S.E. Asian nations adopt 10-year Rice Action Plan

10/25/2008
Neil Jerome C. Morales
BusinessWorld

MANILA, Philippines - Southeast Asian nations on Friday endorsed a 10-year Rice Action Plan drafted by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) involving increasing yields, research dissemination, and rice policy support, to make sure rice crises like the one that hit in the first half of this year will no longer recur, a press release by the IRRI read.

Agriculture ministers of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) approved the seven-point action plan during the 30th annual meeting of the Asean Ministers of Agriculture and Forestry in Hanoi, Vietnam this week.

Asean includes the world’s two largest rice exporters, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as the biggest importer, the Philippines. Other members of Asean are Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Laos, Myanmar and Brunei.

"We have the scientific expertise, knowledge, and partnerships to grow the rice Asia needs and now...we have strong political support," the statement quoted IRRI Director General Robert S. Zeigler as saying.

"The only thing missing are the financial resources needed to implement this," Mr. Zeigler said, telling the ministers that IRRI needs an additional $15 million a year for the next 10 years to support the Asean Rice Action Plan.

"At a time of trillion-dollar bailouts for the global financial sector, $15 million a year is barely the annual bonus of a former Wall Street executive," Mr. Zeigler said.

In a phone interview, IRRI spokesman Adam Barclay said "even as countries are worried about the financial crisis, we hope that support for agriculture would not be lost."

The Rice Action Plan was drafted by IRRI amid the rice price crisis in the first half, in consultation with its partners around the region.

At the height of the rice crisis in the first half, the United Nations World Food Programme observed that global rice stocks hit at a 20-year low while rice prices surged to a 20-year high. Consequently, the first half saw Philippine rice prices rising 40%-50% to P35-P45 per kilogram from P25/kg-P30/kg.

The seven-point plan includes "reducing the gap of 1-2 tons per hectare between actual and potential yield in most ricefields; accelerating the delivery of new postharvest technologies to reduce losses; accelerating the adoption of higher-yielding varieties; upgrading breeding of hybrid seeds; accelerating research on rice varieties; developing a new generation og rice scientists and researchers; and providing a conducive policy environment for rice production."

"[Delivery of post-harvest services] often gets neglected and it results in a lot of losses every year," Mr. Barclay said, noting that as much as 15% of yields are lost.

Vietnam rice troubles could affect region: expert

A vendor puts rice into a bag for sale at a rice market in Ho Chi Minh city (Photo: AFP)

LOS BANOS, Philippines (AFP) — Vietnam's farm sector is reeling from outbreaks of pests and disease that could threaten its neighbours including China, according to one of the world's leading rice experts.

Hanoi and the world scientific community have yet to find a way to prevent another crop failure following a virus attack on rice crops last year, said Robert Zeigler, head of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

Vietnam is the fifth-largest rice producer and number three exporter in the world, and last year's troubles hit some of the best rice-growing areas, Zeigler told AFP in an interview at the Institute, just south of Manila.

"The fact is, they got taken by surprise and they had some significant yield losses that they were just not expecting," he said.

"Of course we are concerned about Vietnam. But some of these pests can migrate up into China, and who knows if could they move up and cause some serious problems?"

He noted that, while China is not a key player in the international rice trade, the country is by far the world's largest producer and consumer of the grain.

Vietnam also lies close to Thailand, the world's top rice exporter, and rich rice-growing areas in Myanmar and Cambodia.

Zeigler said the IRRI is monitoring the potential impact of the severe winter in China on its rice crops, both in the north where only one crop is grown a year and in the south where the usually milder climate allows for multiple planting seasons every year.

The troubles have helped lead to spiralling prices, with many nations relying on Vietnamese exports. Prices have soared to more than 700 dollars a tonne, more than three times the rate of five years ago.

Along with other disasters such as flooding in Java and a devastating cyclone in Bangladesh, the Vietnam troubles -- a viral disease called tungro and infestations of the brown planthopper insect -- have also led to global supplpies being drained.

Zeigler said it was still not clear why the pest and virus attacks had swept across the southern and central regions of Vietnam.

"We're faced with a lot of unknowns," said the American, who has headed the Institute -- credited for developing high-yield rice strains in the 1960s that helped lift hundreds of millions in Asia out of poverty -- since 2005.

"(Farmers) did shift varieties and they shifted the way they managed those varieties, and so we're still trying to sort out whether it was some change in the strain or it was the change in the management practices, or both," he said.

Zeigler said nations in the region and across the world needed to invest more in agricultural research, now that the vast yield gains seen since the 1960s have begun to flatten out.

"To some extent we can lay the blame ... on reduced investment in agricultural research in the last 15 years," he said. The IRRI, first set up with funds from US foundations, is supported by government donors worldwide.

"Certainly the kinds of things that took (Vietnam) by surprise are areas of work that IRRI had to cut back on in the last five to 10 years because of budget cuts," he said.