Rice Today Vol. 12, No. 1

7/30/2019 Rice Today Vol. 12, No. 1

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1Rice TodayJanuary-March 2013ISSN 1655-5422

www.irri.org

International Rice Research Institute January-March 2013, Vol. 12, No. 1

The state of play: GM rice

Upon the 100,000th cross

Rice booms in Turkey

Prepping for sea-level rise in Vietnam

Trends in globalrice consumption


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2 Rice TodayJanuary-March 2013

CirclesForRice.com

Producing enough food to feed the growing population is a

challenge we face each and every day. Valley

Irrigation and the

Circles for Rice project have found a way to grow rice - protably

- even where, traditionally, no rice could ever grow before. Usingcenter pivots or linears to grow rice allows for expansion into

land that has rolling terrain or sandy soils. And for those currently

growing rice in ooded elds, a water savings of up to 50% can be

realized. If those arent enough reasons to consider center pivots

and linears, visit www.CirclesForRice.com to learn more.

Contact your Valley Irrigation dealer to nd out more about

producing rice with a Valley center pivot or linear.

Irrigation. Technology. Conservatio


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contents Vol. 12, No. 1

EDITORIA L ................................................................ 4

NEWS ......................................................................... 5

A LITTLE GRAIN OF RICE WITH A BIG MISSION .... 9

RICE TODAY AROUND THE WORLD ...................... 10

WHATS COOKING? ................................................ 11Waakye:ApopulardishromGhanamadewithrice

andbeans

THE STATE OF PLAY: GENETICALLY MODIFIEDRICE ..................................................................... 12

WhatsgoingoninGMrice

UPON THE 100,000TH CROSS ............................... 17AmilestoneismarkedinIRRIsbreedinghistorywith

the100,000thrice-cross

MARRIAGE RESPECTS NO BOUNDARIES .............19Whatreallyhappenswhencross-breedingrice

ECLIPSING THE SUN: FLATBED DRYERS .............. 20MillionsoAsianarmersnolongerstrugglewithpoor-

qualitysun-driedgrain

APPEASING NINE DRAGONS ENRAGED BYCLIMATE CHANG E .............................................. 22

OneoSoutheastAsiastopriceexportersndswaystodealwiththewrathoclimatechange

RICE BOOM S IN TURKEY ........................................ 26Withitssoundandenablingpolicies,Turkeysrice

researchandproductionhavenowhereelsetogobutup

MAPS ....................................................................... 30Acloud-piercing24/7eyeinthesky

GREEN FUEL FROM RICE........................................ 32Whattodowithstraw,husks,andotherriceresidues

RICE FABLES............................................................ 34Therstpalay

COUNTRY HIGHL IGHT: IRAN ................................. 36

GLOBAL RICE TRADE FACES UNCERTAINTYIN 2013 ................................................................ 38

AlleyesareonthericepoliciesoThailandandIndia,Chinasgrowingimports,andglobalriceproductionintheaceoclimatechange

BREEDING A GRAIN OF LIFE IN LAC ..................... 40

THE FUTURE FACES OF RICE SCIENCE ................. 42First-everinternationalconerenceatIRRIdesignedo

youngscientists

RICE FACTS .............................................................. 44Trendsinglobalriceconsumption

A CITY WITH A HEAR T FOR RICE ........................... 46

Althoughitsahigh-techpowerhousecity,Singaporehasitscultureanduturerootedinrice

GRAIN OF TRUTH ................................................... 47Theworldneedsmoreagronomists

3Rice TodayJanuary-March 2013

publisherSophie Clayton

editors Lanie Reyes, Aileen Macalintal

Asiaeditor Gene Hettel

AricaeditorSavitri Mohapatra

LatinAmericaeditorNathan RussellcopyeditorBill Hardy

artdirectorJuan Lazaro IV

designerandproductionsupervisorGrant Leceta

photoeditorsChris Quintana, Isagani Serrano

circulation Antonette Abigail Caballero, Lourdes Columbres, Sherri Meneses,

Cynthia Quintos

WebmastersAlaric Francis Santiaguel, Jerry Lavia

printerCGK formaprint

Rice Today is published by the International Rice Research Institute(IRRI) on behal o the Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP).

IRRI is the worlds leading international rice research and trainingcenter.Basedin thePhilippinesand with ofceslocated inmajorrice-growingcountries,IRRIisanautonomous,nonprotinstitutionocusedonimprovingthewell-beingopresentanduturegenerationsoricearmersand consumers, particularly those with low incomes, while preservingnatural resources. It is one o the 15 nonprot international researchcentersthataremembersotheCGIARconsortium(www.cgiar.org).

Responsibility or this publication rests with IRRI. Designations usedin this publication should not be construed as expressing IRRI policy oropinion on the legal status o any country, territory, city, or area, or itsauthorities, or the delimitation o its rontiers or boundaries.

Rice Todaywelcomes comments and suggestions rom readers. RiceToday assumes no responsibility or loss o or damage to unsolicitedsubmissions, which should be accompanied by sucient return postage.

The opinions expressed by columnists in Rice Todaydo not necessarily

refect the views o IRRI or GRiSP.

InternationalRiceResearchInstitute2013

Thismagazine iscopyrightedby theInternationalR iceResearch Institute(IRRI) andis licensedor useunder aCreative CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike3.0License(Unported).Unlessotherwisenoted,usersarereetocopy,duplicate,orreproduce,anddistribute,display,ortransmitanyothearticlesorportionsothearticles,andtomaketranslations,adaptations,orotherderivativeworksunderspecicconditions.Toviewtheulltextothislicense,visithttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/.

About the cover.LikethislittlegirlinHaiti,nearlyhalo

theworldspopulationo7billioneatsrice.And,whentheglobalpopulationreaches9billionaroundmid-century,moremouthswillhavetobeed.Addtothisarechallenges

inriceproductionsuchasincreasingcompetitionorland,labor,andwateraswellasconcernsrelatedtoclimatechange.Thus,ricescientistsareworkingtogetherin

ndingwaystoensuresustainableoodsecurity.(PhotobyLucasPhillips,FreeTheKids,Inc.)

International Rice Research InstituteDAPOBox7777,MetroManila,PhilippinesWeb:www.irri.org/ricetoday

Rice Todayeditorialtelephone:(+63-2)580-5600or(+63-2)844-3351to53,ext2725;ax:(+63-2)580-5699or(+63-2)845-0606;email:[email protected],[email protected]

Rice TodayEditorial Board

Bas Bouman,GRiSP

Mary Jacqueline Dionora,IRRI

Achim Dobermann,IRRI

Osamu Koyama,JapanInternationalResearchCenterorAgriculturalSciences

Erna Maria Lokollo,IndonesianAgencyorAgriculturalResearchandDev.

Pradeep Kumar Sharma,CSKHimachalPradeshAgriculturalUniversity

Marco Wopereis,AricaRiceCenter

Gonzalo Zorrilla,LatinAmericanFundorIrrigatedRice


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News

A fnancial boost orC4 rice

T

he pursuit to rein in hungerwith the development of a

cuing-edge rice of the futurehas received a nancial boost,and is now rolling into its secondphase.

The project seeks to create"C4 rice"rice with a built-in fuelinjector to beer convert sunlightinto grain, potentially resultingin up to 50% higher productionwhile using less water andnutrients.

The Bill & Melinda GatesFoundation, the UK government,

and IRRI have put $14 millionbehind C4 rice over the next 3years.

This is exactly the sort ofinnovative scientic research thatthe Prime Minister was callingfor at the Hunger Summit atDowning Street earlier this year,said Lynne Featherstone, UKParliamentary Under-Secretaryof State for InternationalDevelopment.

The researchers have already

identied crucial genes neededto assemble C4 photosynthesis inrice, dened the basic elementsrequired for functional C4photosynthesis, and successfullyintroduced 10 out of the 13 genesneeded for C4 rice.

In this second phase of theproject, the team aims to produceC4 rice prototypes for testing (seemore on C4 on page 14).n

The weed intifcation tool is also accssibl as an app on a tablt.


DerekMakokha,afr

icarice

"Weeds are perhaps

the most important

constraint in rice

production."

Dr. Jonne Rodenburg, AfricaRice

weed scientist

Anew interactive tool can nowidentify nearly 200 dierentweed species of lowland rice in

East and West Africa.Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice)

recently unveiled this tool built ona comprehensiveknowledge base. Itis accessible onlineand oine (CDor as an app onsmartphones andtablet computers).

Weeds areperhaps the mostimportant constraintin rice production,so this is a valuable

resource for allthose involved in research, training,and management of rice weeds insub-Saharan Africa, where total riceproduction losses because of weedsare estimated at US$1.5 billion, saidDr. Jonne Rodenburg, AfricaRiceweed scientist.

The weed identication toolis the product of a 3-year projecton African Weeds of Rice(AFROweeds), which is coordinated

Identiying rice weeds in Arica

by the Centre de cooprationinternationale en rechercheagronomique pour le dveloppement(CIRAD) and AfricaRice, withsupport from the EU Africa,

Caribbean, Pacic (ACP) Science andTechnology Program.The project, now

almost complete,is carried out inpartnership withnational agriculturalresearch andextension systems insub-Saharan Africa.

The projecthas also developedWeedsbooka

professional socialnetwork for sharing information

between professionals and studentsinterested in applied botany, weedscience, and weed management inrice in Africa.

These resources have beendeveloped to help disseminateknowledge and exchange informationnot only among the project members

but also among all the communityof actors in the rice value chain,

said Dr. Thomas Le Bourgeois, weedscientist from CIRAD and leader ofthe AFROweeds project.

The target users are weed

scientists and agronomists, studentsand professors of universities,farmers associations, and extensionservices, he added.


