The future of rice production

The future of rice production

Rice, one of the world's most important staple foods, is now facing a challenging time with increasing competition for dwindling resources such as land and water, unpredictable climate, farm labour shortages and lack of technical expertise.

Speakers from Corteva Agriscience, an agricultural division of DowDuPont, discuss their new research agreement with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) at the International Rice Congress in Singapore.

By 2050, the world's population is expected to reach 10 billion, mainly driven by growth in poor and densely populated regions of Asia and Africa, whose livelihood is highly dependent on rice for food and socio-economic advancement.

"There is a combination of things that have worked to conspire against the farmers. Growing population means there's a need to increase production to assure food supply for the world," Peter Ford, Asia Pacific president of Corteva Agriscience, an agriculture Division of US-based DowDuPont, told Asia Focus on the sidelines of the 5th International Rice Congress held recently in Singapore.

Along with surging world population, global rice demand is projected to increase by up to 25% between 2010 and 2030 to 550 million tonnes a year. About two-thirds of this demand will come from Asia.

The inevitable challenges already facing the population are extreme climate change and heat stress that are likely to intensify further, leading to a significant loss in rice yield and production.

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) predicts that rice prices could increase by more than 30% by 2050 if nothing is done today.

"Growth in rice production has slowed significantly and has been outstripped by the population growth over the past decade. Climate change is making the situation worse," Lawrence Wong, Minister for National Development and Second Minister for Finance of Singapore, said in an opening remark of the event.

Despite the best efforts at mitigation, he said, the world has to prepare to adapt to the adverse effects of rising global temperature.

"Agriculture and climate change are deeply intertwined. Climate change poses a threat to food production. But at the same time, agriculture itself is a sector that generates high levels of carbon emissions."

Experts agree that to unlock the full potential of rice production and overcome the threats, all stakeholders must collaborate to find innovative solutions toward a sustainable and equitable global rice sector that will transform lives for the better. "The world needs major changes to the current rice and food production systems to make them more resilient to weather disruptions and also to reduce their emissions and their impact on the environment," Mr Wong said.

Matthew Morell, director general and CEO of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), a research organisation dedicated to reducing poverty and hunger through rice science, said the transformation of the rice sector cannot be accomplished by one research organisation, one country, one public sector or one private sector alone.

"We need to strengthen partnerships and alliances with rice sector actors across countries, borders, and sectors of society," said Mr Morell.

"For the world to progress toward achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, everyone must recognise how intricate and interconnected our paths are and the greatest strength will be the ability to learn from each other's experience," he added.

An example of such collaboration is the recent initiative between Corteva and IRRI, which announced a multi-year framework agreement on collaborative rice research, deployment of new breeding technologies and development of breeding programmes.

The agreement will allow both parties to access advanced technologies, including IRRI's germplasm, hybrid and inbred rice programmes and Corteva Agriscience's precision breeding technologies.

The partnership seeks to improve the genetic outcomes of breeding programmes, encourage sustainable rice cultivation and develop new rice varieties which deliver higher yields and are more resilient against biotic and abiotic stresses, according to its written statement.

Other areas of collaboration, it says, will include the development of holistic agronomic and crop protection programmes to enhance the adoption of direct seeded Rice -- a resource-efficient technology that overcomes limitations of traditional cultivation techniques and improves the productivity and profitability of rice farming.

"Our shared goal for this partnership is to help rice farmers become more productive and sustainable," said Mr Ford.

"Our collaboration will allow us to offer farmers a broader suite of high-performing products and effective science-based innovations that will optimise yield and crop quality. Partnerships such as this create the power of scale and will drive positive change for rice farmers," he said.

Another prominent example of a collaborative initiative is seen between the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), with the focus on strengthening environmental sustainability and climate resilience of low-income people in the Republic of Niger.

Through the partnership with the Government of Niger and others, the Family Farming Development programme is fighting the damaging effects of climate change on the livelihoods of 240,000 family farmers in the Tahoua, Maradi and Zinder regions, representing 60% of Niger's population.

Gilbert Houngbo, president of IFAD, explained that in response to the diminishing water resources, several techniques are being used for farmers to optimise the use of water resources.

Examples are building infrastructure for innovation, from mini-dams and ponds to applying innovation to resource and infrastructure management and more adoption of traditional techniques to make the most of scarce water.

An example is promoting the use of demi-lunes, which is a back-to-the future innovation expanded from a technique developed by indigenous people in the arid Western Sahel, said Mr Houngbo, referring to holes in the shape of a semi-circle used to capture and store run-off rainwater.

"If we are to achieve the sustainable development goals of ending poverty and hunger by 2030, we are going to need new ideas and large-scale innovations… To fuel on-farm innovation, we will need to combine science with the wisdom and experience of farmers and indigenous peoples and with financial and project development."

Another area of potential collaboration for the future of inclusive crop production is around gender discrimination, according to Krysta Harden, vice-president external affairs and chief sustainability officer of Corteva.

According to a study by Corteva released to coincide with the recent celebration of the International Day of Rural Women on Oct 15, women in agriculture around the world said the widespread gender discrimination persists and poses obstacles to their ability to help feed the world.

The study encompasses 17 countries across five continents with 4,160 respondents in both the developed and developing world. They were asked to identify barriers to their full and successful participation in the agricultural sector.

The survey's findings reveal that although women are overwhelmingly proud to be in agriculture, gender discrimination is still prevalent, ranging from 78% in India to 52% in the United States.

Only half say they are equally successful as their male counterparts, 42% say they have the same opportunities as their male counterparts and only 38% say they can make decisions about how income is used in farming and agriculture, it noted.

"While we know women make up almost half of the world's farmers, this study validates challenges continue to persist, holding back not only the women in agriculture but also the people who depend on them," Ms Harden said.

"Identifying the existence of these challenges is the first step in removing obstacles for rural women farmers to achieve their full potential," she added.

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT