...............................28For the rural poor, drought delivers heartbreak and rips communities apart — but promising new

research can help rice farmers and their familiesavoid devastation

READY FOR CLIMATE CHANGE .............................36Farmers are fast adopting stress-tolerant varieties of

rice to head off yield losses

CREATING AN OASIS WITH RICE ...........................38Under the scorching sun and cloudless skies, farmer Prabhawati Devi builds her oasis using a rice variety

that defies the drought that often parches her land

ODISHA’S FOOD FOR A GODDESS .......................41Odisha farmers embraced flood-tolerant rice not only

as food on their table but as a worthy offering toLakshmi, their goddess.

OVERCOMING THE TOUGHEST STRESS IN RICE:DROUGHT ...........................................................43

Efficient GM technologies and an i nnovative drought-screening facility at IRRI increase the chances ofdiscovering new candidate genes for droughttolerance

BITTER HARVEST FROM A NOBLE CAUSE ...........46Dr. Zeigler, IRRI director general, reflects on the Green

Revolution and new but controversial technologies

THE NEW GREEN REVOLUTION: A BIGGER RICEBOWL...................................................................48Another green revolution is stirring in the world’s

paddy fields

FIELDS OF PLENTY .................................................52It’s 2063. Indian farmer Prabhjit Kumar finds herself

running a profitable and environmentally friendlybusiness thanks to rice agricultural research

WHEN THE RAIN STOPS ......................................... 56It takes more than a dry spell to dampen farmers’

spirits in drought-stricken areas in the northernPhilippines

COPING WITH CLIMATE CHANGE ........Climate change threatens to affect rice pr across the globe.

MORE THAN SEEDS ..............................Indian farmers learn how to grow climate

Onthe cover:

White deposits of salt cover the rice fields i

areas of South Asia, especially during the dDubbed the “white plague,” soil salinity is aproblem in farming that can push cash-strasubsistence rice farmers further below theline. Fortunately, farmers can now combatcultivating BRRI dhan47, a salt-tolerant riceis now becoming popular in Bangladesh. (

Isagani Serrano)



Rice Today April-June 2012

ompiled by Lovely Merlicel Quipot

OUNTRY HIGHLIGHT:

IRRI and Japan

Japan is the only industrializedcountry whose agriculture is based on rice, its staple food.Rice cultivation in Japan was

troduced from China between,000 and 300 BC. Since then, ricerming has had a great inuence one social structure and culture of theuntry.

Its rice ecosystems occur acrosswide range of latitudes, includinge subtropical, temperate, andbtemperate zones. Almost all rice

grown in summer under irrigatednditions. Most of its rice elds aren the plains of the country’s majorver basins, but many rice elds areso found on terraces and in valleys.

acred ricethe 13th c entury, rice was Japan’srrency before China introducedetal, and rice had a politicalle—the rank of a feudal lord wastermined by the amount of rice heoduced or by the size of the rice-oducing area of his territory.

In addition, the Japanese retainunique regard for rice. For them,is sacred. This reverence for rice is

ributed to Shintoism, a Japaneseligion. Shintoists believe that an

mperor is a descendant of the creatorJapan, and that natural thingsd phenomena have deities—in

ce resides the deity of food. Thislief, among others, makes locallyoduced rice superior and totallyerent from foreign rice for thepanese people.

arly rice sciencehe earliest recorded experiments once were in the 1400s and 1500s totermine its maturity, cultivation,

aits, and glutinous properties.By the 1800s, many farmers were

refully selecting rice varieties foranting. Afterward, the Nationalgricultural Experiment Station in

Japan began selecting pure lines ofrice varieties as soon as the stationwas established in 1893.

In 1905, Japan developed a riceseeder, called “octopus,” that couldseed 16 hills in one move, and it wasthen widely adopted by farmers.Come 1910, the pedal t hresher wasinvented in the country.

Japanese rice breeders begandeveloping varieties for cold tolerancein 1935, and for blast resistance in the1940s. They developed a series of r icevarieties that had sti straws, uprightleaves, good response to fertilizer,and high yield potential.

In the early 1960s, riceconsumption per capita was nearly120 kilograms. Because of a highdemand for rice, the governmentinvested in research to generate beer rice varieties and productiontechniques. The government even

led a contest in search of a ricefarmer with the highest yield inthe country—the winner producedaround 10 tons per hectare duringthat time.

A pioneering partner Japan has been an important partnerto the International Rice ResearchInstitute (IRRI) since the Institute’sestablishment. It provided leadership by having a seat on the rst IRRI board of trustees in the person of Dr.Hitoshi Kihara in 1960. Since then, Japan has always been represented onthe board, with Dr. Mutsuo Iwamotoas its current representative.

Japan has also long been one ofIRRI’s most generous supporters,giving a total of more than US$191million to IRRI between 1971 and2010. Japan became a member of theCGIAR in 1972.

Japan: fast facts (2009)

Population: 127 million

Total land area: 37.8 million ha

Total rice production: 10.6 million tons

Area planted to rice: 1.6 million ha

Average rice yield: 6.5 t/ha

Amount of rice eatenper person per year (2007): 56.6 kg

Source:World RiceStatistics , www. irri.org/world-rice-statistics

M A P S O U R C E : N E L G A R C I A / A N D Y N E L S O N


Past research collaboration

In its partnership with Japan, IRRIcovers a wide range of rice research.In 1984, Japanese scientists wereassigned by the Japan InternationalResearch Center for AgriculturalSciences (JIRCAS) to work at IRRIheadquarters under the IRRI-JapanCollaborative Research Project.

In the 1980s, research activitiesfocused on developing low-nitrogen-input technology and on identifyinggenes that are resistant to variousraces of bacterial leaf blight disease.Then, in 1989, IRRI and Japancollaborated on rice double cropping.In 1994, their research concentratedon the adaptability of rice to waterstress and blast disease. Under the

Fig. 1. Rice production area and quantity in Japan (1960–2009).Source: World Rice Statistics

3.5Million hectares Million tons

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

0

1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985

Year

1990 1995 2000 2005

20

18

16

14

12

10

8

6Area of harvested rice

Quantity of rice produced

4

2

0

Japan Capacity-Building Program, Japan continued to support breedingfor blast resistance.

Japan also invested in researchfor beer postharvest equipment thatis now being adopted in SoutheastAsia.

Moreover, the Japanesegovernment has also supported socialscience research under the Japan-IRRIshule program. Through intensiveeld surveys in Asian villages, theresearch revealed how farmersrapidly modernized their farmingonce high-yielding varieties wereintroduced. It showed that modernrice technology has a signicantimpact on poverty alleviation,particularly among marginal farmers.

Japan has als o supportedeliver rice market informadevelop integrated rice cultisystems under water-savingconditions. Japan also suppthe successful developmentsubmergence-tolerant rice (Srice).

Current work

IRRI and Japan are now wortogether in using molecular btechniques to develop high-yrice varieties under unfavoraconditions, such as drought.genes that help rice cope witdrought stress have been preidentied and characterized Japanese research groups at and RIKEN (a large natural sresearch inst itute).

Climate Change Adaptain Rainfed Rice Areas (CCAan ongoing research project IRRI-Japan collaboration. It develop a decision support sin rainfed lowland rice prod based on seasonal weatherprediction.

It is noteworthy to mentthat, through JIRCAS and th Japan Internationa l CooperaAgency (JICA), the country also been a founding strategpartner in the Global Rice SPartnership (GRiSP), being lIRRI. Under this mega-progactivities include acceleratiothe development of high-imvarieties in sub-Saharan Afrand Southeast Asia; accelerarice variety testing, approvadissemination to these regio building of a new generationrice breeders; as well as consocioeconomic surveys.

Lastly, IRRI and JICA, wtogether in a project to trainextension agronomists, rece brought 25 participants fromAfrican countries (MozambiKenya, Rwanda, Uganda, anTanzania) to the Philippinesfor a 17-week rice knowledgproduction, and extension c(see YouTube video: hp://yoYzHAsbCA0a4).Fig. 2. Average rice yield in Japan (1960–2007).

Source: World Rice Statistics

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Kilograms/person/year

1 961 1 96 6 1 971 1 976 1 981 1 98 6

Year

1 991 1 99 6 2 001 2 00 6



Rice Today October-December 2014

What country is a majorsalmon producer andexporter to Japan? Theanswer is Chile. And

hat country, also in the Southernemisphere, grows large amounts of

ybeans? Brazil.But, 40 or 50 years ago, Chile

d not produce a single salmon andazil was not a major producer ofybeans. So, who started raisinglmon in Chile and who startedowing soybeans in Brazil’s cerrado ,vast savanna thought to be barren?he Japanese people and the Japanternational Cooperation AgencyCA) are the answer. These accom-ishments, however, are less knownJapan and elsewhere. The Worldnk often refers to Ch ile’s salmond Brazil’s soybean production asccess stories, but it shows no sign ofcognizing Japan’s contributions.

1

Another question: Why is it thathailand has become a major manu-cturer of automobiles, to the pointat it has been dubbed the “Detroitthe East”? What made this pos-

ble was guidance from the Japanese,cluding their companies in the autodustry. Another major hub of caranufacturing is the Pearl River Deltaea of southern China. Also, this hasput from Japan, namely, training ofe personnel required by carmakers.

pan and Asia’s Green Revolutionpan can take pride that its ocialvelopment assistance (ODA) played

a key role in all of the above successstories. A case that I am quite familiarwith is Asia’s Green Revolution.

As of the 1960s, food productionin tropical Asia was increasing muchslower than population. The room to

expand cultivation areas was less andfarm productivity was not improvingsignicantly. It was feared that majorfood shortages would occur. But, thiswas averted by the development ofnew, h igher-yielding r ice varieties by the International Rice ResearchInstitute (IRRI) in the Philippines.These varieties were supported byinvestment in irrigation.

Japanese researchers, such asphysiologist Akira Tanaka, playeda key role at IRRI as it set the stagefor the start of the Green Revolution.From the 1970s to 2000, the yieldper unit area of rice in tropical Asiaapproximately doubled, and totalrice production roughly tripled.Thus, the warning of the danger offamine in Asia stopped. The Japanesegovernment provided generousnancial support for IRRI’s researchand training of its personnel. Japanalso joined the Asian DevelopmentBank in supporting investment inirrigation. This is another exampleof Japan’s ODA producing a game-changing advance. Only a few peopleare aware of this.

Japanese development assistancehas produced other major advancesin Asia and elsewhere. But, thetrack record of Japan’s ODA is less

known—even to people like me, aspecialist in development economics.Although the details await furtherstudy, my assessment is that Japan’said program has contributed toindustrial development in many

countries through this combinedfocus on people and infrastructure.

The need for effective strategies Japan’s ODA ocers tend to thinkthat the aid programs aim only topromote industrial developmentin developing countries throughnancial assistance. This view isnot terribly wrong, but s omewhatproblematic.

he JICA Research Institute has published a pair of interesting works concerning these two cases: Hosono Akio, Nanbei Chiri o sake no yushutsuk oku ni kaeta Nihonjintachi

he Japanese Who Turned Chile into a Salmon Exporter) (2010), and Hongō Yutaka and Hosono Akio, Burajiru no fumō no daichi ‘serādo’ kaihatsu no kisek i (The Miracle of

evelopment of Brazil’s Vast, Barren Cerrado Savanna) (2012).

A development economist calls for a strategic approach for Japan’s ocial development assistance,

with emphasis on developing human capital

by Keijiro Otsuka

Reassessing Japan'sdevelopment assistance

AKIRA TANAKA (left ), head of IRRI’s Plant PhysiologyDepartment (1962-66), confers with the Institute'sfirst breeder Peter Jennings during the early 1960s.Dr. Tanaka contributed to the development of IR8,the "miracle" variety that jump started the GreenRevolution in rice.

I R R I ( 2 )


At present, nowhere in theinternational community of aiddonors can one nd a consensuson the strategies that can promotedevelopment and reduce poverty indeveloping countries. Aid withouta strategy is unlikely to producesuccessful outcomes. It is like kickinga ball blindly toward a goal. What isneeded is to set eective strategies.This should be an important goal ofODA. Although Japan’s assistancehas been eective, evidence-basedresults have not been collected yet.Therefore, Japan’s ODA has not beena source of examples for other donorcountries to learn from.

People have been calling forthe reduction of poverty for years, but the discussion of developmentstrategies has failed to achieve muchprogress on this. The only points ofconsensus are that, (1) in order toreduce poverty, jobs for poor peoplemust be created; and (2) to create such jobs, agriculture and manufacturingmust be developed through newtechnologies.

The theme of t he World Bank’s2013 World Development Reportwas “jobs,” but the soon-to-be-published 2016 edition will focus on“the Internet and development.” TheWorld Bank is presumably sketchinga scenario in which I T innovationleads to industrial development, thuscreating jobs and thereby reducingpoverty. To make this happen,however, to have strategies to sparkinnovation is necessary.2

People firstThe rst priority should be humanresource development. In manufac-turing, this means training of execu-tives. No amount of ne equipment

and good infrastructure will helpa company grow unless its chiefexecutive knows about managementand technology. Recent research hasshown that executives in developingcountries tend to lack managementknow-how and this is preventingtheir companies from developing.Advanced countries have stocks of

superior technologies and knowledgeabout management. Executives indeveloping countries should tap intothese intellectual resources.

My colleague Sonobe Tetsushiand I are currently working with JICA and the World Bank on aproject in Africa—testing theeectiveness of kaizen , a Japanesemanagement technique ofpursuing continuous incrementalimprovement. So far, the results lookgood. Infrastructure improvementsand loans produce more positiveresults after corporate managementhas become more ecient. This isparticularly eective in supportingup-and-coming companies byconstructing plants in industrialzones. This is our idea of agood development strategy formanufacturing.

This can also be applied to agri-culture. The key, as well, is humanresources, which means researchersand extension agents to s pread newtechnologies. Farming technologiesdepend on climate and local condi-tions, so they cannot simply be im-ported from other countries. Appliedresearch is needed to adjust advanced

technologies from elsewhere to workunder local conditions. Surprisingly,in rice growing, Asian technologiescan be used in Africa without modi-cation. So, a Green Revolution forrice in Africa is possible even withoutapplied research.

In 2008, I was able to persuade JICA to organize an initiative called

2 Otsuka K. 2014. Naze mazushii kuni wa naku naranai no ka (Why Do Poor Countries Persist?) (Tokyo: Nikkei).

the Coalition for African RiceDevelopment, which aimed trice production in Africa in 1Unfortunately, funding was to train extension agents, andnot clear whether the initiatidouble production by 2018. Btraining of agents progressestechnologies will start to sprinvesting in irrigation, as wetransportation and communwill make infrastructure forenhanced marketing more pAs with manufacturing, invethat is timed in this way is suresult in higher productivityagriculture. These are my idefor a development strategy inagricultural sector.

These strategies do not c basically with the thinking Jhas adopted up to now in its The next step is to improve tdevelopment strategies throu joint eorts by JICA, privatecompanies, and researchers, the eectiveness of these straand to advertise them globaluseful development models.can be done, it will surely greenhance other countries’ ass

of Japan’s ODA.

Dr. Otsuka, former chair of IR Rof trustees (2004-07), is a profesNational Graduate Institute forStudies in Tokyo, Japan.

Reprinted with permission fromcom (www.nippon.com).

EXTENSION WORKERSfrom countries thatare part of the JICA-supported Coalitionfor African RiceDevelopment haveattended 16-weektraining courses onrice farming at IRRIand other locationsin the Philippines.They then returned totheir home countriesto pass on theirnew knowledge tofarmers.



V ietnam’s mighty Mekong Deltacomprises nine river mouthsthat give it its local name, “CuuLong,” or “nine dragons.”

very year, it supplies Vietnam withound 20 million tons of rice, whichabout 50% of the countr y’s totaloduction. But, the signicance ofe rice supply from the Mekongelta goes beyond Vietnam’s own 91illion rice consumers.

In 2011, more than 6 millionns of the Mekong Delta’s riceoduction were exported, makingetnam the second-largest rice-porting country in the world. Theuntry’s rice production could beitical to rice-importing nations,pecially African countries, as itovides a pool of “cheap” rice thattraded globally alongside the morepensive premium rice coming fromher major exporters such as Indiad Thailand.

nder threat of climate changeoking out into the South Chinaa, the Mekong Delta is exposedsea-level rises along its extensiveastlines on its western, southern,d eastern boundaries. It is alsoe drainage point for the nearly000-kilometer-long Mekong Riverd the entire Mekong Basin of5,000 square kilometers.

Changes in rainfall distributionross the Mekong Basin and increas-in extreme rainfall occurrences

ill aect river discharge, or themount of water that ows throughe riverbed, and alter hydrologicalerns, including the magnitude,

equency, and duration of high andw ows within the Mekong Delta.hus, the risk of ooding will growross the delta’s vast rice-growingeas.

by Sophie Clayton and Paula Bianca Ferrer

Rice farmers in the MekongDelta are no strangers to coping withoods. However, in 2011, oodingcame earlier and was worse thannormal, according to Dr. NguyenHieu Trung, dean of the College ofEnvironment and Natural Resourcesat Can Tho University in Vietnam.

Sea-level rise is predicted tofurther block the river discharge intothe sea, thus increasing ooding andaggravating salt-water intrusion in

rice-growing areas. And, as rainfallpaerns change, low or late rains atthe start and end of the rice croppingseason may result in drought, whichcould limit the productivity of ricefarms.

Getting CLUE’d up“If the world wants our farmersto keep producing rice, then wemust help them prepare for climatechange,” said Dr. Trung.

Aiming to help farmers adapttheir rice farming practices to climate

change, the CLUES project (Climatechange aecting land use in the MekongDelta: Adaptation of rice croppingsystems) could not have come at a beer time.

Supported by the AustralianCentre for International AgriculturalResearch, its goal is to help ricefarmers in the Mekong Delta. It brings together a mix of internationaland national research anddevelopment partners, including the

Appeasing “nine dragons” enraged by climate changne of Southeast Asia’s top rice exporters nds ways to deal with the wrath of climate change

International Rice Research Institute(IRRI) as project leader, Australia’sCommonwealth Scientic andIndustrial Research Organisation,the International Water ManagementInstitute, Can Tho University, CuuLong Delta Rice Research Institute,Southern Institute for Water ResourcePlanning, Institute for AgriculturalSciences in South Vietnam, and theDepartments of Agriculture andRural Development in Mekong Deltaprovinces along a transect from thecoastline to the inner sections of thedelta.

“The CLUES project is the rstof its kind in that it focuses on riceproduction and climate change ina region-specic context,” said Dr.Reiner Wassmann, CLUES leader andhead of climate change research atIRRI.

“We started CLUES i n 2011, but

the work builds on a strong historyof collaboration with our partnersin Vietnam with whom we have been working for many years,” headded.

Deploying good varietiesOne focus of CLUES is to helpVietnam speed up the developmentand deployment of rice varieties withimproved tolerance of submergenceand salinity.

Dr. NguyenThi Lang, head ofthe Genetics andPlant BreedingDivision at theCuu Long DeltaRice ResearchInstitute, explainedthat, ideally, theywant to breednew rice varietiesthat combinesubmergence andsalt tolerance,resistance to localdiseases, and thecapacity to grow

well on acid-sulfate soil, which is alocally occurring soil type.

From March 2011 to July 2012,CLUES partners conducted extensiveeld trials in three provinces withinthe Mekong Delta (Bac Lieu, AnGiang, and Hau Giang) and Can ThoCity. These trials were used to selectsuitable rice cultivars with improvedtolerance of salinity, submergence,stagnant ooding, and acid-sulfatesoil. By November 2012, Vietnamhad ocially released 15 new ricevarieties for commercial productionthat incorporated some of these traits.

When it gets saltyand dryThe CLUES team is also working withthe German Agency for InternationalCooperation (GIZ) on the project

Adaptation to climate change ththe promotion of biodiversity inProvince to help local farmerssaline and dry conditions.

In July 2012, CLUES and teams organized a participatovarietal selection activity for Bfarmers.

Mr. Nguyen Van Trung, farmer in Bac Lieu, used to gnormal varieties, but now thseen these new varieties, he she would like to try them.

In addition, the GIZ team by Mr. Joachim Hofer, has inCLUES training course on alweing and drying (AWD)—management technique that water use by 15–30% withoulosses. After the course, aboufarmers used AWD during thautumn-spring season of 2012012 in Bac Lieu. With AWDSaving water: alternate weingdrying on page 17 of Rice TodaNo. 3), farmers can save 2 to dong (US$96 to $192) per hecfuel costs plus retain their yinot get a lile more.

Moreover, AWD can sucreduce greenhouse gas emisfrom rice production when ugood nutrient management. CLUES is also looking for smways to assess the dierencegreenhouse gas emissions wdierent management techngrowing rice.

Climate change may be fhold of Vietnam’s “nine drago

hopefully, it won't drasticallyrice production given the proof newer varieties and smartetechnologies.

Ms. Claytonwas the public relamanager while Ms. Ferrer is a prelations specialist at IRRI.

See related video clip on sea-levand rice production on YouTube

youtu.be/_XVC407evTg.

Rice Today January-March 2013Rice Today January-March 2013

DR. NGUYEN Thi Lang of the Cuu LongDelta Rice Research Institute (CLRRI)shows a variety they use in theirbreeding trials.

I R R I ( 2 )

M A P B Y : N E L G A R C I A

"If the world wants our

farmers to keep producing

rice, then we must help them

prepare for climate change.”

Dr. Nguyen Hieu Trung, dean of the

College of Environment and Natural

Resources, Can Tho University in Vietnam

Vietnam's Mekong Delta.



Rice Today July-September 2011 Rice Today July-September 2011

arwar GM, Khan MH. 2007. Sea Level Rise: A Threat to the Coast of Bangladesh. Internationales Asienforum. Vol. 33 (3–4):375-397.

ww.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/sres/regional/300.htm.

ach year, during the boro season

(November-May), salinity is so

high that a white lm of salt

envelops paddy elds in theastal areas of Bangladesh. For

angladeshi farmers, this white color

top of their soil is a warning sign

at their land is “sick.” Salinity is even

bbed “the white plague” in Australia’s

wspapers and magazines, which

dicates the seriousness of the problem

hen it strikes.

(IRRI) plant breeder who is now based

in Africa, there are two ways to combat

the problem of salinity—either change

the plant’s growing environment (make it

normal) or change its genetic architecture

so that it can grow in such areas.

“The rst approach requires major

engineering processes to improve soil

quality, which are often expensive for

small and marginal farmers,” Dr. Singh

said. “The second approach, which is

breeding crop varieties with built-in

salinity tolerance, is the most promising.

It needs fewer resources, is economical,

and is socially acceptable.”

For IRRI, making plants tolerate salt

stress, up to an extent, is the way to go.