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As Myanmar comes out of isolation with recentpolitical reforms, the international community isclosing ranks to help the country recoverwith a focuson helping rice farmers reach the countrys productionpotential.

A new collaboration among Myanmar, IRRI, and theLivelihoods and Food Security Trust Fund (LIFT) seeksto realize the countrys rice production potential.

Interventions to reduce the vulnerability ofMyanmars farmers to extreme weather being caused byclimate change mean promoting the use of rice varietiesthat can tolerate oods, salinity, and drought, as well

as management approaches that support optimumperformance of these improved rice varieties, says IRRIscientist Dr. David Johnson.

IRRI has been working in Myanmar since the1970s and is now helping to pull together nationaland international partners to provide support to ricefarmers. IRRI and its partners in MyanmarincludingMyanmars Department of Agriculture and Departmentof Agricultural Researchhave been engaged instakeholder consultations as they target the rural poor inrice-producing areas in the lower and upper delta, and inthe central dry region. n

Myanmar: Asias next rice granary?


These fndings ...really stress the need

or mitigation andadaptation measures to

secure global ood supplywhile at the same time

keeping greenhouse gas

emissions in check.

Dr. Kees Jan van Groenigen,

Trinity College Dublin

More carbon dioxide in theatmosphere and rising temper-atures cause rice agriculture

to release more of the

potent greenhousegas methane (CH4)for each kilogram ofrice produced, newresearch publishedrecently in the onlineedition of Nature Cli-mate Change reveals.

Our results showthat rice agriculture

becomes less climate-friendly as our atmos-phere continues to

change, said Dr. KeesJan van Groenigen,research fellow in theBotany Department of the School ofNatural Sciences, Trinity College Dub-lin, and lead author of the study.

This is important, because ricepaddies are one of the largest human

sources of methane, and rice is theworlds second-most-produced staplecrop, he said.

Dr. van Groe-

nigen, along withcolleagues fromNorthern ArizonaUniversity and theUniversity of Califor-nia-Davis, gatheredall published researchto date from 63 dif-ferent experiments onrice paddies, mostlyfrom Asia and NorthAmerica.

Two strong

paerns emergedwhen we analyzed allthe data: rst, more

CO2boosted emissions of methanefrom rice paddies; second, highertemperatures caused a decline inrice yields, explained ProfessorBruce Hungate of Northern Arizona

More greenhouse gas per grain of riceUniversity and co-author of the study.

However, the authors point outthat several options are availableto reduce CH4 emissions from rice

agriculture.For instance, management

practices such as mid-season drainageand using alternative fertilizers reduceCH4 emissions from rice paddies.

Moreover, by switching to moreheat-tolerant rice cultivars and byadjusting sowing dates, declinesin yield because of increases intemperature can largely be prevented,thereby reducing the eect ofwarming on CH4 emissions per yield.

These ndings, together with

our own results, really stress theneed for mitigation and adaptationmeasures to secure global food supplywhile at the same time keepinggreenhouse gas emissions in check,Dr. van Groenigen concluded.

Source: www.tcd.ie

Course title Date Target participants

Rice Breeding Course 11-22 March Breeders, agronomists, and research managers

SNP Data Analysis 22-27 April IRRI researchers/scholars; and open to NARES partners

Basic Rice Production Course 9-11 April IRRI NRS, scholars, postdocs, and IRS

Rice: Research to Production 20 May-7 June Young scientists 2135 years old

TRAINING COURSES AT IRRI

For inquiries, contact [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected]. Phone: (63-2) 580-5600 ext 2538 or +639178639317; fax: (63-2) 580-5699, 891-1292, or845-0606; mailing address: The IRRI Training Center, DAPO Box 7777, Metro Manila, Philippines (Attention: TC Course Coordinator); Web site: www.training.irri.org.

Note: Fees and schedules are subject to change without prior notice.


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The 2012 Louis Malassis Young

Promising Scientist Prize waspresented to Dr. May Demont,

agricultural economist at the AfricaRice Center (AfricaRice), for hisresearch in the eld of rice valuechain development in Africa.

Dr. Demonts research hasshown that, to become competitive,Africas rice sector needs toemphasize rice quality andmarketing.

Based on this analysis, hedesigned a policy framework for

the sustainable development of ricevalue chains in Africa to enhancethe competitiveness of domesticallyproduced rice vis--vis importedrice.

Dr. Demont also led theAfricaRice team and their Belgianpartners who won the T.W. SchulPrize for Best Contributed Paper atthe 28th International Conference ofAgricultural Economists (ICAE) heldrecently in Foz do Iguau, Brazil.

They received the prize for theirpaper on Experimental auctions,collective induction and choice shift:Willingness-to-pay for rice qualityin Senegal.

Arsenic in rice?

In September 2012, theUnited States Food and DrugAdministration (FDA) released apreliminary study on arsenic inrice.

Based on the available dataand scientic literature, the FDAis not recommending changes

by consumers regarding theirconsumption of rice and riceproducts, states the FDA.

IRRIs assessment of currentresearch supports this, andindicates that there is no evidenceto show that people should stopeating rice grown in Asia becauseof concerns about arsenic. n

Aquino declares2013 year o rice

President of the PhilippinesBenigno Aquino has declared2013 as the National Year of Riceto help intensify the countryseorts to aain rice self-suciencyduring the same period.

The proclamation aimsto help sustain initiatives to

boost farmers morale andmotivate them to adopt modernand sustainable technologies,which will improve their farmproductivity and income, andencourage the public to beresponsible rice consumers.

Meanwhile, IRRI and thePhilippine government signedan agreement to advancecollaboration in support of thePhilippines Food Staples Self-Suciency Program. n

Source: www.pia.gov.ph

Awards for AfricaRicesvalue chain research

This will come out in the

European Review of AgriculturalEconomics in 2013.

The paper presents the newmethod developed by AfricaRicefor conducting experimentalauctions in the African context.An experimental auction creates amarket in a laboratory seing, whichallows testing to determine whetherconsumer behavior can be alteredunder certain conditions.

This provides more and dierentinformation than what can be

obtained through classical surveys.AfricaRice has used

experimental auctions as animportant research tool to nd outconsumers perceptions of dierenttypes of rice and the price theywould be willing to pay for them. Sofar, it has conducted 12 experimentsinvolving more than 1,600 womenthroughout Africa.

The experimental researchprogram has conrmed that local

rice can be competitive with importsin urban markets if quality istailored to consumer standards and,even more so, if it is aractivelypackaged and labeled.

(Left to right) Guio Grysls, Priz jury cair; Ann-Luci wack,Agropolis Fonation irctor; hnri Carsala, Agropolis Founationboar cair; an Matty dmont, AricaRic aar.

oliveroliveros,agropolisfounDation



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Books

Weed management in direct-seededrice systems

By Bhagirath Singh Chauhan

Rice, an important crop in Asia,is mainly grown by manualtransplanting o seedlings under wet

conditions. Recently, armers in this region

have been shiting to direct-seeded ricesystems because o high labor costs

and less availability o water. Moreover,

laborers have been continually migrating

rom rural areas to cities.

Mainly, two kinds o direct-seeded

systems are practiced in Asia: dry- and

wet-seeded rice. Although direct-seeded

rice systems have several advantages,

weeds are major constraints in these

systems. Since rice and weed seedlings

emerge simultaneously, rice has no

seedling size advantage. Moreover, in

direct-seeded systems, no standing water exists to suppressthe emergence and growth o weeds.

Weeds in direct-seeded systems can cause a substantial

Patterns of varietal adoption andeconomics of rice production in AsiaEdited by H. Wang, S. Pandey, O. Velarde,

and B. Hardy

Rice research remains an importantglobal undertaking to ensure anadequate ood supply or sustainable

ood security o the poor. Improved

technologies or high rice productivity

are critical to attain ood security and

reduce poverty in the ace o increasing

competition or land, labor, and water as

well as the challenges posed by global

warming.

Millions o poor small armers grow

rice in Asia and Arica under diverse

unavorable conditions such as areas

aected by drought, submergence,

salinity, problem soils, insects, diseases,

and other pests. Unortunately, armersoten have to contend with various

adverse actors simultaneously.

With the support o its donors, IRRI, in partnership with

national programs, leads in the development o suitable rice

technologies or these diverse conditions by using modern

scientic approaches and tools. IRRI continues to ocus its work

to develop improved rice germplasm that is high-yielding and

tolerant o abiotic and biotic stresses. And, with the Global

Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP), the Institute directs its eorts

likewise to improve crop management, reduce postharvest

losses, and improve the nutrient content o rice grains.

rice yield loss. Farmers control weeds by

using herbicides or by manual weeding.

But, manual weeding is becoming less

common because, during critical times,

no labor is available; added to this is the

high cost o labor.

Herbicides are replacing manual

weeding because they are easy to use;

however, the sole use o herbicidesposes some concerns such as evolution

o resistance in weeds, shits in weed

populations, and some negative eects

on the environment.

This 20-page publication responds

to the need to integrate dierent weed

management strategies or eective and

sustainable weed control in direct-seeded

rice systems. This book describes dierent

strategies, which include preventive and

cultural approaches, in order to manage

weeds in these systems. This will be

important material or researchers and extension specialists todevelop integrated weed management programs or direct-

seeded rice systems.n

IRRI, in partnership with the Chinese

Academy o Agricultural Sciences (CAAS),

is implementing a major project to

develop Green Super Rice (or GSR) or

Asia and Arica. These rice varieties are

expected to be both high-yielding and

environment-riendly as they incorporate

several traits or pest and disease

resistance.

