Ripple January-March 2008

RIPPLE is produced by the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC) with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). The IRRC promotes international links among scientists, managers, communicators, and farmers in lowland irrigated rice environments.

April 2006, Vol. 1, No. 2

www.irri.org/irrc/

Irrigated Rice Research Consortium Rice Research for Intensifi ed Production and Prosperity in Lowland Ecosystems

January-March 2008, Vol. 3, No. 1

International Rice Research Institute

> continued on page 2

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)

In this issue…Ripples of change .......... 2IRRC scientists bag awards

in late 2007Third IRRC Steering

Committee Meeting a success!

Aerobic rice scientists gather in China

Back-to-back weeds and statistics training held in Myanmar

Water management training begins in BRRI

Waves of action ....................6Easing the plight of the

hungry in Bangladesh Voices for change: involv-

ing farmers in IRRC research

IRRC Phase 3 reviewed

Research streams ..................9Measuring SSNM impact

in the Red River Delta

Profiles ..................................... 10A person with a purposeAdding a human side to

rice research

Publications and ................. 12upcoming events

It’s not only global warming and typhoons that grabbed the headlines

last year. News about the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC) managed to penetrate not only its network of partners from different countries and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) community but also the world.

RIPPLE articles have been picked up by the media.

A recent milestone was in October 2007, when IRRC was featured in Academic Freedom: A Culture Under Siege in Science, 12 October 2007, Vol. 318, p 184-187. The author, Richard Stone, read A rewarding 2006 for IRRC in Myanmar from RIPPLE’s April-June 2007 issue and became interested in including IRRC as one of the few foreign collabora-tors of the country. Here are

excerpts from the article:

“Yet there are a few bright spots in the landscape. Over the past 2 years, for example, the International Rice Research Institute’s Irrigated Rice Research Con-sortium has run workshops and training in Myanmar on topics such as integrated weed control, nutrient management,

A prosperous

New Year to all

from the IRRC!

THE ROYAL TREATMENT: The majestic Shwedagon Pagoda is located in Yangon, Myanmar, a country where the IRRC has been conducting training and workshops in the past year. The IRRC was featured recently in Science magazine, 12 October 2007, Vol. 318, as one of the few foreign collaborators of Myanmar. (Photo by A. Malabayabas)

The science of IRRC appears in Science

2Ripple January-March 2008

The science ... from page 1

IRRC scientists bag awards in late 2007

and laser land leveling. ‘There is a great need to support the livelihoods of the poor farmers and to strengthen scientifi c capacity,’ says Grant Singleton, the consortium’s coordinator. These efforts will continue in 2008, he says.”

News of the 3rd Steer-ing Committee meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam, was also featured on several Web sites, such as those of the Science Daily, Biology News Net, Horizon Solutions, and The Hindu Online. The UK-pro-duced magazine Far Eastern Agriculture ran an article on IRRC technologies.

Local newspapers and television programs have also captured IRRC’s activities in the past year. Take, for example, a feature on IRRC Labor Productivity Work Group (LPWG) collaborator

Dr. Pratibha Singh and agri-cultural economist Arelene Malabayabas in a local Indian newspaper in February 2007.

IRRC activities are also regularly featured in The Agri-Business News, a weekly paper in Myanmar with 20,000 readers. In December 2006, the paper highlighted postharvest activities in the country. In February 2007, LPWG weed scientist Joel Janiya was shown conducting a weed management training course with Myanma Agri-culture Service staff and the private sector. Mr. Janiya was also interviewed in August 2006 in Agritalk, a local TV program of Central Philippine University in Iloilo, Philip-pines. He discussed the grow-ing problem of weedy rice in Iloilo and introduced IRRC’s weedy rice brochure. LPWG partner Dr. M.A. Mazid of the Bangladesh Rice Re-

search Institute has also been interviewed many times on different local TV channels and in newspapers regarding his work on early-maturing varieties and direct seeding, a joint effort with the IRRC.

IRRC was also in several of our partners’ publications. Postharvest activities made waves in CGIAR’s e-newslet-ter in March 2007. The aerobic rice cover story in RIPPLE’s July-September 2007 issue found its way into the Challenge Program for Food and Water’s newsletter. And SSNM and IRRC news are often included in the newsletter of the International Plant Nutrition Institute’s Southeast Asia Program, a partner of the Productivity and Sustainability Work Group.

Communication plays a crucial role in IRRC’s aim to achieve impact. The past

year’s response from partners and media was rewarding, but this does not mean that the IRRC will rest on its laurels. In fact, the positive feedback drives us to think of more innovative ways to reach our target audiences more effectively. Part of IRRC’s communication plan this year is to package knowledge-intensive technologies into simple forms that can be used by farmers in making deci-sions about their crops. IRRC will continue to develop information materials on rice production technologies and facilitate research-extension partnerships through good communication with national collaborators to ultimately promote sustainable, benefi t-enhancing technologies for poor farmers in Asia.

Trina Leah Mendoza (t.mendoza@cgiar.org)

For his leadership in formulating and disseminating

improved practices of site-specifi c nutrient management (SSNM) through partnerships with national research and extension organizations and the private sector in Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Vietnam, Dr. Roland Buresh of the IRRC Productivity and Sustainability Work Group was awarded the 2007 International Soil Science Award by the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) at its annual meeting on 2-5 November 2007 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.