The Institute has invested its resources

for many years to develop varieties that

can solve farmers’ problems in saline-

prone areas.

Farmers’ defenseIt has been more than a decade now

since the discovery of Saltol —a gene

that confers salinity tolerance (see Less

salt, please in Rice Today, Vol. 6, No. 2).

Glenn Gregorio, an IRRI plant breeder,

credited most of salinity tolerance to

the development of IR66946-3R-178-1-1,

popularly known as FL478. The Saltol

gene had been incorporated into this

variety, and had shown signicant

tolerance of salinity.

Since then, through molecular-

assisted breeding, the IRRI

multidisciplinary team on salinity

tolerance composed of physiologist

Bangladesh combats the

WHITE PLAGUEStory by Lanie C. Reyes

Photos by Isagani Serrano

alt may be a blessing to good cooking,

ut, in rice cultivation, it is a deadly sin

In Bangladesh, salinity affects

around 1 million hectares. Furthermore,

some climate experts say that sea-level

rise will cause the country’s landscape to become “sicker.”

No other country in South Asia is

more vulnerable to sea-level rise than

densely populated Bangladesh.1 With

higher sea level, more areas would be

affected by cyclonic surges; inland

freshwater lakes, ponds, and aquifers

could also be affected by saline-water

and brackish-water intrusion according to

the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change.2

Md. Lutfor Rahman, a 62-year-oldfarmer in Satkhira, is not an alien to

salinity. “Everything is lost to salinity,”

Mr. Rahman said with a sigh. He was

referring to the 10,000 taka (US$135) and

the labor he had invested in his 0.2 hectare

of land. Now, his family is left with

nothing but a cow. “These rice stalks will

be used as her feed,” said Mr. Rahman.

His next step is to nd a job as a

laborer and earn a daily wage of 150 to

200 taka ($2–3). “But, only God knows

how soon that will be,” he added.

The salty challengeSalt as a seasoning goes well with rice—

especially in developing countries, where

the poor use salt as a dish to accompany

their boiled rice. But, in rice cultivation,

salt has a negative effect. Once salt gets

to the roots, it becomes detrimental to the

whole plant.

According to Dr. R.K. Singh,

International Rice Research Institute

Abdelbagi Ismail, molecular bio

Mike Thomson, Dr. R.K. Singh

Gregorio as well as country par

Asia and Africa were able to in

Saltol into popular rice varietie

One of these varieties is BR

dhan47, which was released in

Bangladesh in 2007. It is an IRR

variety, labeled as I R63307-4B

which was evaluated and releas

the Bangladesh Rice Research

(BRRI) in collaboration with th

team for salinity tolerance now

by Dr. Gregorio.

“The development of BRRI

dhan47 is one of the best results

strong collaboration between IR

BRRI,” said Dr. Md. Abdul Man

BRRI director general. “The tra

materials from IRRI that can pe

in stress conditions and the Insti

assistance in our manpower dev

through both short- and long-ter

have played a key role in this pro

“Now, BRRI dhan47 is cre

enthusiasm among Bangladesh

in coastal areas because it is he

alleviate their poverty and secu

food for the whole year,” said D

Raqul Islam, principal plant b

salinity tolerance at BRRI.

Just a bund away from Mr.

farm, a 0.4-hectare rice eld is

with ripening rice grains. It is o

Sirajul Islam, 50. Just like Mr. R

he experimented by planting di

kinds of varieties each season, h

that one could survive the land’

E

BRRI dhan47 helps farmers likeMd. Lutfor Rahman to overcomesalinity in Bangladesh.




he only difference between them is that

r. Islam tried BRRI dhan47.

“With the way my rice is growing

w, I am expecting a good harvest,” Mr.

am said.

“BRRI dhan47 is better,” Mr.

ahman readily agreed.

Another farmer in Satkhira, Abu

bdullah, 35, was also enthusiastic. He

d good reasons. Three years ago, he

uld not harvest anything because his

lds had become too “salty” for his

gular variety. During those lean years,

borrowed money even at a very high

terest rate of 2% per week.

He said that he was more than happy

see that rice could once again grow on

s “salty” land. And, he is expecting to

rvest 4 to 5 tons at the end of the boro

ason.

Now, Mr. Abdullah hopes to start

paying his loans. “I may not be able to

rite off all my debts immediately, but,

least, I can program my payments in 2

ars,” he said.

Just like most farmers in the

orld, Bangladeshi farmers are mostly

bsistence farmers. They cultivate rice

a piece of land for their food.

“When salinity strikes, they can no

nger grow food and they can’t afford

buy food,” explained Dr. Islam. “For

ese people, there is no option. For

em, the difference of having salinity-

lerant varieties is between nothing and

mething.”

And, this “difference” could

entually have an impact nationwide.

“Our food security depends entirely on

rice production,” said Dr. Md. Khairul

Bashar, BRRI director for research.

“Even if salinity-tolerant varieties cover

only half a million hectares that are

affected by salinity, the effect will be

tremendous,” he added.

Dr. Gregorio is also happy to see

this positive result because to make rice

withstand salinity is the heart of his

team’s job at IRRI. “Seeing our work

in the eld gives us this great feeling of

fulllment,” he shared.

“Humble” riceAside from its yield, farmers prefer BRRI

dhan47 because of its erect ag leaves.

Dr. Gregorio described it as a “humble”

variety. At a distance, the grains are not

noticeable at once because of the crop’s

green, erect ag leaves on top of the rice

elds. But, hidden just below the green

ag leaves are stooping panicles heavy

with round fat grains―making the grains

less conspicuous to birds.

“BRRI dhan47 is not a lodging

type,” said Dr. Islam. “It remains erect

when some varieties bend over from the

force of a strong wind.

“The farmers also like its long

stalks of 100–110 centimeters, which

stay green even at maturity, because they

use them as feed for their cattle and roof

thatches for their homes,” he added.

To the rescueBRRI dhan47 also made its mark in

helping the lives of Bangladeshi farmers

when cyclone Aila decimated the rice

elds in the southern part of the country

in 2009. Aila brought with her sea water

that encroached on ponds and rivers.

“Some elds remained ooded by sea

water for some time, thus increasing the

salinity in the soil,” Dr. Islam said.

The variety was then considered as a

solution by the United Nations Food and

Agriculture Organization (FAO) to help

Bangladeshi farmers recover from the

disaster. FAO, through the Department of

Agricultural Extension, distributed 62.5tons of BRRI dhan47 seed to 15,000 farm

households affected by the cyclone.

Afterward, an FAO-commissioned

study assessed the performance of BRRI

dhan47 in the Aila-affected southern

region.3 The results showed that BRRI

dhan47 did perform well. Being able to

tolerate salinity up to 12 deci-Siemens

per meter, the variety was able to give

farmers a good harvest that ranged

from 4.0 to 7.2 tons per hectare, with

an average of 5.5 tons. It is found to be

protable, with an average net return

of 35,693 taka ($483) per hectare and a

mean benet-cost ratio of 1.73.4

Version 2.0Without a doubt, BRRI dhan47 has

made a positive impression on farmers.

But, “BRRI dhan47 is not a perfect

variety,” stated Dr. Gregorio. “Just like

an electronic gadget, it is just the ‘rst

model.’ The next variety will be even

better.”

Achieving a better

model, however, requires

knowledge of what farmers

like or how farmers

dene a “better” variety.

This is why IRRI plant

breeders, along with their

national partners, involve

farmers in a process called

participatory varietal

selection (PVS).

Through PVS, plant

breeders were able to

learn that, aside from

salinity tolerance, farmers

in Satkhira prefer the

long, slender type of rice

grains, while farmers in Sonagazi like

short, bold ones. Farmers also favor the

nonshattering type of variety because

they carry newly harvested panicles from

their elds to be threshed at their homes.

Although farmers are satised with

the amount of rice that BRRI dhan47

yields, it goes without saying that farmers

desire a better-yielding salinity-tolerant

variety in the future.

Good seedSaltol contributes about 45% of the

salinity tolerance in rice. But, even withthis quantiable success, Dr. Gregorio and

his team continue to roll up their sleeves

in order to pinpoint the location of the

gene on the chromosome. Their aim is

to improve the performance of salinity-

tolerant varieties and to minimize trial and

error in breeding. So, they have embarked

on ne-mapping and marker-assisted

backcrossing for the Saltol gene.

Using new sources of germplasm

in mapping more quantitative trait

loci (QTLs) for salinity tolerance, they

discovered major QTLs on chromosomes

1, 7, 8, and 10. And, they were able to

identify three putative candidate genes,

SKC1, SalT, and pectinesterase.

“We are presently working toward

identifying and combining more genes

related to salinity for more stable

tolerance,” Dr. Gregorio said.

For Dr. Gregorio, developing these

varieties for farmers is important.

“Everything starts with a good seed,” he

said. “One may have good management

practices, but, if the seed is not tolerant

of a stress like salinity, it will fail. A

good seed, however, even with fewer

good management practices, can yield

something somehow.”

Moreover, good seeds enable

farmers to be more condent in investing

in their crops—applying some inputs

such as fertilizers.

A dynamic businessBRRI dhan47 has attracted more

players in the business of development.

Extension workers from the Departmentof Agricultural Extension in Bangladesh

played an important role in creating

awareness about BRRI dhan47.

Nongovernment organizations were also

involved in extension work and helped in

the distribution of seeds.

Even the private sector has played

a critical role in the wider and more

sustainable adoption of this technology.

slam SMF. 2010. Impact Assessment Report of TCP/BGD/3204(E): A Focus on Performance Assessment of BRRI dhan47 in the South. Dhaka. FAO. 42 p.

How? When private companies

and sell salinity-tolerant seeds,

help ensure that seeds that get t

farmers are “pure and certied”

high quality. Otherwise, if low-

seeds reach farmers, the credib

technology will naturally suffe

Too much is at stake when

to the delivery of a technology

combats climate-related proble

as salinity. Once salinity reache

and water in farmers’ rice eld

literally obliterate rice producti

a few days.

Because salinity is a real th

farmers’ food sec

IRRI, through its

such as the Conso

for Unfavorable R

Environments (C

now funded by th

International Fun

Agricultural Dev

and Stress-Tolera

for Poor Farmers

and South Asia (

which is funded b

Bill & Melinda G

Foundation, facil

coordinates the e

these different sta

in order to distrib

of stress-tolerant

varieties, including BRRI dhan4

farmers the quickest way possib

“As of now, more than 50

of BRRI dhan47 seeds have be

produced and distributed throug

STRASA partners in south and

Bangladesh over the last 2 year

Dr. Umesh Singh, senior scient

STRASA regional coordinator

Asia. “Approximately 450 tons

have been produced during the

boro season, which will be ava

farmers in the next crop season

The outlook for the future tlens of climate change seems ble

maybe even scary for rice produ

coastal areas. More areas may b

by salinity. But, with climate-ch

ready rice varieties such as BRR

the future is brighter. As the “r

that can combat salinity, BRRI

a good start in securing this stap

saline-prone areas of Banglades

4 Comparison of the present value of an investment decision or project with its initial cost. A ratio of greater than 1 indicates that the project is a viable one.

A FARMER signs up for the participatoryvarietal selection activity in PirojpurDistrict, Bangladesh.

(Left to right ) DR. MD. Rafiqul Islam, plant breeder; Dr. Md. KhairulBashar, director for research; Dr. Md. Abdul Mannan, director ge neral ofBRRI; and Dr. Glenn Gregorio, IRRI plant breeder, discuss the traits ofBRRI dhan47 at BRRI research station in Gazipur District, Bangladesh.

ALINITY-TOLERANT BRRI dhan47 is not a lodging type, has erect flag leaves,which hide its grains from the birds, and long, green stalks that can be used asoof thatches and feed for the cattle. It can yield 4.0 to 7.2 tons per hectare.

2



Since the dawnof agriculture,

drought has been the bane of

rmers, especially those

ho grow rice, a cropat has special water

quirements. Droughtress severely limits riceoductivity in the rainfedosystem in which farmers

ten experience total cropilure because of a lack ofater at one critical plantowth stage or another,cording to Arvind

umar, a plant breederthe International Rice

esearch Institute (IRRI).Most rainfed areas

ceive a reasonable

mount of rainfall duringe growing season.

However,” says Dr. Kumar,s erratic distribution and

ortage, particularly at owering andain at grain-lling, can seriouslyrtail productivity.” He adds thatia alone has around 23 millionctares (20% of the total rice area)

at are prone to drought under thesenditions and where climate changeay make matters, particularlyater scarcity, only worse.

Without assured irrigation,

rmers are completely dependent rainfall to water their crops. Thessibility of drought has made rice

rming a risky endeavor. Because of

e risk, farmers do not invest enoughinputs to increase rice production.

To help farmers cope with water

by Lanie C. Reyes

scarcity, IRRI has bred several new

lines that are as high-yielding asany normal varieties with sufcient

water. They have a 0.8 to 1 ton perhectare yield advantage whenever

drought occurs. Two of these drought-

tolerant breeding lines have beenrecommended for ofcial release:IR74371-70-1-1 in India and its sisterline IR74371-54-1-1 in the Philippines.

“IRRI has intensied effortsto develop drought-tolerant andaerobic cultivars to cope with thislooming water shortage,” says DavidMackill, leader for IRRI’s rainfed

program. “Drought has been acomplex trait to improve, and I am

very happy to see the recentadvances and progress

in developing drought-tolerant lines at IRRI.”

Most farmers in

rainfed/drought-proneareas grow varieties bred

for irrigated conditionssuch as IR36, IR64,Poornima, MTU1010,Lalat, Swarna, and

Sambha Mahsuri, amongothers. Unfortunately,these varieties are highlysusceptible to drought.

Whenever a severe drought

occurs, these irrigated varieties suffer high lossesand farmers are lucky toharvest even half a tonper hectare from them.

“With the cultivation ofthe newly bred drought-tolerant lines, in normal-rainfall years, farmers

will have the same high yield ofirrigated varieties, and in drought

years they can harvest 1.5 to 2 tonsfrom 1 hecta re,” says Dr. Kumar.

IRRI works with the national

agricultural research and extensionsystems (NARES) for the evaluationof newly developed breeding lines.Before a breeding line is identied forrelease, it undergoes testing in the

national system and is recommendedfor release after its superiorperformance in the national trials.The newly developed drought-tolerant

lines IR74371-70-1-1 and IR74371-54-1-1 outperformed the current

varieties in national trials in India

New drought-tolerant lines developed at IRRI give hope to farmers in drought-prone

areas in eastern India and the Philippines

I R R I

Rice Today July-September 2009

Making rice

4

and the Philippinesand have beenrecommended forrelease for farmers’

cultivation. The two breeding lines alsoperformed well underaerobic and alternate

wetting and drying

(AWD) situations(see The Big Squeeze, pages 21-31 of RiceToday Vol. 7, No.

2 and Every dropcounts, pages 16-18).

IRRI’s Systemfor Temperate andTropical Aerobic Rice project under

the Challenge Program for Water andFood has been building a network onparticipatory varietal selection (PVS)

testing and evaluation since 2004.The project aims to develop prototype

aerobic rice production systemsfor water-scarce environments.

According to Ruben Lampayan, water management scientist

at IRRI, a major component ofthe project was to identify rice

varieties with high yield potentialunder aerobic conditions fromamong IRRI’s advanced lines

through PVS. They tapped theirproject partners to collaborate inimplementing PVS with farmers.

In the PhilippinesDr. Lampayan has found in JunelB. Soriano, director for research,extension, training, and productionat Bulacan Agricultural

State College (BASC), theheart and passion to reachout to more partners andstakeholders with aerobicrice and other water-saving

technologies. Hence, inthe Philippines, IR74371-54-1-1 has been tested atBASC since 2004 and infarmers’ elds in Bulacan,

La Union, Bataan, andPalawan since 2006.

Dr. Soriano recallsa time during the dry

season of 2004 when atrial was conducted in asmall testing plot at BASC

in coordination with IRRI. They

invited farmers, technicians, andresearchers during the PVS.

During that PVS, one

impressed farmer eagerly asked,“Can I reproduce that line on my

farm?” That farmer was NemencioConcepcion, 49, of San Ildefonso,Bulacan. He became interestedin the drought-tolerant variety

because it seemed tailor-made forhis drought-prone upland area.

On his own initiative, hereproduced the line and was happy

with the results. His neighboring

farmers were eager to try it ontheir farms. Eventually, the line

became popular among farmers,and is known among them as “5411”(instead of IR74371-54-1-1).

According to Dr. Soriano, 5411matures 2 weeks ahead of theirpreviously used variety, which takes

120 days to mThe new linean average otons per hec

Also, it is veresistant to and diseasesfar, farmers experienced

or any otherMr. Con

proudly annthat the rice

planted in F was harvesteMay. “Becaushorter dura

allows me to harvest not just

three times a year,” he says. “this variety is tolerant of drocan plant the crop even durin

season without any fear of crSince his farm is on high

ground, he needs to pump in With AWD technology, he is that he does not need to oodpaddies. He pumps water on

few times a month and only wnecessary. “I save much on won gasoline for the pump, evethe dry season,” Mr. Concepc

His recent crop experien

more than 2 weeks of droughhe pumped water to his uplarice area. However, there wasrice area where he was not abpump water because of insuf

available water. “I sacriced area and accepted its fate becthe rice plants wilted already

stated. But, when ra

came, he was surprito see that his plantrecovered from wilt

Although the ricrecovered from drou

expected to be harveabout 2 weeks later the rest of the 5411, istill within an accepduration. Above all,

glad to be able to harice despite the drou(For drought-suscep

varieties, more than

weeks of drought inelds may yield almnothing for farmers.

Mr. Concepcion (right )— a farmerin Bulacan, explains to Dr. Sorianoof BASC, that this part of his ricefarm wilted because of drought.But, when rain came, it fully

recovered.

Dozens of promising drought-tolerantcultivars are being tested on the IRRIfarm in the Philippines. Here, Dr. Kumarshows drought-tolerant rice on his rightcompared with a susceptible variety on hisimmediate left.

L A N I E

C .

R E Y E S

G E N E

H E T T E L




Mr. Concepcion’s experienceconsistent with what Dr. Kumarys about the new drought-tolerant

nes: “They withstand drought at

y stage of the crop cycle. Moreover,ey withstand drought even at theproductive stage, when the plantffers more loss due to d rought.”

“Since that line can be

oadcast-seeded instead ofansplanted, I saved a lot on laborsts,” relates Mr. Concepcion.don’t need to hire laborers to

ant seedlings in the nursery, pullem from the seedbed, tie themgether, and transplant them.”

Every harvest, Mr. Concepcionrns around US$638 to $850

r hectare from his rice eld (ofha) planted with 5411. Plus, hen harvest three times a year.

Mr. Concepcion is indeede happy and satised farmer.

s inuence on other farmers toopt 5411 reaches Nueva Ecija and

ampanga provinces. Even if ricelds in these areas are irrigated,

ere is no problem because 5411ll performs well in wet areas.

According to Dr. Soriano,r. Concepcion is so effective inuencing other farmers to adopt

11 and increase the productivitytheir lands that he considersr. Concepcion not just a farmeroperator but a partner in BASC’stension efforts.

Mr. Concepcion was one of thest 13 farmer cooperators in 2004.

hey increased to 50 in 2005, to in 2006, and BASC now has

ore than 100 farmer cooperators.ccording to Dr. Soriano, the successadoption can be attributed to

rmer-to-farmer inuence andpport from the local government.

Dr. Soriano is more thancouraged in sharing the benets5411 along with its management

chnologies, the aerobic system, ande AWD system in the Philippines,

cause he believes that morermers can benet from all this,rticularly those in rainfed areas.

He plans to expand extension

tivities at BASC by involvingher state universities and collegesover the country. He has

started to coordinate with otherstate universities such as BataanPolytechnic State University, PalawanState University, and Mindanao

Foundation College, among others.

In eastern India

Similarly, in eastern India, IRRIintroduced a drought-tolerant

breeding line, IR74371-70-1-1, whichhas also consistently performed

well both at research centers and infarmers’ elds. Since eastern India

is one of the largest drought-affectedareas, a variety that can cope with adry spell is a welcome change in ricefarming.

IR74371-70-1-1

was initially testedunder an India-IRRIcollaborative project,

the Drought BreedingNetwork (DBN),

whose partners arethe Central RainfedUpland Rice ResearchStation (CRURRS)

in Hazaribag; IndiraGandhi Krishi

Vishwa Vidyalaya,Raipur; Birsa

Agricultural Univ.,

Ranchi; NarendraDev Universityof Agricultureand Technology,Faizabad; Tamil Nadu

Agricultural University, Coimbatore;University of Agricultural Sciences,Bangalore; and Barwale Foundation,Hyderabad, India. Courtesy of the

DBN, researchers have identied thisentry as promising for the drought-prone ecosystem.

Since this line is a product ofa joint endeavor, the team from

CRURRS suggested the nameSahbhagi dhan, which means, inHindi, rice developed throughcollaboration. Recently, the VarietyIdentication Committee (VIC)

recommended it for release tothe Central Subcommittee onCrop Standards, Notication,and Release of Varieties.

Nimai P. Mandal, a plant breederat CRURRS, tested Sahbhagi dhanduring the wet season of 2004. It

has consistently performed well, better than any other entries of thatduration, since then. “In 2007, westarted testing this variety in farmers’

elds in two villages near Hazaribag,”he says.

Kailash Yadav, 34, and NareshPaswan, 38, of Mahesha, Hazaribag,Jharkhand, are two farmers who

had the opportunity to observe ademonstration using Sahbhagi dhanconducted by CRURRS and theytried it on their respective farms.

As a result, they were delighted toharvest 4.5 tons of rice per hectarein a good monsoon year. Before

using the drought-tolerant variety,they harvested only 3 to 3.7 tonsper hectare. They are also pleased

with its traits such as the ability to

tolerate a month-long drought, earlymaturity, and good eating quality.

Farmers in rainfed areas suchas Mr. Yadav and Mr. Paswanlargely depend on rain for a good

harvest. But, good years may befew and as unpredictable as theonset of drought. If the rains arepoor, this can spell catastrophe forall. Mr. Yadav still remembers the

2006 drought that affected t heir village. W ithout any income fro mfarming, he somehow managedsome earnings from his small

grocery store. But, many villagersmigrated to town to work as dailylaborers. One was Mr. Paswan.

An agricultural field assistant of theCentral Rainfed Upland Rice ResearchStation interviews farmers who havetested Sahbhagi dhan on their farms.

C R U R R S ( 2

)


Though he describes the droughtas “not so severe,” it still affectedthe people of his village. Finances

were so dif cult then t hat he needed

to borrow money from anotherfarmer for his transportation.