Improved varieties resulting rom

these eorts, however, will not have

their desired impact unless armers

ultimately adopt these varieties. Hence, it

is important to understand the social and

economic contexts o rice production in

these countries to attain efcient results.

Thus, this 130-page book provides

socioeconomic contexts or rice produc-

tion in key countries in Asia such as Sri

Lanka, Cambodia, and Pakistan where theGSR project is taking place. This book is

based on a detailed analysis o arm-level

data such as armers resource endowments, their livelihood

strategies, rice production practices, technology adoption pat-

terns, and household income structures, among others.

Inormation in this book will provide important insights or

underpinning technology development and dissemination and

will also serve as a benchmark or uture impact assessments.n

To purchase printed copies of these and other books, contact

[email protected].


http://books.irri.org


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More than beingentertaining, a well-toldstory may serve as anagent of change and

cultural appreciation. The Adventuresof Gabby Ghas is a story remarkablefor its potential in communicating astrong message about the value of riceand rice farming.

Wrien in 2006 by Virna KarlaSebastian, Erika Thea Ajes, and

Aya Arce, the bookwon in theEnglish category of a story-writingcompetition conducted by theAsia Rice Foundation and AlphaPhi Omega Service Sorority, incollaboration with the PhilippineDepartment of Education.

The story follows Gabby Ghas,a plucky rice grain, in his search forhis place in the world. In the courseof nding his purpose, he encountersother rice seedlings, weeds, insects,and other creatures. Eventually, Gabby

Ghas ends up on a familys dinner ta-ble, where he realizes that his destinyis to provide nourishment for people.

Beyond the storybook pagesGabby Ghas has become anambassador of sorts for the Asia RiceFoundation. The foundation wasput together by the alumni of theInternational Rice Research Instituteand the University of the Philippinesin Los Baos, Laguna. The Asia Rice

Foundation aims to support culturaland educational advocacy eorts andpromotes awareness of and public

appreciation for the role of rice withinthe diverse Asian cultures.

Gabby Ghas will bringthe importance of rice to theconsciousness of young people, saidDr. Benito Vergara, chairman of theAsia Rice Foundation.

The book is an excellent meansof making young people learnmore about rice and appreciatemore the role of rice farmers, saidCarmen Paule, chair of the Asia Rice

Foundation short story competition.Since its original publication,the story of Gabby Ghas has beentold and retold to many pupils whilethousands of copies of the book havebeen purchased and distributedin public schools. Recently, theDepartment of Education ordered6,000 copies of the book for its libraryproject, Dr. Paule added. We aregreatly overwhelmed.

From Gabby to GaboDr. Mira Sinco, president of Founda-tion University in Dumaguete City,Philippines, felt the need for a versionfor students in the Visayan region ofthe country. Thus, the story of GabbyGhas, previously published only inEnglish, was translated intoCebuano,a widely spoken language in theregion.

In October 2012,Ang mgaSugilanon ug ang Panimpalad niGabo Ghas, the Visayan version,

by Alaric Francis Santiaguel

A little

grain of

rice with

a big

mission

The journey of a little grain

ofpalaynamed Gabby Ghas

continues

was launched.It is co-publishedby the Asia Rice Foundation, theSoutheast Asian Regional Center

for Graduate Study and Research inAgriculture (SEARCA), the PhilippineRice Research Institute, and theDepartment of Agriculture-Bureau ofAgricultural Research.

Though this may not be theusual fare in SEARCAs publications,we saw it as a way of introducingto our youth the value and cultureof eating rice and, invariably, theappreciation of agriculture andthe value chain from which this

important commodity comes, saidGil Saguiguit, Jr., SEARCA director.

A multilingual riceDepartment of Education SecretaryArmin Luistro suggested having thebook translated into the 12 majorlanguages of the country.

Dr. Saguiguit also raised theidea of translating TheAdventures ofGabby Ghas into Bahasa Indonesia as arst step in expanding its readershipto other countries in the Southeast

Asian region.Im on my way to see the world!

Gabby Ghas said at the beginningof his adventure. With the help offriends in the real world, this tiny ricegrain with a big mission is certainlymaking great strides.

Mr. Santiaguel is a writer at IRRI.

To order copies of the English version ofthe book, please visit asiarice.org.

chris

quintana


10/42

10 Rice TodayJanuary-March 2013Rice TodayJanuary-March 201310

TRUE BLUE READERS. Theorever riends rom IRRI-Philippines have all the goodvibes running throughouttheir China spring vacation

as they strike a pose withtheir magazines and shirtsat St. Paul's Ruins, Macau(left to right, Patrick Garcia,Ellen Silab, Stephanny Garcia,Francisco Elazegui, FannyGarcia, Minda Fernandez,Marietta Baraoidan, andBoyet Cura).

SIMPLY BREATHTAKING. The beauty o the Victoria Nile in northern Uganda canperhaps be elt in the acial expression o Robert Anyang, regional programofcer o public-private partnership and market access, Sasakawa-Global 2000.Hes holding a copy oRice Todaywhile standing on the Karuma Bridge.

WORLD WIDE VIEWS. Mr. AlfeM. Torres, researcher o theWorld Agroorestry Centre,poses in Copenhagen with thefrst 2012 issue oRice Todaywhen he attended a trainingseminar called "World Wide

Views on Biodiversity" inMarch last year.

WACKY! Liew You Choo and Heng GuanHou, who are rom organic importerThe Sukha House, hold two o the best2012 covers oRice Todayat the 2012Asian Masters event in Singapore.


11/42


Whats cooking?

ith a fascinating

historical heritage,rich cultural diversity,extraordinary scenic

beauty, and friendly people, Ghanais a charming blend of old and new.Ghanaian cuisine has a wide varietyof traditional dishes, such as thepopular Waakye (pronounced waa-chay), a rice and beans combination,which is both delicious andnutritious.

Waakye was earlier popularmainly in northern Ghana but has

now gained national status and is

Ghanas popular rice and beans dish

Ingredients2 cups rice1 cup red beans or black-eyed peas, or any

kind o beans or peas4 dry sorghum leaves (or 1 teaspoon o

baking soda)Salt to taste10 cups water

Preparation1. Wash and soak the beans in water or 34

hours.2. Drain the beans and place them in a large

pot o water.3. Bring the mixture to a boil and let it cook

or about 45 minutes.4. Wash the sorghum leaves.5. Cut the leaves 3 to 4 inches, toss them in

with the boiling beans, and allow them tocook together.

Waakye: A popular

dish from Ghanamade with rice andbeans

Mrs. Manul lives with her amily in Tema, a

town located 25 km east o Accra, Ghanas

capital. She works as a chie revenue ofcer

under the Ghana Revenue Authority. She

loves to cook traditional dishes rom her

country or her riends and amily, especially

or her husband, John Manul, plant breeder

at the Arica Rice Center.

by Eugenia Manful

loved by grownups and children

alike. It can be prepared at home,but, in Ghana, it is more popular as astreet food. It is also eaten in Nigeria,Togo, and Benin, where it is preparedin slightly dierent ways.

Waakye is usually served forbreakfast or lunch with a typicalGhanaian spicy pepper sauce. It canbe a meal in itself or it can be eatenwith boiled eggs and/or with a stewof sh, chicken, beef, or vegetables.

The dish requires about 15minutes of preparation and an hour

and a half of cooking time.

W

6. I sorghum leaves are not available, adda teaspoon o baking soda to give theWaakye its characteristic color.

7. Remove the sorghum leaves rom thebeans ater 5 minutes.

8. Wash the rice and add to the beans in thepot, along with more water.

9. Allow the mixture to cook or 1520minutes (or until the beans are tenderand the rice is cooked and all liquid hasbeen totally absorbed).

10. Be sure that the mixture does not burnand keep stirring while it cooks.

11. Season with salt.12. Serve the dish with pepper sauce and

boiled egg and/or a stew o fsh, chicken,bee, or vegetables.

Serves 4.

Watch Mrs. Manful demonstrate how to prepare this delicious dish in a 6-minute video on YouTube at

http://youtu.be/okXqTQbbm68or listen to a podcast at http://snipurl.com/waakye2.Mrs. Manul eve Wkye with peppe ce, iedfh, gied chicke, d boied egg.

Bon apptit!


12/42

GM rice gwg a f f a a irri.


GM crops have been growncommercially since the 1990s.The global coverage of GMcrops in 2011 was 160 million

hectares in 29 countries (Fig. 1),reports the International Servicefor the Acquisition of Agri-biotech

Applications. And, they predict that,by 2015, at least 20 million farmersin more than 40 countries will beusing the products of biotechnology,including GM crops, on around 200million hectares.

This article specically focuseson GM ricethat is, rice that has hada gene or genes from another speciesor rice variety introduced into itsgenome using modern biotechnologytechniques. This GM rice exhibits the

traits conferred by the introducedgene or genes.

As of December 2012,commercialized GM rice had notyet become a realitywhich means,farmers arent growing it andconsumers cant eat it yet.

The GM Crop Database of theCenter for Environmental RiskAssessment shows that two GM ricevarieties (LLRice60 and LLRice62,

both with herbicide resistance) wereapproved in the United States in2000. Subsequent approval of theseand other types of herbicide-resistantGM rice occurred across Canada,Australia, Mexico, and Colombia.However, none of these approvalsresulted in commercialization.

In 2009, China granted biosafetyapproval to GM rice with pestresistance, but no commercial rollouthas taken place.

Nevertheless, R&D on GM ricecontinues to advance in both thepublic and private sector around

the world. GMO Compass notes thatArgentina, Australia, Brazil, China,France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Iran,

Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Spain,and the United States have all beeninvolved with GM rice. Bangladeshand South Korea are also engaged inresearch on GM rice.