This prestigious award is given annually in recogni-tion of outstanding achieve-

ment and service in the areas of international agricultural research, teaching, and extension.

On 2-5 September 2007, Dr. David Johnson and Dr. Azmi bin Man won a gold medal during the science and technology exhibition of the Malaysian Agricultural Re-search and Development Insti-tute in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. The medal was for their poster on effective weed man-agement through appropriate rice establishment techniques and a presentation in Penang based on separate leafl ets on weedy rice and the drum seeder. The exhibit can now be seen in Kuala Lumpur.

Dr. Grant Singleton, IRRC coordinator, received a medal of recognition for his many contributions to rice

research in Vietnam, along with Drs. Robert Zeigler, Abdelbagi Ismail, Darshan Brar, Il-Ryong Choi, and T.P. Tuong from the International Rice Research Institute. They received their awards during

the 11th Annual Meeting of the Council for Partnerships on Rice Research in Asia on 4-6 September 2007 at the Institute of Agricultural Sciences for Southern Viet-nam in Ho Chi Minh City.

Dr. Buresh receives his award from Iajuddin Ahmed (left), president of Bangladesh, and Rattan Lal (right), president of the Soil Science Society of America.

3Ripple January-March 2008

Ripples of change

3rd IRRC Steering Committee Meeting a success!

His Excellency Dr. Dao Xuan Hoc, vice minister of

the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), Vietnam, said that the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC) will continue to be an important partner of MARD for many years to come. He emphasized this in his welcome speech during the 3rd Steering Committee Meeting of the IRRC in Hanoi, Vietnam, on 8-10 October 2007. The meeting was organized by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the Vietnamese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (VAAS), which has been a dedicated partner of the IRRC for the last 10 years.

Dr. Dao offi cially welcomed the 66 partici-pants from 13 countries who graced the opening session. He was greatly appreciative of the important contribu-tions of IRRI, particularly the IRRC, to Vietnamese rice production and rural devel-opment. He mentioned that Vietnam is looking forward to strengthening its col-laborative relationship with IRRC scientists to assist the country in tackling emerging issues that need a sustained investment in research on natural resource management of rice production systems. Methods are also needed to deliver the outputs of this research in a timely man-ner to smallholder farmers.

Dr. Nguyen Van Bo, VAAS president, extended warm greetings from VAAS to all the participants, especially those who were in Vietnam for the fi rst time. He

was happy that Vietnam was chosen as one of the key partners of the IRRC since the fi rst phase. Research results from IRRC have contributed greatly to rice production and rice-based cropping systems in Vietnam, and the Vietnamese govern-ment and MARD are deeply grateful for these contribu-tions. Dr. Bo said that this meeting was an excellent chance to share experiences among key rice scientists of Asia, especially from well-known rice-producing countries, to overcome diffi culties in rice production.

The distinguished guests included Dr. Walter Meyer (head of East Asia Division, Swiss Agency for Develop-ment and Cooperation [SDC], Switzerland), Dr. Michel Evequoz (SDC Hanoi), Mr. Geoff Morris (ACIAR country manager, Vietnam), Dr. Christian Witt (direc-tor, Southeast Asia Program, International Plant Nutri-tion Institute, Singapore), and Dr. T.P. Tuong (deputy director general of IRRI).

Ms. Karen Eloisa Bar-

roga of the Philippine Rice Research Institute was elected as the new SC chair for 2008. Other committee members who attended were Dr. Hasil Sembiring (director, Indonesian Center for Rice Research [ICRR]), Dr. Dai Xiaofeng (deputy director general, Department of Sci-entifi c Management, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences), Dr. Mata Prasad Pandey (director, Central Rice Research Institute, India), U Than Aye (deputy director general, Department of Agricultural Planning, Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, Myanmar), Dr. Achim Dobermann (IRRI representative and Program 2 leader), Dr. Nguyen Van Bo, and Dr. Carmen Thön-nissen (SDC representative).

Representatives also came from collaborating institutions: Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, Cambo-dian Agricultural Research and Development Institute, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Punjab Agricultural Uni-versity, Indian Agricultural

Research Institute, Indone-sian Center for Food Crops Research and Development, ICRR, Indonesian Center for Agricultural Technology As-sessment and Development, Indonesian Ministry of Agri-culture, VAAS, MARD, and Thailand Rice Department.

The SC meeting coin-cided with the start of a 2-week external review of the IRRC (see page 8 for more on the review).

External reviewers Dr. Ian Willett, Dr. John Angus, Mr. Edmund Sana, and Dr. Benchaphun Ekasingh attended the SC meeting, which concluded with a fi eld trip to meet with local collaborators in Ha Nam Province.

A workshop/conference to capture the learning from various countries on the research-to-impact pathway for natural resource man-agement in lowland rice is planned for October 2008 in the Philippines, as well as a fi nal SC meeting for phase 3.

Ma. Angeles Quilloy (m.a.quilloy@cgiar.org) and

Trina Mendoza

Photo by J. Hernandez

4Ripple January-March 2008

Aerobic rice scientists gather in China

More than 70 scientists shared their knowledge

and experiences in aerobic rice development at the International Workshop on Aerobic Rice in Beijing, China, on 22-24 October 2007. Participants from the Philippines, India, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Colombia, The Netherlands, the United States, and China also identifi ed new priorities for aerobic rice research.

Co-organized by Drs. Wang Huaqi of the China Ag-ricultural University (CAU) and Bas Bouman of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the work-shop was a joint undertaking of the Water-Saving Work Group of the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC) and the project “Developing a System of Temperate and Tropical Aerobic Rice (STAR) in Asia” of the CGIAR Chal-lenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF). The workshop brought together breeders and scientists who are working on the development and dissemi-nation of aerobic rice in Asia.

Top Chinese offi cials from the Ministry of Agri-culture, Ministry of Education, Natural Science Founda-tion, and CAU delivered warm welcome addresses. IRRC coordinator Grant Singleton and Liz Humphreys, leader of the CPWF-Crop Water Productivity Theme, also gave welcome speeches.

During the workshop, scientists and students doing work on aerobic rice dis-cussed their fi ndings from the past 5 years. A range of research studies, including varietal development, water management, crop and nutri-ent management, mapping of yield potentials, sustainabil-ity, socioeconomics, adoption, and impact, was presented. The fi ndings showed the potential of aerobic rice in the experiment stations and farmers’ fi elds and high-lighted emerging issues for future research. An initial regional analysis even sug-gested that there is a relatively

large area with potential for aerobic rice in Asia, Africa, and South America. Results from farm surveys in Asia showed average aerobic rice yields to be lower than those of lowland varieties. The net returns, however, have no signifi cant difference because input costs for aerobic rice are low. Although aerobic rice was found to be a profi t-able substitute for crops such as maize and soybean, its performance can have large variability, with cases of yield failure and yield decline. While these cases have been

studied, more research has to be done before these can be effectively addressed.

A student poster competi-tion was also one of the highlights of the conference. Three students, Xue Chanying, Wei Fengtong, and Zhang Tianyi, were given the Best Poster Awards. The workshop provided a venue where scientists working on the development and dissemi-nation of aerobic rice could meet, discuss, and open possible linkages in research.

Ruben Lampayan (r.lampayan@cgiar.org) and

Rica Joy Flor (r.fl or@cgiar.org)

Dr. Christine Kreye, IRRI agronomist, presents her collaborative research on soil health problems in tropical aerobic rice, citing two case studies from the Philippines. Two potential constraints are soil-borne pests and diseases and micronutrient defi ciencies. Aerobic rice is less developed in tropical countries in terms of high-yielding varieties and management options. (Photo by R. Bayot)

5Ripple January-March 2008

Water management training begins at BRRI

Back-to-back weeds and statistics training held in Myanmar

A 3-day training program on integrated fi eld

water management for fi eld-level offi cers of different organizations began at the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) on 26 August 2007 in Gazipur.

BRRI organized the program in collaboration with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

BRRI Director General Md. Nur-E-Elahi was present in the inaugural program as the chief guest, while IRRI Representative in Bangla-desh M. Zainul Abedin and IRRI Liaison Scientist M.A. Hamid Miah were present as special guests.

BRRI Director (Admin) B.A.A. Mustari and heads of research divisions of the institute were present, among others, on the occasion.

BRRI Head of Irrigation and Water Management Divi-sion M.A. Sattar said Bangla-desh can cut almost half of its irrigation costs by adopting integrated fi eld water manage-ment technologies, including the alternate wetting and dry-ing method in rice cultivation.

He also mentioned that China, the Philippines, Viet-nam, Indonesia, and India have already applied the method successfully in their rice fi elds, saving a lot of fuel, water, labor, and money.

A total of 30 offi cials from different government and nongovernment orga-nizations including IRRI, BRRI, BADC, BARD, DAE, BMDA, BRAC, CEGIS, and FoSHol participated in the training program.

From The Financial Ex-press, 27 August 2007

As a continuing effort of the Irrigated Rice Research

Consortium’s (IRRC) country outreach program on capacity building, training courses on integrated weed management (5-7 November 2007) and basic experimental design and data analysis using CropStat (8-12 November 2007) were conducted at the Central Agricultural Research and Training Center, Myanma Agriculture Service, Hlegu, Yangon. IRRC Labor Productivity Work Group

weed scientist Joel Janiya conducted the course on weed management and Violeta Bartolome of the Crop Research and Informatics Laboratory of IRRI handled the statistics training, assisted by Mr. Janiya. A total of 42 trainees attended both courses (21 participants for each training course).

The integrated weed management course included topics such as crop establish-ment methods; introduction to weed management; weed pop-ulation dynamics and surviv-

al; nonchemical and chemical weed control methods; weed collection, identifi cation, and herbarium preparation; plan-ning a weed control trial in rice; and herbicide calculation and sprayer calibration. The course also included practical exercises on weed sampling and identifi cation and sprayer calibration. After a discussion of individual components of weed management, practical exercises on the integration of the various components were done using situational weed problems in the respective townships of the participants.

The statistics course was designed to acquaint research-ers with principles of experi-mental design, basic experi-mental designs used in rice research, analysis of variance and regression, and correla-tion analysis. The training also introduced CropStat, a microcomputer-based statisti-cal package that facilitates analysis of experimental data.

The course included practical exercises on steps in scientifi c research, data man-agement, and data analysis.

Story and photos by Joel Janiya (j.janiya@cgiar.org)

Participants try to identify and rate weeds in the fi eld.

Researchers familiarize themselves with experimental designs used in rice research.

