Bae Keun-min, Staff Reporter
The Korea Times via SEAMEO SEARCA Biotechnology Information Center

The International Rice Science Conference will have its final day of its three-day agenda today, which takes place in Seoul, to discuss the latest studies on rice production in commemoration of the Year of Rice falling this year. 

In order to highlight the importance of rice as a major staple for over half of the world's population, the United Nations declared 2004 the International Year of Rice last November. 

"Economic activities related to rice is a precondition for world peace, poverty resolution, the preservation of nature and food security,'' said Huh Sang-man, minister of Agriculture and Forestry of South Korea, participating in the conference. 

This is the first time that the UN has dedicated a year to a single crop, acknowledging the status of rice in the globe, where many people are suffering from food shortages. Moreover, rice cultivation has supplied jobs to millions of people across the globe. 

"About 1 billion people are engaged in industries related to rice, including production, processing and distribution,'' Huh said. "Including Koreans, rice is the staple of 2 billion people in Asia and a half of the world's population.''

More than 840 million people are suffering from starvation, poverty and lack of nutrition. 

The conference, being held under the theme of Rice Science for Human Welfare in the 21st Century, becomes a venue to discuss rice production technologies, with the participation of around 400 people from academia and governments, including some 70 internationally renowned scholars. 

Of the participants are Dr. Gurdev Khush from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, Dr. Sant Virmani, Dr. Tadahiko Mae from Japan and Dr. Neil Rutger at the Agricultural Research Service of the United States. 

Three International Events 

The conference is one of the three international events on rice taking placing here in September, hosted by the Rural Development Administration of South Korea with support from the Korean Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and supervision of the IRRI, in observation of the Year of Rice. 

The first event was the 8th Council for Partnership on Rice Research in Asia (CORRA), held over the last weekend at the Kyonggi Small & Medium Business Center, which focused on effective research collaboration schemes between the IRRI and Asian nations. 

The International Rice Science Conference is the second of the three scheduled events, in which rice experts discuss four main subjects on the crop _ increasing potential rice yields, environment-friendly and sustainable rice cultivation schemes, rice quality improvement, and socio and economic functions of rice cultivation. 

The conference covers a wide range of related issues, including food security, biotechnology, environmental conservation and the impact of the rice industry on national economies. 

The third fair, the IRRI Board of Trustees meeting, will be held from today for three days in Seoul. In the meeting, which takes place biennially, representatives of 15 nations are expected to chart directions for the IRRI. 

Rice, The Staple at Risk 

The three events has given Koreans and the government a moment to ponder the rice business here, which has faced a variety of obstacles lately. 

"Rice is a precious food, which has shared a history with Korean people for the last five thousand years. It still accounts for 52 percent of farmers' income here and 56 percent of the farm land in the nation,'' Minister Huh said. 

But South Korea is expected to face such complicated issues as talks on its rice market-opening of the Doha Development Agenda, a rapid aging process for its rural communities and a decrease in per capita rice consumption, Huh said. 

The Korean government has been holding negotiations with the nine major rice exporting countries, namely the U.S., China, Thailand, Australia, Argentina, Egypt, Canada, India and Pakistan, regarding the opening of the Korean rice market, which has been suspended for the past 10 years based on the Uruguay Round agreement. 

It has taken a bumpy road in narrowing the differences in demands from the rice exporters as their demands are too various to single out a common denominator, including rises in the minimum market access quota and trade-offs irrelevant to rice. 

South Korea's agricultural industry has been contracting at a speed faster than any other advanced nation, according to the Korea Rural Economic Institute and the Korea Economic Research Institute. Korea needed 14 years for the ratio of people in the primary industry to the total population to decrease from 40 percent to 16 percent, some two times faster than Japan's 31 years, 2.5 times shorter than France's 44 years and the U.S.'s 42 years. 

The aging of the rural population is problematic as some 26.2 percent of the people living in farming areas were over the age of 65, about 2.5 times as many people under the age of 14, according to the National Statistical Office (NSO). The rural exodus is becoming more salient as the number of households in farming villages dropped by 37 percent for the past 10 years. 

Per capita rice consumption amounted to 83.2 kilograms last year, down 3.8 kilograms, or 4.4 percent, compared to 87 kilograms in 2002 and down 36 percent over the past 13 years, according to the NSO. 

Momentum for Development 

"The three global rice events will be a stepping stone not only for a leap in the quality of the international rice industry but also for cooperation in rice cultivation technologies among nations, not to mention, enhancement of the competitiveness in the Korean rice business,'' Huh said. 

"We have made a 10-year roadmap, composed of nine reform categories with 180 projects, to make the agricultural industry competitive, aimed at increasing the average income of farming households to 42.68 million won a year in 2013 from 24.47 million won in 2002 with the plan,'' Huh said. 

The government also announced in August its plan to nurture 70,000 farming households solely engaged in rice cultivation, so as for them to provide 50 percent of the domestic rice consumption. 

Huh added the agriculture reform will be achieved only when the government and the farming families closely cooperate, saying it is very encouraging that three leaders of farmers' coalitions were elected as proportional representatives in the April general election this year. 

Not only the competitiveness of the South Korean farmers but also expansion of systematic cooperation between South and North Korea are sought, Huh said. 

"Based on national consent and trust between the two Koreas, exchanges and cooperation will be promoted,'' Huh said. "In addition to emergency rescue for food shortages and farming tools, more comprehensive and systematic cooperative measures in technology exchanges, consolidation of agriculture foundation and seed improvement, will be prepared.''