Researchers are working on GMrice with higher yield; increasedresistance to pests, diseases, andherbicide; beer tolerance of drought

People often argue passionately for or against genetically modied (GM) crops. Rice Todays

aim here is not to take sides in a debate that has often generated more heat than light, but ratherto look at the factswhat is actually happening in relation to GM rice with a separate focus onwork underway at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

by Adam Barclay and Sophie Clayton

The sTaTe of play:

genetically modifed rice

GM rice gwg a f f a a irri.


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Golden rice s bg uh v avaua as a a w way assvam A fy.


and salinity; improved nutritionalvalue and health benets; and highernitrogen-use eciency.

Research on GM rice at IRRIIRRIs approach to its GM rice R&Dis based on a premise that geneticmodication has the potential to

safely deliver to rice farmers andconsumers a number of benets thatcannot be achieved through other

breeding methods.Genetic modication is used

as a research toolto understandgene functioneven when there isno intention to develop a GM ricevariety, and to develop new GMvarieties with added benecial traitsthat cannot be found within the ricegene pool.

Compared with other major

crops such as corn (maize) or wheat,rice has an extraordinarily diversegenetic resource base that spreadsacross at least 24 dierent species ofrice, explains Dr. Eero Nissil, headof IRRIs Plant Breeding, Genetics,and Biotechnology Division. Thismeans there is already a very largepool of useful rice genes that breederscan use to develop new varieties ofrice with improved traits.

In fact, less than 5% of our rice

breeding focuses on delivering GMrice varieties, he adds.

Golden RiceThe best-known and most advancedexample of IRRIs research on GM rice

for beer nutrition on pages 14-17 ofRice Today Vol. 10, No. 4).

By working with a mix of leadingagricultural and health organizationsIRRI is helping to further develop andevaluate Golden Rice as a potentialnew way to help address vitamin-Adeciency. Work on Golden Rice ismost advanced in the Philippines,where it is led nationally by Dr.

Antonio Alfonso of the PhilippineRice Research Institute.

Weve completed some initialeld tests in dierent locations toevaluate and select breeding linesthat potentially would meet farmersand consumers expectations, to seehow Golden Rice grows in dierentenvironments, and to compareany environmental impacts ofGolden Rice with those of other ricevarieties, said Dr. Alfonso.

is that of Golden Rice. Unlike otherrice, this contains beta caroteneasource of vitamin A (See Golden grains

Fg. 1. Ma shwg h 29 us ha gw bh s, by ak ag aa (2011).Source of map: ISAAA Brief 43-2011: Executive Summary: Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2011 (www.isaaa

org/resources/publications/briefs/43/executivesummary/default.asp).

Golden rice s bg uh va vaua as a a w way ak vam-A fy.

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14

Street, said Lynne Featherstone,UK Parliamentary undersecretary ofstate for international development.This new funding will enable IRRIto begin producing prototypes of thissuper rice for testing. This couldprove a critical breakthrough infeeding an ever-growing number ofhungry mouths.

The research still has a long way

to go, but the scientists have alreadyidentied crucial genes needed toassemble C4 photosynthesis in rice,and they now aim to produce C4 riceprototypes for testing.

Iron-clad riceIRRI senior scientist Dr. Inez Slamet-Loedin is leading two other projectson GM rice. Like Golden Rice, the rstof these aims to combat the problemof hidden hunger, or micronutrientmalnutrition, worldwide.

Dr. Slamet-Loedin and her teamare developing iron-rich rice. Thishas the potential to prevent theiron-deciency anemia that aictsmore than 1 billion people globally,particularly poor women andchildren (see Iron-clad rice on page46 of Rice Today, Vol. 10, No. 3). Iron

deciency and iron-deciency anemiacontribute to increased maternalmortality, stie childrens cognitiveand physical development, andreduce peoples energy.

In its experimental work, IRRIhas added two genes to the popularrice variety IR64. One of these is agene named ferritin from soybean,which codes for iron storage. Ricehas its own ferritin gene, but addinganother increases the plants iron-storage capacity. Ferritin from

soybeans is a major source of ironfor vegetarians. Crucially, it providesiron that is highly bioavailablethatis, can be easily absorbed and used

by the body. The other gene, whichcomes from another rice variety,helps transport iron to the grain.

Adding a ferritin gene willincrease iron-storage capacity,explains Dr. Slamet-Loedin, but youalso need to increase the amount of

bioavailable iron reaching the grain

hence, the need for the transportergene, which allows iron in the leaf,where it is abundant, to be moved tothe grain, the part of the rice that iseaten.

As a bonus, she says, the use ofa transporter gene will also increasezinc in the grain.

In 2012, IRRI and the Colombia-based International Center forTropical Agriculture (CIAT) eachperformed the rst conned eldtrials of iron-rich GM rice outside of

Japan, to look at iron content in thegrain and to check the performanceof rice in dierent conditions.

Non-GM rice varieties thatare relatively high in iron haveconcentrations of 58 parts permillion. Dr. Slamet-Loedins teamtargets an iron concentration of1314.5 parts per million in rice grain.Given average rice consumption,this could provide 30% of womensand childrens estimated iron

Rice TodayJanuary-March 2013

We use genetic modifcationwhen we see a unique

opportunity to incorporate anew trait that could havesignifcant benefts or rice

armers and consumers.

Eero Nissil, head of rice breeding, IRRI

Turbocharged C4 riceIRRIs most ambitious aempt togenetically modify rice is its C4 riceproject. The project, which bringstogether a mix of internationalpartners, is aempting to make ricemuch beer at photosynthesis, theprocess of turning sunlight into grain(see New rice plant could ease threat ofhunger for poor on page 8 of Rice Today

Vol. 8, No. 2).Rice uses a C3 photosyntheticpathway, which is much lessecient than plants such as maizethat use a C4 pathway. Rice alreadyhas all the components requiredfor C4 photosynthesis, but they aredistributed dierently withinrice cells. By rearranging thephotosynthetic structures within theleaves using genetic modication,it is theoretically possible to switchrice over to C4 photosynthesis

potentially increasing productivityby 50%.

In 2012, the C4 rice project got aninjection of nancial support valuedat US$14 million over 3 years from theBill & Melinda Gates Foundation, theUK government, and directly fromIRRI.

This is exactly the sort ofinnovative scientic research that the[UK] Prime Minister was calling forat the Hunger Summit at Downing

dr. eero nss a d. iz Sam-l ausg g mfa h bga sah h v w vas.

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Rice TodayJanuary-March 2013

requirements. Early trials at IRRIrevealed an iron content of 1113ppm, on the cusp of the target.Further growing, bioavailability, andfood and environmental safety testsare still needed as the team workstoward iron-clad rice.

Confrming gene unctionDr. Nissil explains that one ofthe most important uses of geneticmodication at IRRI is in identifyinguseful genes and conrming the traitthey are responsible for. By usinggenetic modication, researchers cantake a rice gene that they suspect may

be responsible for a favorable trait,and insert it into another rice plantto see whether the trait of interestis also transferred. If it is, then theyknow that is the gene they want to

target in their conventional breedingprogramswhich will result in aregular, non-GM rice variety thatincludes the benecial gene andassociated trait.

For example, IRRI used geneticmodication to conrm the majorgene responsible for phosphorusuptakePSTOL1 (see Rice gene boosts

phosphorus uptake on page 6 of RiceToday Vol. 11, No. 4). However, theoriginal rice plant with the PSTOL1

gene was not genetically modiedand future varieties bred to includethe PSTOL1 gene will not be GM.

varying severity and length, and atdierent times during the growingseason (drought hiing during thereproductive stage of rice tends tohave the worst impact), as well asin dierent soil types. Furthermore,any new drought-tolerant varietyneeds to perform well in nondroughtconditions too.

This project has support fromJapans Ministry of Agriculture,

Forestry, and Fisheries and is a jointeort among the Japan InternationalResearch Center for AgriculturalSciences (JIRCAS), which hasprovided funding; RIKEN, a largepublic research organization in Japan;and CIAT, which is helping withtesting.

Promising GM breeding lineswith improved drought tolerancehave already been developed. Someof these lines include extra rice genesand some have genes from a tiny

plant calledArabidopsis. Over thepast few years, the performance ofthese lines has been tested in droughtconditions using screenhouses. In2011 and 2012, it was time to movethe testing outdoors and IRRI andCIAT completed conned eld testsof the lines at rainfed lowland sitesin the Philippines and upland sites inColombia, respectively.

Dr. Slamet-Loedin says that to geta rice variety that tolerates drought

Institutional Biosaety Committee at IRRI

An Institutional Biosaety Committee (IBC) is responsible or ensuring that IRRI complieswith local and international regulations and guidelines in the conduct o its experimentsthat involve GM crops or other products. In the Philippines, where IRRI undertakes research

on GM rice, the composition and responsibilities o the IBC are determined by the Biosaety

Committee o the Department o Science and Technology (DOST-BC).

IRRIs IBC is composed o three IRRI scientists, two scientists rom the University

o the Philippines Los Baos, and our representatives rom the local Los Baos and

Bay communities around IRRI headquarters. It works under the Philippine regulatory

ramework, which was rst established in 1990. DOST-BC oversees IRRIs IBC and, through

the IBC, all research on GM rice at IRRI. No GM organisms can be used in IRRIs research

without prior authorization rom DOST-BC.

We must assure that research on GM rice is both sae and efective, and that is

possible only through a team o dedicated, independent people who are able to assess

the environmental, health, and social implications o the science, and enorce biosaety

measures that prevent the unintentional release o GM material, says Dr. Ruaraidh Sackville

Hamilton, head o IRRIs IBC.