6Ripple January-March 2008

Easing the plight of the hungry in Bangladesh

The travel from Dhaka to Rangpur in Bangladesh takes

about 7 hours by a road that gradually gets rougher as you approach your destination. In the course of that long journey, you get a feel for the exotic nation that is Bangladesh. As you leave the crowded urban streets of Dhaka, you are greeted with shocking images of makeshift tents in between trees and on the ground, just along the highway. Nearing Rangpur, there are whole communities made of tin houses. And in villages in Nilphamari and Kurigram, families live in thatch huts, most of them without electricity or plumbing. These are the homes of Bangladesh’s many poor people. About 20% of the population in Bangladesh —more than 20 million ultra-poor people—suffers from severe hunger each year.

Life gets harder though for the rural poor in north-west Bangladesh from late September to mid-November, because they face a yearly famine called monga. During these months, many cannot

afford to eat three times a day, often even struggling to have one decent meal. The hardship at this time of the year is because most of the people who rely on farm-work in the greater Rangpur districts are jobless, waiting for the harvest of transplanted rice in December. By the time the monga season comes, they have consumed all of their stored food and do not have any opportunities for work.

Most of the men migrate to cities to fi nd work such as pulling rickshaws and trans-porting bananas and logs, but these prospects are few and they also offer low wages. Oftentimes, families buy live-stock and poultry before the monga comes and sell them during these trying months. Even 8- to 12-year-old chil-dren are sent to work for land-owners. Boys receive about US$28 and food for a year in exchange for hard labor in the fi elds. The girls, who are allowed to do only household chores, are given only food.

It does not help that northwest Bangladesh is transected by 21 rivers that regularly change course and

leave thousands of fami-lies homeless. Floods usu-ally arrive in August and September, just before the monga season. The plight of the people, often already sick with diarrhea and other illnesses, is worsened due to starvation during monga.

To help ease the hardship during monga and improve farm productivity, the Irrigat-ed Rice Research Consortium (IRRC), Bangladesh Rice Re-search Institute (BRRI), and local nongovernment organi-zations (NGOs) have teamed up to develop the means for earlier harvests through shorter-duration rice varieties combined with direct seed-ing of rice (DSR) and weed control options. Dr. David Johnson of the IRRC Labor Productivity Work Group and Dr. M.A. Mazid, head of the BRRI Rangpur station, have been working closely with farmers to test the potential of DSR as an alternative to transplanted rice in different cropping systems. DSR allows the crop to be harvested 9 to 10 days earlier and raises the chances for farmers to grow a second crop such as potato, maize, mustard, wheat, chick-pea, or vegetables. People can also explore other liveli-

hood opportunities and earn more income. (See Adaptive research helps fi ght famine in Bangladesh, RIPPLE, October-December 2007.)

The IRRC team traveled to Rangpur on 22-28 October 2007 to capture the impact of DSR in monga mitigation. Dr. Florencia Palis, IRRC socio-cultural anthropologist, conducted focus group discus-sions (FGDs) among farmers and landless men and women in Rangpur, Nilphamari, and Kurigram districts.

One grief-stricken widow in Nilphamari said that her “life was miserable and useless because she had no work and no land to work on.” Left with two daughters to take care of, she could not remarry to somehow ease her burden because it was unusual in their culture and not an option. Another woman had gotten into a “spiral of debt” after borrow-ing from several NGOs to pay for each previous debt.

Hope still remains for such landless women though, as they formed a group to develop incomes during the monga period. They borrowed money from an NGO so that they could hire a teacher for their young children. They

Waves of action

For many poor people in northwest Bangladesh, monga means eating only one meal a day for 4–7 days a week. (Photo by G. Singleton)

When monga season strikes, most men fi nd work pulling rickshaws, but the job is backbreaking. Since many of them are engaged in rickshaw-pulling, they compete for the same passengers and earn even less than the already low fare. (Photo by T. Mendoza)

7Ripple January-March 2008

Easing the plight... from page 6

sold poultry and livestock and also engaged in lac production, supported by the Grameen Artto Un-nayan Sangstha (GAUS), an NGO. Lac (Laccifer lacca) is a scale insect that secretes a resinous product, which is scraped off and sold to traders. Lac resin can be sold as dye and wax, which have great demand in the world markets of Germany, the U.S., Egypt, China, Australia, UK, and New Zealand. Almost all the lac rearers in Bangla-desh are women. A further innovation has been DSR.

Many farmers who have not tried DSR were eager to use the technology because they saw that their neigh-bors had healthy crops and good harvests. One farmer in Nilphamari was able to grow dry-sown rice and harvested about 3 tons per hectare and was also able to grow ginger; he said, “it was a miracle.” With the introduc-tion of DSR and BRRI dhan 33, an early-maturing vari-ety (115–118 days), farmers can harvest at least 35 to 40 days earlier, sell at a higher price, and get other jobs.

IRRC agricultural economist Arelene Mala-bayabas trained interviewers and conducted initial household surveys. The surveys aimed to collect rice and other crop production data from 200 farm-ers. From the preliminary results, farmers said that the most effective ways of informing them about DSR are through television, demonstrations and train-ing, farmers’ fi eld schools, other farmers’ infl uence, and extension technicians. With the data collected from the FGDs and surveys, the IRRC can have a better understand-ing of how DSR and improved weed management can be extended effectively to help improve farmers’ harvests.

The team also discussed the potential of DSR tech-nology as a way to mitigate monga with government and nongovernment agencies. They met with executives of the Department of Agricul-ture and Extension and the

district commissioner of Kuri-gram, who agree that planting early-maturing varieties is most vital in mitigating mon-ga, but there is also a need for more seeds as well as train-ing. DAE has been promoting early-maturing varieties since 2005, and direct seeding by a drum seeder to farmers, al-though their efforts have been hampered by recent fl oods.

