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International Rice Research InstituteJanuary-March 2008, Vol. 7, No. 1
Bird’s-eye views of anenduring rice culture
Pesticides, pests, andpredatorsPhilippines
Documenting drought
E x c l u s i v E
P i o n E E r i n t E r v i E w s
contents
Vol. 7, No. 1
International Rice Research Institute
DAPO Box 7777, Metro Manila, PhilippinesWeb (IRRI): www.irri.org; www.irri.org/ricetodayWeb (Library): http://ricelib.irri.cgiar.orgWeb (Rice Knowledge Bank): www.knowledgebank.irri.org
Rice Today
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Adam Barclay
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contributing editors
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Africa editor
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Rice Today
is published by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the world’sleading international rice research and training center. Based in the Philippines and with
ofces in 13 other countries, IRRI is an autonomous, nonprot institution focused on
improving the well-being of present and future generations of rice farmers and consumers,particularly those with low incomes, while preserving natural resources. IRRI is one of 15 centers funded through the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research(CGIAR), an association of public and private donor agencies. For more information, visitthe CGIAR Web site (www.cgiar.org).Responsibility for this publication rests with IRRI. Designations used in this publicationshould not be construed as expressing IRRI policy or opinion on the legal status of anycountry, territory, city, or area, or its authorities, or the delimitation of its frontiers orboundaries.
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Aclose overheadviewo wetstone-walledrice eldsready ortransplanting nearMayawyawtown (location 1 onthe mapon page 14)in IugaoProvince in northern Luzon,Philippines.Formore stunningaerialphotography showingthe changeso an indigenouspeople’senvironmentovertheyears,see the eature article onpages14-21.
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EditOriAl ................................................................4
Historic angles: pioneer interviews
,
arthropod surveys,and bird’s-eye views
NEwS ........................................................................5
Farmers struggle ater Bangladesh cycloneDoomsdayvaultpreparationsIrrigated rice production system under pressureRice traders predict prices to increase urther
PEOPlE .....................................................................8
Relevance o rice researchers recognizedKeeping up with IRRI staf Moving on
rECiPE ......................................................................9
Pea and mint risotto
thE irri PiONEEr iNtErviEwS ...........................10
Peter Jennings: luck is the residue o design
MAPS ......................................................................12
Cartograms: distortion or a better view
bird’S-EyE viEwS Of AN ENduriNg .................14riCE CulturE
RiceToday
ullls its promise to publish morespectacular photography taken rom above IugaoProvince in the northern Philippines. What is thesignicance culturally and scientically?
SNAPShOt .............................................................20
View o Happaw, then and now
A ClOSEr viEw Of ifugAO .................................22riCE AgriCulturEAfriCAN riCE rESEArCh ExPANdS ...................23
Four new countries have become members o theArica Rice Center, signaling
increased investmentin rice research and the growing importance o ricein Arica
Out with thE wEt, iN with thE dry ...............24
How a armer achieved a better lie by using dry-season rice technology
whEN thE rAiN StOPS ........................................26
In August 2007,
RiceToday
visited drought-strickenareas in the northern Philippines to discover thatit takes more than a dry spell to dampen armers’spirits
thE uNSuNg hErOES Of thE riCE fiEld .........30
Simply by growing rice, armers cultivate a complex—and ree—pest control system without doing asingle extra thing
thE PEStiCidE PArAdOx ....................................32
Pesticide use at the International Rice ResearchInstitute is down almost 90% in 14 years, while pestsare less o a problem and biodiversity has increased
iNtO thE uNkNOwN ............................................34
Every summer, the World Food Prize Foundation sendshigh school students rom the United States tointernational agricultural research institutes to work with leading scientists and learn about agriculturaldevelopment
riCE fACtS .............................................................36
The true price o rice. Rising rice prices will negateprogress in poverty reduction
grAiN Of truth ...................................................38
Balancing ertilizer use and prot
NEWS
http://ricenews.irri.org
Rice Today
January-March 2008
C
yclone Sidr smashed into the south-ern coastal districts of Bangladeshon 15 November, killing almost 4,000people and leaving millions homelessand short of basic staples such as rice.Based on initial estimates, about 1 mil-lion hectares of rice are affected.