The Philippines was the rst country in the ASEAN (Association o Southeast Asian

Nations) region to introduce a biosaety regulatory system, and it remains one o the most

robust anywhere, and one o the very ew with broad representation that includes civil

society, he added.

15

Drought-hardy riceDr. Slamet-Loedin is also leadingIRRIs eorts to identify usefuldrought-tolerance genes that couldlead to the development of eitherGM or non-GM drought-tolerant ricevarieties (see Overcoming the tougheststress in rice: drought on pages 30-32 ofRice Today Vol. 8, No. 3). This is morechallenging than nutrient-enrichedrice because drought itself is complex

as well as the way it aects rice crops.For example, any new variety mustbe tested in drought conditions of

Genetic ModiFicAtion hs y gsha u bu ugh aahughh fa vay s hav bgay mf.

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at dierent stages during its life cycleas well as dierent types of drought,stacking all the genes for droughttolerance into a single variety couldget the best results.

Building expertise on GM riceThe intention of IRRIs current

research on GM rice is that, one day,new GM lines will be passed onto researchers in national agenciesfor further development and, ifapproved, eventually to farmers andconsumers.

Alongside the developmentof this research goes trainingin biotechnology and geneticmodication techniques for ricescientists. This gives them specializedskills to conduct biotechnologyresearch and to build up their

expertise and understanding ofthe area, so that they can respondresearch opportunities back in theirhome countries and institutes, andmeet their own local needs.

In September 2012, IRRIran the Advanced Indica RiceTransformation Coursethe rsttime ever that the Institute providedtraining on the genetic modicationof rice. Indica ricethe rice mostwidely produced in South and

Southeast Asiais a broad groupof many dierent types of rice thatare usually grown in hot climates.

Nine public- and private-sectorparticipants aended the trainingfrom China, Colombia, India,Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines,and the U.S. They got hands-onexperience and learned about

biosafety issues and internationalguidelines for biosafety managementin research.

Says one of the trainees, Ms.Ritushree Jain, an Indian nationalwho is doing her PhD at the

University of Leeds in the UK, Afterthis training, I hope that I will beable to make a construct and put

some genes into rice plants andespecially in indica varieties, whichare more susceptible to drought andnematodes. A lot of rice cultivationis aected by drought stress andnematode infestation and these are

big problems.My hope is that I will be able

to nd some genes to integrate intoIndian rice varieties and developsomething new that will help, sheadds.

Mr. Barclay served as a science writerat Green Ink (www.greenink.co.uk)when he wrote this article. He is nowa communications manager at CRCCARE. Ms. Clayton is the publicrelations manager at IRRI.

For a related podcast on IRRI Radioassociated with this article, go to hps://soundcloud.com/irri-radio.

My hope is that I will be ableto fnd some genes to integrate

into Indian rice varieties anddevelop something new that

will help.

Ms. Ritushree Jain,

biotechnology trainee

GM rice s y avaab a bu am sah GM a irri s mv hua vau sums h uu.

trAininG pArticipAntS m au hw a hw us bhgya gay my a irri.

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Before scientistsever startedcrossing

dierent riceplants, farmers hadinadvertently beenat it for centuries.

By the mid-1800s, scientistswere catchingup, with GregorMendels research

on inheritanceand geneticspaving the wayfor more advancedapproaches to plant

breeding into the1900s.

These scientic discoveriescouldnt have been timed beer. Bythe middle of the 20th century, fearof famine loomed when populationgrowth seemed to have outstrippedfood production. Rice and wheat

two of the most important food cropsin the developing worldbenetedfrom international eorts to improvetheir productivity using a science-

based breeding approach.

The pivotal semi-dwarfIRRIs hand in helping the rice-eating world through breeding beervarieties of rice began shortly afterthe Ford and Rockefeller Foundationsestablished the Institute with the help

by Ma. Lizbeth Baroa-Edra

of the Philippine government in 1960.IRRI scientists sought to replicate inrice what had been done in wheat inMexico, and successfully bred IR8asemidwarf variety that journalistsdubbed miracle rice because it

could produce twice the amountof rice grains that tall varietiesproduced. IR8 has been credited withaverting a humanitarian crisis thatwould have plunged the worlds poorinto abject hunger (see Breeding historyon pages 34-38 of Rice Today Vol. 5,No. 4).

Since then, more than 900 IRRIvarieties have been released in 78countries, across ve continents.Some of these were bred to be

resistant to insectsor diseases, and theycan withstand poorsoils. Two popular

breeding lines, IR64,released in 1985,and IR72, releasedin 1988, have bothhigh yield and goodgrain quality.

Fifty years ago,it was a dierent

scenario in termsof tools availableto create beer ricevarieties, saidIRRIs head of plant

breeding, Dr. EeroC. Nissil. Today,

we have modern breeding tools thathelp us do the work in less time.

IRRI breeding was thereThe progression of new rice varietieshas reected the challenges that

farmers have faced over the years.In the late 2000s, after decades of

tracking down the gene that providestolerance of ooding in rice, andafter infusing this gene into popularvarieties, IRRI released its ood-tolerant line.

Today, millions of hectares of richrice farmlands in the delta regionsof Asia have beneted from scubaricethe rice that can withstand morethan 2 weeks of total submergence.

Upon the

crossWith the 100,000th time rice has been crossed by IRRI breeders, a milestone is marked in theInstitutes breeding history. The event allows for reection, appreciation, and anticipation of

how breeding saved lives in the past, and will save more in the future.

IR100,000py md s produco h 100,000h cross md IRRI.


chris quintana


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An independent study of Indone-

sia, Vietnam, and the Philippines bythe Australian Centre for Internation-al Agricultural Research showed thatIRRIs breeding program has helpedincrease rice yield up to 13%, givingthese countries an extra $1.46 billionworth of rice each year.

What makes IRRI breedingexciting?Today, IRRI scientists are working onrice that responds to specic needs

of farmers in a particular region orecology. An example is rice that cansurvive under stagnant water. This isa problem in rice-growing areas neardelta regions such as those in Vietnam(seeAppeasing nine dragons enraged byclimate change on pages 22-23).

Another example is rice thatis tolerant of salinity. Salt-tolerantvarieties have already been releasedin the Philippines and Bangladesh.

Work is also under way to create2-in-1 ricerice with combined toler-

ance of ood and salinity, said Dr.Glenn Gregorio, deputy head of IRRIplant breeding. The goal is not onlyto confer tolerance of ood and salt inpopular varieties but also to make surethat they have good eating quality.

Trends in farmers practices,observed in decades of householddata gathered across Asia, are alsonding their way into IRRIs breedingagenda. An example is the increasingpractice of direct seeding.

Irrigated rice is an input-

intensive undertaking as farmershave to pay laborers to transplantrice, said Dr. Nissil. Farmers thusresort to direct seedinga trend thathas been observed in farmers elds.Once again, IRRI plant breeders seean opportunity to help. IRRI is nowdeveloping rice that germinates inanaerobic conditions, and we have

been making good progress in this.To facilitate the spread of these

improved rice types in areas that need

them, IRRI is also creating breedingresearch hubs in South Asia as well asEast and Southern Africa, so that up-coming lines can be tested in regionalconditions. These hubs are facilitieswhere IRRI breeding lines are evalu-ated in conditions unique to the region,in collaboration with national partners.

Also, to facilitate the eorts inbreeding to respond to farmers needs,IRRI is creating product prolesfor rice, per various rice ecologies,regions, and consumer needs.

Rice is very cultural, and qual-itynot just yieldis also a majorconsideration in dierent rice prefer-ences, said Dr. Nissil. These productproles will also help enhance ourprecision breeding, puing more valuein our resources and eorts.

IR100,000Last 29 November, IRRI celebratedits 100,000th cross. But, whats sospecial about the 100,000th cross?

It tells us how much weve gone

through in our commitment to feedthe world, mused Dr. Gregorio.More importantly, we hope that,

by highlighting such a milestone,we renew enthusiasm toward plant

breeding and the fact that it hasbeneted so many people globally.

In breeding jargon, the 100,000thcross was between IRRI 151(NSICRc214), a high-yielding popularvariety with good grain quality, andIR09M105, a high-micronutrient rice.

We hope to be able to get the besttraits from both parents and create avariety that provides what farmersreally need: more grain, with goodquality, and high in micronutrients forhuman health, said Dr. Gregorio.

Reecting on how the worldwould have been without the work onimproving rice varieties, Dr. Nissilsaid, In Asia, highly populated rice-eating countries such as China andIndia would not have been able todevelop the way they have. The world

would have been a much more dicultplace to live in. It is as simple as that.

Ms. Baroa-Edra is a public relationsspecialist at IRRI.

See a related video on YouTube at hp://youtu.be/vSPjWLysdzo.

For a related podcast on IRRI Radioassociated with this article, go to hps://soundcloud.com/irri-radio.

In late 1962, Pr Jigs, IRRI's frsbrdr, md h ighh IRRI crosswhichd o h scio o IR8, sig h GrRvouio o is cours. th prs wrP, , vigorous vriy rom Idosi,d D-go-woo-g (DGWG), dwrvriy rom Chi.


irri


19/42

to know who her life partner willbe. The groom, who comes from anelite group, is as proud as ever tosire a celebrity noted for the familyscapacity to give high grain yield.

The ceremony begins withoutchurch bells, but barely introducingthe groom as a golden yellow pollen

grain, released by the burning sunfrom its hideaway. With a mute I do,the bride receives him with wide-openarms.

The newlyweds are veiled andbound together, and the traditionalwedding ringsimply a brightlycolored merchandising tag with apiece of silvery string and a lead-coated paper clipis pulled out.Inscribed on the tag are the commonnames of the newlyweds. This is theirmarriage contract, a contract signed

by both parties without an expirationdate.

