Scientists urged to develop plans for harsh rice environment

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) Executive Director Ronilo A. Beronio urges researchers and development workers to help develop rice production strategies for unfavorable rice environments in the Phiippines as well as for African countries.

Beronio, who recently attended a series of meetings of the Coalition for African Rice Development (CARD) in Arusha, Tanzania, and the Consortium for Unfavorable Rice Environment (CURE) in Siem Reap, Cambodia, reported that officials of CARD signified their interest to adopt PhilRice’s training and capacity-enhancement programs.

Beronio, said he shared “our experiences on implementing the Location-Specific Technology Development (LSTD) program, and the participants are interested to implement a similar program in Sub-Sahara.”

Citing field reports Beronio said the program helped Filipino farmers sites increase their harvest to almost one ton per hectare.

Beronio said PhilRice is addressing rice production problems in the uplands, especially those of the indigenous people.

“NGO reports stated that indigenous people have ancestral land titles and that they have relatively stable land ownership. It’s appropriate then that we help them till their lands and get good harvests despite unfavorable conditions. I believe that good harvests will also reduce malnutrition incidences in the upland,” Beronio said.

He said the PhilRice LSTD, could also help African countries. Beronio added that PhilRice, along with the African Rice Center, and International Rice Research Institute, would craft rice development strategies by identifying Philippine-adapted farm practices and technologies that may be applied in African countries.

Meanwhile, as support to the CURE project, Beronio said PhilRice would prioritize the improvement of varieties to address climate change. “Rice researches and activities should address climate change as it creates more unfavorable environments.”

For upland and rainfed ecosystems, Beronio said purified materials from popular varieties such as Dinorado should be developed as the variety is widely planted in the Southern part of the country.

CARD, a Japan Internation Cooperation Agency-initiated coalition, convenes administrators, rice experts, and development workers in rice research and development and academicians from Asia, Latin America, and Africa to help African countries increase rice production from 14 metric tons (MT)/year to 28 MT in 2018.

CURE, on the other hand, is composed of 26 national agricultural research and extension systems based in the 10 Asian countries.

CURE aims to benefit 100 million farm households in Asia dependent on rice, and living in poverty- and food-insecurity-stricken areas.

It has four work groups on drought-prone rainfed lowlands, saline-prone environments, submergence-prone rainfed lowlands, and shifting or rotational upland systems.