Sahbhagi dhan gave the twofarmers opportunity and hope inrice farming. “I have condence that

this variety will be a blessing forfarmers in drought-stress situations,”says Mr. Paswan. “And, we canmanage the problem of drought

by growing this variety,” adds Mr. Yadav. Because both are impressed by the qualities of Sahbhagi dhan,

they are going to recommend itand share it with their neighbors assoon as they have sufcient seed.

“Drought-tolerant lines have

received high farmers’ preferencescores in both normal and droughttrials and farmers look convincedof adopting such superior variet ies,”says Dr. Stephan Haefele, soil

scientist and agronomist andresponsible for testing the lines infarmers’ elds under PVS in India.

More farmers besides Mr.Paswan and Mr. Yadav will benet

from Sahbhagi dhan. Accordingto Dr. Mandal, the rainfed uplandarea in India occupies about 6million hectares. But the target

area for Sahbhagi dhan could bemore because it is also suitable fordrought-prone shallow lowlands.

U.S. Singh, the regionalcoordinator for South Asia of theBill & Melinda Gates Foundation-supported project on “Stress-tolerant

rice for poor farmers in Africa andSouth Asia” and responsible forseed production and disseminationof Sahbhagi dhan, plans to havelarge-scale seed multiplication

of this line in 2009 and produce100 tons of seed to distribute toas many farmers as possible bythe next wet season in India.

National Food Security Missionof India, National Seed Corporation,

various public- and private-sectorseed corporations andcompanies, research

organizations, andNGOs are interestedin, reproducing

and disseminatingSahbhagi dhan seeds.

“Our purpose is totake this varietyto the maximumnumber of farmers in

the shortest possibletime,” says Dr. Singh.

As the scientistnow responsible fordeveloping drought-

tolerant varieties,Dr. Kumar says thathe is very lucky to

witness the successof this teamwork.

When asked whether this ishis greatest accomplishment as ascientist, he says, “This is IRRI’sachievement. Other scientists before

me have been working for about 40 years to achieve this.” Dr. BrigitteCourtois attempted the crosses,

which has led to the developmentof these two lines. And it was Dr.

Gary Atlin, who introduced theconcept, initiated and conductedexperiments on direct selectionfor grain yield under droughtstress. He combined high yield

potential under irrigated situation with good yield under drought.

Forty years? What turning pointalong the way led to high-yielding

drought-tolerant rice? IRRI scientistsstarted working in a different way:

working directly on improving

grain yield in rice under drouDr. Rachid Serraj, a drou

physiologist involved in dissthe mechanisms of drought t

and its genetic variation in rithat combining high yield poand drought tolerance througselection for grain yield is onthe right approaches for deve

drought-tolerant lines, in addto marker-assisted selection GM (gene modication) appr(see Overcoming the toughes

in rice: drought on page 30).In the years before that,

scientists had been working oimproving the traits thoughtrelated to drought tolerance s

as leaf rolling, rooting depthother traits. They believed thunder drought could be incre

improving these secondary tIn 2004, IRRI breeders s

work on direct selection for gunder drought stress. At rst

were not sure that this wouldresults. But, subsequent expe

conrmed that this approachFor a plant breeder like D

Kumar, “developing droughtcultivars is the most efcientto stabilize rice production in

drought-prone areas.” Higheof drought-tolerant lines in d

years should encourage farmapply more inputs such as fethat further raise the produc

the rainfed drought-prone syBecause of drought-tolerant lfarmers will indeed lower therisks of investing their mone

time in drought-prone areas.Sahbhagi dhan and 5411

other similar drought-toleranthat may be developed in the

will benet and provide con

rice farmers not just in IndiaPhilippines but also in other prone areas in Asia, Africa, aparts of the world. In fact, a promising drought tolerant l

and aerobic cultivars are nowtested in India, Bangladesh, and the Philippines under prsupported by the Bill & Melin

Foundation, Rockefeller FouGeneration Challenge Prograand Asian Development Ban

The soon-to-be-released drought-tolerantSahbhagi dhan in eastern India thrivesunder drought conditions.




Recent headlines read: Cold

spell compounds woes

of Palestinian farmers;

Cold spell hits farmers

Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines;

d Longest-ever cold spell hits

rthern Vietnam.

Behind these headlines

e agricultural crops placed in

opardy, especially rice, which is

ginally a plant that has no built-

mechanism against cold.

Because of centuries of

netic selection, some rice

rieties can already be grown in areas

here the temperature is low. Of the

o major groups of rice, japonica

rieties can thrive better in temperate

gions than indica varieties, which are

ore common in hot and humid areas.

ence, japonica rice is widely grown in

mperate and subtemperate countries,

e Southern Cone of South America, the

editerranean climate zone, and high-

itude areas in the tropics.

About 20 percent of the rice areas

orldwide are planted with temperate

e, which comes from countries as

verse as Australia, Turkey, Japan,

hina, Republic of Korea (South

orea), Democratic People's Republic

Korea (North Korea), Uzbekistan,

dia, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh,nzania, Madagascar, and the United

ates.

And, the demand for cultivating

mperate japonica rice may increase

cause of some erratic changes in

mate in some parts of the world. To

e an example of an extreme weather

ange, in December 2009, Orissa State

India, known for its hot and humid

mate, was gripped by a cold wave

at dipped as low as 8 °C. This drop in

temperature set a new record in the state

within a period of 50 years.

Cold damageAlthough japonica rice varieties in Japan

and Korea produce higher yields, when

cold temperature blows its chilly air

and remains during the critical

stage of the crop’s development,

it is like a silent curse with

its destructive spells, and it

determines rice’s fate: a less

productive season.

In South Korea, for example,

marked drops in temperature in

1971, 1980, and 2003 damaged

17%, 80%, and 20% of its total

rice area, respectively. In 1980,

yield loss in milled rice hit 3.9 tons

per hectare. In China alone, the

recorded yield loss per year because

of cold is 3–5 million tons. More recently,

in Vietnam, the 30-day cold spell that hit in

February 2008 reportedly destroyed more

than 53,000 hectares of rice.

Needless to say, cold temperature is

one of the major environmental stresses

in rice production.

No pollen, no grainAccording to Kshirod Kumar Jena,

plant breeder and International Rice

Research Institute (IRRI) country

representative for Korea based in Suwon,

cold temperature can damage rice in its

germination stage, seedling stage, and/

or reproductive stage. However, a drop in

temperature during rice’s early vegetative

stage until its grain-lling stage causes

the most severe damage. Dr. Jena

explained that cold stress hinders rice

plants from forming fertile pollen that is

crucial for fertilization. Consequently,

they fail to produce grains, which leads

to a decrease in yield or, worse, no yield

at all.

Moreover, Dr. Jena mentioned

that low temperature impairs seed

germination, reduces seedling vigor,

weakens rice’s photosynthetic ability by

inducing leaf discoloration, reduces plant

height, produces degenerated spikes,

delays days to heading, reduces spikelet

fertility, promotes irregular grain lling

and maturity, and leads to poor grain

quality.

It’s in the genesRice breeders see no other way to reduce

cold-related losses in rice production

than genetically improving cold-sensitive

cultivars using modern breeding

techniques. The sequencing of the rice

genome and the development of marker-

assisted selection (MAS) have fast-

tracked their research efforts.

“Cold tolerance is a complex trait; it

is controlled by many different genes,”

Dr. Jena said. “But now, it has become

easy to identify the correct DNA

markers linked to the quantitative trait

loci (QTLs) conferring cold tolerance.”

By developing desirable mapping

populations a nd accurate phenotyping

for cold-tolerance and -sensitive traits,

and conducting QTL analysis, Dr.

Jena and his team were able to identify

three QTLs or genomic regions from

chromosomes 3, 7, and 9—QTLs that

have a direct link to cold tolerance at the

reproductive stage. Through this, they

identied markers that linked the QTLs

to seed fertility.

IRRI started collaboration with

South Korea's Rural Development

Administration (RDA) using the

International Rice Cold Tolerance

Nursery (IRCTN) in 1978. However,

recently, in collaboration with RDA's

National Institute of Crop Science, a new

source was discovered, a cold-tolerant

breeding line—IR66160-121-4-4-2—that

inherited cold-tolerance genes from

Indonesia’s tropical japonica cultivar

Jimbrug and northern China’s temperate

japonica cultivar Shen-Nung89-366.

Using this line, Dr.

Jena and his team

from RDA, namely,Jung-Pil Suh, Ji-Ung

Jeung, Jung-Il Lee,

Jong-Doo Yea, Jeong-

Hee Lee, Yeon-Gyu

Kim, and Jin-Chul

Shin, produced

recombinant inbred

lines (RILs) by

crossing cold-tolerant

and cold-sensitive

cultivars. They then

by Lanie C. Reyes

with cold

IRRI, in collaboration with the Republic of Korea, is developing new rice varieties

that will soon warm up to cold temperatures

evaluated these RIL progenies u

two conditions: one, by subjecti

to cold-water stress at 18–19 °C

eld; two, by exposing them to

temperature in the greenhouse a

After the experiment, they selec

promising cold-tolerant lines th

have desirable seed fertility and

maturity traits.

Concerted effortsTo further strengthen internatio

efforts to develop cold-tolerant

IRRI established the Temperate

Research Consortium (TRRC)

Its country members are Austra

Bhutan, Chile, China, Egypt, Ja

Kazakhstan, Nepal, the Philipp

Russia, South Korea, Spain, Ta

Uruguay, Uzbekistan, and the U

Dr. Seong-Hee Lee, Korean me

of the IRRI Board of Trustees,

instrumental in the formation o

Consortium, bringing along wit

the full nancial support of the

A steering committee and four groups were formed. Each work

group focused on one of the fou

constraints identied for tempe

(1) yield potential and grain qua

blast resistance, (3) cold toleran

(4) nitrogen and water use efci

The third group, in particu

aimed to evaluate a selected nu

of cold-tolerant germplasm acce

provided by working group par

at seedling and reproductive sta

Rice Today January-March 2010Rice Today January-March 2010

A COLD-tolerant line (indicated by redarrows) performs well in an experimentalfield at Chuncheon, South Korea.

DR. JIN-CHUL Shin, head, Chuncheon Substation,RDA, shows a cold-tolerant breeding line devel-oped through IRRI-Korea collaboration.

SOME MEMBERS of the TRRC are (L-R) Drs. Jong-Doo Yea and Jong-Il Lee, rice breeders, Nationatute of Crop Science (NICS), RDA, South Korea; Dr. Jung-Pil Suh, rice breeder, IRRI-Korea OfficeDr. Sae-Jun Yang, rice breeder, NICS; Dr. Ivan Suprun, plant breeder, All-Russian Rice Research Itute, Krasnodar; Dr. Jena; and Dr. Shurat Haidarov, plant breeder, Uzbekistan Rice Research Inst

DR. K.K. Jena, plant breederand IRRI country represen-tative for Korea, explainshow cold-tolerant lines aredeveloped.

JUNG-PILSUH(2)

C H R I S

Q U I N T A N A

8



Most rice farmers in Kayapa, Nueva Vizcaya,

Philippines, grapple with the cold every year.During the summer, maximum temperature peaksat 25.3 °C in May. But, in January, during the cold

season, it can drop to 14 °C. To understand better and get asense of how farmers in high-altitude areas are affected by

cold and how they cope with it, let’s look into their stories.

Alternative cropHerminia Himson, 50, has been afarmer for more than 20 years. From

mid-February to July, she growsrice for her family’s consumption inthe quarter of a hectare she owns

in an upland area. However, whenthe second cropping cycle starts,her farm turns into a vegetable garden. She explains that,since the temperature becomes too cold for her commonlyplanted rice variety, planting rice during the second seasonis not an option. When asked what she thinks about cold-

tolerant rice varieties, she beams and says, “That would bethe best! The rice that we plant during the first croppingis not enough for my family.”For Mrs. Himson, not havingmeat or vegetables does not matter much as long as there is

enough rice for her family to eat.

“Rice is still the more preferred crop to plant,”sh e adds.

“The price of vegetables, such as tomatoes, can fluctuatefrom three pesos (US$0.064, or less than a cent) to 30 pesos($0.64).”She recalls a season when her tomatoes rotted in theplots because the cost of harvesting them was even higher

than the market price. Given a choice, Mrs. Himson says shewould still prefer rice to vegetables because the rice pricedoes not fluctuate as wildly as those of vegetables. Also,being able to plant rice for a second cropping would secureher family’s need for rice. It could also mean having surplus

stocks, which they could sell in the market for extra income.

Taking some chancesNot far from Mrs. Himson is anotherfarm, owned by Mr. Wilson Bandro.

Wearing a cowboy hat, and maybe acowboy’s tough heart, too, Mr. Bandro,50, dares to experiment planting riceon his half-a-hectare land during the

second cropping cycle. His patches ofrice, growing on terraced land, havevaried shades of green because eachpatch is planted with three differentkinds of traditional rice varieties, which

are locally known as C1, Galo, andBongkitan. Mr. Bandro is unsure whichof these varieties will cope well withthe weather, but he hopes that the

prevailing low temperature will not betoo cold so his rice can survive.

by Lanie C. Reyes

Filipino farmers in the cool northern regions hope to

plant cold-tolerant rice soon for better harvests

Rice Today January-March 2010

Like Mrs. Himson, Mr. Bandro also chooses to grow

rice over vegetables because the latter are costly. He saysvegetables need more capital for inputs such as fertilizerand pesticides, and also more labor. He simply cannotafford these additional expenses. He adds that vegetable

gardening is fine if the price is good. If not, then that isanother story.

As he shifts his gaze to his patches of rice, whichhe planted in August, he wistfully says, “Hopefully, I canharvest from these soon.”He cannot, however, help feeling

uncertain about his crops. Although the panicles haverice in them, the grains, when pressed, are not yet hardenough. He simply has to wait until harvest time arrives.

Not tending the farmOn the fields of a nearby farm, small pale pink andpurple flower heads arise from the branches of Mimosa

pudica (sensitive plant) and among other weeds that arecreeping, trailing, and standing tall.

In between these weeds is a secondgrowth of rice, which grew during thefirst cropping season—untended andabandoned.

This farm belongs to Jacob

Camson, 57. He decided not to plantrice for the second cropping seasonbecause he thought that the coldbreeze wafting on the highlands

might be too cold for rice. He recalledthat the last time he planted riceduring the second crop cycle—whichwas years ago—he harvested nothing.Now, he left his farm to overgrown

weeds. He says he could have plantedvegetables there but finds it too costly.

Farmer-cooperators Three farmer-cooperators, on the other hand, are looforward to planting a variety that is suited to their clim

as they participate in the National Cooperative Testingcool elevated area being implemented in collaboratioPhilRice, by Nueva Vizcaya State University (NVSU) thElbert Sana, NVSU professor, and his team, who broug

breeding lines for evaluation in one of the elevated arKayapa.

According to Roque Martin, a farmer-cooperator,of his reasons in participating in the field testing is tha cold-tolerant line can succeed in their area, he will b

one to benefit first. Then, he can multiply the seeds foneeds.

If other low-temperature areas such as Kayapa wplanted with cold-tolerant rice, logically, rice producticould be doubled. Farmers could thus help enhance f

security in the community and also alleviate poverty.

Rice Today January-March 2010

and identify promising cultivars or

breeding lines at key sites; combine

cold-tolerant genotypes with cold-

sensitive cultivars and develop suitable

cold-tolerant germplasm adapted to

different countries; use potential DNA

markers linked to cold-tolerance traits

for marker-assisted breeding; develop a

common set of cold-tolerant lines for use

in breeding in collaboration with working

group partners; and provide training

opportunities to young researchers

by monitoring key sites and visiting

advanced cold-tolerance breeding

laboratories.

According to Ms. Thelma Padolina,

plant breeder at the Philippine Rice

Research Institute (PhilRice), one of

the benets of being a member of the

working group is that breeding materials

can now be thoroughly screened [as

PhilRice does not have a screening

facility]. Before, they just relied on

observing plants’ physical reactions,

which are mostly erratic. Another benet

is that they will be able to infuse genetic

diversity by making other sources of

germplasm from other countries available

for breeding. “The varieties that we were

able to develop still lack the necessary

traits,” she said. “They are specic to a

season and to the developmental stage of

the plant and lack biotic and abiotic stress

tolerance.”

Collaboration with BangladeshFarmers in ood-prone areas of

Bangladesh cannot usually plant rice

during the rainy season. And, after

the rainy season, during November to

December, when the water subsides,

the soil is more fertile because of the

nutrients brought in by the ood. But,

there is another problem―cold.

To solve this problem, Dr. Jena has

started collaborating with the Bangladesh

Rice Research Institute to develop cold-

tolerant varieties for boro or winter-

season cultivation. Several cold-tolerant

lines have already been produced from a

cross between BR29, a popular cold-

sensitive variety in Bangladesh, and

Jinbu, a cold-tolerant variety from Korea.

These generated cold-tolerant lines

will be useful for rice breeders in their

selection for varieties suitable to their

specic locations.

Bangladesh is only one of t

countries that the TRRC is exte

hand to. More countries benet

sharing of this cold-tolerant ger

And, all these efforts boil down

improving the quality of life for

in cold-prone areas, just like tho

cold-affected areas in Kayapa, N

Vizcaya, Philippines (see Cold

below).

Cold-tolerant rice is indeed

necessary product for cold-pron

areas. Thus, it goes without say

that IRRI’s and its partners’ con

efforts through an effective cha

TRRC, in combating the devast

effects of cold should clearly in

the productivity of about one-

rice-growing areas in the world

BECAUSE OF cold, most farmers in the mountainous areasof Kayapa, Nueva Vizcaya, either turn their rice fields intovegetable gardens or leave them uncultivated during thesecond cropping cycle.

Herminia Himson

A RICE field turns into a vegetable gardenduring the second cropping cycle in Kayapa,Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines.

ROQUE MARTIN, a farmer-cooperator,finds hope in cold-tolerant lines.

M O I S E S J O H N C . R E Y E S

LANIEC.REYES

0



8 Rice Today April-June 2009

BRRI SCIENTIST M.A. Mazid ( second from right ) speaks to onlookers about the success of farmer MostafaKamal’s (right ) flood-tolerant rice trials. Mr. Kamal’s neighbor, Mohammad Shahidul Islam (left ), is keen to

grow the new varieties himself.

RRI Former Director General Dr. Md. Nur-E-Elahieft ) and BRRI scientist M.A. Mazid explain theood-tolerant rice trials carried out at BRRI’sangpur station.

ooding, yet retain the characteristicsat farmers want.”

With the Sub1 concept well anduly proved, seeds were sent for

sting and renement to nationalganizations in South Asia, includinge Bangladesh Rice Researchstitute (BRRI) and, in India, the

entral Rice Research Institute

CRRI) in Orissa and Narendraev University of Agriculture andechnology in Faizabad, Uttarradesh. The trial results there were

so extremely promising.In short, scientists had developed

ce that could handle more than aeek’s ooding with al most no lossyield (1 week is enough to severely

ent the harvest of the nontolerantrsions) and would recover tooduce a reasonable yield after even

weeks’ submergence (enough tomost wipe out nontolerant versions).

side from the ood tolerance, theew varieties were virtually identical

their counterparts: farmers woulde able to manage them in exactly

e same way and, in the absence ofooding, achieve the same yield.

But, as any agricultural scientistill tell you, there is a vast gulfetween the tightly cont rolled

nvironment of the experimentation and the more capriciousature of a real farm. By 2007,e time had come to test the Sub1

varieties in far mers’ elds. Inthis setting, there was no way ofcontrolling when ooding wouldoccur, how long it would last, or

whether it would even happen at all.Moving forward to November

2008, to a small farm in RangpurDistrict in northwestern Bangladesh,researchers from IRRI, UC, and

national institutes in India andBangladesh commenced a South

Asian tour to mark the completion ofthe project From genes to farmers’

elds: enhancing and stabilizing

productivity of rice in submergence- prone environments, funded from2004 to 2008 by Germany’s FederalMinistry for Economic Cooperation

and Development (BMZ).If ever there was a country with

ooding problems, Bangladesh is it.More than 1 million hectares—20%—of the country’s rice lands are ood

prone.“In those areas where ooding

occurs once or twice and recedes within 12–14 days,” says BRRIPrincipal Scientic Ofcer M.A. Mazid,

who has overseen the Sub1 trials atBRRI’s Rangpur station, “the Sub1

varieties could survive and improve yields by up to 3 tons per hectare.”

Given that Bangladesh is forcedto import around 2 million tons ofrice each year, BRRI Director General

Mohammad Firoze Shah Shikdersays that successful ood-tolerantrice could substantially reduce, if noteliminate, the country’s imports.

“Sub1 varieties will add to thetotal production of the country,” hesays. “They will save a lot of moneythat would otherwise be used forimporting rice.”

Moreover, within that single,large-scale outcome, there would bethousands and thousands of equallypositive, smaller-scale achievements.Many farm families, eking out a living

on less than a hectare, could ensurethat they had enough rice to eat year-round. Others would harvest enoughto sell their surplus on the market and

increase their income.Mostafa Kamal is one of the

farmers BRRI recruited to test theSub1 varieties in his eld. He and his

brothers have a 6-hectare farm—large

by Bangladeshi standards—that needsto produce enough rice each year tofeed 22 members of the Kamal family.The farm suffers heavy losses becauseof ooding every 4 out of 5 years.

“In the past, many of my plots became fallow because they wereooded too often,” says Mr. Kamal,referring to the lowest-lying 2

hectares of the farm. “If we cancultivate on these plots, it will helpus produce rice to sell on the market.


A D A M B

A R C L A Y ( 5 )


FOLLOWING A 10-DAY flood, Orissa farmer BidhuBhusan Raut saw his Swarna-Sub1 recover wellwhile his nontolerant Gayatri perished. “Betteryielding is better living,” he says.

“FORGET SWARNA! Go for Swarna-Sub1!” saysBasant Kumar Rao, a rice farmer from NuagaonVillage near Cuttack in Orissa. Here, he stands inhis crop of Swarna-Sub1, which recovered well aftertwo floods hit his farm in the 2007 wet season.

THE DEVELOPMENT and testing of flood-tolerant rice varieties—on show here at BRRI’s Rangpur shave attracted keen interest from plant scientists across the world.

Two extra hectares is a big jump.”So, how did the ood-tolerant

varieties fare? Twenty-three daysafter the 8 July transplanting of

the 2008 wet-season crop, the farm was hit by a 15-day ood. When the waters receded, Mr. Kamal witnesseda wonderful thing. In his Sub1 plots,95–98% of the plants recovered. In

the non-Sub1 plots, the gure was10–12%. Many of his neighboringfarmers, who were not involvedin the trial, lost their entire crops.

So encouraged was Mr. Kamal, heplanned to give away—not sell—akilogram of ood-tolerant seeds toeach of his neighbors.