The ceremony is nally overnowedding cake, doves, or bountifulfood for the invited guests. Thehoneymooners do not go to a ve-starhotel. They are left in a dark corner ofthe greenhouse after being coveredwith glassine bags, locked with apaper clip. But, this union will be thestart of something biggenerations ofrice varieties that are not hindered by

boundaries.

Mr. Herrera was among the frst breedersto make crosses at IRRI in the early 1960s(photo above). He arrived at IRRI in 1961as a research aide and retired 36 years laterin 1997 as a senior assistant scientist.

Innocent-looking rice plants alsoengage in courtship and marriage.

The rites are simple, devoid of anelegant and expensive entourage.

The bride, the superstar of theoccasion, is not in the usual weddinggown. She is simply a dark green riceplant with owers stripped o itsanthers, the male counterpart of thespecies.

When rice ower buds are stillempty of their stored starch, bothmale and female parts are in theower, producing self-fertilizedseeds. To prevent self-pollination,castration by removing the maleparts by tweezers is a requisite. Only

at this point will the rice plant betransformed into an instant bride.

Before the cool evening is over,the bride is locked in a plastic bagto protect her from intruders. She isin seclusion, awaiting her princecharming during the long, hauntingnight. At daybreak, as the sun kissesthe rice owers and the morning dewshies away to join the rain clouds,the innocent bride sees hope forrejoicinga break from her solitary

by Rizal M. Herrera

connement. Overjoyed to meetthe groom, she sneaks through thetransparent glassine bag, but, to herdisappointment, she nds no one.

The sun radiates more of itsinexhaustible energy, unmindful ofthe dark clouds blocking its eortsto force the sleepy groom out of itscapsule. After a long extended wait,here comes the groom; not thebride, excited, puzzled, and eager

marriage respects no

boundarIesWhat really happens when cross-breeding rice


IRRI plant breeder Dr. Ge Gregorio (left)discusses he 100,000h cross wih formerIRRI breeder Mr. Riz Herrer.

irri

chris

quintana


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At rst, the atbed rice graindryer did not take o inmost countries because ofthe high-cost kerosene-

fueled burner. Its 1-ton dryingcapacity per batch was too big for

small farmers and too small for thecommercial sector.It was only in Vietnam where the

technology was successfully adapted,thanks to a version modied by NongLam University (NLU). By 2005,around 4,000 dryers with 4- to 8-toncapacity were installed in the MekongDelta, all using rice husk as fuel.Neighboring Lao PDR, Cambodia,and Myanmar had no dryers at thattime. Indonesian dryers mostlyinstalled by the government were not

being used. And, only a few dryersbased on the Vietnamese design wereused in the Philippines.

The International Rice ReasearchInstitute (IRRI) began working withNLU, national partners, and privatestakeholders in 2006 to introduce theatbed dryer in Southeast Asia.

MyanmarDr. Myo Aung Kyaw from thePioneer Postharvest Development

Group (PPHDG) and Mr. Tin Oo,a manufacturer, participated in anIRRI-organized dryer manufacturingtraining by NLU in 2006.

After the training, they installedthe rst pilot unit in Myanmar,

which sparked the production andinstallation of dryers at rice mills andwith farmers groups. By 2012, morethan 70 dryers had been installed bythe PPHDG, 80 by Mr. Tin Oo, and150 by others who had copied thedesign.

The Pioneer postharvest teamconrms that 13,700 farmers arebeneting fromthe dryers that theyhave installed, and about 35,000farmers are already beneting frommore than 300 dryers in the country.

IndonesiaIn the tidal lands of South Sumatra,low-quality discoloredrice wascommon because of delays inhandling and drying. This wascaused by shortages in laborand poor postharvest facilities.Then, AGRINDO, a machinerymanufacturer in Java, introduceda kerosene-fueled atbed dryer inSouth Sumatra in 1995. Unfortunately,

users abandoned the dryer because ofrising fuel costs.

In 2003, a rice-husk-red dryerwith 3.3-ton capacity was developedby the Indonesian Center for RiceResearch in Sukamandi, and

introduced in South Sumatra by theAssessment Institute for AgriculturalTechnology in Palembang. IRRIhelped by transferring a biggerand more ecient fan to a localmanufacturer in Palembang. Come2010, around 200 dryers wereinstalled in South Sumatra, mainly byrice millers. Four local workshops arenow producing dryers there, with oneshop in Palembang already makinggood-quality dryers.

In 2012, IRRI provided additional

training on blower testing andmanufacturing of an improved ricehusk furnace.

The PhilippinesMost Filipino farmers rely on thesun to dry their grain, but now theyface quality problems because ofunpredictable weather.

In the past few years, thePhilippine Rice Research Institute(PhilRice) worked with NLU to bring

Millions of Asian farmers struggled with poor-quality sun-dried grain until a mechanical

fatbed dryer adaptable to the tropics was developed in the Philippines in the 1970s

by Martin Gummert and Trina Leah Mendoza

Eclipsing the sun:

fatbed dryers


martingummert


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of the dryers adapted design, theuse of rice husk as fuel, as well as thefacilitation of technology transfer andsupport to local manufacturers.

Each country had localchampions who drove thetechnologies even beyond projecthorizons. Multistakeholder platformssuch as learning alliances helpedin linking actors across sectors,capturing the learning, and making itavailable for others.

All these were key ingredientsthat helped move atbed dryers fromVietnam across Southeast Asia.

Mr. Gummert is a postharvest expertand Ms. Mendoza is a communicationspecialist at IRRI.

For a related video about the fatbeddryer in Cambodia, see hp://youtu.be/ldsReKPINOE

in the second-generation atbeddryer with reversible airow fromVietnam to the Philippines.

IRRI supported a participatory

verication of the initial units of thesedryers through the Irrigated RiceResearch Consortium (IRRC) andan Asian Development Bank (ADB)-funded postharvest project. And, thePhilippine Department of Agriculturefunded 10 units installed at PhilRicestations.

These dryers are now distributedto end users through PhilRice and apostharvest learning alliance. Bothserve as platforms in which the

dryers can be evaluated in a businessmodel context with end users andsupporting institutions such asnongovernment organizations, localgovernment units, and IRRI.

CambodiaThe need for mechanical dryersin Cambodia sprang from theproliferation of combine harvesters inthe country.

Now, with around 2,000combines being used, large amounts

of grain harvested need to be dried.Sun drying is no longer suitable (see

Machines of progress, Vol. 9, No. 3,pages 38 to 41 of Rice Today). Thus,the ADB-IRRI project transferred theatbed dryer from Vietnam to a localmanufacturer in Cambodia.

From one demonstration unitinstalled with a farmers group in2007, Cambodia now has hundreds ofatbed dryers. The private sector hasrealized the benets of mechanical

drying and several companies haveinvested in the technology. Nou KimSean, a rice miller who partneredwith the project, has now designed a

recirculating batch dryerthe nextlevel of the technology. In 2012, IRRItested the dryer and assisted him incoming up with an improved secondversion.

Key ingredientsPrevious aempts to introducemechanical dryers for rice have failedbecause of unsuitable technologies,high fuel costs, and markets thataccepted sun-dried paddy without a

price penalty.However, increased harvestvolumes and markets becoming morequality-conscious pushed the needfor mechanical dryers in SoutheastAsia over the last decade.

Within a few years, neighboringcountries adopted the dryers because

PhiliPPine Rice Rsaristtt grs dstratt rvrsb fatbd dryr tarrs Agsa d nrt,Ppps.

nou Kim Sa (right), arr adara t Prsat R mrsAssat, adptd t tgyad bt a rratg bat dryrwt 12-t apaty.

An iRRi ta asssts stag a prvaty wd fatbddryr wt r sk-d raat t t mt. Srra madr cagaya Vay, Ppps.


a leah mendoza martin gummer


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Vietnams mighty Mekong Deltacomprises nine river mouthsthat give it its local name, CuuLong, or nine dragons.

very year, it supplies Vietnam withound 20 million tons of rice, whichabout 50% of the countr ys totaloduction. But, the signicance ofe rice supply from the Mekongelta goes beyond Vietnams own 91illion rice consumers.

In 2011, more than 6 millionns of the Mekong Deltas riceoduction were exported, makingetnam the second-largest rice-porting country in the world. Theuntrys rice production could beitical to rice-importing nations,pecially African countries, as itovides a pool of cheap rice thattraded globally alongside the morepensive premium rice coming fromher major exporters such as Indiad Thailand.

nder threat of climate changeoking out into the South Chinaa, the Mekong Delta is exposedsea-level rises along its extensiveastlines on its western, southern,d eastern boundaries. It is alsoe drainage point for the nearly000-kilometer-long Mekong Riverd the entire Mekong Basin of5,000 square kilometers.

Changes in rainfall distributionross the Mekong Basin and increas-in extreme rainfall occurrences

ill aect river discharge, or themount of water that ows throughe riverbed, and alter hydrologicalerns, including the magnitude,

equency, and duration of high andw ows within the Mekong Delta.hus, the risk of ooding will growross the deltas vast rice-growingeas.

by Sophie Clayton and Paula Bianca Ferrer

Rice farmers in the MekongDelta are no strangers to coping withoods. However, in 2011, oodingcame earlier and was worse thannormal, according to Dr. NguyenHieu Trung, dean of the College ofEnvironment and Natural Resourcesat Can Tho University in Vietnam.

Sea-level rise is predicted tofurther block the river discharge intothe sea, thus increasing ooding andaggravating salt-water intrusion in

rice-growing areas. And, as rainfallpaerns change, low or late rains atthe start and end of the rice croppingseason may result in drought, whichcould limit the productivity of ricefarms.

