Gladys Ow, Channel NewsAsia 7 Sep 09;
SINGAPORE: More investments in rice research is needed to ensure adequate rice supply in the long term and avoid last year's panic over rice shortages.
Experts said Singapore is well-positioned to facilitate research and development on rice production.
Early last year, a global rice shortage sent consumers scrambling to stock up on the grain. That sent prices soaring to record highs which affected rice-consuming Asian economies like Singapore.
Prices peaked at around US$1,000 per ton in April 2008, twice the price seven months earlier. To make matters worse, major rice-growing countries like Vietnam and India imposed export restrictions to protect their domestic consumers.
That is a situation governments and consumers all over the world want to prevent.
Rice accounts for more than 40 per cent of the calorie consumption of most Asians. So keeping the price of rice affordable, especially for the poor, is crucial.
In addition, food security in the region is a growing challenge. There will be one billion more mouths to feeds in Asia by 2030.
The Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) said scientific research is key to ensure food security. It is collaborating with a biotech company, Syngenta, to help farmers increase their rice yield using technology.
Both parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Singapore on Monday. They said Singapore, with its strong research and educational capabilities, can contribute to rice research efforts.
Peter Pickering, region head, Seeds, Syngenta Asia Pacific, said: "Creating more crop with less input is really what we are about. The challenges are to grow higher yields on less land, less water, less fertilisation. Those are the kinds of challenges that everyday rice farmers in the region face.
The Scientific Know-how Exchange Programme (SKEP) is also established to study the genetic composition of rice plants, validate genetic markers of rice plants, remove constraints to production, promote better agricultural practices like water-saving irrigation techniques and build scientific capability by funding learning of young researchers joining the industry.
Dr Robert Zeigler, director general, International Rice Research Institute, said: "Unfortunately, because of urbanisation and competing uses of land, we are going to have less land, less water, less labour that can go into rice production.
"So our technology for rice production has got to be more sophisticated and that's going to require long-term efforts by governments and the private sector. Productivity is simply not keeping up with demand.
"The drop-away from the peaks of last year is a subsiding of the panic, but the structural problems that have been pushing rice prices up are still there. And so we've got to make investments, to make sure that we don't find ourselves in the situation again."
Experts said climate change will also continue to affect rice production as severe tropical storms and droughts can destroy crops and further tighten rice supplies. But they believe the long-term prospect of Asia achieving self-sufficiency in rice is reasonably good. - CNA/vm