“When I saw Mostafa’s eld

ooded, and then saw it recover, I wassurprised—it was like magic,” recallsMr. Kamal’s neighbor, Mohammad

Shahidul Islam. The annual ashoods mean that Mr. Islam grows

rice on only the upper half of his 1.6-hectare farm in the wet season. Each

year, he needs to buy 1 to 2 months’ worth of rice to cover his family’s

shortfall. He believes that ood-tolerant varieties will allow him toplant on his low-lying 0.8 hectare andcover that shortage. “These varieties,”

he says, “will mean more food, higherincome, and a better livelihood.”

Observing the success of theood-tolerant varieties in Bangladesh

was a watershed moment for SigridHeuer, an IRRI molecular biologist

who contributed to the analysis of SUB1A.

“I knew all along SUB1A was

working in any type of rice we put itin,” she says. “I’ve seen it many timesat IRRI and I’ve seen the data fromthe eld experiments in India. But I’dnever seen it in farmers’ elds with

my own eyes. Here, I’ve seen it after

natural ooding for 15 days—maximum time we think SUshould be able to withstand—

working. It’s really fantastic.

A short ight away in eaIndia, it is the same story. Thof West Bengal and Orissa, a

with Uttar Pradesh in the nohave all seen equally promis

results and plan to completeSwarna with Swarna-Sub1 aas it is ofcially released by sseed certication agencies. InBengal, Swarna dominates, w

of the rice area already plantthe variety. A move to Swarn

would therefore be relativelystands to have enormous imp

“Forget Swarna! Go for SSub1!” is the advice from BasKumar Rao, a rice farmer fro

Nuagaon Village near CuttacOrissa. “I trust Swarna-Sub1

growing it. I got good money2007,” he says.

That year, his farm was two oods, one of 11 days an

of 7 days. The ood-tolerant recovered after both oods aalthough he was able to salvalittle of his regular Swarna, inowhere near as well.

“Better yielding is betteraccording to another Orissa fBidhu Bhusan Raut. In the 2season, Mr. Raut grew Gayatpopular Indian variety, and

Sub1 on his entire 1-hectare f





XAMINING TRIALS at BRRI headquarters in Gazipur, K.M. Iftekharuddaula ( right ) has bred flood tolerancento popular Bangladeshi rice variety BR11, which accounts for more than one-third of the country’s

wet-season plantings.

fter a 10-day ood, the Sub1 plantscovered well, while the Gayatri

ants perished. According to CRRI Director

K. Adhya, the release of ood-lerant rice has become more andore important as India has grownonomically.

“People used to grow rice in morevorable areas, where you had ansured source of water and good soil

uality,” he explains. “Now, thoseterior areas are being taken over

y human habitation and industry,farmers are forced onto marginal

nds in the coastal areas whereooding, salinity, and many otheroblems occur. In the past, farmers

simply had to face ooding and blametheir luck if they didn’t get a harvest.”

IRRI plant physiologist Abdel Ismail, who is studying the

mechanism of SUB1A’s action, saysthere is a strong case for rapid releaseof the new varieties.

“When you develop varieties

using marker-assisted selection,” hesays, “you do not change the varietymuch. Because the SUB1A gene is

very specic in its e xpression andaction during submergence, the Sub1

varieties should not have any otherproblems—such as susceptibilityto diseases or insects—that theirnontolerant counterparts wouldn’thave also. In the future, we expect

many new varieties to come outas products of MAS. If you have a

submergence-tolerant or salt-tolerant variety, for example, you want it to

go to the eld as quickly as possible, where it can make a big difference.”

N. Shobha Rani, principal scientistat India’s Directorate of Rice Research,

says that traditionally bred rice mustundergo testing for 3 years in all-Indiatrials, but this has been reduced to 2

years for MAS-derived varieties.“The second year of testing is

2009,” says Dr. Rani, “so, April 2010is the earliest time the Sub1 varietiescould be recommended by the Central

Variety Release Committee fornational release.” She notes, however,

that release could occur on a state basis before then.

In fact, on 27 February 2009,only a few months after Dr. Rani

talked to Rice Today, the UttarPradesh State Varietal ReleaseCommittee ofcially releasedSwarna-Sub1. Being nearly identical—apart from its ood tolerance—to

Swarna, this inaugural release ofa Sub1 mega-variety occurred veryquickly: only 6 years after the rstcross was made at IRRI.

A quick release is also po ssible

because plants developed throughMAS are not transgenic (that is,genes of interest are transferred tothe target species or variety using

particular biotechnological toolsrather than conventional breeding).Therefore, the new Sub1 varieties are

0 Rice Today April-June 20096 Rice Today April-June 2009

A PATCH of the popular rice variety Swarnalies flattened and dying after several days offlooding. In contrast, the flood-tolerant version,Swarna-Sub1, rebounds to good health.

IRRI MOLECULAR biologist Sigrid Heuer (center ) with her Ph.D. student Namrata Singh (left ) aassistant scientist Darlene Sanchez at the Chinsurah Rice Research Station, in West Bengal, Ind

not subject to the regulatory testingthat can delay release of transgenic

products for several years.The Sub1 trait also came along

with an additional bonus, a genelinked to SUB1A that turns thenormally golden color of the hull ofSwarna into a straw color. Although

the hull color is not considered animportant varietal requirement,this allows the seeds of Swarna-Sub1 to be easily distinguishedfrom those of Swarna. This will be

useful to maintain seed purity asseed producers start ramping up theproduction of foundation seed fordistribution to farmers.

Another success to emerge

from the Sub1 work has beenthe strengthening of nationalorganizations such as BRRI andCRRI.

“In India now, MAS has a lot ofsupport from the government,” saysDr. Ismail. “In Bangladesh, BRRI hasits own lab for MAS, and not just for

SUB1. In the national agricultural

research and extension systems, theproject has boosted capacity throughresources and expertise, and alsothrough government support.”

BRRI researcher K.M.

Iftekharuddaula is a good example.He carried out his Ph.D. researchunder Dr. Mackill’s supervision atIRRI headquarters in the Philippines,

developing a ood-tolerant versionof popular Bangladeshi variety BR11,

which accounts for more than one-

third of the country’s wet-seasonplantings. After completing his thesisresearch, he returned to Bangladesh,

where he is now the BRRI breeder

responsible for rening BR11-Sub1 varieties for ofcial relea se.

“We are very much hopeful that we’ll be able to release at least two varieties from our efforts,” says Mr.

Iftekharuddaula, who is also working with IRRI to incorporate disea seresistance and salinity tolerance intoBR11-Sub1.

As Sub1 varieties are ofci ally

released over the next 2 years,the key will be dissemination tosmallholder farmers in ood-proneareas. IRRI is leading this initiative

through the project Stress-Tolerant

Rice for Poor Farmers in Africaand South Asia, funded by the Bill

& Melinda Gates Foundation. IRRIis also collaborating with national

organizations to test Sub1 varieties inSoutheast Asian countries, includingLaos, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia,

Vietnam, and the Philippines,

through a project funded by Japan’sMinistry of Foreign Affairs.

Dr. Ismail adds that SUB1A’seffectiveness offers hope for researchinto tolerance of other so-called abiotic

stresses, such as drought and salinity.“The general notion with abiotic

stresses used to be that it would be very difcult to nd a single gene thatcan make much difference,” he says.

“This work has shown that yget a single gene of great agro

value. I think this has set thesolving other major difculti

eld, such as problem soils.”The story of the SUB1 re

underscores the capacity of sto improve people’s lives, as as the power inherent in a ge

seems a long and unlikely jofrom experimental plots in tPhilippines and the laborato

benches in California to a sm

in Bangladesh.For Drs. Ronald and Ba

Serres, the chance to get outlab and see the Sub1 varietiefarmers’ elds has been a pr

experience.“It was amazing to see t

detailed genetic and physiolo

analysis ultimately has potengrand impact on people who

living in pretty desperate sitDr. Bailey-Serres says.

Even Dr. Heuer, who, th work at IRRI, is no stranger

rice elds, has been moved. “idea about the impact we can

before seeing it with my ownshe adds. “I’ve learned aboutpower of agricultural researc

I think it will have a huge im

Mr. Barclay is a freelance wbased in Australia. See wwworg/ood-proof-rice.




Rice Today September 2005

F or the rural poor, drought

delivers heartbreak and

rips communities apart — but

promising new research can

help rice farmers and their

families avoid devastation

by Adam Barclay

DROUGHT that causesrice fields like this also

forces women to travel longdistances to find drinking

water (inset ).

H U M N A T H B H A N D A R I

8 Rice Today September 2005

drought’s impact is gradual, soit receives less attention from

politicians and policymakers.Nevertheless, prolonged severedrought causes the breakdown oflivelihoods and rural economies and

the failure of social support systems.The impact is disproportionatelyhigh on poor householdsthat are less able to cope

because they do not own

or have access to theresources they need toescape the worst effects.

In 2004, widespread

severe drought in much of Asia not only resulted inagricultural productionlosses of hundreds of

millions of dollars but alsopushed literally millions of peopleinto poverty. In Thailand, droughthit 70 of the country’s 76 provincesand affected more than 8 millionpeople. Production loss from major

crop failures covering 2 millionhectares is estimated at US$326million, resulting in a 3.9% decline inthe 2004 agricultural gross domestic

product (GDP). More than half of therural population of Thailand relies on

farm income for their livelihostory is the same all across d

Asia, where well over half thepopulation depends on agric

Reports from numerouscountries have a depressing s

to them. In 2004, the normatropical southern Chinese isl

Hainan suffered idrought in 50 yea12 million hectare

farmland affectedreports claimed ththan 9 million Chfaced drinking-w

shortages. Vietnaeight central highprovinces suffere

worst drought in

affecting around people and causing an estimmillion worth of crop losses.2005, Cambodian Prime MinHun Sen called for internatioassistance for a national cam

help farmers who are short oCoping with recurrent drougof life for millions of Asia’s ru

Just over two-thirds of In

susceptible to drought and mhalf of Asia’s drought-prone

The headlines don’t screamat you from the front page.

But their effect builds and, if you’ve followed the news fromacross Asia this past year or

so, you will understand the scale of

the problem. Drought doesn’t havethe immediacy of a tsunami or aflood, but it can kill just as effectively.Its method is slow, insidious and,in the end, more painful, grinding

people slowly into the dust thatlies where crops once stood.

Essentially, drought is anextended period of substantially

lower-than-usual rainfall, leadingto a shortage of water for domesticuse and agriculture, and ultimatelyto financial, physical and social

hardship. And it happens over andover again in Asia, where around afifth of all rice area is drought-prone.

The consequences of droughtread like a description of theapocalypse: decline in food

production, hunger, malnutrition,disease epidemics and other healthproblems, famine, displacement ofpeople, loss of assets, starvation

— the list goes on. Where floods andtyphoons inflict instant damage,

The consequences

of drought read

like a description

of the apocalypse

L E H A R N E

F O U N T A I N



Rice Today September 2005 Rice Today September 2005

e located in eastern India alone.

rought is one of India’s foremostnstraints to increased and stablericultural production. The lastntury has seen the country rockedsevere droughts in 1918, 1965,

72, 1979, 1987 and 2002. Withriculture contributing around a

uarter of India’s GDP, severe droug htrectly stifles economic growth.

The 2002 drought ranks as one

the most severe in India’s recordedstory. More than half the country’sea and around 300 million peopleross 18 states felt its impact. The

ck of rain caused a 15% drop intal food grains and a 19% drop ince production — 31 million tons

and 17 million tons, respectively

— compared with what was expected based on agricultural trends. TheIndian Department of

Agriculture estimatedthat the 2002 drought

year resulted in a 3.2%decline in agriculturalGDP, a $9-bil lion loss inagricultural income andthe loss of a staggering

1.3 billion person-days in rural employment due toshrinkage of agricultural operations.

What do these numbers actually

mean, though? First, you have toremember that India is home to morethan a sixth of the planet’s population

— almost 1.1 billion, and rising. So

a little economic push here or shovethere can affect a lot of people. In just

three states in easternIndia, Chhattisgarh,Jharkhand and

Orissa, the 2002drought slashed farmhousehold income by40-80% and shoved13 million people

below an already-low poverty line. In short, a lotof people who weren’t doing too

badly became poor and a lot of

poor people became a lot poorer.Sushil Pandey, a senior

agricultural economist at the

Drought is a major issue for rainfed

rice cultivation in eastern India.

In Chhattisgarh state in 2002-03,

for example, drought led to a halving

of rice production, hampering the rural

economy and forcing farmers into debt.

Rice cultivation in this region is

often performed by direct seeding, rather

than transplanting. One drawback of

this technique is that weeds can be a

big problem. The chief method of weed

control in Chhattisgarh is through the

traditional practice of biasi , which is

heavily dependent on adequate and

timely rainfall to impound about 10-

15 cm of water. Around 30-50 days

after sowing, farmers run a narrow plow

through the mix of crop and weeds. Al-

though disruptive for the seedlings, the

method keeps weeds under control, and

allows farmers to redistribute seedlings

and fill any gaps. But a lack of enough

rainfall can delay or even prevent biasi ,and weeds soon out-compete the rice,

causing severe declines in yield.

One solution is to sow the rice in

lines using a seed drill — a device that

opens furrows in the soil and drops

seeds into them — with different weed

management strategies not dependent

on impounded water. The technology is

not new but, until recently, has not been

adopted in Chhattisgarh due largely to

a lack of access to seed dril

tors. Now, IRRI and the Ind

Agricultural University, with f

the International Fund for A

Development, are helping re

ers to adoption by taking a

munity-oriented path. The re

recently helped farming comm

up a hiring system and enco

cal entrepreneurs to purchas

tractors that could be hired o

small farmers.

Importantly, line-sown r

up to 10 days earlier than

Previously, farmers grew vari

ferent durations, which wer

relatively late and at different

hibiting a second crop under

moisture conditions during th

fallow period. Cropping inten

creased because the farmers n

same early-maturing rice var

ing production of a h igh-yielof chickpea after the rice ha

Line sowing is gaining

among farmers and helping t

duce higher yields and incom

weeds in line-sown crops is

as it isn’t dependent on the h

required for biasi . Gaining acc

sowing technology has help

the cooperation of local co

that has really made the diff

International Rice Research Institute(IRRI), led a recent Rockefeller

Foundation-funded study into theimpact of drought titled Economiccosts of drought and rainfed rice

farmers’ coping mechanisms ineastern India. He points out that

the impact at a national level tendsto be moderated because a wholecountry is rarely in drought at once,and areas experiencing a good year

will to some extent buffer the hardes t

hit areas. If you take a look at theeffect on localized groups, though,

you see a much bleaker picture.“When you zoom in on specific

areas, you see the impact muchmore,” says Dr. Pandey. “It’s po ssibleto have very little fluctuation

FARMERS gather in the village of Kapsa

40 km from the Chhattisgarh c apital of

to share their drill-seeding experiences

scientists from Indira Ghandi Agricultu

University.

Community action combats drouby Leharne Fountain

DROUGHT takes its toll,

ployment for agricul-

al workers also dries up,

cing them into inactiv-

or migration to cities in

search for work.

The 2002 drought ranks

as one of the most

severe in memory

H U M N A T H B H A N D A R I

L E H A R N E F O U N T A I N

0



Rice Today September 2005

FARMERS IN CHHATTISGARH tell IRRI’s Humnath Bhandari ( seated at

right ) about how drought has affected their lives and what they do totry and cope. A woman checks a public tube well (below ) for drinkingwater. In the background is a parched farm pond, which in betteryears provides water for domestic use and livestock. IRRI

2

To get a sense of life during an Indian drought,

let us examine the case of one farmer.

Nandu Bhoi farms a half-hectare block near

Datarengi village in the Raipur district of India’sChhattisgarh state. The area’s soil retains very

little rainwater; crops here depend on consistent,

timely rains. It is an unforgiving place to eke out

a farm living.

Despite droughts in 1997, 1998 and 2000,

Nandu managed to produce a little rice. Then,in the 2002 monsoon season, the rains dried up

completely and he neither planted nor harvested

a single grain. Six years earlier, he had bought a

bullock to help with land preparation and to hire

out to other farmers. In the absence of rain, Nandu

simply grazed his bullock in his barren rice field,

but by 2002 there were not even enough weedsto feed a single draft animal.

With his family becoming hungrier and

his bullock fast losing weight, Nandu decided

to sell. Many of his fellow farmers in similarly

dire circumstances were doing the same thing,

so prices for bullocks had hit rock bottom. Hereceived a paltry sum for the sickly beast but at

least it was one less thing to worry about. Unable

to produce food himself, though, Nandu became

more and more desperate, selling his farm tools

and some cooking implements.

When food is in short supply in this part

of India, women are given whatever is left overafter the men, the children and the elderly have

eaten. Nandu’s pregnant wife, Sulochana, had thus

become weak, barely able to gather the energy to

join the other farm wives foraging in the nearby

forest for food. Most days, Sulochana was helped

by her 12-year-old-son and 10-year-old daughter.Together, they would spend up to 12 hours each

day collecting firewood, timber, medicinal plants

and food. Keeping a small portion for themselves,

they sold the bulk of it at the market, earning

around 50 rupees (US$1.15) per day.

The children no longer attended school

and although people harvest forest products innondrought years, the practice increases sharply

during drought, contributing to rapid depletion of

useful plants and severe deforestation. Foragers

also risk an unreliable market, low prices and

exploitation by middlemen.

With his options rapidly dwindling, Nandu

moved to Maharashtra, hundreds of kilometerssouthwest of Raipur, to perform manual labor at

a brick-producing kiln. To do this, he borrowed

Rs 1000 ($23) from a local money lender, who

charged him 40% annual interest. In Maharashtra,

he worked a punishing 15-hour day for a paltry

Rs 50. Meanwhile, Sulochana gave birth to a5-week-premature boy who, underweight and

underfed, died a week later.

In 2003 the rains finally returned to

Raipur and Nandu moved back to Datarengi to

re-establish his farm. Already owing money, he

had no alternative but to plunge further into

debt. Having previously sold his bullock and farmtools, he borrowed enough money to hire what

he needed to plant a rice crop. Forced to wait

for the equipment until its owners had

with it, Nandu planted his crop late, r

in considerable production losses. For time in years, though, he was able to pr

family with food that he had grown him

so begin the long, hard journey to recov

if another drought hits any time soon, N

his family will find themselves rapidly gro

the dust once more.The story of Nandu Bhoi and hi

represents the heartbreaking reality

enormous number of farm families acro

who continue to suffer from recurrent

Poverty and debt feed on themselves a

the rains fail, already-struggling farmer

find their circumstances spiraling out ofunwitting players in a potentially dead

reaction.

Tears in the dust

and loss of production at the

national level at the same time asmassive production losses — 60-70% — in the affected areas.”

Although the direct impactof drought is production loss andconsequent income loss, this is onlythe start of a farmer’s problems.

“The local economy in a rural

area depends on agriculture,” saysDr. Pandey, “and if the local economyisn’t functioning well, the otheremployment disappears. You have a

cumulative effect. The total economic

cost of drought is several-fold higherthan the value of the production loss,and farmers’ coping mechanisms

are usually inadequate to prevent ashortfall in consumption, particularlyamong vulnerable groups. Whenpeople are unable to pay off theirloans, they go deeper and deeper

into debt, ultimately losing theirland and whatever else they own,and become completely destitute.”

Sukraram Dhuru, from Raipur’s

Kumarkhan village, sums thi

by saying “a 1-year drought ca 5-year problem.” Imagine, tthe ruin inflicted by 2, or 3, o

consecutive years of poor rainSome farm families are simplpushed so far down they nevetheir way back up, condemnesubsistence of monotonous, u

labor, drudgery and malnutri What’s more, this sort of

happens again and again. It iencouraging and sobering to

WOMEN FROM POOR, drought-affectedhouseholds in Chhattisgarh collect kendu

leaves from the forest. They can make

a little money selling these in the local

market, but the practice, which peaks in

drought years, contributes to deforestation.



Drought – what is IRRI doing?

IRRI is developing a range of strategies to tackle drought. Read on for a

summary of some of the institute’s key research.

Breeding for drought toleranceIRRI researchers have demonstrated that some rice

varieties (including some hybrids), are much moretolerant than mainstream high-yielding irrigated

varieties to periods of soil drying during the critical

flowering and early grain-filling stages. Luckily,

this characteristic does not seem to undermine

yield under favorable conditions. Rice breeders can

find the most drought-tolerant varieties through a

screening process wherein plants are deprived ofwater around the flowering period, and then the

best-yielding candidates are selected. Since 2004,

IRRI has identified many varieties combining highyield when conditions are good with the

ability to produce yields of 2-3 tons per

hectare under conditions that are sodry that many popular varieties produce

less than 1 ton per hectare. IRRI and

collaborators are studying the genetic

basis for this tolerance.

Aerobic riceRice breeders at IRRI are developing newtypes of rice that combine the ability of

some traditional but low-yielding varieties

to grow in dry soils with the fertilizer

responsiveness and yield potential of

modern high-yielding varieties. The first

generation of this so-called aerobic ricehas been developed by crossing irrigated

high-yielding varieties with some of

the traditional types and selecting

the progeny under dry soil conditions.

Researchers in China and at the Brazilian Agricultural

Research Corporation pioneered this breeding

strategy. The resulting varieties are direct-seededinto dry soil in nonflooded fields and managed like

a high-yielding wheat or maize crop. Irrigation is

applied if available and needed, but no standing

water is held in the fields.

Crop management strategies

IRRI is researching a range of crop managementstrategies that have the potential to reduce the

impact of drought. Dry direct seeding — planting

seeds directly into nonflooded fields instead of

transplanting seedlings into flooded fields — has

the potential to help farmers avoid late season

drought, increase rice yield and gain opportunitiesto grow extra crops. Researchers are also quantifying

drought effect on crop development, growth and

yield, then using the Oryza2000 crop modeling

system (co-developed by IRRI and Wageningen

University in The Netherlands) to simulate rice

growth under drought conditions. Such modelinghas already allowed scientists to analyze yield

constraints and explore management options to

increase the yield and stability of rainfed lowland

rice in Indonesia. Land leveling can help farmers

use water more efficiently. Studying how soil and

hydrological characteristics vary according to

topography — and how this affects soil nutrients,

water availability and yield — will help researchersdevelop improved, site-specific management

strategies for drought conditions.

Deletion mutantsDeletion mutants offer an exciting way of exploring

the effect of unknown genes on drought tolerance.

IRRI scientists have created more than 40,000

deletion mutants where chemicals or radiation

were used to “knock out” random segments of the

chromosome. The resultant plants — the deletionmutants — are then screened under drought stress

in the field, or by applying drought-related plant

hormones in the laboratory, to identify drought-

tolerant or drought-susceptible mutants. By carefully

investigating different physiological characteristics

of the tolerant mutants a picture of the mechanismsimportant for drought tolerance in rice is beginning

to emerge. Work is also under way to identify which

deleted genes are responsible for this effect.

