By: Louie Alonso Belmonte
The Philippine STAR via SEARCA BIC

Unsustainable, high-input rice farming will soon be a thing of the past as exciting new more productive farming systems and technologies are now being developed and perfected in Asia, including the Philippines.

The Philippine-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) said the new technologies in rice farming simultaneously reduce inappropriate use of pesticides, increase harvest and boost the income of farmers.

Ronald P. Cantrell, IRRI director general, described their research strategy for the 21st century as "breeding improved rice varieties with durable disease resistance while developing innovative, sustainable cropping systems."

In an international conference on agricultural research held in Mexico last October 25 & 29, Cantrell told global experts that a "doubly green revolution" in the rice fields of Asia has already commenced.

"IRRI and its partners in Asia have already enjoyed noteworthy successes with environment-friendly technologies for improving rice productivity and poor farmers' lives," Cantrell noted.

The concept of a "doubly green revolution" was first put forward by former Rockefeller Foundation head, Gordon Conway, in a 1997 book by that name.

Conway argued the world needs a doubly green revolution that would be even more productive than the first Green Revolution, and must ensure the conservation of natural resources and protect the environment.

Half of the modern rice varieties released in South and Southeast Asia over the last 38 years resulted, at least partly, from work by IRRI and its partners.

Cantrell added the global rice harvest has more than doubled in that period, and raced slightly ahead of population growth.

Larger harvests per capita have helped to drive down world rice prices by 80 percent over the past 20 years, he noted.

Poor consumers, IRRI said, have benefited lower prices of their staple food, their single largest expense item, and farmers have enjoyed lower unit costs and higher profits.

At the national level, IRRI stressed that Asians have achieved food security.

In the Philippines, sustaining the growth of the agricultural sector through the full implementation of the Agricultural Modernization Act is part of the 10-point agenda of the Arroyo government.

Cantrell, however, pointed out that the campaign started in the first Green Revolution is not yet finished.

The drive, he said helped stave off hunger to a significant extent on two continents, but an estimated 800 million people still do not have access to sufficient food to meet their needs, and millions of farmers remain trapped in poverty."

Cantrell said IRRI has learned some important lessons over the last 40 years, and modern technologies can be environmentally sensitive if they are designed and used with the benefit of modern ecological knowledge.

"IRRI is committed to ensuring a cleaner, greener environment," Cantrell stressed.

He cited four environmentally focused IRRI research achievements which include one study in China that confirmed the key role crop biodiversity can play in helping farmers improve their lives while protecting the environment and their families' health.

In 1997, IRRI scientists and collaborators in Yunnan started experiments on inter-planting to control the devastating rice blast fungus while at the same time reducing fungicide use.

Two years later, farmers averaged US$280 more net income per hectare compared to growing hybrids alone.

In 2000, the New York Times described the project as one of the largest agricultural experiments ever.

To date, farmer across 10 Chinese provinces interplant nearly one million hectares, achieving better plant protection with minimal fungicide use and preserving popular traditional varieties.

After about 10 years of development and study, IRRI is now promoting a simple site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) technique by which farmers feed the rice plant nutrients only when needed, when nutrients in indigenous resources- soil, water, crop residues and manure-are less than optimal.

The benefits from SSNM significantly multiply when improved management of phosphorus and potassium is included.

Today, SSNM is being evaluated by extension workers and farmers in some 20 locations in the Philippines, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

Each location represents an are of intensive rice farming on more than 100,000 hectares with similar soil characteristics and cropping systems.

Cantrell noted that as farmers across the rice-producing would join IRRI in the doubly green revolution drive, food security will greatly and significantly improve for millions of impoverished people.