The cyclone and two major oods
earlier in 2007 have contributed tomajor food shortages in the South Asiancountry, which was added to a list of 37countries facing a food crisis and re-quiring external assistance, publishedon 17 December 2007 by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of theUnited Nations. According to the FAO, the liveli-hood of more than 8.5 million peoplehas been adversely affected by thecyclone damage. Estimates of the riceshortfall caused by the cyclone and
oods range from 1.4 million to 2 mil
-lion tons.The country’s food-grain imports—usually 2 million to 2.4 million tons—are likely to rise to around 3.5 milliontons in 2008. Adding to the burden
for the millions of aficted people, the
increased imports combined with highglobal grain prices will probably lead tohigher prices for consumers.To see what role IRRI might play both in response to this disaster andto mitigate the effects of future cy-clones—predicted to occur with greaterfrequency and severity due to climatechange—Institute scientists Zainul Abedin, Abdelbagi Ismail, and DavidJohnson traveled to the affected areasof Bangladesh on 14-16 December.They were joined by the BangladeshRice Research Institute (BRRI) andseveral nongovernmental organizations working on the IRRI-coordinated FoodSecurity for Sustainable HouseholdLivelihoods (FoSHoL) project.“Farmers in affected areas are inimmediate need of relief efforts to cope with the current devastation,” said Dr.Ismail. “Short- and long-term measures
are needed to ensure sufcient seed
supply for these farmers, particularly for 2008. This is because most farmerslost their rice crop and the grain yieldof the remaining crop is expected to be very low, and will mostly be consumed within a few months. Besides, seedsare of low quality and cannot be storedfor the next transplanted aman [wet]season.”Farmers were unsure of how they would meet their food needs up to theirnext season’s harvest, 4–5 months away at the earliest. Crops that were able to be harvested tended to produce small yields of poor-quality grain that, ac-cording to farmers, tastes bitter. Many families lost everything—not only rice but also their houses, personal belongings, vegetables, poultry, andlivestock. With BRRI and FoSHoL collabo-rators, the IRRI scientists developedpreliminary recommendations forrestoring farmers’ livelihoods. Theseincluded provision of seeds of suitablerice varieties in the short term and, inthe longer term, the development of new varieties and crop managementand intensification strategies to in-crease the chances of crops survivingfuture severe weather events.On 17 December, Drs. Abedin,Ismail, and Johnson, along with IRRIliaison scientist Hamid Miah, discussedtheir observations at a series of meet-ings with the secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Md. Abdul Aziz, theBangladesh Agricultural ResearchCouncil, and the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee.
T
he Svalbard Global Seed Vault—dubbed the
Doomsday Vault by themedia—will be a subterranean gene- bank built into the rock of Norway’sSvalbard group of islands in the Arctic,nearly 1,000 km north of mainlandNorway. The vault will store seedsamples of the world’s most importantcrops as protection against extinctionand disaster. As part of a project to documentpreparation for the vault, Cary Fowler,executive director of the Global CropDiversity Trust—which aims to safe-guard and conserve the diversity of all major food crops—visited IRRI on6-7 December, together with Laurent
Cibien and Alain Guillon, a lm crew
from ARTE TV. They were in the Philip-
pines to lm at IRRI and the National
Genebank and to visit farmers in thesouthern Philippines.“What we’re trying to do is to pro- vide an insurance policy for rice andother major crops—a plan B, a backup,”said Dr. Fowler. “Soon, IRRI will besending 70,000 rice accessions to theSvalbard Global Seed Vault, and that’sa remarkable contribution.”
Farmers struggle after Bangladesh cycloneDoomsday vault preparation
Imprve ur English and helpend hunger
www.FreeRice.com has two goals: provideEnglish vocabulary to everyone or ree andhelp end world hunger by providing rice tohungry people or ree. The site oers anaddictive multiple-choice vocabulary quiz.Every time a player gets a question correct,FreeRice, through sponsors who advertiseon the site, donates enough money or20 grains o rice. This was raised rom theinitial 10 grains on 28 November 2007. Aso 31 December, 12,255,121,230 grains hadbeen donated. The rice is distributed by theUnited Nations World Food Program.
A d A m B A r c l A y
BANGLADESHI FARMERNasiruddin Khan shshis damaged harvestater Cclne Sidr hithis village Purb-haipur.
A r i e l j A v e l l A n A
CARy FowLER (
second from left
) and IRRI Ge-netic Resurces Center Head Ruaraidh SackvilleHamiltn (
standing, right
)
inspect ild ricevarieties ith
research technician Nra Kurda(
left
), assistant scientist Sccie Almazan (
cen-ter
), and research technician Liza ynzn
.
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Rice Today Vol. 7, No. 1
January-March 2008l
Pesticides, pests, and predators
Documenting drought
Bird’s-eye views of an enduring rice culture
Pesticides, pests, and predators
Documenting drought
Bird’s-eye views of an enduring rice culture
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