Physiological, anatomical and molecularbases of drought sensitivityThe reproductive stage of rice is the most sensitiveto drought stress. Inadequate rainfall during the

flowering and grain-filling stages can lead to large

yield losses in many leading rice varieties. One of

the reasons for reduced yields is that the panicle

(the flowering section of the rice plant) does not

fully emerge from the leaf sheath. For the panicle

to fully emerge, the plant needs to produce a

particular hormone (gibberellin). Under droughtstress, however, the plant decreases production of

gibberellin and increases production of a different

hormone (abscisic acid), which works in opposition

to gibberellin. This same phenomenon is responsible

for poor pollen release under drought conditions,

which also inhibits yield. IRRI scientists are

examining the genes that control the productionand release of these hormones, as well as the

corresponding proteins. Ultimately, researchers hope

to develop rice plants that maintain reasonable

yields under drought conditions.

Molecular breedingAlthough drought-resilient rice varieties

do exist, it has proved difficult to combine

drought tolerance and high yields. To link

these two traits, scientists at IRRI and the

Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciencesinterbred popular high-yielding varieties

with more than 100 varieties from diverse

origins. This produced a large number of

breeding lines, which were then screened

for high yield under drought stress.

Researchers identified many lines whosephysical appearance and performance

were similar to the popular varieties they

were derived from, but with improved

yield in a range of drought environments.

These lines are now being field-tested in

drought-prone environments in South and

Southeast Asia. This approach has alsohelped scientists identify many genes and parts of

the genome that influence drought tolerance.

The Challenge Program on Water and FoodThe Challenge Program on Water and Food is one of

several high-impact, collaborative research programsthat target major global and regional agricultural

issues. The Challenge Programs are an initiative of

IRRI’s parent organization, the Consultative Group

on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).Ultimately, the Water and Food program will help

farmers grow more food with less water. IRRI is

leading the program’s Crop Water ProductivityImprovement theme, which seeks to increase crop

water productivity to ensure food security and

improve farmers’ livelihoods without increasing

water used for agriculture over the amount used in

the year 2000. Researchers from five CGIAR centers

and several additional partners aim to achieve thisby developing water-efficient crops, improving

farming practices to optimize water use, and

promoting policies and institutions to help farmers

gain access to new technologies.

AEROBIC RICE varieties, like these

being trialed at IRRI, can grow in

conditions far too dry for commonly

grown modern varieties.

G A R Y

A T L I N

4 Rice Today September 2005

that the worst consequences can be avoided. We may not have the

ability to prevent drought, but wehave the chance to soften its effectsand give people who depend onagriculture a fighting chance.

The answer lies in threeinterconnected areas — research,effective long-term drought-mitigation policies and reliefstrategies. There is an urgent need

for policies that give farmers accessto markets and affordable credit.Improved irrigation systems andsoil and water conservation, through

better approaches to managing

natural watersheds, can help easethe effects of drought. Access toimproved agricultural technologies

that increase productivity will helpfarmers diversify their income

sources, giving them opportunitiesto earn a living from more than

just one type of crop and from viable nonfarm activities.

“Farmers need nonagriculturalincome so even when there isagricultural failure, they can earnmoney,” explains Humnath Bhandari,a visiting research fellow at IRRI who

coauthored the India drought report.“Effective drought relief, such as

emergency food supplies, is cr ucial,”says Dr. Bhandari, “but people onlyreceive assistance when a drought

actually happens. Millions of reliefdollars are spent but with little impacton long-term mitigation. Unless we

focus on long-term strategies won’t find a solution, but gov

are now starting to realize hoserious this issue really is.”

In research, we find thepotential for truly sustainabl

improvements. IRRI has takon a suite of different approafrom breeding rice varieties are better able to tolerate droconditions, to improved crop

water management strategiethat help conserve and reducthe need for water (see Drou– what is IRRI doing? , oppo

In combination with ina

coping mechanisms, droughtonly perpetuates poverty butdeepens it, forcing more peop

below the poverty line and d

those already there deeper d At the same time, improvem borne by research can have topposite effect, nudging peo

back up into better circumsta

“What would happen,” aPandey, “if we could halve th

yield loss suffered during dr years? This alone would prevabout 4 million people in eas

India from falling into poverCombine that with impro

policies, effective relief and binfrastructure, and you give f

and their families a chance to water in their fields, their croground and their heads abov

JOBLESS AND APPREHENSIVE, people wait anxiously for relief tofarmers gather to sell their bullocks at a weekly market in Oriss

drought-induced hardship forces more and more farmerproductive assets, such as farm animals, prices drop low

H U M N A T H B H A N D A R I ( 2 )




Ram Behal Maurya (right ), 54,

coughs as he settles himself

slowly on a run-down cot just

outside his house. In 10 days’

me, he and his sons will be harvesting

e from a small piece of land he

herited from his father. Unfortunately,

r. Maurya’s farm is in one of the ash-

od-prone areas in the eastern state of

tar Pradesh in India, where crops can

completely wiped out from oods. For

poor farmer tilling less than a hectare

land planted mostly with rice and

heat, he reaps an average of 1.6 tons of

e per hectare, barely enough to feed

s extended family of 13 members until

e next harvest. But this season, he has

gh hopes of getting a higher yield.

A growing number of subsistence

rmers as well as seed growers are now

anting “climate-change-ready” rice

the rice bowl state of Uttar Pradesh

d the speedy uptake is unprecedented.

he improved varieties are capable of

rviving even under harsh environments

ch as drought or oods that are

edicted to get worse with climate

ange or in problematic soils with

gh salt content that may become more

despread as sea levels rise because

climate change. The climate-change-

ady rice has been bred into local

ega-varieties that are high-yielding and

dely grown by farmers.

reeding for farmers

he International Rice Research InstituteRRI), together with its partners,

velops improved rice varieties that

e tolerant of various environmental

esses, helping farmers curb yield

sses, particularly those who farm on

ess-prone farmlands.

Through IRRI’s research, plant

eeders have identied a gene that

nfers tolerance of submergence

d chromosomal regions that confer

erance of drought and soil salinity.

The result is a rice variety that is resilient

to a particular environmental stress, is

high-yielding, and retains other desirable

qualities of the original variety, such

as good grain quality and palatability.

Under the IRRI-led project Stress-

Tolerant Rice for Poor Farmers in South

Asia and Africa (STRASA), farmers

now see the results in their own elds.

Thousands more in India and parts of

South Asia have been adopting stress-

tolerant varieties at unprecedented rates.

Seeing is believingAbout 78 kilometers away from Mr.

Maurya’s farm is Rampur Village, where

Kamalawati Ramkeval (see photo on

page 19) is happy with her harvest. Both

farmers suffer from annual harvest

losses caused by incessant rains and

ash oods. IRRI plant breeders found

that the SUB1 gene confers tolerance of

submergence. They bred the SUB1 gene

into the mega-variety Swarna, a high-

yielding variety widely grown in Uttar

Pradesh. In eld trials, Swarna-Sub1

survived up to 14 days in oodwater and

outyielded ood-susceptible varieties

by at least 1 ton per hectare. In 2009,

Swarna-Sub1 was ofcially released for

planting by the government of India.

Mr. Maurya and Ms. Ramkeval each

planted the ood-proof Swarna-Sub1 in

their respective elds during the kharif

or monsoon season. Although his crop

was under oodwater for 12 days, Mr.

Maurya was able to harvest 2.5 tons per hectare of unmilled Swarna-Sub1,

almost twice his harvest from variety

Soankhar of past cropping seasons.

Although Soankhar has the ability to

grow as water rises, it yields barely 1 ton

per hectare. As for his latest harvest, Mr.

Maurya intends to keep a small portion

of Swarna-Sub1 seeds for planting next

season and sell the remaining seeds to

farmers in adjoining villages.

Ms. Ramkeval, on the other hand,

was lucky as her eld was not ooded this

year. She harvested 6.5 tons per hectare

of unmilled Swarna-Sub1. “I will save

the harvest for my family,” she says. ”We

work hard to grow it so we’d rather not

sell it.” Like Mr. Maurya, she has seen

a substantial increase in yields in her

family’s rice elds and she plans to keep

some of the seeds for the next monsoon.

Meanwhile, Meera Prabunath, also

from Rampur Village, had a bountiful

harvest but of a different rice variety.In the past, her less-than-a-hectare land

was left to fallow because of drought.

In 2010, Ms. Prabunath planted seeds

of a drought-tolerant rice variety

released in India as Sabhagi dhan. IRRI

scientists developed this variety through

conventional breeding but have now

discovered the region of a chromosome,

known as quantitative tr ait loci (QTLs),

that contains genes believed to express

drought tolerance. These QTLs will

ory and photos by Mutya Frio

armers are fast adopting stress-tolerant varieties of rice to

ead off yield losses


be used for breeding in the same way

as the SUB1 gene to develop drought-

tolerant rice varieties. Last season, Ms.

Prabunath harvested 4.15 tons per hectare

of Sabhagi dhan, transforming a formerly

drought-prone land into a viable source of

sustenance and income for her fa mily.

The key is in partnerships New rice technologies, such as these

stress-tolerant varieties, will hardly make

a dent in ensuring food security in the

household and nationally unless they

are widely adopted by farmers. Some

effective mechanisms make new rice

varieties accessible to and adoptable by

farmers. The key to success is through

partnerships.

In India, IRRI has been working

with various stakeholders to develop and

disseminate climate-change-ready rice.

These partners are national and state

governments, agricultural research and

extension centers, universities, nonprot

organizations, farmers’ groups, and seed

growers.

What makes climate-change-ready

rice easily accessible to farmers is

that various research institutions have

already been multiplying the seeds

even before the variety is ofcially

released by the government. Dr. Umesh

Singh, IRRI senior scientist and project

coordinator for STRASA in India, says,

“Once it is released, we encourage state

governments as they distribute the seeds

to seed corporations for large-scale

multiplication, and they also disseminate

the seeds directly to farmers in target

areas. Farmers do not have to wait for

2–3 years for mass distribution.”

Furthermore, IRRI has partnered

with India’s National Food Security

Mission (NFSM), the national

government’s mega-scheme that aims to

increase food self-sufciency in targeted

states where food production is low. In2010, NFSM distributed 16,000 mini-kits

(5-kilogram seed packets) of the ood-

proof Swarna-Sub1 in Uttar Pradesh

in time for the following year’s kharif .

Through targeted dissemination, IRRI has

identied more than 2,000 ood-prone

villages in Uttar Pradesh. Each village

received 5–10 mini-kits of Swarna-Sub1.

More seeds had to be multiplied.

In time for last year’s kharif , the state

government of Uttar Pradesh launched

a program for seed multiplication of

Swarna-Sub1, to be planted on 1,200

hectares. “The STRASA project is

very important to us,” says Dr. Mukesh

Gautam, director of agriculture in Uttar

Pradesh. “About a million hectares of

land is ood-affected,” he reveals. “We

fully support the production of Swarna-

Sub1 and we see this improved variety

eventually replacing the original Swarna

variety.”

In 2010, NSFM approved the

distribution of 69,000 mini-kits for

planting on more than 11,000 hectares all

over India.

From the grass rootsAgricultural extension agencies, farmers’

groups, and nonprot organizations

are highly effective conduits of

technology dissemination because they

are directly in touch with farmers. One

such organization is Nand Educational

Foundation for Rural Development

(NEFORD), which helps spread

information about Swarna-Sub1.

“Farmers have to be convinced

of the technology rst,” says Dr. R.K.

Singh, NEFORD executive director.

“Then, we do a systems technology

transfer—not just mere technology

transfer, but a model where all the

elements are in place.”

Kissan mela or a farmers’ fair is

also a good venue for farmers and input

providers, where Swarna-Sub1 seeds

can be purchased at an affordable price

subsidized by the government. Using

mass media, both state and natio

media, helps spread the word not

to farmers and seed growers, but

importantly, to policymakers and

players in the rice sector.

“Once you have created a de

for the technology, you can prom

and inuence policy,” Dr. R.K. S

shares. “This is how it worked fo

promoting Swarna-Sub1.”

Moreover, making the techn

affordable and available to farme

ensures a quick adoption. The G

Environmental Action Group (GE

nonprot organization, helps sell

Sub1 seeds to farmers at a subsid

of 18–20 rupees or less than half

per kilogram. GEAG purchases t

from the Baranas Hindu Univers

which multiplies the seeds.

“When farmers see satisfyin

results, they ask where they can

seeds,” says Dr. Anita Singh, GE

project coordinator. “In 2010, m

farmers multiplied Swarna-Sub1

and this will continue to grow. M

seeds need to be distributed in 20

Meanwhile, a Primary Produ

Company (PPC) was established

Grameen Development Services

in Uttar Pradesh, another partner

STRASA project. The PPC, led a

managed by farmers, is a register

company licensed to sell and mar

seeds, register seed producers as

members, run a seed processing p

distribute and sell fertilizers. It bo

1,500 farmer-members who can p

seeds from universities at a whole

rate, thus avoiding the black mark

prices can become exorbitant.

“Through the PPC, farmers

reduce the middlemen in the pro

of procurement and distribution,

explains Ghansyan Mishra, GDS

coordinator. “They can now proc

truthfully labeled seeds directly,of waiting for a long time for cer

seeds to come into the market. W

to reduce the time lag and the inp

Truly, forging partnerships w

the public and private sector as w

with nonprot organizations is ke

successful technology adoption. F

farmers like Ram Behal, Kamalaw

Meera, they are the ultimate meas

success where the products of res

gaining ground fast.



Rice Today April-June 2014Rice Today April-June 2014

Under the scorching sunand cloudless skies, farmerPrabhawati Devi builds her

oasis using a rice variety thatdees the drought that often

parches her land

A car can usually traveldown the narrow concreteroad in Nagwa Village ofMaharanjganj District in

eastern Uar Pradesh. However,during this second week ofNovember—harvest time in the eldssurrounding the village—piles ofrice straw clogged the way, makingpassage virtually impossible.

Most of the women, includingPrabhawati Devi, were busy cuingthe straw and piling it neatly on jutesacks that were cut open to s erve asmats for the straw. As she was gather-ing the edges of the stalks, Mrs. Devisaid with a smile, “These are Sahb-hagi.” Sahbhagi is what the farmersand villagers call Sahbhagi dhan, adrought-tolerant rice variety releasedin India in 2009 (see Making rice lessthirsty on pages 12-15 of Rice Today ,Vol. 8, No. 3). The straw of Sahbhagidhan is popular among the women inNagwa, who feed it to their cale.

It’s a woman’s lifeBrick and mud houses, scaered

along the road of Nagwa, are not big enough to shield from view theresidents inside as they go abouttheir daily chores. One woman wascooking just inside her front door,squinting under the almost-middaysun and shielding her eyes with herhands from the smoke of the burningfuelwood.

Outside her house, anotherwoman was threshing rice manually—raising her arms as h igh as she could

as she smashed a bunch of r ice stalkson a surface covered with ne meshnet. She gathered the separated grainswith her hands, placing the grains atthe center of the net and puing theempty stalks neatly to her side. Sherose once in a while to straighten her back from her squaing position. Yetanother woman had just returnedfrom harvesting rice bundles in theeld. Women often harvest rice instaggered shifts because they want togive the fresh rice stalks to their cale.

Nagwa looked like a village ofwomen in a urry of activities. Their bright saris made them more visibleunder the bright, scorching sun.

"As more men migrate fromrural areas to the cities to look for'greener pastures,' women thentake on the farming activities thatthe men leave behind," commentedAbha Singh, an associate scientist based in Faizabad, easter n UarPradesh. She is one of the manywomen who Thelma Paris, a genderspecialist recently retired fromthe International Rice ResearchInstitute (IRRI), took under herwings (see Blazing the trail of women'sempowerment on pages 18-19).

An all-or-nothing gambleIn eastern Uar Pradesh, where riceproduction is predominantly rainfed,growing rice is so risky that farmerstake a gamble every cropping seasonand can only hope for the best. Theyhave no choice but to place their bet.

When luck is on their side, during ayear with ample rainfall, the farmersare blessed with enough food tosustain their families till the nextcropping season. But, when droughtstrikes, the price of crop fa iluremeans losing all their investments—labor, seed, and inputs—and long,lean, hungry months ahead.

“The eastern part of India wasconsidered a ‘hunger belt’ that iswhy IRRI started working on the

dissemination of stress-tolerantrice varieties in 2008 through theStress-Tolerant Rice for Afr ica andSouth Asia (STRASA) project,” saidUmesh Singh, STRASA’s r egionalcoordinator. In 2007, Dr. Singh,along with other IRRI scientists,successfully convinced the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation that thisproject would provide much-neededassistance to these farmers.

“The project aims to develop ricevarieties that can withstand ood,drought, and salinity, among otherstresses brought about by climatechange,” he added. “We call thesenew varieties climate-smart rice.”

STRASA researchers evaluatethese varieties, including participatoryvarietal selection (PVS) involvingfarmers. Gender is integrated intomost activities under STRASA andthe Global Rice Science Partnership(GRiSP), the CGIAR Program onRice, that aim to give women farmersinput into the selection of improvedrice varieties that are approved forrelease. It also helps in creatingawareness among the farmers even before the formal release of a variety.This participatory varietal selectionprocess, modied by Dr. Paris and

Creating an oasis with ricStory and photos by Lanie Reyes

her research team, in itially rethat women make up at least the participating farmers. Woparticipation will hopefully ito 50% in the next phase.

“STRASA works with thal research partners to get thies released and notied for cmercial cultivation," explaineSingh. “It also works closely developmental organizationsing federal and state governthe outscaling of new varieti

A refuge of a woman farmWomen farmers such as Mrsare beneting greatly from SHer concrete house has sturdconcrete posts; its blue paint just slightly, hinting that shethere for just a short time. Asmyself comfortable on a woostool, I noticed a gathering cof women, children, and som blocking the natural light cofrom the door. Mrs. Devi graa chair and sat in front of mesmile concealed her age andlife she has endured.

“This year, I harvested aquintals per acre of Sahbhagthree acres of land,” she sa id

PRABHAWATI DEVI shows her newlyharvested Sahbhagi dhan, a rice varietythat assures her of a harvest even whendrought strikes.

THE STRAW of Sahbhagi dhan, adrought-tolerant rice, is a popularcattle feed.

8




. (Twenty-two quintals is equivalent2.2 tons and one acre is 0.4 hectare.)

Over the last two years, when plant-g Sahbhagi, I earned around 20,000pees (about US$330) per acre.”

Dr. Singh conrmed that theverage yield of Sahbhagi dhan4 to 5 tons per hectare whenher traditional varieties yield

nly about 2.5 tons under normalnditions. “What is remarkablethat even under severe drought,here traditional and other high-elding varieties often yield nothing,

ahbhagi dhan can still produceto 2 tons per hectare,” Dr. Singhid. And since Sahbhagi dhan is a

hort-duration crop that matures in5 days (medium- to long-duration

aditional varieties take 120–150ays to maturity), another bonus isat farmers can plant the next croprlier giving them enough time toant three crops in a year!

Mrs. Devi plants peas, after rice,nd then follows with onions. Shesually earns $750 from her peas and

much as $580 from the onion crop.or the last two years, she has alsoeen selling Sahbhagi seeds at about.50 per kilogram compared to $0.25

er kilogram when sold as grains.his gives her an extra $250.00 pern of rice.

While a traditional variety suchSarju55 requires four irrigations,

ahbhagi dhan requires only two.armers can save up to two irriga-ons; each irrigation usually incursn energy cost of $30. Therefore,rmers planting Sahbhagi dhan canve $60 per crop.

Empowered genderThe strong-spirited Mrs. Devi isknown in the village for having aprogressive outlook. She took onthe role of the family breadwinnerwhen her husband was stricken withhypertension and a heart problem,making him unable to work.

“God has blessed me with fourcows, so no worries,” she said withan air of cheerfulness that never lefther face since I met her two hours ago.Cows are considered “helpmeets” inrural India as they provide milk, asource of protein for the family. Shesells some extra milk to her neighbors.A cow can assure them of additionalincome of about $3 a day. Cows willcontinue to give milk for severalmonths as long as they are healthyand well-fed. This is why Sahbhagidhan straw is very important in mostfarming households.

“Four of my ve daughters aremarried,” she proudly related. In hervillage, a married daughter impliesthat a household has a healthynancial status because the cost of

the dowry can range from $400 tomore than $800—an amount thatis dicult to come by for ordinaryfarmers.

“My life is now easier as I haveonly one daughter left to marr y,” shesaid. After that day comes, Mrs. Devidreams of enhancing her “oasis” bypurchasing a new house and maybeeven a new car. She already owns asecond-hand white van that she rentsout as a public utility vehicle.

When a young man in his earlytwenties approached Mrs. Devi,she proudly introduced him as herson, who graduated from a three-year college course and now worksin Bombay. Mrs. Devi has becomean inspiration to other women inNagwa. She has been able to save$800 through a s elf-help group (SHG)for women. This amount was addedto the SHG’s capital that is availablefor loans to members at very lowinterest rates. They can use themoney for household or far m-relatedneeds.

At the end of each year, theydistribute the dividends amongthemselves. One woman farmer bought a pair of earrings from thedividend she got. “This speaks a lot

about these women,” Dr. Paris laterpointed out. “The money they’veearned themselves can now be usedin any way they want. To them, jewelry is a valuable asset they canclaim they own. They can sell it, useit as collateral for more loans or g ive itas a gift for a daugher’s dowry. This isempowerment in plain clothes.”

Ms. Reyes is the managing editor of RiceToday.

SINCE SAHBHAGIdhan matures earlier,farmers can plant

three crops in ayear. Mrs. Devi andher husband usuallycultivate pea andonion crops after rice.

WOMEN FARMERS, especially thosefrom the lower castes, do most ofthe work in rice farming.

0 40 Rice Today January-March 2014

Rice facts

S

warna-Sub1

is the ood-tolerantversion of the

popular mega-varietySwarna (MTU 7029)

in eastern India. Itwas developed byscientists from theInternational RiceResearch Institute(IRRI), evaluated andreleased in India byCentral Rice researchInstitute (CRRI), anddisseminated byIRRI in collaborationwith the nationalagricultural researchsystems, government organizations,nongovernment organizations, andpublic and private seed companies inIndia. In the eastern state of Odisha,where Swarna occupies more than30% of the total rice area, both thestate and central government aredistributing Swarna-Sub1 seeds

through various schemes such as theNational Food Security Mission andBringing Green Revolution to EasternIndia (BGREI).

Swarna-Sub1 is almost identicalto its counterpart Swarna in termsof grain yield and g rain quality, butit has an added advantage—it cansurvive full submergence for morethan 2 weeks. However, the huskcolor of Swarna-Sub1 is much lighterthan that of Swarna, which is reddish.

Because of this dierence, the farmersin Odisha call Swarna “Nali Swarna”(Red Swarna) and Swarna-Sub1“Dhala Swarna” (White Swarna).

