Manila calls for Asian summit on rice

LOS BAÑOS, Philippines — Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap called for a ministerial-level meeting of Asian economies to discuss the global rice situation, during a meeting this week of the Board of Trustees of the The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), an IRRI statement on Friday said. Mr. Yap, himself an IRRI board member, said the meeting should include all affected developed and developing countries and focus on increased collaboration to deal with the problems facing rice production and the need for increased food aid in the interim. "We must address the plight of food-poor families in the countries most affected by the rice price crisis," the statement quoted Mr. Yap as saying. Palawan Rep. Abraham Kahlil B. Mitra (2nd District), chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture and Food, said in a separate interview yesterday that there is a need for at least the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to meet on the current rice situation "as soon as possible." "Considering that among its members [Thailand and Vietnam] are the world's biggest rice-producing countries, there is a need to tackle how the region...can deal with the current food security situation and also how ASEAN can deal with the rest of the world, the same way the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meet and talk among themselves on how to deal with the world demand," he said. IRRI said it was calling on the international community — with particular emphasis on donors — to start focusing on solutions to what's being described as a "rice price crisis" in Asia and elsewhere. The IRRI board discussed six key issues it considered vital to increasing rice production in Asia. The overall theme of these thrusts, however, is increased production to ease the sharp rise in rice prices "that has swept across the region, causing uncertainty and concern," the statement read. "The problems related to rice production and supply in Asia over the past year or more are cause for serious concern, but not for panic," said Elizabeth Woods, the newly appointed chairman of IRRI's board. "IRRI and its partners solved similar rice production problems in Asia in the 1960s and '70s and we can do it again," she added. "What we need is the committed support of donors and policymakers, as well as better awareness among the media and general public of the problems we face," she stressed. The institute is calling for increased focus — from both the public and private sectors — on the following six key areas: * "An agronomic revolution in Asian rice production" to narrow the gap between supply and demand, as well as between potential yield and actual yield. "Farmers have struggled to maximize the production potential of the rice varieties they are growing, so there is a gap between potential yield and actual yield," the statement said. "Farmers must improve their crop management skills so they can better deal with higher input prices." * Accelerate the delivery of new postharvest technologies. Post-harvest operations focus on the storing, drying, and processing of rice. "New technologies exist for on-farm storage and drying that are not being widely used," the statement read. "The use of old, inadequate technologies causes major post-harvest losses in rice." * Accelerate the introduction of higher yielding rice varieties. "New varieties exist that could increase production, but farmers are not using them mainly because the systems that develop and introduce new varieties to farmers are under-resourced," the statement said. * Strengthen and upgrade the rice breeding and research pipelines. "Funding for the development of new rice varieties has steadily declined over the past decade, and this must be reversed," the statement read further. "Likewise, record-high fertilizer prices and new pest outbreaks demand that rice crop and resource management research be revitalized." * Accelerate research on the world's thousands of rice varieties so scientists can tap the vast reservoir of untapped knowledge they contain. Working with IRRI, Asian economies have spent decades collecting data on the region's thousands of rice varieties. More than 100,000 rice varieties are now being managed and used at IRRI and in Asian nations. "However, scientists have studied in detail only about 10% of these varieties," the press release said. "We need to urgently learn more about the other 90%, so they can be used in the development of new rice varieties." * Develop a new generation of rice scientists and researchers for the public and private sectors. "Another vital concern for the Asian rice industry is the education and training of young scientists and researchers from each rice-producing country. Asia urgently needs to train a new generation of rice scientists and researchers before the present generation retires," the statement concluded. Ms. Woods added, "The problems facing rice production in Asia are not unique to one country; they are shared by nearly all the rice-consuming nations of Asia. We need to work together to find the right solutions. We must also recognize the global scale of the problem, especially the fact that many African nations depend on Asian rice production for their food security." - BusinessWorld