The team also met with NGOs such as Solidarity, Inter-Cooperation, GAUS, Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Ser-vice, and the Bangladesh Ru-ral Advancement Committee (BRAC). “These two technol-ogies, early-maturing variet-ies and DSR, can stagger em-ployment generation and, to some extent, combat monga,” says Dr. Mahabub Hossain, BRAC chief executive offi cer.

For GAUS members, this project was a “dream come true” as “before using DSR, the farmers were harvesting only 2.1 tons per hectare,”

says GAUS executive direc-tor Matiur Rahman. “Upon using DSR with BRRI dhan 33 variety, and with good management and training, they were able to harvest about 4.7 tons per hectare.”

The work to relieve the problem of monga by enabling farmers to have earlier rice harvests still has a long way to go. Further farmer training will be undertaken this year so that farmers themselves can become trainers in the community. The IRRC team will travel down that road to Rangpur again and the jarring images of tents and thatch huts will probably still be there. But the IRRC believes that if the burden of the poor can be eased, through helping farmers make more of the natural resources, it will all have been worth-while and indeed “a dream come true.”

Trina Mendoza and David Johnson (d.johnson@cgiar.org)

EDITORIAL AND PRODUCTION TEAM

IRRC: Trina Leah Mendoza, Grant Singleton, Jennifer HernandezCPS: Tess Rola, Bill Hardy, George Reyes, Juan Lazaro IV

CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS: Rica Joy Flor, Ruben Lampayan, Joel Janiya, David Johnson, Divina Gracia Rodriguez, Ma. Angeles Quilloy

Team

Dr. Flor Palis (left), IRRC socio-cultural anthropologist, conducts a focus group discussion among landless women in Nilphamari. Dr. M.A. Mazid of BRRI (right) assists by translating the discussion. (Photo by T. Mendoza)

In late July 2007, fl oods destroyed transplanted rice crops of farmers in Bangladesh. This photo taken in August 2007 shows direct-seeded rice (right) that survived the fl oods, and the transplanted crop (left) that was just recovering. (Photo by G. Singleton)

8Ripple January-March 2008

Voices for change: involving farmers in IRRC researchFarmers, the target

end-users of developed agricultural

technologies, are often relegated to the quiet periphery of the research world. In the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC), however, the role of farmers is not limited to that of passive recipients of technology. Farmers are involved in many different ways throughout the technology development process. This is because the IRRC works on ensuring that the technologies brought out will have a positive impact on farmers. One case in point is the research on alternate wetting and drying (AWD) technology by the Water-Saving Work Group of the IRRC.

AWD was initially brought out through participa-tory trials to explore its viability for use by farmers on a large scale. The trials involved farmer cooperators who experimented with the technology on their own fi elds. Farmers made their own observations and comparisons between AWD

and their usual irrigation practice. At the end of the trials, farmers evaluated the technology. To scientists, feedback from farmers was valuable for further develop-ment of the technology and for effi cient extension to other farmers.

Once AWD was intro-duced to more farmers, social scientists worked on monitor-ing progress. In the monitor-ing activities, farmers shared their experience with the technology. The comments, gathered through interviews and group discussions with farmers, were complemented with socioeconomic surveys. The complementary methods ensure that the data refl ect a realistic picture of what farmers experienced and not the opinion of a few farmers only. While monitoring is an avenue that brings feedback from farmers to scientists, it is also a way to learn from farmers about strategies in

reaching more farmers with AWD.

The involvement of farmers in extension is also important. Those who adopted the technology pass the knowledge and practice of AWD to other farmers. The farmers acted as light-houses of knowledge, raising the awareness of AWD in the community. Years after AWD was introduced, farmers continue to make their voices heard as they report how

the use of AWD has brought about changes or impacts in their fi eld, in their household, and in their community.

The process from research to impact in the IRRC continuously involves many participants, including farmers. Emerging from the sidelines, farmers become involved in making signifi cant changes in irrigated rice production for the benefi t of many.

Rica Flor

IRRC Phase 3 reviewed

Farmers themselves in Tarlac, Philippines, check the water depth in their own experimental plots. (Water-Saving Work Group photo)

Established in 1997 with support from the Swiss Agency

for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC) is in its third 4-year phase, which ends in December 2008. With a strong multistakeholder partnership, the IRRC is currently working in 11 countries. Our target in Phase 3 is to assist farmers in irrigated rice-based systems to achieve increased profi tability, food security, and

environmental sustainability. Our main foci are twofold: (1) innovative research directed at developing and testing technologies aimed at increasing production and (2) dissemination of technologies led by national partners through IRRC Country Outreach Programs.

In October 2007, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) commis-sioned an external review of Phase 3 of the IRRC. The SDC provided strong input into the terms of reference and funded the review. The

main objectives of the review were to assess progress and future directions of the Consortium, and to provide comment on its current management and structure.

The review team of Dr. Ian Willett, Dr. John Angus, Mr. Edmund Sana, and Dr. Benchaphun Ekasingh attended the Steering Com-mittee Meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam, and then interacted with NARES and private sector partners in China, Myanmar, Lao PDR, and the Philippines. The review team completed its review with 3

days of deliberations at IRRI headquarters. After 2 very busy weeks, Dr. Willett presented a seminar to IRRI staff and indicated that the Consortium plays a pivotal lead role for natural resource management of rice produc-tion systems in the region and has made tremendous progress in its current phase. A fi nal written report was presented to IRRI manage-ment in mid-November and will be released for wider information and consultation in early 2008.