Farmers’ feedback In October 2013, during our visitto Jajpur District, a stronghold of

Swarna, which is grown on 65% ofthe total rice area, we made severalstops throughout the day and talkedwith farmers about the performanceof Swarna-Sub1. Our visit took place 2days before the state was expected to be pounded by cyclone Phailin, oneof the most powerful tropical stormsever to make landfall in India.

Most of the feedback fromfarmers on Swarna-Sub1 was quitepositive. There were a few complaints

regarding seeshaering of SSub1 during hand transportBut, most of tfarmers who Swarna-Sub1rst time in 2parts of their expanded it tentire landho

In AmathVillage, locate between two Birupa and Brwe also camea large patch oof about 80 hewhich was m

planted with Swarna-Sub1. N before, this area was left fallo because of frequent oodingthe kharif season. Then, the fwould plant the area with monce the oodwater receded

We were told that that wrst time many farmers plan

the area because they were abaccess to ood-tolerant Swarthrough the BGREI seed distprogram. Coincidently, the aooded for 6 to 8 days due torainfall that preceded the c yas expected, Swarna-Sub1 requite well from the ood.

In the late afternoon, wea few nonood-prone villageBinjharpur block where a noorganization had distributed

Odisha farmers embraced ood-tolerant rice not only as food on their table but as a wo

oering to Lakshmi, their goddess.

Swarna-Sub1:

by Samarendu Mohanty and Debdutt Behura

Odisha’s foodfor a goddess

MANA FILLED with freshlyharvested Swarna-Sub1.

D E B D U T T B E H U R A

( 3 )



41Rice Today January-March 2014

THE ENTRANCE of a house decorated with chita.

BRAIDED SWARNA-Sub1 paddy is hung infront of the house to bring prosperity.

ub1 seeds in the 2012 wet season.urprisingly, even in areas thate not prone to ooding, manyrmers had a favorable opinionout Swarna-Sub1. Swarna-Sub1s been adopted by some farmersthe second season because of itssistance to diseases, particularlysheath blight. However, many

her farmers have decided to growwarna-Sub1 on parts of their land

cause of its lighter husk color,hich is preferred for oerings toeir deities during religious r ites.

Margasira masa (month inriya), which normally falls in mid-ovember to mid-December, is one ofe auspicious months that coincidesith the paddy harvest, threshing,d storage. Every Thursday ofis month, known as the Manabasaurubar , freshly harvested paddy isled in a mana (a pot made out ofmboo cane used for measuringddy in the old days) and is placedthe center of a circular chita toorship the goddess Lakshmi.

Chita is the traditional Oriya artrm in which walls and oors arecorated with murals using semi-

quid rice paste. The drawings couldsmall footmarks of Lakshmi, a

ack of paddy, owers, peacocks, andephants, among other designs. Thearried women in every household

clean and decorate the oor, wall,entrances, and grain storage structurewith chita. The new paddy harvestis also braided and hung in frontof the house, near a pooja altar (aspecial place in the room used duringworship and also kept near the mana).

We went back to Jajpur Districtin December, the last ManabasaGurubar of 2013, to witness the use ofnew Swarna-Sub1 paddy during thisholy month. After visiting around15 villages in Binjharpur block, we

knew already that Swarna-Sub1 iswidely accepted by the communityfor Manabasa Gurubar and for otherreligious uses.

The future of Swarna-Sub1

Swarna-Sub1 outyields Swarnaand other popular varieties undersubmerged conditions. This makesSwarna ideal for ood-prone riceareas in the state. Apart fromreplacing Swarna and other popularnonood-tolerant varieties, it canmake perennially ooded areasourish with rice. Before, these areaswere normally left fallow duringthe kharif season, just like what hashappened in Amathpur Village.Lastly, Swarna-Sub1 may not be justlimited to ood-prone rice areas.It could potentially take a slice ofnonood-prone rice areas becauseit is becoming more acceptable forcultural and religious uses.

Note: Thanks to Drs. AchimDobermann, Umesh Singh, Abdel Ismail,and Takashi Yamano for some excellentsuggestions.

Dr. Mohanty is the head of the SocialSciences Division and program leader(Targeing and policy) at IRRI. D r.Behura is an assistant professor at theOrissa University of Agriculture andTechnology.

30 Rice Today July-September 2009

by Lanie C. Reyes

Efficient GM technologies and an innovative drought-screening facility at IRRI increas

chances of discovering new candidate genes for the development of drought-toleran

Drought brings to mind negative

images of wide expanses of dryand parched lands. It is oftenassociated with abject poverty,

distraught farmers, hungry children,

sickness, and sometimes hopelessness(see Dreams beyond drought, pages15-21 of Rice Today Vol. 4 No. 2 ).

According to the InternationalRice Research Institute (IRRI),

1 about

38% of the world area—home to 70%of the total population and sourceof 70% of global food production—suffers from drought. The effects

of this problem are massive anddevastating for the rice farmers whoneed to plant the crop that feeds halfthe world's people.

Drought is a formidable foe,

which IRRI ghts untiringly throughrice research. Most scientists agreethat it is one of the most complex andtoughest stresses to overcome whencompared with other constraints

such as salinity, ooding, pests, anddiseases.

Considering that rice is a water-adapted plant grown in ooded elds,

helping it cope with water stress andenabling it to produce economicallygood yields under drought is a great

challenge.But, this does not stop IRRI

scientists from nding answersand new solutions for breeding new

varieties and from understandingthe effects of drought on rice at thegenetic and molecular level (see

1 See Economic costs of drought and rice farmers’ coping mechanisms , edited by S. Pandey, H. Bhandari, and B. Hardy, 2007.

2 See Redesigning rice photosynthesis to increase yield , edited by J.E. Sheehy, P.L. Mitchell, and B. Hardy, 2000.

3 www.nufeldbioethics.org/leLibrary/pdf/gmcrop.pdf

Overcoming the toughest stress in rice:

Making rice less

thirsty on pages12-14). For them, thechallenge is clear―increase rice yield

despite drought.One potential

solution for betterunderstandingdrought complexities

is through geneticmodication(GM, also calledtransgenics,

uses modern biotechnologytechniques to changethe genes of an organism).

Concidentally, scientists have

been using genetic modication insome forms for years. In fact, allcrops have been genetically improved(modied) for millennia by selection

by farmers and by breeding in the

past hundred years.2 In addition,

the Nufeld Council on Bioethicsconcluded in 1999 that geneticengineering could be considered

as natural as conventional plant breeding.

3

For farmers, GM crops are no

longer a novelty. The InternationalService for the Acquisition of Agri-

biotech Applications (ISAAA)reported in 2008 that 25 countriescultivated GM crops, including thedeveloping countries Egypt andBurkina Faso. ISAAA reported that

between 2007 and 2008, thegrown to GM crops rose by 9

or 10.7 million hectares, totalmore than 120 million hectarincreasing number of people GM as a potential source for

benets in agriculture, for ex

for a rice variety tolerant to dResearch groups at IRRI

Drs. Rachid Serraj, crop phyand Inez H. Slamet-Loedin, c

biologist, are currently workdrought-tolerant varieties us(For a general idea about this

see Tool box for making GM “Current GM technologies at

are very efcient for both ind japonica rice cultivars, and tis no major technical bottlenproducing a large number of (independent plants generate

Dr. Inez Slamet-LoediDr. Rachid Serraj



31Rice Today July-September 2009

a GM cell) as long as there is space to

plant and characterize t hem,” said Dr.Slamet-Loedin.

A new drought-screening facilityand a protocol that mimics droughtconditions in the lowland rice

ecosystem have been established atIRRI to support, enhance, and expandthe scientists’ work on developing adrought-tolerant crop. Unlike in thepast, when GM drought-tolerant crops

were mostly tested under articialconditions using pots, the new facilityallows scientists to better predict thecrop’s yield, which previously was

difcult to estimate.“The new drought-screening

facility can assess a bigger populationof plants to take into account thepossible variation in the effects of a

transgene on plant growth and yield

performance,” Dr. Serraj said.“Since IRRI is able to generate

large numbers of transgenic events, itis more efcient to select and discardplants from the early steps, and

keep only those showing promisingresponses,” he added. The rice plantscan be robustly and comprehensivelyselected based on their phenotypes(physical attributes) and yield

characteristics.Rice farmers, however, are often

not interested in the signicance ofhaving a drought-tolerant crop per se,

since they are more concerned about whether the crop will produce a goodand sustainable yield. An improvedcrop could survive drought stress, yetnot produce a harvestable yield. So,

it is crucial for scientists to measure

biomass accumulation (weight ortotal quantity of the plant) and yieldperformance that would result frommodifying a gene.

“At an early step of the

evaluation, we assess the impact of water decit on plant growth anduse nondestructive measurementsto analyze crop performance,” Dr.Serraj said. “Plant phenology (the

plant’s biological stage, that is,owering, tillering, grain formation,etc.), growth, transpiration, canopytemperature, photosynthesis, leaf

rolling, tillering ability, root biomass,and spikelet fertility are among theparameters to be measured for a la rgenumber of plants.”

4

Moreover, Dr. Dong Jin Kang,

4 See Drought frontiers in rice: crop improvement for increased rainfed production, edited by R. Serraj, J. Bennett, and B. Hardy, 2008.

4 32 Rice Today July-September 2009

an IRRI postdoctoral fellow,explained (with reference tothe samples in the drought-

screening facility), “Plantsthat grow and produce wellin this condition are selectedas candidates for drought

tolerance.” The facility alsocontains a ooded control plotof GM rice. Scientists comparethe performance of the tested

varieties under different

conditions, to make sure thatany selected material would

be able to perform well undera variety of environments.

Dr. Slamet-Loedin said

that the performance of GMrice is tested under droughtand irrigated conditions toidentify transgenic events in

both conditions since droughtmay not occur in each plantingseason.

Sometimes, the transgenic plantperforms better than the wild-type

counterpart in drought conditions, butmay yield less in normal conditions.This is a crucial factor and the reasoncandidate genes tested at IRRI aredesigned to be activated by drought

(making the expression of the droughttolerance gene inducible by drought)to avoid any yield penalty in normalconditions.

To further ensure that nouncontrolled water will enter and

ruin these experiments, the scientistsplaced a 1-meter-deep physical barrieraround the plots to prevent waterseepage and percolation from adjacent

ooded plots. The bed under thedrought treatment, on the other hand,is equipped with a drainage system in

which water gravitationally ows andgradually reduces the soil moisture of

the topsoil.Moreover, to maintain the

precision of soil drying, scientistsconstantly monitor the amount of

moisture and water tension in the soil,as well as the air temperature, relativehumidity, and vapor-pressure decit.

“Periods of managed waterdecits are imposed with precise

parameters of stress timing,duration, and severity,” Dr.Serraj explained. “Soil water isgradually reduced a few weeks aftertransplanting until the owering

and grain-setting stages, with soil

moisture decreasing from fullysaturated to minimal,” he added.

The facility also has a double-

layered mesh on the ceiling andthe surrounding divider to satisfy

biosafety requirements. “Withoutprotection, ying insects could enterthe facility,“ Dr. Kang explained.

The drought-screening facility has been successful in creating realisticdrought conditions. During the dryseason of 2007, the rst drought-

screening experiment using tfacility was carried out to teseffects of a gene for drought tprovided by the Japan Intern

Research Center for AgricultuSciences. The scientists wereto observe that the data on yiirrigated and drought conditiinside the drought-screening

were similar to the ones obtafrom non-transgenic eld expat IRRI..

“We are making progress

and we have already identiefew promising lines,” Dr. Sercondently stated. “These, ho

will need further testing and validation. The drought-scree

facility greatly helped in ourtransgenic research, so we plestablish a similar and biggerin the future. This will allow

more gene c andidates.”Not leaving any stone un

IRRI scientists intend to nd ways to help farmers cope widrought. With advances in te

things are denitely looking u both scientists and farmers. Dtolerant varieties are developenhanced by the integration approaches into breeding pro

as well as the by the use of thfacility that enhances precisieffectiveness in delivering neimproved genetic lines.

Nancy Sadiasa, Evelyn Liwanag, and Flor Montecillo, researchtechnicians; Malen Estrada, assistant scientist (front row);Dr. Rachid Serraj, crop physiologist, and Dr. Dong Jin Kang, apostdoctoral fellow (at the back) at IRRI, inside the drought-screening facility.

Agrobacterium tumefaciens containing a binary vectoris dispensed on immatureembryos.




PhD research on a cassava disease.We argued endlessly about the bestapproach to developing lasting resis-tance to plant diseases. He was proudof the advances he and his colleagueshad made in raising rice yields inAsia and Latin A merica but saw that,

for these to be sustained, and for theoverall health of the environment, theway crops were grown had to change(see Where Latin America’s rice gets abaptism by fre, pages 24-25).

By the late 1970s and early 1980s,the shortcomings of the early phase ofthe Green Revolution were becomingclear. The most serious were theoveruse of pesticides and fertilizer,and the inevitable transformationsof the rural sector, where many,many gained but some, especiallythose in marginal environments, lostout. A backlash began among leftistacademics who viewed the GreenRevolution as a way for capitalistgovernments and multinationalcorporations to subjugate smallfarmers. This view was helped bythe fact t hat some oppressive West-leaning governments were avidchampions of the Green Revolution.

As the worst examples of theGreen Revolution’s side eects became

We could now helpthe people left behindbecause they lived on

lands plagued by droughtsor floods that wouldn’tsupport modern crop

varieties.

varieties. I have seen this dreamvalidated. India’s untouchablecommunities (the lowest class)farm on marginal ood-proneIRRI’s ood-tolerant rice is mouseful to these farmers and proto transform the lives of millio

In short, we saw modern biology as a driver for transforagriculture into a tool for protethe environment, meeting foodand reversing millennia of injuthat condemned certain segmethe population to the worst lan

Sadly, while we were wormake our dreams reality, the s brew of anticorporate sentime

manifest, environmental concerns became part of the mainstreamconsciousness, culminating ultimatelyin the United Nations Rio conferenceof 1992. But that conference framed afalse dichotomy that continues to thisday, between a healthy environmentand idyllic, contented farmers on oneside and a high-yielding agricultureon the other.

I began to experience cognitivedissonance. My rsthand experiencewith impoverished small farmers inthe developing world was placing meat odds with my ideological brethren.

Our understanding of geneticsand the ability to proactivelymanipulate how plants behaved andresponded to the environment was becoming a reality. Many of us sawthis as a way to reverse the negativesof the Green Revolution and open theway for, in the words of Sir GordonConway, a “doubly green revolution.”

1. ON 25 MARCH 2014, the agricultural worldcelebrated what would have been the 100thbirthday of Norman Borlaug (at center withtrainees in Mexico in the early 1990s), thelegendary scientist who developed high-yielding semidwarf wheat that started the GreenRevolution for that crop.

2. DR. ZEIGLER ( fourth from right ) and IRRI staffinteract with farmers on their turf whenever theycan.

3. PETER JENNINGS, IRRI's first breeder, had a handin history too by making the cross that led toIR8, the semidwarf variety that started the GreenRevolution for rice.

4. SUBMERGENCE-TOLERANT variety Swarna Sub1 isdrastically changing the lives of farmers in theflood-prone areas of eastern India.

It was easy to s ee that we couldengineer into crops resistance toinsect pests and pathogens thatwould eliminate the need for sprayingtoxic chemicals that sickened everyorganism they touched. Even beer,we could now help the people left behind because they lived on landsplagued by droughts or oods thatwouldn’t support modern crop

extreme environmentalism,romanticized traditional organland-hungry agriculture, and of new technologies boiled ovecreate a powerful antitechnolo backlash. The extreme regulatfor genetically modied (GM)demanded by self-proclaimedprotectors of the environmentthe perverse result that only thlargest multinationals could ato develop such crops. Predictthis resulted in the same campdenouncing the growing domof agriculture by multinationa

costs for developing crop varieescalated, the few seed compathat could aord the work focuonly on areas with large markMarginal farmers were once aexcluded.

This time, though, who is blame?

This edited version of the articleis reprinted with permission fromCOSMOS magazine.

3

U R B I T O O N G L E O

A D A M B

A R C L A Y

I R R I A R C H I V E


Norm Borlaug had no illusionsthat the Green Revolutionwas anything other thana means to buy the world

me. Time—to get our house inder to stabilize our populations,nerate the knowledge that wouldow us to support ourselves withoutstroying the environment, andable most people to live in dignity.

he expectation, he told me in severalnversations in the early 2000s, wasat we as societies would take up thew knowledge and use it wisely.

As an intellectual directscendent of the architects of the

reen Revolution, it is heartbreakingsee their noble endeavors aacked

y people claiming to defend thevironment and the interests ofe poor. I know that, if we continuelisten to the shrill cries of anti-

chnology zealots, we will bestracted from taking on and solvinge most serious problems that faceand our grandchildren.

Like many of my colleagues,ame to agriculture via the

vironmental movement. Myniversity readings included Rachelarson, Aldo Leopold, Muir, Thoreau,e Whole Earth Catalog , and, perhapsost importantly, Paul Ehrlich and theddock brothers, whose bestsellingoks predicted mass starvation in

sia. Being part of the organizationthe rst Earth Day (22 April 1970)the university was key, as was anse of social justice. My mother’sde of the family dug themselves to

their deaths mining the coal seamsof western Pennsylvania. That,together with the war in Vietnamand the global social upheaval of the1960s, instilled a healthy distrust forauthority and big business, and aknee-jerk response whenever possibleto “stick it to the man.”

As a Peace Corps volunteer inZaïre (now known as DemocraticRepublic of the Congo), I saw close-upthe havoc unleashed by an epidemicin the cassava crop. I witnessedthe ecologicaldestructionas villagersdesperately slashedand burned swathsof tropical forestto meet immediatefood needs. I waspreparing myselffor a career in plant ecology, butthe misery caused by crop diseaseswas clear. They could be triggered by human mistakes and ecologicaldisruptions, but they could also betackled through human ingenuity

and science.I made contact with the only

person in the U.S. I could locatewith an interest in cassava diseases,Professor H. David Thurston atCornell University. It turned outhe was a contemporary and closecolleague of both Borlaug andPeter Jennings—who developed therst semidwarf rice varieties thatlaunched the other half of the GreenRevolution. Dave opened the door

for me to international agriculturalresearch. He also regaled me with

endless tales ofthe personalitieswho, trudgingtheir way throughsmall farmers’elds in the 1950sand 1960s withfunding fromthe Rockefeller

Foundation, strove to transform thelives of desperately poor farmers.

All these greats had somethingin common—a re in the belly to tryto make a mockery of the doomsdaypredictions of Ehrlich (The Population

Bomb) and the Paddock brothers(Famine 1975). The aw in thesepredictions was obvious to me, evenas a student. They assumed that thefuture would be like the past. Therole of science was precisely to makethe future different from the past.

Soon, I was to meet one of thesegreats, Peter Jennings, at the Inter-national Center for Tropical Agri-culture (CIAT) in Cali, Colombia,where I would conduct part of my

Bitter

harvest

from a

r. Zeigler, director general of the International Rice Research Institute(IRRI), reflects on the Green Revolution and fears that

anti-technology zealots may steal the food from the mouths offuture generations

All these greats hadsomething in common.

A fire in the belly to try tomake a mockery of thedoomsday predictions.

noblecause

1

2

G E N E H E T T E L

M A N Z O O R D A R

by Robert S. Zeigler

6




A seed of rice that couldtransform the developingworld saved Asha Ram Pal’sfarm in the Indian state

Uar Pradesh in the summer of08. Mr. Pal had planted rice ons small plot, not much bigger thanootball eld. Floods are an ever-esent threat in the state, makingone of the poorest places in theorld. And that year the monsoonas particularly heavy, remembersobert Zeigler, director general of theternational Rice Research Institute

RRI). Mr. Pal’s elds ooded forwo weeks after he planted the rice

edlings; a few weeks later, theyere inundated again. He thought hisop was lost. His neighbors advisedm to do what they have always

one when the oods come: preparer hunger.

But this time Mr. Pal had plantedexperimental s eed developed

y scientists from IRRI in thehilippines. The seed has a genetic

sequence bred into it, which puts itinto a sort of suspended an imationwhen submerged. Instead ofdrowning, Mr. Pal’s rice sprang backwhen the water receded. In a normalyear, he gets a ton or so from hisone-hectare (2.5-acre) plot; in a badyear nothing. In that terr ible oodedseason, he harvested 4.5 tons—asgood a yield as on a ny rainfed paddyin the world.

Flood-tolerant rice is nowspreading as fast as the watersthemselves. Five years after the rst

eld trials, 5 million farmers acrossthe world are planting more than adozen varieties of rice with ood-resistant genes, collectively called Sub1. They are proliferating even fasterthan new rice varieties during theheady early days of the rst greenrevolution in the 1960s. “And Sub 1 isthe rst of a new generation of seeds,”says Dr. Zeigler. If all goes well, overthe next few years plants that toleratedrought, salinity, and extreme heatwill revolutionize the cultivation ofmankind’s most important source of

HE NEW GREEN REVOLUTION:

nother green revolution is stirring in the world’s paddy felds

A bigger rice bowl

MR. ASHA Ram Pal’s rice field, Palia Goa village, Faizabad district, Uttar Pradesh, India.

I S A G A N I S E R R A N O ( 2 )

U M E S H S I N G H

8 Rice Today October-December 2014

calories. But that will depend on thetechnology working as promised and,in particular, on public policies thatsupport a second green revolution.Neither is guaranteed.

The rst g reen revolution helpedsave the developing world fromdisaster. Two plant breeders, Dr.Norman Borlaug with wheat andDr. M.S. Swaminathan with r ice,persuaded governments in Asiaand elsewhere to encourage theplanting of h igher-yielding varieties,especially of rice; 3.5 billion people,half of mankind, get a fth of theircalories or more from the stu. Whenthe men started work in the early1960s, China was suering the famineof the Great Leap Forward. And Indiawas widely thought to be on the brink of starvation.

Today in Asia, famines are thingsof the past. One reason is the spreadof democracy. Another is the greenrevolution, which has ensured thatthere is plenty of rice—India evenexports it. And demand seems to beshrinking: the richest Asian countries, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea,are eating less rice. This has ledgovernments, which once supported

the green revolution, to think that anew one would be unnecessary. Rice,they reason, is a problem that has beensolved. Beer to improve the dietsthat are causing obesity or change theintensive-farming practices that aredamaging the environment.

But it is not clear that the missionhas been accomplished. In Asia asa whole, consumption per personis at, not falling. The population isstill growing, so demand for rice is

rising on the continent where 90% ofthe crop is raised. In Africa, where athird of the population depends onrice, demand is rising by almost 20%a year. At that rate, rice will surpassmaize as Africa’s main source ofcalories within 20 years.

