Rice scientists must focus on small farmers — Magsaysay

Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr. called on world’s rice scientists and researchers to make sure that their work and research focus not just on the science, but on improving the lives of people, especially poor rice farmers and consumers.

"You are clearly in a position to have a real impact on the lives of millions of such people, please don’t waste what is an unprecedented opportunity," Magsaysay said even as he identified the challenges facing the rice industry when he delivered his speech at the opening ceremony of the Fifth International Rice Genetics Symposium held recently at EDSA Shangri-la Hotel and attended by some 400 rice scientists and researchers from all over the world.

Magsaysay, chairman of the Senate committee on agriculture and food, said rice unites the nations of Asia and most importantly provides food and employment to millions of poorest citizens.

"But all is not well in the world of rice. To put it simply: rice is in crisis," he lamented.

"Not only is is the Asian rice industry facing a crisis in the supply of such essential resources as land, labor and water, but most important of all, no researchers have found a sustainable solution to the problem of providing decent livelihoods for Asia’s millions of poor rice farmers," Magsaysay said.

The second challenge, he said is the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger.

Magsaysay noted that about 70 percent of all the water currently withdrawn from all fresh water resources worldwide is used for agriculture. To grow rice, he said, requires about two times as much water as other grain crops.

"In Asia, irrigated agriculture accounts for 90 percent of the total diverted fresh water used, and more than 50 percent of this is used to irrigate rice. Until recently, this amount of water has been taken for granted, but this cannot continue," he said.

"I believe the exacerbated water scarcity and competition for the same water from non-agricultural sectors points to an urgent need to improve the water productivity of rice," Magsaysay remarked.

Another challenge for researchers, according to the senator, is to increase the productivity of rice farms because of shrinking land resources.

"As the Asian population is expected to increase from 3.7 billion in 2000 to 4.6 billion in 2025, pressure to intensify land use, in both favorable and marginal areas, will thus increase," Magsaysay said.

"It’s because of the seriousness of these challenges that I believe it is vital that the full power of new sciences such as genetics and functional genomics be applied to rice production here in the Philippines and across Asia," Magsaysay stressed.