Getting CLUEd upIf the world wants our farmersto keep producing rice, then wemust help them prepare for climatechange, said Dr. Trung.

Aiming to help farmers adapttheir rice farming practices to climate

change, the CLUES project (Climatechange aecting land use in the MekongDelta: Adaptation of rice croppingsystems) could not have come at abeer time.

Supported by the AustralianCentre for International AgriculturalResearch, its goal is to help ricefarmers in the Mekong Delta. Itbrings together a mix of internationaland national research anddevelopment partners, including the

Appeasing nine dragons enraged by climate changne of Southeast Asias top rice exporters nds ways to deal with the wrath of climate change

International Rice Research Institute(IRRI) as project leader, AustraliasCommonwealth Scientic andIndustrial Research Organisation,the International Water ManagementInstitute, Can Tho University, CuuLong Delta Rice Research Institute,Southern Institute for Water ResourcePlanning, Institute for AgriculturalSciences in South Vietnam, and theDepartments of Agriculture andRural Development in Mekong Deltaprovinces along a transect from thecoastline to the inner sections of thedelta.

The CLUES project is the rstof its kind in that it focuses on riceproduction and climate change ina region-specic context, said Dr.Reiner Wassmann, CLUES leader andhead of climate change research atIRRI.

We started CLUES i n 2011, but

the work builds on a strong historyof collaboration with our partnersin Vietnam with whom we havebeen working for many years, headded.

Deploying good varietiesOne focus of CLUES is to helpVietnam speed up the developmentand deployment of rice varieties withimproved tolerance of submergenceand salinity.

Dr. NguyenThi Lang, head ofthe Genetics andPlant BreedingDivision at theCuu Long DeltaRice ResearchInstitute, explainedthat, ideally, theywant to breednew rice varietiesthat combinesubmergence andsalt tolerance,resistance to localdiseases, and thecapacity to grow

well on acid-sulfate soil, which is alocally occurring soil type.

From March 2011 to July 2012,CLUES partners conducted extensiveeld trials in three provinces withinthe Mekong Delta (Bac Lieu, AnGiang, and Hau Giang) and Can ThoCity. These trials were used to selectsuitable rice cultivars with improvedtolerance of salinity, submergence,stagnant ooding, and acid-sulfatesoil. By November 2012, Vietnamhad ocially released 15 new ricevarieties for commercial productionthat incorporated some of these traits.

When it gets saltyand dryThe CLUES team is also working withthe German Agency for InternationalCooperation (GIZ) on the project

Adaptation to climate change ththe promotion of biodiversity inProvince to help local farmerssaline and dry conditions.

In July 2012, CLUES and teams organized a participatovarietal selection activity for Bfarmers.

Mr. Nguyen Van Trung, farmer in Bac Lieu, used to gnormal varieties, but now thseen these new varieties, he he would like to try them.

In addition, the GIZ teamby Mr. Joachim Hofer, has inCLUES training course on alweing and drying (AWD)management technique that water use by 1530% withoulosses. After the course, aboufarmers used AWD during thautumn-spring season of 2012012 in Bac Lieu. With AWDSaving water: alternate weingdrying on page 17 of Rice TodaNo. 3), farmers can save 2 to dong (US$96 to $192) per hecfuel costs plus retain their yinot get a lile more.

Moreover, AWD can sucreduce greenhouse gas emisfrom rice production when ugood nutrient management. CLUES is also looking for smways to assess the dierencegreenhouse gas emissions wdierent management techngrowing rice.

Climate change may be fhold of Vietnams nine drago

hopefully, it won't drasticallyrice production given the proof newer varieties and smartetechnologies.

Ms. Clayton is the public relatiomanager while Ms. Ferrer is a prelations specialist at IRRI.

See related video clip on sea-levand rice production on YouTube

youtu.be/_XVC407evTg.

Rice TodayJanuary-March 2013Rice TodayJanuary-March 2013

Dr. NguyeN Thi Lan of th C LonDlta ric rsach Institt (CLrrI)shows a vait th s in thibdin tials.

irri(2)

mapby:nelgarcia

"If the world wants our

farmers to keep producing

rice, then we must help them

prepare for climate change.

Dr. Nguyen Hieu Trung, dean of the

College of Environment and Natural

Resources, Can Tho University in Vietnam

Vitnam's Mkon Dlta.


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Rice TodayJanuary-March 2013Rice TodayJanuary-March 2013odayJanuary-March 2013, Vol. 12, No. 1

These rice experimental elds in Los Baos, Laguna, Philippines, have been the location or IRRIs breeding work in meeting the needs o armers o

are high yielding; tolerant o drought, fooding, and salinity; and resistant to diseases, among other important traits. More than 900 IRRI lines have

78 countries, across ve continents, since IRRI's rst batch o crosses in 1962. Recently, IRRI bred its 100,000th crossa celebrated milestone in its b


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Turkey has the third-highestaverage rice yield in the world(behind Australia and Egypt),which reects sustained

investment in research and extensionover the past 33 years.

Rice production in Turkey hasrisen sharply since the mid-1990sand rice is now the fth most widelygrown cereal, behind wheat, barley,maize, and rye. The area of rice

grown is less than one-eightiethof that for wheat; thus, rice is stillnot a major crop or a major fooditem in Turkey (an average personeats 78 kilograms of rice per yearcompared with 200250 kilogramsfor wheat). But, Turkey is a strikingexample of how a country can createa policy environment conduciveto crop breeding and successfullyreach out for help in overcoming keyconstraints to increasing yield.

Area, yield, and productionFor the past 50 years, the area of ricegrown in Turkey has varied between40,000 and 100,000 hectares. Thisvariation is largely explained bywater availability and rice prices.The area harvested has increasedmarkedly since the early 2000s. Allof Turkeys regions produce rice, butthe western and northern regionsof Marmara and Black Sea, which

have the best climate and wateravailability, account for over 92% oftotal area and production.

Meanwhile, rice yield hasfollowed a generally upwardtrajectory, from 3.4 tons per hectarein 1962. The increase in yield hasaccelerated since the late 1990s,coinciding with the expansion inarea.

The combined eect of increasingarea and yield on national rice

production has been considerable.From the 1960s to the 1990s, theaverage annual production was260,800 tons. But, it has increasedsteadily since 1996 and, in 2011, some900,000 tons of paddy were producedfrom 99,400 hectaresan averageyield of 9.05 tons per hectare.

The country now meets morethan 90% of its domestic demand forrice. Many rice-producing countries

would be happy to import just 10%of their rice, but not Turkey. Backedby the government, rice researchand development practitioners aredetermined to see the country fullyself-sucient in rice grain and seedas soon as possible.

The role of researchThe government of Turkey took thelead in increasing the countrys riceproduction, creating an enabling

Rice boomsin Turkey byGuy MannersWith its sound and enabling policies, Turkeys rice

research and production have nowhere else to go but up

tari (3)


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policy environment with the twinaims of promoting and protectingrice production. It met the rst aim byfunding the development of irrigationinfrastructure, and then reducingthe cost of the electricity needed torun it. It met the second by paying

premiums for domestic rice (US$50per ton in 2006).Research wasand remainsa

key factor behind Turkeys impressiveyield increases. This has focusedon breeding, agronomy, and seedproduction. Much of this workhas been carried out at the TrakyaAgricultural Research Institute(TARI) in the Marmara region andsome at the Black Sea AgriculturalResearch Institute in the BlackSea region. Dr. Necmi Beer, TARIdirector, has no doubts about therole that TARI and its partnersare playing: The most importantresearch has been developing high-yielding varieties, he says. Fifteenyears ago, Turkey grew mainlyforeign varieties; now, nearly 100% ofthe rice grown in Turkey is Turkishvarieties.

Before the 1990s, TARIintroduced rice varieties from othertemperate countries, for farmersto plant and for use in breedingprograms. In 1990, Turkish riceproduction was dominated byintroduced varieties. But, in the

second half of the 1990s, Turkish-bredvarieties (mostly bred from crossesamong introduced varieties) werereleased.

One of these was Osmanck-97,released in 1997, a high-yieldingsemidwarf variety that has desirabletraits of a translucent kernel, ahigh milling yield, and tolerance ofendemic diseases. Farmers, industry,and consumers greatly appreciatedthis variety, and, within a decade,Osmanck-97 accounted for 80% of

domestic production.TARI researchers also

demonstrated the value of usinghigh-quality certied seed. Thegovernment supported this and ricefarmers took it up eagerly, quicklyrecognizing its benets. Today,TARI produces all of the foundationseed1 for all of the varieties grown

in Turkey. This is sold toprivate companies andstate farms, which use it toproduce the certied seedthat they sell to farmers.Thus, there is goodcollaboration from varietyimprovement to seed

marketing to farmers. Infact, the country is alreadymore than self-sucientin seed production and isexporting its seed surplus

The semidwarfvarieties developed byTARI opened the doorfor the mechanizationof rice production.Farmers began to usenew machines, such ascombine harvesters and

seed dryers. Amongthe more sophisticatedimplements now usedare laser-guided land-levelers, which small-scale

farmers can rent. These machinesaen the soil, which helps with cropestablishment and more ecientwater management and fertilizer andpesticide useall of which increaseyield.

TARI spent 20 years optimizing

fertilizer use in Turkish ricecultivation. Its recommendationsfor the timing and rate of applyingnitrogen and phosphate fertilizersmean that farmers can now applythe optimum amounts at the righttime. This maximizes the plants useof these minerals and, consequently,farmers yield and prot.

The large uptake of theserecommendations is largely downto a dynamic extension programthat has targeted rice farmers

with visits, seminars, conferences,demonstrations, television programs,eld days, leaets, and advicedispensed with inputs.