Seeds of stagnationAs a rule of thumb, if the world’spopulation grows by 1 billion, anextra 100 million tons of rice isrequired to feed them. Given currentworld-population forecasts, total riceconsumption, now under 450 milliontons, is likely to grow to 500 milliontons a year by 2020 and to 555 million by 2035—an increase of 1.2–1.5% ayear. That would be manageable ifrice yields were also growing at thatrate. But they are not. They are r isingat barely half that pace.

The rst green revolution almostdoubled yields from 1.9 tons perhectare in 1950-64 to 3.5 tons in 1985-98. Even that was only enough to keeppace with population growth: yieldsand population rose at the same rate(1.75% a year) in the half century afterthe green revolution started.

Now the gains seem to have

leveled o. Plant breeders fear that,with current technology, 10 tons perhectare for rice in i ntensive-farmingsystems may be the limit, though itis not clear why. What is clear is t hat,out in the elds, output per hectare isstalling, and in some places falling.

For over 50 years, IRRI has beenplanting a eld using its best s eeds.The eld itself has remained muchthe same: the bugs and microbes thatlive in the roots of the rice plant mean

that soil fertility is maintaineif three crops are grown eachBut output from the plot hasfrom 9 to 10 tons a hectare iearly 1990s to 7 to 8 tons nowand diseases have taken theiRice yields were rising at 2.5 between 1962 and 1982. But b1992 and 2012, growth fell toa year (see chart 1).

The facts of riceWithout new seeds, yields wdecline further. Global warmwill tend to push harvests dohigher night-time temperatuare associated with lower yieThe richest rice-growing arethe world are the deltas of Agreat rivers, such as the MekBrahmaputra, and Irawaddyare vulnerable to rising sea leand increased salinity, whichrice. The plant uses two to thtimes as much water as other(largely for leveling the paddthe plant itself consumes no than wheat or maize), but wascarce everywhere. And eachthe spread of Asian—especiaChinese—cities converts m ilacres of good rice-growing la

buildings and roads.The consequences could

momentous. Rice plays a rolesocieties that is hard for outsappreciate. (A small examplemeans “bountiful rice eld” Honda means “main rice elthe river basins that are the wrice bowls, nothing else will with the same productivity. Ior nothing, and if there are pwith rice, there are problems

A D A M B

A R C L A Y

FLOOD-TOLERANT Swarna-Sub1, a variety

that can survive full submergence for more

than 2 weeks. is changing the lives of farm

families who must grow their rice crop in

flood-prone areas of eastern India.




erything. A rice shortage wouldve geopolitical implications. Nodian or Chinese government couldntemplate the possibility withuanimity. They would do whatevertakes to ensure they have enoughce. If this pushes up world foodices, so be it. If they must twist thems of exporting countries, they will.Asia’s giants feel insecure, theirighbors will tremble.

So a lot is riding on boostingce yields. But how likely is it that acond green revolution will take o?

The rst was a relatively simpleair, technologically at least.onventional r ice varieties wereng and leggy. If you gave themrtilizer, they grew too tall a nd fell

ver. That changed in 1966, whenRI released a semidwarf varietylled IR8. Because its stem wasort, it was able to absorb fertilizerithout collapsing. So now farmersd a crop they could feed. Andith stem growth restricted, more ofe increase in plant size went intoe head of seeds (called a panicle).8 spread from the Punjab to the

hilippines, transforming farming

herever water could be controlledd fertilizer delivered.

The second revolution will beerent. Farmers will not adoptingle miracle variety. Instead,searchers will tailor seeds forrticular environments (dry,

ooded, salty, and so on). Andey are also trying to boost the

utritional quality of rice, not juste number of calories. As a result,e second revolution will be felt

most profoundly in the poorest areasand among the poorest farmers. Incontrast, the rst had the biggestimpact in the richest elds, with themost water and fertilizer.

The ood-tolerant trait thatrescued Mr. Pal’s crop was rstidentied in the 1980s, in a few old-fashioned varieties native to Odisha,another ood-prone state in easternIndia. After more than a decade offalse starts, plant scientists identiedthe genes that make the Odishavarieties ood-tolerant. They went back to IR8’s descendants, splicedthese genes into them and bred f romthe result. Having spent years geingnowhere with traditional plant- breeding methods, scientists wentfrom marking the genetic sequence toproducing ood-resistant seeds in 4short years.

Dr. Abdelbagi Ismail, a principalscientist at IRRI, hopes to do thesame for other traits that have so fareluded breeders, such as droughttolerance a nd heat tolerance. Hightemperatures during rice oweringcan lead to sterility. If it is too hot, theanthers of the plant, which containthe pollen, do not open properly; thepollen is not released, the stigmasare not pollinated and the crop islost. The problem occurs during thehour or so when the plant owers. Itcould be overcome if it were possibleto encourage rice to ower in the coolof the early morning—as opposed toscorching midday, its usual hour. Dr.Tom Ishimaru, who works at IRRIand the Japan International ResearchCentre for Agricultural Sciences, hasfound a gene which codes for early-morning owering, raising hopes ofsolving the problem.

Such breeding programs will

not have the same dramatic impactthat IR8 did. But developing miracleseeds is not the only way to boostyields. During the 1990s, China didit by improving hybrids: crossingdierent lines to combine theadvantages of both. This is the usualway of improving maize, but it is lesscommon with rice. Unlike maize, rice breeds true in successive generations,so farmers can retain seeds from oneharvest and plant them for the next.

Farmers will switch if a new varietygives them a big one-o boost, but not just to get the small increments oeredthrough hybrid improvements. Hence,it takes a long time to boost yieldsusing hybrids—unless the governmentforces farmers to use new seeds.China’s rulers could do that; lessauthoritarian regimes cannot.

Cereal killersChina’s experience shows that aseries of small improvements canadd up to something large. This will be true of the second revolution onthe poorest lands. The rst greenrevolution had most impact onirrigated land and, thanks to it, the 80million hectares, which are irr igated(an area equivalent to Vietnam, Laos,and Cambodia put together) nowhave yields of 5 to 6 tons a hectare;they produce three-quarters of theworld’s rice. But there is nearly asmuch rice land which depends onrainwater. Yields there are far lower— between one and two and a half tonsa hectare—and rainfed lands produceonly a quar ter of the world’s rice.Yields are low because almost halfthis land is prone to drought and athird to oods. Most Afr ican paddiesfall into this category, which is whythe rst green revolution passedAfrica by.

Drought- and ood-tolerant seedscould double yields from these areas.That would boost harvests from 110million to 220 million tons, and pushglobal output to 550 million tons—enough to meet expected demand in2035. In short, all the extra rice couldcome from rain-fed areas alone.

LDEN RICE, which contains beta

otene, a source of vitamin A, has the

tential to save millions of poor children

m preventable blindness.

0 Rice Today October-December 2014

Because yields on rainfed landsare low, even a doubling would notincrease total production by as muchas the rst green revolution did. Butthe impact on poverty would begreater. More than 500 million of theabsolute poor (those with US$1.25 aday or less) depend on rice, far morethan on any other food (see chart 2).A disproportionate number of themlive in northeast India, Bangladesh,and the Ir rawaddy Delta of Myanmar.In these areas the lowest castes andtribes have been forced onto the worstlands.

Those are the very placeswhere the second green revolutionwould make the biggest impact.Flood-tolerant rice “dierentially benets [India’s] scheduled castes

and tribes”, a recent study of oneof the early eld trials concludes. Ifthese improvements were combinedwith another program to boost thenutritional quality of rice—the so-called Golden Rice project whichgenetically modies rice to includevitamin A—then the benets to someof the poorest people in the worldwould be vast.

The rst gr een revolution did notimprove people’s livelihoods just byproviding technological xes. It didso because the new seeds aractednew capital into farming, encouragedmechanization, credit markets,new management techniques andso on. The second revolution willalso do this. A lready, rice farming ischanging faster than for generations.Age-old habits of raising seedlings,transplanting them into the eldsand threshing, drying and storingthe plant are being rejected. Now,seeds are planted directly into theeld by machine and everything

from threshing to milling is done byspecialist rms. For such changes to become more widespread, though,incentives and policies need to pushin the right direction. Alas, they don’tall do so.

On the face of it, the secondrevolution is subsidized. Not onlydo governments nance the basicresearch. In many Asian countries,from rice importers such as Indonesiato exporters such as Thailand, they

also pay farmers above the worldprice. Thailand’s scheme is sogenerous that it ran out of money this

year. Such price distortions articially boost demand for green-revolutionseeds in the short run.

But high domestic prices are also bad for the economy. They imposeheavy costs on consumers. And theyundermine incentives to export,making world prices more volatileand international markets thinner.This hurts farmers who stand togain from the s hift of comparativeadvantage in rice-growing towardsIndia and Bangladesh thanks to thesecond green revolution. If worldtrade becomes even more marginal,any advantage those countries gainwill be muted.

High domestic prices also tendto drive up local wages, reducing the

competitiveness of manufactand making rural labor deare by making rice farming a safthe policies blunt entreprenein agriculture too, reducing fincentives to invest in new mand new ways of farming. On balance, therefore, articiallyrice prices make t he new genof seeds aractive, but by lesone might expect.

Land-use policy is equallmessed up. In America and Etechnological change has tendmake farms bigger. The biggeoperation, the greater the gaintechnology. That has not happAsia. In the most productive areas, farms are often smallertwo hectares and, despite ma

migration from the countrysid been geing even smaller dupast three decades. Governmhave intervened to prevent faconsolidation partly because want to slow down urbanizatfearing that it could drive upunemployment in cities. Suchhave only not done considerabharm because of an extraordiproliferation of ecient rentamarkets.

The original g reen revoltransformed Asia from a constalked by hunger into one thcould think and plan beyondnext harvest. It helped lay t hfoundation for the continent’economic miracle and made pAsia’s demographic tran sitiohigh fertility and high mortasmaller, richer families. The sgreen revolution will not do tBut it should complete the rmainly by bringing benets tpoorest, who missed out rst

around. It will help mechanizmove more people o farms more productive labor. And iprevent Asia slipping back unshadow of hunger and all theand social disruptions that sumisery causes. Few other thipromise as much.

This article is reprinted with per from The Economist.

RICE IS the staple food of nearly half the world’s

7.2 billion inhabitants.

SMALL FARM size in much

of Asia has hindered the

adoption of mechanization

and other technologies.

J O S E R A Y M O N D P A N A L I G A N

L A N I E R E Y E S



FIELDS OF PLENTY

Rice Today July-September 2013Rice Today July-September 2013

It’s 2063. Indian farmer Prabhjit Kumar finds herself running a profitable and

environmentally friendly business thanks to rice agricultural research

by Elizabeth Finkel

Adapted from an original article that was published in COSMOS magazine©

Prabhjit woke to the sound of the roosterscrowing, just as her mother, grandmother,and countless generations of women in thestate of Odisha in eastern India had always

done. In the cool morning, she wrapped herself in hergreen and gold sari, washed her face, and braided her hair.Peering into the mirror, she daubed the vermillion bindion her forehead and sat back cr oss-legged to meditate.She concluded by kneeling at the small altar to Parvati, litan incense, and uered a prayer for Grandmother on theanniversary of her death.

But Prabhjit’s next morning ritual was dierent.Moving into the living room, she passed her henna-taooed hand over an image of her daughter. Apoorvadissolved and eight grids sprouted onto the digital screen,decorated by colors every bit as vivid as Prabhjit’s sari.Her practiced eye homed in on the scarlet dots. Thein-eld sensors, siing among the crops like tiny one-eyed metal scarecrows, alerted her to two patches in thenorthwest corner in distress. Then she zoomed out totake in satellite data from the entire area. Some farms hadalready started the harvest. Prabhjit began ruminatingabout the implications. But the sound of an alarm clockpushed them to the back of her mind. Time to get 15-year-old Apoorva ready for school.

It’s 8 a.m. The house is quiet again after the morning bustle. Prabhjit sits in front of her data screen and callsthe foreman, telling him to i ncrease the ow rate in thedrippers for elds NW1 and NW2. She arranges to meethim for an ons ite visit at 11 a.m.

There’s a knock at her door. It’sthe twice-a-month visit from Anil,her “ag-service” provider. She putson a pot of chai and asks aboutAnil’s family before they move onto local gossip. Then she steers theconversation to rice. Who’s plantingwhat and what’s his take on themarket? Anil conrms that somefarmers have started to harvest a bumper crop. But hers needs another

week to reach its peak. With so muchrice, will she still get a good price ina week’s time? Or should she store it?Prabhjit weighs Anil’s opinions, anddecides to silo her harvest and waitfor the price to rise.

It’s 10:30 and time to drive to hermeeting with the foreman. As shecruises down the road, her memory

projects an unbidden image onto thegreen elds. Shin deep in a muddypaddy, Grandmother and Mother(then just a ti ny 12-year-old) are bentover, shuing backwards. Theyare in the Punjab, far from home,laborers on a team of women whoday after day poke rice seedlings intothe mud, heading home weeks later,exhausted.

Another image replaces this

one. Grandmother and Mother aretransplanting rice again but this timein their own paddy. It is a special cropthat will change their future.

Grandmother may not have beenable to read words but she could readthe winds of change. Grandfather hadgone to work in the city years before,leaving her to run the farm. They

could not make ends meet ontiny payment the governmengave them for their ha rvest. Ygovernment was urging farmto plant more rice because thof the Punjab, as everyone knwere running dry. Althoughwas usually blessed with amthere could be drought. Or Both had struck t he year bef

When Grandmother and

transplanted each seedling, teach one tenderly, as if it werof gold. Grandmother had bethe seeds at a village meetinghad been impressed by the egovernment woman in her silk sari who explained that tdeveloped in the Philippinesvery strong. If the oods ca mseedlings would lie dormant burst into growth when the wlowered. The waterproof see by the nickname of “Scuba r

Their eorts paid o. Thayear, oodwaters covered thefor 2 weeks. But, their crop hadrowned! Unlike many in Odthey made a nice prot. Threelater, Grandmother aended meeting. This time the lady inne sari introduced her to twtypes of rice—she said they wthe daughters of Scuba. But thdaughters were smarter than mother. Super Scuba 1

could ood and resist drought. Sup2 could also extract phosphatthe soil so Grandmother wouhave to spend so much on ferThe prot rose steadily each ydecided that, like Super Scubher daughter would be smarther. She used the money, not dowry, but to send her daughagricultural college—her daurst of her family ever to nisschool, was now being sent to

2



Rice Today July-September 2013Rice Today July-September 2013

In Prabhjit’s teens, the winds ofrtune brought more changes. Oneas land reform. A new law allowede formation of small farmingrporations, up to 40 hectares.abhjit’s father took his two hectares

nd joined up withrandmother’s two andey began to rent moreocks. By the time sheaduated from college,was done and Fatheroudly left the runningthe farm to her. Sheok a microcredit loanbuild up the farm tohectares—and took

e wheel.The other revolution was

netically modied (GM) crops.itrogen-xing rice was more miraclean revolution. Like Super Scuba,is was a very, very clever seed. Itd taken nearly 50 years to developa worldwide project funded bye Bill & Melinda Gates FoundationMGF). The rice plants had beennetically engineered to carry the

owerful photosynthetic engine ofcorn (maize) plant, as well as thetrogen-xing genes of a legume,oducing yields that were double the

ze with half the fertilizer.Vegetable seeds improved, too,

ut best of all, farmers could throwway the most toxic pesticides

cause these seeds produced theirwn, borrowed from a harmless

bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis , or BTfor short. These vegetables earned thename “Ganesh” after the elephant-headed son of Shiva who was als othe god of good fortune. Mother saidthey could have had Ganesh seeds

years before but theirrelease had beendelayed. BT coonhad already savedmillions of farmersfrom poisoning andBT pest control spraywas so safe, organicfarmers sprayed the bacterium directly ontheir plants.

Grandmotherpassed away, aged 57, whenPrabhjit was 20. She had witheredfrom backbreaking work and thepesticides—spraying them fromtwo tin cans yoked across her neck, barefoot! She would come back fromthe spraying, sick with headachesand shakes. In her nal years, lyingon the cot, she told Prabhjit her story,and the ending was always the same.Even now Prabhjit could clearly hearGrandmother’s voice: “You will belike the rice grains that grow smarterwith each generation.”

The dream

You might say Prabhjit’s story is adream. And you’d be right. It is thedream of Robert Zeigler, directorgeneral of the International Rice

Research Institute (IRRI), and onethat he has spent the best part of hisworking career trying to turn into areality. Prabhjit’s farming tools a reeither in the development pipeline orhave already emerged.

Scuba, the ood-tolerant riceformally known as Swarna-Sub1, hasalready been released by IRRI. (SeeScuba rice on pages 26-31, Vol. 8, No.2 of Rice Today.)A variety that is bothdrought and ood tolerant, referredto as “Super Scuba 1” in Prabhjit’sstory, is being developed by breedersand is undergoing testing. And, thevariety referred to as “Super Scuba2” that can mine its own phosphatefrom the soil is due for release inthe next few years. It carries a genecalled PSTOL1 , which stands for

phosphorus starvation tolerance. IRRI breeders extracted this gene from atraditional Indian rice variety calledKasalath that performs well in soilswith low phosphate. These new ricevarieties were developed through a20-year process of shuing genesfrom semiwild or traditional varietiesinto modern high-yielding ones byconventional breeding.

The next developments willtake longer. Engineering rice that

is equipped with a corn plant’sphotosynthetic engine is a toughtask. (Corn has a so-called C4 enginethat is about twice as ecient as thephotosynthetic engine of rice.) Itmeans retroing a whole assemblyline of corn genes and redesigningthe infrastructure of the rice plant toaccept it. BMGF and IRRI providedUS$11 million funding for the rst 3years, and, in 2012, the progress was judged promising enough to merit asecond round of $14 million. This time,the UK government, the EuropeanUnion, and CGIAR pitched in.

An equally tough task is to ferrythe genes of a legume into a cerealgrass like rice, allowing the crop tosupply its own nitrogen. This wouldtruly usher in the next Green Revolu-

tion, or rather the “Evergreen Revo-lution.” It could double yields withhalf the fertilizer. In 2012, BMGF alsoannounced it would provide $9.8 mil-lion to the UK’s John Innes Centre totry to entice nitrogen-xing bacteria,normally aracted only to legumes,into cohabiting with cereal crops.

But what’s the chance of success?“Undoubted,” says Dr. Zeigler.“When I proposed the ood- anddrought-tolerant rice project 20 years

ago, I was laughed o the stage. Thetools we have now for geneticallytweaking plants are vastly superior.”

By the time Prabhjit takes thereigns of her father’s farm, GM cropswill have been revolutionized agri-culture. With overwhelming evidencethat GM crops are as safe as conven-tional breeding (established by theEuropean Commission in 2010 after re-viewing 25 years of research from 500independent research groups), farmersand consumers will reap the benets.Not only will these crops raise yields,and require fewer pesticides andless fertilizer, they will also deliverlife-saving vitamins and micronutri-ents. According to the World HealthOrganization, globally, 250 millionpreschoolers are vitamin A decientand up to 500,000 go blind.1 GoldenRice, genetically modied to produce beta carotene, could make a huge dentin this problem. Golden Rice is inthe nal stages of being tested for itssafety and eectiveness.

Prabhjit also relies on the latestin rocket science. The satellite fromwhich she downloads data traces itsorigin to the European Space AgencySentinel satellites, the rst of which isscheduled for launch in 2013. And, itsmicrowave beams penetrate clouds,meaning they can work throughoutthe monsoon season. IRRI is also

developing the software to afarmers like Prabhjit to beneit’s not just helpful to farmerlike these could help preventpanic and food price spikes, Dr. Zeigler. “With time to adshortage, they can import ahtime to avoid a panic.”

Prabhjit’s drippers—tinytubing delivering water andat a slow rate—are not rocketscience, but literally a “grasstechnology developed by theIsraelis. They more than halvrequirements and increase yIsraeli inventor Daniel Hillel2012 World Food Prize for dethem. Besides Israel, the fasteadopters have been China an

In 2063, Prabhjit’s worldhappy place. The Malthusianthat haunted the planet 50 ye before—that the population outgrow its food supply—hato materialize. Let’s hope thadream comes true.

For a nightmare scenario, read abar, The dark side , in Elizabet full article in COSMOS magawww.cosmosmagazine.com/fea elds-of-plenty/).

Ms. Finkel is associate editor ofCOSMOS magazine.

MODERN BREEDING tools allow scietweak rice genes and make it possidevelop high-yielding, stress-toleradisease-resistant varieties.

THE EXPERIMENTAL plot at IRRI whereplant breeders first successfully testedflood-tolerant scuba rice (in full plots).

RELEASED IN 2009, the flood-tolerant, high-yielding Swarna Sub1 has been adopted byfarmers in millions of hectares of flood-proneareas in India.

1 www.who.int/nutrition/topics/vad/en/.

I R R I ( 2 )

“When I proposed the

flood- and drought-tolerant

rice project 20 years ago, I

was laughed off the stage.

The tools we have now for

genetically tweaking plants

are vastly superior.”

4



Rice Today January-March 2008 Rice Today January-March 2008

Bright oranges, rich

yellows, piles of husks in

wheat-colored hues—allmaize, no rice.

This was the scene in late August2007 throughout towns on the

Philippine island of Luzon in theCentral Region, Cagayan Valley, andthe Ilocos Region (see brown-shadedarea of map). Drought hit these areasin July, forcing most rice farmers to

plant maize, vegetables, and otherdry-season crops instead of rice.

Venturing north from its LosBaños headquarters, Rice Today

expected to see parched land studded with dry rice plants, but there werenone. Our rst reaction was relief

for the farmers mixed with fearsthat our attempt to document the

effects of drought would be futile.Fortunately—or unfortunately—afterseveral interviews with farmers andfarm workers, we discovered thatthe absence of dry rice elds was

not because the reports of droughthad been exaggerated, but becausemany farmers had simply ceasedtheir planting operations altogether

due to the absence of rain.“Most of the farmers here did

not plant rice anymore when we

knew there was a drought,” explainsMarlon Ortilla, 34, a rice farmer in

Sinait, Ilocos Sur. “I planted riceseeds on 24 June but was able totransplant the seedlings only on 25

August due to drought. The 2-monthdelay caused yellowing of the rice

seedlings, which is no good.”Like many other rice farmers

in the area, Marlon Cabato, 42,from Amulog, Cagayan, planted

maize instead of rice. “We shouldhave started planting rice inJune,” he laments, “but because

When the Rain

Stopsn August 2007, Rice Today

isited drought-stricken areas

n the northern Philippines

o discover that it takes

more than a dry spell to

dampen farmers’ spirits

ory by Meg Mondoñedo

hotographs by Ariel Javellana

DESPITE ATTEMPTS tothrough cloud seedinthroughout central aLuzon remained bonthe usual planting p

ROLANDO DIEGO, from Allacapan, Cagayan Province,had a very small harvest because of the drought.

