Scientists meet to ensure supply of Asia's staple, rice

Yahoo News 8 Nov 10;

HANOI (AFP) – Scientists from around the world meet in Vietnam on Tuesday aiming to ensure a steady supply of rice -- the staple food for Asia's poor -- against threats that include climate change and urbanisation.

"Amidst constant pressure on global food production, worsening poverty, and climate change, the need to find ways to ensure there is enough affordable rice for everyone is critical," said a statement from the International Rice Congress.

The event, held every four years, is the world's largest gathering of the rice industry, and will bring together more than 1,000 researchers, traders, agricultural ministers and other delegates from Asia and beyond.

"Our foremost concern... is how to fully extend advances in technology, biology, genetics and IT to deliver benefits to the rice industry, and especially to the poorest people dependent on rice," To Phuc Tuong, chairman of the congress's organising committee, said in the statement.

Rice is the staple food for more than three billion people, about half the world's population.

The three-day meeting in Vietnam comes after a report said Asian countries need to sharply increase and better manage rice stocks to improve food security in the region, where 65 percent of the world's hungry live.

"As Asia's population continues to grow and to urbanise at unprecedented rates, food insecurity in the region could worsen unless action is taken now," said a September report by the US-based Asia Society and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Manila, a co-organiser of the Hanoi conference.

"Declining trends in agricultural research and rural investment may lead to long-term food supply shortages and increased vulnerability to the famines that used to plague the region," the report said.

Rice-producing areas are home to nearly 560 million extremely poor people who live on less than 1.25 dollars per day. This is more than for any other crop, the report said, adding that about 90 percent of rice is grown in Asia, on more than 200 million rice farms.

"Rice is the staple food for most of the poor in Asia, where poverty remains staggering, particularly in South Asia," it said.

Vietnam is the world's second-biggest exporter of rice, behind Thailand.

IRRI estimated that annual investment of 120 million dollars in Asia between 2010 and 2030 could increase rice productivity by 8.5 percent.

This could lower the region's poverty rate by 15 percent, it said.

Among the topics to be discussed at the Hanoi meeting is the impact of climate change.

Researchers from the United States, the Philippines and the United Nations food agency said in August that even modest rises in global temperatures will drive down rice production in Asia, leading more people to slip into poverty and hunger.

"If we cannot change our rice production methods or develop new rice strains that can withstand higher temperatures, there will be a loss in rice production over the next few decades as days and nights get hotter," said Jarrod Welch, lead author of the study.

The Hanoi conference will also look at Africa's rice potential.

"Riots broke out in 2008 because of high rice prices and unavailability of rice on the market in major African capitals," a conference document said. "Relying on the world market to supply rice to African consumers is becoming a very risky, expensive and unsustainable strategy."

It said there is huge potential for growing rice in Africa, where consumption is growing by at least five percent annually.

ASIA: Key facts about rice
IRIN Reuters AlertNet 8 Nov 10;

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HANOI, 8 November 2010 (IRIN) - Rice-producing countries, farmers and scientists from around the globe have gathered in Vietnam from 8 November for the third International Rice Congress.

Held every four years, the congress is the world's largest meeting of the rice industry, which feeds more than half the world.

"Rice remains of utmost importance to the developing world, especially Asia, but increasingly Latin America and Africa, where rice is a rapidly growing food staple," Robert Zeigler, director-general of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), told IRIN.

The five-day conference, hosted by the Vietnamese government and organized by IRRI, in the capital, Hanoi, will have about 1,200 participants from more than 66 countries.

The congress comes at a crucial time as farming area is declining, the effects of climate change are being felt, and global rice consumption is growing, say experts.

Under the theme, Rice for Future Generations, the congress will focus on how science and technology can better help farmers grow rice more efficiently.

Key facts:

- Rice is the staple food for more than half the world's population, including 640 million undernourished people living in Asia.

- For every one billion people added to the world's population, an additional 100 million MT of rice needs to be produced every year.

- Rice is uniquely suited to wet environments in which other crops would not survive; hence its widespread popularity across Asia.

- Projected demand for rice will outstrip supply in the near to medium term unless something is done to reverse current trends.

- Rice consumption exceeds 100kg per person per year in many Asian countries.

- One-fifth of the world's population, more than one billion people, depend on rice cultivation for their livelihood.

- Asia, where about 90 percent of all rice is grown, has more than 200 million rice farms, most of which smaller than one hectare.

- Rice is the fastest-growing food staple in Africa and one of the most important and fastest growing staples in Latin America - both regions are net importers.

- In most of the developing world, rice availability is equated with food security and closely connected to political stability.

- The top five producers are: China, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Vietnam.

- The top five exporters are: Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, US and India.

- The top five importers are: Philippines, Iran, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

- A paddy is a field flooded with water. Rough rice is also called paddy rice.

- There are two methods of growing rice: transplanting and direct seeding.

- Some 120,000 varieties of rice exist today.

- Worldwide, 80 million hectares of irrigated rice (55 percent of the total area) produce about three-quarters of rice harvested.

- Average global rice yields are around four tonnes per hectare, but yields of more than 10 tonnes a hectare have been recorded.

- It takes between 90 and 200 days for a rice crop to mature.

Source: IRRI, USDA