Grant Singleton (g.singleton@cgiar.org)

9Ripple January-March 2008

Measuring SSNM impact in the Red River DeltaResearch streams

Site-specifi c nutrient management (SSNM) has been introduced for

fi ve years now in the Red River Delta in North Vietnam, probably one of the most intensively cultivated agricultural areas in the world in terms of both cropping intensity and the collective amount of grain produced each year. To assess the performance of SSNM in terms of farmers’ productivity, income, and socioeconomic welfare, the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC), in collaboration with Hanoi Agricultural University No. 1 (HAU 1), conducted impact assessment surveys from 31 July to 13 August 2007.

The survey was done in Hanam and Hatay, two of fi ve provinces in the Red River Delta where SSNM evalu-

ation and nutrient omission plots were conducted in fi ve soil types. The survey team was composed of 11 faculty members and four students from HAU 1, a faculty mem-ber from Vietnam Forestry University, and a researcher from the Research Institute of Fruit and Vegetable. IRRC agricultural economist Divina Gracia Rodriguez led the team along with Dr. Nguyen Thi Duong Nga from HAU 1.

A total of 374 farmers were randomly selected for the survey. Two sets of data were collected; knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) and the input-output aspect of production for two seasons of

rice produc-tion (summer 2006 and spring 2007).

Among all respondents, 61% adopted SSNM. Preliminary results

showed that SSNM increased rice yields signifi cantly by 0.16 ton per hectare using signifi cantly less nitrogen (N) fertilizer and no increase in labor as compared with traditional farmers’ fertilizer practices (FFP). SSNM farmer-adopters reduced the rate of N and potassium (K) applied by 6.1 kilograms and 4.0 kilograms per hectare, respectively, and increased their phosphorus (P) rate

applied by 2.5 kilograms per hectare. This suggests that, with the SSNM approach, NPK use effi ciency increased as evidenced by more grain yield per unit of fertilizer NPK used.

However, this did not necessarily mean reduced input cost. The total fertil-izer cost of SSNM adopters was still comparable with that under FFP (a difference of only US$8). Nonetheless, the increase in yield contributed to higher gross returns over total fertilizer cost of SSNM adopters ($28 increase per hectare). In addition, farm-ers practicing SSNM reduced their use of pesticides, which included herbicide, fungicide, and insecticide applications.

Thus, based on initial fi ndings, SSNM adopters seemed to profi t more than nonadopters. The results

The survey team goes over the questionnaire with Dr. Nguyen Thi Duong Nga (left) of Hanoi Agricultural University No. 1.

Mr. Thoai, a faculty member from Vietnam Forestry University, in-terviews a farmer on her input use, production, expenses, and income from rice farming.

are, however, still prelimi-nary because other factors of production such as seeds, pesticides, and labor are not yet accounted for. Moreover, a simple comparison of means has inherent limitations.

The benefi ts derived by farmers from SSNM depend on how much rice yield can be increased with improved nu-trient management; the scope for further optimizing the amounts and timing of fertil-izer N, P, and K to achieve such increased yield; and what related advantages there are (e.g., reduced use of pesti-cides). The added benefi ts (in terms of increased yield) from using SSNM suggest that it should be evaluated in other areas of the Red River Delta.

Story and photos by Divina Gracia Rodriguez

(d.p.rodriguez@cgiar.org)

Research and training activities in the Red River Delta aim to improve production in these areas.

Changes in NPK use, yield, and gross returns over total fertilizer cost (TFC) for SSNM compared with farmers’ fertilizer practice (FFP).

Variable of interest (per hectare) Average for summer 2006 and spring 2007 SSNM FFP Difference Nitrogen (kg) 78 84 6.1 Phosphorus (kg) 22 19 2.5 Potassium (kg) 61 65 4.0 Yield (tons) 5.3 5.1 0.16 Total fertilizer cost (US$) 171 180 8.6 Gross returns over TFC (US$) 1,000 972 28.1

10Ripple January-March 2008

Profi les

A person with a purpose

Even as a child, Pyseth Meas knew what he wanted to be when he

grew up—he was taught by his parents to be useful to the community. “All of my life, I’ve wanted to do something meaningful for the people of Cambodia, especially the farmers, because we rely on rice as our staple food and main source of income,” he says. Now, as one of the few postharvest technology experts in Cambodia—in fact, the fi rst trained in this fi eld—Dr. Meas is seeing his dreams come to life.

Growing up on a rice farm with a father who was a government offi cial, he learned the best from both worlds: managing fi eld op-erations and solving farming problems. He also observed his mother, who had problems then in selling milled rice to consumers and traders. His early exposure to posthar-vest problems encouraged him to pursue a career in postharvest technology.