A LACK OF RAIN in the northernPhilippines in July and August2007 meant that many farmers’rice fields—such as these in Isa-bela Province—remained empty.

LosBaños(IRRI)

Philippines

Luzon (green)

I l o c o s

C a g a y a n

V a l l e y

Central

6



Rice Today January-March 2008 Rice Today January-March 2008

ere has been no rain, we planted

aize just now [late August]. Myce seedlings are short and small

cause of the lack of water.”“My harvest was very small

cause of the drought,” relatesolando Diego, 52, of Allacapan,

agayan. “Our planting waslayed for 4 months, but I planted

some maize. It hardly rains

here. This October, I’m hopingfor a good harvest, because my

last harvest was in 2006!” According to the Philippine

Department of Agriculture (DA), when the dry spell struck, farmers

had already planted rice on 1.071million hectares of land, with

maize planted on another 288,311

hectares. The DA noted that, of thetotal area planted, 85,741 hectaresof land planted to rice and 128,543hectares of land planted to maize

were affected by the dry spell.

In early August, the DA startedgiving aid to small farmers reelingfrom the dry spell, in efforts to boost

yields and help put agriculturalgrowth on track despite the adverse

climate. Aid provided several meansof assistance including cloud-seeding, shallow tube wells, seeds,and water-impounding projects.

But, for most farmers, help cametoo late to save their crops. “Because of the drought, planting

was delayed for 2 months, and, when we were nally able to plant, atyphoon hit us,” says Angel Parayo,

68, who lives in Candaba, Pampanga.“All my seedlings were submergedin water for 5 days; the seedlingsrecovered but the palay [rice] becamesoft, which could cause losses.”

The weather has meant that,

for many rice farmers, this yearhas been disappointing in termsof harvest and income. This, inturn, had a negative impact on

business in general in this region.“Business is suffering,” says

a gas station owner in Tumawini,Isabela. “All the businesses hereare dependent on farmers’ produce.

Farmers were not able to harvest

much last year due to strongtyphoons; this year, it’s becauthe drought. The farmers havmore money; the money lend

now broke because farmers cpay them. All the farmers hehaving a difcult time. Businis bad because of the drought

With little to look forwar

to, the farmers can only prayfor rain to come. Although thfuture looks bleak, some—suas Rizal Laforga, 44, of Lalo,

Cagayan—are still hopeful.“Because of the drought,

eld just grew weeds and gramy rice plants didn’t g row,” sLaforga. “The tillers became

short; planting was delayed bmonth. We waited for the raicome; we would have startedin June, but there was still noMay, so we were able to plant

in July. Our elds are just rai without rain, our plants will

“It doesn’t help to be sadadds with a smile that belies

fortunes. “We should still smso others won’t notice we aresuffering. There is always ho

LITTLE AND LATE rain meant that instead oftransplanting rice seedlings in late July 2007,farmers had to wait until late August.

ANGEL PARAYO’S rice crop in Candaba, Pampanga,was hit by not only drought but also a typhoon.

RLON ORTILLA from Sinait,cos Sur, had to delay hisnsplanting by 2 months.

INSUFFICENT WATERrice seedlings meantCabato from Amulogplanted maize instea

DESPITE THE POORcropping season,Rizal Laforga of Lalo,Cagayan, remainshopeful.

8




A

s if rice farming weren’thard enough. It ispatently clear now thathumans have goneand made it a whole

lot harder. And, in auel irony, while the rich, developeduntries are the ones that haveoduced most of the greenhouseses that are causing climate change,

will be the poorer countries in theopics—many of them reliant once to keep their populations fromunger—that will be worst affected.

As Earth war ms up, one ofe biggest concerns is the effect agriculture—yet there has

been relatively little researchinvestigating the fundamentalquestion of how humanity willfeed itself in a changed climate.How will higher temperatures and

the attendant increased incidenceof extreme weather such asdroughts, storms, and oods affectagricultural production? What arethe implications for feeding the

world’s burgeoning population,especially the billions of poor whorely on small-scale and subsistencefarming? And, of course, what

can we do to lessen the impact?To start answering these

questions, Rice Today spoke to

Reiner Wassmann, InternationalRice Research Institute (IRRI)senior climate scientist andcoordinator of the IRRI-led Riceand Climate Change Consortium.

Dr. Wassmann is seconded toIRRI from the Research CenterKarlsruhe (IMK-IFU) in Germany.

What is IRRI’s past record on

climate change research and

what are the current activities?

IRRI has a long history of studyingthe effect of climate on rice. The

rst experiment on temperatureeffects on rice was conducted in1961, one year after IRRI’s inception.

Remarkably, the rst work on highcarbon dioxide (CO2) concentrationsaffecting rice plants was performedin 1971, long before the issue ofclimate change became known to

a broader audience. Likewise, therst workshop dealing with climateand rice dates back to 1974.

In 1991, IRRI started researchexplicitly examining climate change

impacts, namely, a project funded by the United States EnvironmentalProtection Agency (U.S.-EPA),titled Effects of UV-B and Global

Climate Change on Rice, whichused open-top chambers to studyincreased CO2 and temperatures and

included a modeling component.More recently, IRRI has dealt withtemperature effects on rice yields inseveral research activities, includingmodeling work and analysis of high

night-time temperature effects.In 2007, IRRI established the

Rice and Climate Change Consortiumto assess direct and indirectconsequences for rice production, to

develop strategies and technologiesto adapt rice to changing climate,and to explore crop managementpractices that reduce greenhouse gas

emissions under intensive production.In the initial phase, our focus

is on improved resilience of the rice

crop to heat stress. To attain goal, we are pooling some of research thrusts—plant breeplant physiology, for example

we will add new tools for scr

and impact assessment. Morare now establishing monitorto test the effects of emergingmanagement trends (diversifrom rice-rice to rice-maize s

for example) that will alter cr budgets of carbon and nitrogand thus signicantly attempreduce greenhouse gas emiss

Data gathered from these site will be used to develop predimodels and guide future rese

Climate change threatens to affect rice production

across the globe. What is known about the likely

impact, and what can be done about it? FLOODED RIC

this one at the Rice Researc

the Philipsignificant amgreenhouse

0




o higher temperatures and

O2 levels affect rice yields?

verall, much uncertainty stillists about the true direction of the

mpact of CO2 and temperature once yields. In the open-top chamberperiment at IRRI in the early90s, rice was grown at ambient andevated (doubled) concentrations of

mospheric CO2. Plants were alsoown at ambient and elevated (plus°C) air temperature to study theteractive effects of elevated CO2 and

mperature on growth and yield.Over the 2 years of the study, the

evated CO2 + ambient temperatureeatment increased total biomass

40% and yields by 27% over

ose achieved under ambientO2 and temperature. Under thegh air temperature treatment,

wever, this stimulation decreased.ompared with ambient conditions,

e combination of increased CO2 d increased temperature resulteda small increase in biomassd yield in the dry season and a

mall decrease in the wet season.The results of these studies are

line with so-called Free-Air CO2 nrichment (FACE) experimentsamining the effect of increased

O2 on rice. FACE experimentsow researchers to increase CO2 ncentrations in the eld—asposed to in greenhouses orambers—and so offer a more

alistic assessment of the effectplants. On the other hand,

there is no FACE system in tropicalcountries, so all our knowledgecomes from a limited number

of small-chamber studies.IRRI crop modeler John Sheehy

determined that, as a general rule,for every 75 ppm increase in CO2 concentration, rice yields will

increase by 0.5 ton per hectare, but yield will decrease by 0.6 tonper hectare for every 1 °C increasein temperature. However, nobodyhas studied the interactions

between CO2 and temperatureunder controlled, realistic eld

conditions. The technology todo this is now available, and, iffunding can be found, IRRI hopes

to develop an experimental systemin which both CO2 and temperaturecan be controlled in rice elds.

Will climate change result in

higher or lower rice production?

One component of t he U.S.-EPAproject dealt with modeling climatechange impacts on rice production.In a comparative approach, climate

data from three general circulationmodels (GCMs; a class of computermodels used for understanding theglobal climate and projecting climate

change) were coupled with crop yieldmodels. The bottom line of this study

was that the global yield forecastlargely depended on the GCM used;one GCM resulted in a predicted

net increase in rice yields (plus4–7%) while two GCMs predictednet decreases (minus 4–13%).Moreover, the range of differentclimate change scenarios effectively

dees a straightforward, single-gure prediction of future yields.

Uncertainty about global impactis caused by both GCMs and the crop

simulation models used for suchglobal predictions. In particular,

we lack a good understanding of

S POPULATIONS GROW, agriculture faces increasing competitionrom the urban and industrial sectors for water and land. Climatehange, which is expected to alter the timing and location ofainfall, is likely to compound this problem.

OPEN-TOP chambers wereused in an IRRI study in theearly 1990s to investigatethe effect of increased CO2 and temperature on rice.

2 Rice Today July-September 2007

the complex interactions of CO2 and temperature effects at theprocess level of plant physiology and

development. Likewise, the combinedeffect of temperature and humidity isnot taken into account in the availablecrop models. All in all, there is muchscope and much need to improve

these models and also incorporatemechanisms that will allow us tomore reliably explore ways to adapt toclimate change, through, for example,genetic improvement of specic

traits or shifting crop management.

How will climate change

affect rice grain quality?

The quality and characteristics ofthe rice grain itself are likely to

become one of the key parameters fordetermining the impact of climatechange. The trends for grain quality

take directions similar to those for thequantity of rice produced. In a studyconducted by Ph.D. student Rachelle

Ward, under the supervision of IRRIcereal chemist Melissa Fitzgerald,

elevated CO2 decreased chalk content. As high chalk content is generallyan undesirable trait, this meantthat grain quality was improved

by increasing the proportion ofmarketable grains. Despite this, themost damaging effects of climate

change on rice quality will occur fromhigher temperatures, which will affectseveral quality traits, including chalk,amylose content, and gelatinization

temperature. The positive effects ofelevated CO2 do not compensate forthe overall decrease in rice qualityfrom the effects of global warming.

How will we ensure enough rice

production in the future?

There is a lot of genetic variationacross varieties of both cultivated

rice (Oryza sativa) and its wildrelatives. We are therefore optimisticthat IRRI will be able to developnew varieties that can cope withhigher temperatures. Scientists are

also condent that the resilienceof rice production systems toclimate extremes, such as oods

and droughts, can be improved within certain bounda ries.

While IRRI sees plant breedingat the heart of improvements inrice production, the efciencyof adaptive measures can be

increased signicantly byother efforts, including

• Molecular marker techniques tospeed up the breeding process;

• Geographic analysis of

vulnerable regions (where therice crop is already experiencingcritical temperature levels);

• Regional climate modelingto identify future “tilting

points” of rice production(temperatures or CO2 levels above

which major yield lossesexperienced, for example

•

Site-specic adjustment

management (shifting pldates and improved watemanagement, for examp

At the same time, the enadaptation of rice production

to climate change will requirsubstantial funds to supportand concerted efforts by nati

international research instituClimate change has recently

enormous attention in the mand in policy statements, suc

Stern Review on the economclimate change—which inclu

section on rice contributed band the Intergovernmental Pon Climate Change 4th Asse

Report . All of these have idenadaptation of the agricultura

sector as the key to limitingdamage. Despite this unanimassessment of the importancresearch on adapting agriculto climate change, adequate

funding has yet to materializ

CLIMATE SCIENTIST Reiner Wassmannis researching the impact of climatechange on rice, as well as the impactof rice on climate change.

AS THE WORLD warms up, sea levelrise, causing major problems in lorice-growing areas.

continued on p

ARIEL JAVELLANA (3)

I R R I



Although rice production will be affectedby climate change, rice farming also hasthe capacity to amplify the problem.

cause much rice is grown in flooded fieldsder anaerobic (oxygen-depleted) conditions,s likely to contribute to global warming morean any other crop. The chemistry of floodede soils means that they release significantounts of methane (CH4)—a greenhouse gasout 20 times more potent than carbon dioxideO2), and which accounts for a fifth of the globalmosphere’s warming potential.Methane is the final product of the microbialeakdown of organic matter. In rice soils, theurce of organic material can be residues ofe preceding rice crop, root secretions frome growing crop, or manure applied as fertilizer.e significance of rice production as a cause ofing CH4 levels in the atmosphere over the lastntury was recently re-emphasized in a report bye Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,ich was released in May 2007.

However, some ways of managing riceproduction help reduce CH4 emissions. YasukazuHosen, a soil scientist seconded to theInternational Rice Research Institute fromthe Japan International Research Center forAgricultural Sciences, is leading a project todevelop crop management strategies thatincrease the efficiency of water use and thereforereduce the amount of water required, withoutsacrificing yield. In principle, such a strategycan significantly cut CH4 emissions.

Dr. Hosen and his team are assessing theenvironmental impact of existing water-savingtechnologies such as alternate wetting anddrying irrigation and aerobic rice (a productionsystem in which specially developed, high-yielding varieties are grown in well-drained,

Goodbye gas

nonpuddled, and nonsaturated soils). The team’snext step is to analyze the effect on greenhousegas emissions of the timing of various aspectsof crop management, such as ni trogen fertilizerapplication, irrigation, and incorporation of cropresidue into the soil during the fallow period. Bygrowing the rice in specially designed chambers(see photos, above), the team can capture andmeasure gases emitted by the rice plant and itsfield soil.

Although alternate wetting and drying has thepotential to reduce methane emissions from ricefields, it is likely to result in increased nitrousoxide (N2O) emissions. N2O, also a greenhousegas, is more than 300 times as potent as CO 2.The trick is to find a way to minimize theenvironmentally negative effects and maximizethe positive results.

Dr. Hosen and his team developed severalother hypotheses, including1. N2O emissions can be mitigated using

an appropriate combination of nitrogenapplication and irrigation timing.

2. When crop residue is incorporated into thesoil early in the fallow period, it decomposesfaster than when it is simply scattered onthe soil surface. This causes higher CO 2 emissions during the fallow period, but lowerCH4 emissions during the following croppingperiod. Thus, the global-warming impact ofrice farming can be reduced with earlier cropresidue incorporation.Dr. Hosen cautions that it is premature to

make any solid conclusions, but early resultsare promising, with preliminary data indicatingmuch lower CH4 emissions but significant N2Oemissions under alternate wetting and drying.At the time Rice Today went to press, the fieldexperiment was continuing, and a pot experiment(see photos, left ) had been established to setguidelines for also reducing N2O emissions.


What’s really going to happen?

The impact of climate change onrice yields will depend on the actualpatterns of change in rice-growingregions. Both higher maximum and

higher minimum temperatures candecrease rice yields due to spikeletsterility and higher respirationlosses, respectively (respiration isthe process by which cells or tissues

obtain oxygen and so generate energyfor their growth and maintenance).However, these productionlosses may be averted or at least

mitigated through the concertedefforts of agricultural researchand policies aiming to improverice varieties and accompanyingmanagement strategies.

At the same time, rice pro ductionmay be threatened in some especially

vulnerable regions, such as thoseaffected by a rise in sea-levels.Some of Asia’s most important

rice growing areas are located inlow lying deltas, which play a vitalrole in regional food security andsupplying export markets. It is

unclear to what extent the impact ofhigher sea levels can be compensatedfor by improved water control and

what the costs and socioe conomicconsequences of these changes are.

However, what is clear is thatthe risks stemming from a sea-levelrise—which is projected in the range

of 10–85 centimeters over thcentury depending on the cliscenario used—are enormoussome countries. IRRI geograRobert Hijmans has construc

a map of Vietnam displayingrice area that is below 1 mete

between 1 and 5 meters abovlevel, respectively (see map, l

With Vietnam so dependent

rice grown in and around lowriver deltas, the implicationssea-level rise are ominous indThe Rice and Climate Change

Consortium is currently coop with the Southern Institute fo Water Resources Planning inMinh City, Vietnam, on an imassessment of different sea-le

rise scenarios on hydrologicaconditions in the Mekong De

the rice “granary” of VietnamMoreover, climate extrem

such as more frequent or mo

intense droughts, cyclones, a waves pose incalculable threato agricultural production. Gthe signicance of rice as a st

crop, IRRI will strive to incoa range of “defensive traits” imodern rice varieties and to icrop management to developresilient rice production syst

VIETNAM’S RICE industry depends heavily on low-lying farm areas in the Mekong and Red River deltas.Relatively small increases in sea level could havedisastrous consequences.

represents 10,000hectares plantedwith rice

Each dot

Vietnam

AN AERIAL VIEW of IRRI'sopen-top chamber experimentin the early 1990s.

Red River Delta

MekongDelta

Below 1 m

1–5 m

Elevation




can add as much as half ton to oneton increase in yield.”

Thus, in 2011, Dr. Singh starteda project, funded by the EuropeanCommission (EC) through theInternational Fund for AgriculturalDevelopment (IFAD), whichfocuses on promoting appropriatemanagement technologies tocomplement climate-smart ricevarieties.

“These technologies will furtherimprove the productivity of ood-prone and salt-aected rainfedlowland areas in South Asia, makerice production stable, and willincrease the income of resource-poorfarmers,” he said.

Changing a villageWith this goal in mind, Dr. Singh’steam from IRRI and partners fromAssociation for India’s Development,headed by Dr. J. K. Roy, nodalscientist of the project, visitedArapada village during the kharif(wet season) of 2012, to introduceimproved nursery managementpractices for Swarna-Sub1.

Although the farmers usenitrogen and phosphorus fertilizersin seed beds, they also had a fewmisconceptions about fertilizing. Theydidn’t use potassium because they believed that potash can make theroots of the seedlings grow so muchthat it will be dicult for contractedlaborers to uproot them duringtransplanting. The farmers were afraidthat this will increase the labor cost.

The demonstration plots showingthe proper use of fertilizer, however,convinced the farmers to adopt theprogram and start applying fertilizerat the recommended rate of 45-45-45 kg NPK per hectare in their seed

beds.That year their yield increased.

The farmers who adopted the nurserymanagement had an average yieldof 5.6 tons per hectare. Mr. Swain,himself, harvested 7.5 tons perhectare.

In his local Odiya language, Mr.Swain raved about the importance ofhaving healthy seedlings. He testiedhow changing his crop managementstyle a lile bit had given him more

yield from his Swarna-Sub1, a ood-tolerant rice variety.

“Seven and a half tons,” he s aidhappily. “I was able to harvest 7.5tons per hectare from my Swarna-Sub1.”

“Learning about beer seedbedmanagement and proper use of NPKdosage has helped me grow healthyand robust seedlings,” said Mr. Swainas he explained why he harvesteda bumper crop that year. “My cropgrew properly, the g rains wereheavy.”

Speaking for his fellow farmersin the community, he said that, theywould continue to grow Swarna-Sub1and would continue to practice whatthey’ve learned from the project teamon how to raise healthy seedlings ofood-tolerant varieties.

Partnerships that work“This is just one of the interventionsamong many,” said Corinta Guerta,the director for external relationsat IRRI. “The plan is to developsuitable crop management optionsfor climate-smart rice and exploittheir maximum potential under stress

conditions. And, we are doing itwith the farmers at the center of seedproduction and delivery system.

“We are able to accomplish these because of IRRI’s strong relationshipwith donors such as the EC throughIFAD that started in 1978,” sheadded. “It is a relationship that hasa common denominator of helpingAsia’s poorest farmers.”

“As we worked with the farmersthrough this project, we came to

understand more what their are in stress-prone environmthe technologies that were deare tailor-made to their specineeds,” said Dr. Singh.

“Through this project altotal of 14.6 tons seeds of climsmart rice varieties were distdirectly to 3,340 farmers,” saSingh. But, it did not end the beauty of the project is that ithan just giving seeds to farmincluded with the seed mini-illustrated brochures to introtechnologies on how to cultivclimate-smart rice.

And under the IRRI-led GRice Science Partnership (GRseveral farmer training activiwere organized through collations with projects such as STEC-IFAD, IRRI, and India’s NFood Security Management (NFSM), among others, in whisenior technical experts fromagricultural research and extsystems (NARES), NGOs, anddelivered lectures on variousment aspects of climate-smar

“More importantly, the k

gained from this project is alswith other project teams withgoals of helping the smallholdfarmers in rainfed South AsiaSingh said. “As a result, our Npartners and local communitmore access to relevant informand suitable technologies.”

Ms. Reyes is the managing editToday.

SUNHANSHU SINGH (left ) and his team are helping farmers in a flood-pronearea. The background shows fields planted to Swarna, a flood susceptiblevariety, after 10 days of complete submergence.


Sri Premananda Swain, a farmerfrom Arapada village, BalipatnaBlock, Khurda District inOdisha, did not mind that it had

ined for a short while earlier thaty. Long ago, rain bothered him at; he knew that if rain continues toour a lile harder and for a longerme, it means disaster. Floods coulding all his eorts to nothing whens rice crop is under water. The

llage has around 40 householdsd most of them, like Mr. Swain,e small and marginal farmers, whopend mainly on farming rice aseir main crop. But ooding is sommon in his village because it iscated near the river Dhanua.

In India, about 5.36 millionctares are ood-prone. In South

sia, it is about 12 million hectares.fact, almost half of South Asia rainfed and is prone to climate

change-related problems such asooding, salinity, and drought.

Fragile lands“Rainfed,” Sudhanshu Singh,scientist at the international RiceResearch Institute (IRRI), stressedthe word. The gloom in his voice became obvious as he recited a litanyof words usually associated withrainfed.

“Low and fragile productivity;marginal and small landholdings;poor farmers; lile use of inputs;more dependence on traditionalvarieties; less availability of qualityinputs, including seed; poor extensionnetwork; and slow adoption anddiusion of new technologies,” hesaid.

These are the reasons why mostof these areas were left uncultivatedand unproductive. But Dr. Singh

believes that well-planned actionsand increased eorts are crucial inovercoming the constraints in theseenvironments.

Climate-smart rice varietiesdeveloped at IRRI a nd multipliedand distributed under the Stress-Tolerant Rice for Africa and SouthAsia (STRASA), are already creating amajor impact and have improved thelives of 10 million farmers in South

Asia and Africa.

Room for growthThe usual yield of climate-smart r icesuch as Swarna-Sub1 is generallyaround 5 tons per hectare accordingto Dr. Singh.

“This is already a one-half to oneton yield advantage over traditionalvarieties under normal conditions,meaning no ood,” he said. “Butimproved crop management practices

Lanie C. Reyes

side from receiving seeds of climate-smart rice,

rmers in Odisha, India also learn how to grow them

roperly and maximize their potential yield

DHANSHU SINGH (in checkered shirt)ks with the farmers in a village insha to monitor the performance ofod-tolerant Swarna-Sub1 (background)er it went through a flood. I R

R I ( 2 )

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