Challenges to rice productionFungal diseases such as bakanae,blast, and helminthosporium havelong aicted Turkish rice, and blast2

1Foundation seed is the progeny of breeder se ed (seed that comes directly from plant breeders).2Blast is a disease that causes white or gray-green lesions or spots on the shoot and causes the plant to produce fewer seeds.

1 d = 1,000 c f c

map by: nel garcia

Marmara region

Black Sea region


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has been a serious problem since

the 1990s, devastating the crop inMarmara in 1997.

Of all the challenges that standbetween us and self-suciency inrice, blast disease is the worst, saysDr. Beer.

In 1995, blast aected 25,000hectares of the 85,000 hectares of ricegrown that year, causing 2025%yield loss in aected areas. Areaaected and yield losses were evengreater in 1997. Blast thrives in damp

conditions and the damage it inictsis greatest in years with increasedrainfall and cloud cover, and in eldsthat receive high amounts of nitrogenfertilizer and no crop rotation (riceis grown in the same eld year afteryear). Under such conditions, blastcan completely destroy a rice crop.Osmanck-97 tolerates blastthatis, it still produces a yield despiteinfectionbut, we desperatelyneed more and beer blast-resistantvarieties, says Dr. Beer.

Enter the Temperate RiceResearch Consortium (TRRC), asmall network of national researchprograms from across the worldstemperate rice-growing areas.

The TRRC, which is supportedby the Rural DevelopmentAdministration of South Korea andthe International Rice ResearchInstitute (IRRI), brings togetherdeveloped countriesAustralia,China, Japan, South Korea, and the

United Stateswith developing

countriesBhutan, Chile, Indonesia,Kazakhstan, Nepal, the Philippines,Tanzania, Uruguay, and Uzbekistan.Rice researchers in temperatecountries are typically isolated, saysDr. Russell Reinke, TRRC coordinator.The consortium provides an annualmeeting for those 5060 persons todiscuss and share ideas and breedingmaterials.

Turkey joined the TRRC in 2009,two years after its creation. TheTRRC has three working groups,which look at yield and quality,dissemination of genes with diseaseresistance, and cold tolerance. Turkeyis primarily involved in the rst andsecond of these. One line of research

is increasing resistance to blast (seebox).

Although blast is the biggestheadache for rice producers, Turkeyseorts to achieve rice self-suciencyface many other challenges. Themost important of these is theshortage of water for irrigationas a result of low rainfall, riverswith low water ow, and untappedpotential (shortage of dams). TARIhas been working to increase theeciency of irrigation, including the

use of drip irrigation; meanwhile,the government still sees scopefor building more dams to expandirrigated areas.

Lessons for other countriesSo, what can other countries learnfrom Turkeys experience? Perhapsthe rst lesson is that the rice sectorcan expand and improve rapidly

Combine harvesters ud tuky' c pduc.

(F lf) D. nc b, dc f tky agculul rciu (tari); D. hll suk, d f rc Dp; m.m muzzglu, f pl f ed; m. m. mdek, f Fd, agculu, d Lck; d m. mu K,dpuy gl g f tuk G bd tari.


27/42


3 Africa Rice Center. 2011. Lessons from the Rice Crisis: Policies for Food Security in Africa. Cotonou, Benin: Africa Rice Center.4 For Africa, the main source of assistance is the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice); for Latin America, it is the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT).

when a government supports it.This is not newwe can look, forinstance, at the response of someAfrican countries to the rice pricecrisis in 2007-083but it is a usefulreminder of the governments role,especially at a time of austerity whencash-strapped governments arelooking to make cuts. Governmentintervention can take severalforms: infrastructure development(particularly irrigation), support for

research and development, directsubsidies and premiums, and importtaris (up for imported rice, down forfarm machinery).

Where suitable land remains,area expansion is almost always a fasttrack to increased production. If thiscan be combined with increased yield

Amajor hindrance to dealing with

blast disease is the lack o resistance

among japonica rice varieties, which

are grown in temperate countries such

as Turkey. In 2007, Dr. Kshirod Jena, IRRIs

senior rice breeder and ormer TRRC

coordinator, and his team (then based in

South Korea) discovered a new broad-

spectrum blast-resistance gene.

To make the gene available to the

rice-breeding community, Dr. Jena

and his team transerred the resistance

genedubbed Pi40into two South

Korean japonica varieties using a DNA

marker-assisted backcrossing strategy

(breeding the progeny o the original

cross with the South Korean japonica

parental variety).

In November 2010, IRRI and TARI

launched a project to transer Pi40

into two popular Turkish varieties,

Osmanck-97 and Halilbey, using

conventional and genetic marker-

assisted breeding techniques. Dr. Jena

and his team used the two South Korean

japonica breeding lines as the source o

the Pi40 gene.

In 2011, TARI planted material

carrying dierent blast-resistance genes,

including Pi40,at 12 test sites in Turkey.

Only eight o the sites were aected

by blast, but even at these sites the Pi40

gene-carrying lines were all resistant

to the disease, says Dr. Beer. We also

have early-generation segregating

material rom the crosses based on

Osmanck-97 and Halilbey, made or us

at IRRI, which have the Pi40 gene. We are

evaluating these or desirable agronomic

characteristics. Meanwhile, backcrossing

to the Turkish parental varieties is

continuing at IRRI.

The latest generation o materials is

ready or DNA and feld evaluation in 2013.

The DNA (marker) tests will show which

lines have the Pi40 gene, while the feld

evaluation will confrm feld resistance

to blast and the retention o the Turkish

varieties plant type. The goal is to have

new varieties so similar to Osmanck-97

and Halilbey that they cannot be

dierentiated, except when blast inects

the susceptible parent varieties.

I, or rather when, the Pi40-

carrying versions o the Turkish varieties

are available to armers across the

country, armers as a whole will save

the US$5 million that is spent annually

on ungicides to prevent and control

blast, and the Turkish environment will

beneft rom not having these chemicals

pumped into it.n

Making rice resistant to blastand IRRI. Turkeys success in riceproduction could not have happenedwithout these relationships. IRRIsrole is to provide internationalpublic goods for the benet of all,especially in Asia and Europe.4 ForTurkey, the timing of collaborationwas fortuitousDr. K.K. Jena, IRRI

rice breeder, had just discovered Pi40(blast-resistance gene)but years ofresearch lay behind that discovery.And, even if Pi40 were to fail, there isstill a wealth of knowledge on blastand blast resistance to be tapped onceagain if, or rather when, resistancebreaks down.

In September 2011, Turkey wasone of a group of countries that,along with IRRI, established theRegional Rice Research and TrainingCenter for West and Central Asia

(RRRTC-WCA) in Iran. At its rstmeeting a year later, the Centersinternational management teamelected TARIs Dr. Beer as itsrst president, and prepared theterms of reference for the Center.This training center will focus onadvanced research and the trainingof researchers and practitioners.Areas covered will include cropimprovement, crop and resourcemanagement, and climate change. In

particular, the Center will developand test (across its mandate region)rice resilient to extreme climatechangestolerant of drought, heat,and salinity. Turkey will play aleading role in this initiative as it isone of only two member countrieswith substantial rice researchcapacitythe other being Iran. (SeeCountry highlights: Iran and IRRIonpage 36).

Guy Manners is a science writer withGreen Ink (www.greenink.com.uk).

The author would like to thank Dr. Beer,

Dr. Jena, Dr. Reinke, and IRRI DeputyDirector General for Research Dr. AchimDobermann for their help with thisarticle.

(as in the case of Turkey), so muchthe beer. However, it is important toask what is not being produced as aconsequence of rice spreading to newareas, and whether rice makes the

best use of scarce resources, especial-ly water. And, if completely new landis brought into cultivation, what is theloss to biodiversity and other naturalcapital?

Making connections is alsoimportant; remember, you are not

alone! Whatever your role in the ricevalue chainagronomist, extensionagent, farmer, processor, traderother people out there are also doingthe same job. You just have to ndthem and connect.

For Turkeys rice researchers,this happened through the TRRC


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Rice TodayJanuary-March 2013Rice TodayJanuary-March 2013

Maps

Recent advances in remotesensing are quite exciting. Acase in point is the availabilityof high-resolution synthetic

erture radar (SAR) sensors on boardtellites, such as the COSMO-SkyMedSK) constellation. These sensors canliver precise and timely informationout the status of rice crops to users iny part of the world.

SAR sensors dier from opticalnsors. They can operate regardlesscloud cover and daylight, which

uarantees observations of rice cropsen during the monsoon or rainyason.

Regular observations at highsolutionwith pixel s ize of onlymetersmean that all stages of ace crop can be monitored at theld level and these images canovide useful information on cropanagement, crop production, andop losses from natural calamities.

Figure 1 shows a composite ofree SAR images between Juned July 2012 of rice elds in Leyte,

hilippines, from the RIICE projectemote sensing-based Informationd Insurance for Crops in Emergingonomies).

By assigning a color to each image,e can combine the red, green, andue images into one color composite toow dierent rice planting dates. Theue eld shows the area covered withater on 25 June and 11 July, meaningat planting occurred in mid- to lately. The red eld is one that was

nder preparation and ooding in Julyd then was planted in early August.ray areas are those where there is

changelight gray or bright arease built-up or urban areas, gray tonese natural vegetation or other naturalnd cover, and black is permanent

ater. The inset map shows the leveldetail that can be achieved withdividual plots clearly visible.

Dierent dates of rice plantingver a small area indicate irregular

igation in general, which hasmplications for pest and disease

anagement and can potentially leadhigher

Rice Today Vol. 12, No. 1

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