With his fi rst scholarship from the Czechoslovak gov-ernment, Dr. Meas received his MS degree in agricultural mechanization in 1987 from

the University of Agriculture in Nitra, Czechoslovakia. He then worked as vice-head of the project management offi ce of the Department of Agricul-tural Engineering in Cambo-dia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries from 1987 to 2000. He received a second scholarship from the New Zealand government and earned another MS degree in postharvest technology in 1999 from Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand. After his MS study, he served as head of the agri-cultural engineering program and as deputy director of the Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) and as a member of its board of direc-tors from 1999 to 2003. With another scholarship co-funded by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the New Zealand govern-ment, he fi nished his PhD in agricultural engineering in 2006 at Massey University, specializing in postharvest technology for rice. Now, Dr. Meas has his hands full as CARDI deputy director and as an IRRI consultant on postharvest technology.

Dr. Meas works with the Irrigated Rice Research Con-sortium (IRRC) Postproduc-tion Work Group in a project with the Asian Development Bank and the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction. The project aims to demonstrate in eight villages in Cambodia that improved harvesting, drying, storage, and milling can help farmers increase income from their rice harvest and improve the quality of grain and seed throughout the postharvest chain. (See Cambodia’s continuing post-harvest quest in RIPPLE, Vol. 2, No. 4.) In addition, he is also in charge of the project’s activities in Vietnam.

His days are mostly spent out in the fi eld, conducting training courses and farm machinery demonstrations to hundreds of agricultural researchers, extension work-ers, managers, and farmers. He fi nds this part of his work gratifying and most challeng-ing as well. “Not many people in Cambodia have been trained in postharvest tech-nology,” Dr. Meas explains. “Bringing the technology to farmers is hard because there are not enough human resources.” He hopes to be

able to help reduce post-harvest losses such as grain shattering and deterioration of grain and seed quality.

He also puts his good command of English to use by translating documents into Khmer, his native tongue. He contributes these documents to universities in his country. Studying in Czechoslovakia motivated him to become fl uent in its language and learn English as well. He even became a translator for Cambodia’s Ministry of Edu-cation in 1987. But he proudly reveals that his children, Kanika, 17, Sakan, 15, and Sakun, 12, are better English speakers because they stayed with him in New Zealand during his graduate studies.

His childhood dream to help his country drives Dr. Meas to work hard; even his rest time is spent translating materials. “In Cambodia, more than 85% of the people are rice farmers,” he says. “I hope that they recognize and accept that we have posthar-vest problems, and that they will work with me to try to do something about them.”

Trina MendozaDr. Meas takes a rare holiday, visiting the famous ancient temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia with wife Leakhena, daughter Kanika, and sons Sakan and Sakun.

COME RAIN OR HIGH WATER: Dr. Pyseth Meas about to cross a fl ooded area in Long An, South Vietnam, in June 2007 to conduct economic assessments of selected postharvest technologies, prepare sample business plans for submission to fi nancial institu-tions, and meet with Vietnamese counterparts. (Photo by T. Ryan)

11Ripple January-March 2008

Adding a human side to rice research

For the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC) to operate

smoothly, a multidisciplinary coordination unit is on hand to support the coordinator and work group leaders as they engage in research across 11 countries in Asia. The IRRC team is an oddball mix, composed of a communicator, a database specialist, agricultural economists, and socio-cultural anthropologists.Yet, the unusual combination works. And at the right hand of the IRRC coordinator, evaluating IRRC technologies, developing strategies for disseminating research products to different stakeholders, and working closely with partner organizations, is Dr. Florencia Palis, a post-doctoral fellow and socio-cultural anthropologist.

Dr. Palis, or simply Flor to her colleagues, says that many people are still in the dark when it comes to anthropology, especially if it is applied in the fi eld of agriculture such as in the IRRC. “Anthropology, as an academic discipline, studies human behavior using a holis-tic approach, considering the past and present, and man as

both a biological and cultural being,” says Dr. Palis. “Often-times, anthropologists are as-sociated only as archeologists, those who are discovering the material cultures of past societies to understand the present cultures, but there are other fi elds of anthropology as well. For example, we have socio-cultural anthropology, which is a comparative study of human cultures or lifeways in contemporary societies.”

As an applied socio-cultural anthropologist, she studies farmers’ behavior, knowledge, norms and values, relationships among groups, and other aspects of society, including history, in relation to their adop-tion of IRRC technologies.

She has been dealing with research or experimen-tal designs and analysis for various types of data since she fi rst started working at the Forest Research Institute and at the National Crop Protec-tion Center at the University of the Philippines (UP), but she wasn’t an anthropologist then. In fact, she has BS and MS degrees in statistics from UP, which is about as dif-ferent as night and day from the qualitative methods often employed in anthropology.

It was a project in 1990 on environmental and health impact assessment of farm-ers’ pesticide use that shifted her interest from the science of numbers to the science of humans. Dr. Palis was a senior research assistant then in the Social Sciences Divi-sion (SSD) of IRRI. Her team promoted gloves and masks as protective equipment for farmers while mixing and spraying insecticide. It was a shock when they found that the farmers did not use the gloves for spraying but for playing baseball and doing laundry. They discovered that farmers believed that using the gloves during spray-ing will cause a Filipino folk illness called pasma, characterized by weak-ness or trembling muscles. Dr. Palis realized then that quantitative data alone were not enough to explain what people do, and it made her appreciate the importance of culture as a signifi cant factor in farmer adoption of technologies. Then and there she decided to add anthropol-ogy to her research toolbox and fi nished a PhD degree in anthropology at UP in 2002.

In 2006, she joined the IRRC after almost 20 years at SSD. As an anthropologist working among social and natural scientists in IRRC, she faces challenges such as fi nding time to read and understand the cultures of dif-ferent societies and traveling to far-fl ung areas and engag-ing with people of different languages. Ideally, anthropol-ogists stay in an area for years to fully understand the cul-ture of others. But, with the IRRC’s focus on many tech-nologies in many countries, Dr. Palis works doubly hard to learn the science behind

the technologies and imple-ment anthropological meth-odologies, given the limited time of stay in a study area.

“For example, when I’m working on ecologically based rodent management (EBRM) in Vietnam, I need to know somehow the biology and behavior of rats, and EBRM strategies per se,” Dr. Palis explains. This includes being able to understand Vietnam-ese culture, farmer knowledge and practices on rodent pest management, people’s norms, values, and other aspects of society (social, economic, po-litical, environmental, histori-cal). Incidentally, her work on promoting EBRM led to one of her most memorable adven-tures in the fi eld; that of eat-ing roasted rats in Vietnam.

When she’s not tasting foreign delicacies or conduct-ing focus group discussions somewhere in Asia, she’s at home in the Philippines, watching TV, reading, going to the gym, and spending time with her husband and three children. But, more often than not, the cheerful, petite anthropologist is thinking of ways to further extend IRRC technologies to farmers.

“We need to strategi-cally implement the IRRC country outreach programs and involve the right part-ners in the network for participatory research and extension,” says Dr. Palis. “Our natural scientists have recognized the importance of farmer participation and partnership in technology development, adoption, and extension, in the research-to-impact pathways. Yes, we are achieving our goals step by step and one at a time.”

Trina Mendoza

ALL WORK AND NO PLAY: To fully immerse herself in a different culture, Dr. Flor Palis (left) interacts with farmers after the discussions and surveys. Here she is in 2005 with farmers in Tien Giang, Vietnam.

Upcoming events (January-April 2008)

Workshops and conferences

IRRC Country Outreach Program Workshop on 4-6 February 2008 at the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), Nueva Ecija, Philippines

Two-day meeting on 7-8 Febru-ary 2008 at the Internation-al Rice Research Institute, Laguna, Philippines

5th International Crop Science Conference in Jeju, South Korea, 13-18 April 2008

PostproductionWork Group

Hands-on training on postharvest technology with NAFRI. Participants from extension and research in Vientiane, Laos, 8 January 2008

Assessment of postharvest situation in Southern Laos and Luang Prabang, 3-12 January 2008

Setting up of laser-leveling equipment and training of operators and techni-cians in Savannakhet, Vietnam, 13 January 2008

Labor Productivity Work Group

Field visit to Laos and Cam-bodia (January 2008) and Sulawesi, Indone-sia (February 2008) for constraint identifi cation and program development

Field visit to Iloilo and Bo-hol, Philippines, for data collection, Janu-ary and March 2008

Field visit to assess collaborative experiment on alternate wetting and drying and weed management in

PhilRice, Nueva Ecija, Philippines, January and March 2008

Field visit to Myanmar for review and planning, March 2008

PublicationsInternational journals

Brown PR, Nyunt Yee, Single-ton GR, Kenny AJ, Nyo Me Thwe, Myo Myint, Than Aye. 2008. Farmers’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices for rodent man-agement in Myanmar. In-ternational Journal of Pest Management 54, 69–76.

Faedo M, Hinds LA, Singleton GR, Rawlinson WD. 2007. Prevalence of mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) in wild house mice (Mus musculis) in southeastern Australia.Journal of Wildlife Diseases 43, 668–674.

Conference proceedings

Abeysekara ASK, Herath HMS, Wickrama UB, Nugali-yadde L, Johnson DE. 2007. Effects of the seed establishment method of rice (Oryza sativa L.) on weed growth and yield of rice. In: Marambe B, Sangkkara UR, De Costa WAJM, Abeysekara ASK, editors. Proceedings of the 21st Asian Pacifi c Weed Science Society (APWSS) Conference, 2-6 October 2007, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Colombo (Sri Lanka): University of Peradeniya and Chemical Industries, Ltd. p 1-3.

The following papers are also part of the same APWSS conference proceedings:

Azmi M, Baki BB, Johnson DE. 2007. Weed species of rice

over the last decade in the Muda granary of Malaysia. p 268-273.

Janiya JD, Mortimer AM, John-son DE. 2007. Composi-tion of the weed seed bank under intensive irrigated rice cultivation: observa-tions after twelve consecu-tive rice crops. p 172-176.

Johnson DE. 2007. Weed management issues in rice in the era of bio-technology. p 1-7.

Namuco OS, Migo T, Johnson DE. 2007. The contribu-tion of rice seed traits to early growth as an indicator of competi-tiveness. p 340-344.

Peña JT, Baltazar AM, Johnson DE, Merca FE, Ismail A. 2007. Biochemical adaptation of purple nut-sedge (Cyperus rotundus L.) to fl ooding: alcohol dehydrogenase activity in dryland and wetland ecotypes. p 361-366.

Singh VP, Singh Y, Singh G, Mortimer AM, Johnson DE. 2007. Crop perfor-mance and incidence of weed species with the introduction of direct seeded rice in the rice-wheat cropping system of northern India. p 451-455.

Villalobos MC, Baltazar AM, Johnson DE, Merca FE, Ismail A. 2007. Bio-chemical adaptation of purple nutsedge (Cyperus rotundus L.) to fl ooding: pyruvate decarboxylase ac-tivity in dryland and wet-land ecotypes. p 503-508.