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FEEDING THE WORLD: Dr Dobermann believes that the region's rice yields could be raised by one to two tonnes a hectare, which would be enough to keep pace with global demand. This could be done through better seeds and more efficient farming. -- PHOTO: ALASTAIR MCINDOE
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LOS BANOS (PHILIPPINES) - FOR the world's leading rice research institute, solving Asia's grain production woes - and avoiding future crises - is a far from barren hope.
On a 200ha estate outside the Philippine university town of Los Banos, experimental rice varieties grown by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to boost yields and make them withstand harsh climatic conditions sprout in meticulously tended paddy fields.
Soon, some of these varieties may be in the frontline of a global effort to squeeze more rice out of less farm land; other strains will have a much further development horizon.
Soaring rice prices and falling stockpiles in Asia have propelled the IRRI, which helped spur Asia's 1960s green revolution, firmly into the limelight.
'We saw all this coming years ago,' said Dr Achim Dobermann, its head of research.
During bountiful times, the IRRI's ground-breaking research was often overlooked by the media, and its work buried in specialist journals. But now, with concerns over food security reaching a fever pitch, the German-born scientist, a world authority in his field, is being courted for interviews.
Dr Dobermann sat down with The Straits Times last week to discuss the rice crisis from the viewpoint of the research world.
'Because of urbanisation and farmers converting to other crops, it will be very difficult to expand rice-growing areas in some Asian countries,' he said.
'So, the most important intervention is to raise yields.'
In the 90-minute drive to the IRRI from the Philippine capital, Manila, it is not hard to see why: Housing developments, shopping malls and factories are spread out across prime rice-farming land.
The IRRI wants to make rice land more productive and the grain more resilient with new strains whose seeds could then be produced on a massive scale.
The IRRI, which has 10 regional offices, also works with the authorities to improve crop management techniques.
Asia's paddy fields produce on average of four tonnes of rice a hectare, though there are sizeable differences across the region.
China's irrigated rice fields produce just over six tonnes a hectare, while land in drought- prone India, where crops depend heavily on seasonal rains, produces only half that amount.
The IRRI believes the region's yields could be raised by one to two tonnes a hectare through better seeds and more efficient farming.
'We are convinced that this is do-able - and it still does not come close to what we consider to be the yield potential of rice,' said Dr Dobermann, who joined the IRRI in 1992.
'But just one to two tonnes extra would be enough to keep pace with world rice demand - and it could be achieved in the short term.'
Back in the 1970s, global rice production suffered a similar supply squeeze, and governments and the international donor community reacted swiftly by investing and lending heavily to the agriculture sector.
'Maybe it was too successful, and a level of complacency set in,' said Dr Dobermann.
According to World Bank data, public spending on farming in agriculture-based countries as a share of total public spending fell to 4 per cent in 2004, down from 6.9 per cent in 1980.
Dr Dobermann picked up a chart from his desk and ran his finger along a rising trendline for global rice production over the past 40 years.
'The problem is pretty clear,' he said, jabbing a finger at a sharp drop in production in 2002. Since then, the chart showed, production had remained well below the trendline.
It is not a conclusion he draws just from charts. As a soil scientist, he is in the field as often as in the research lab.
After graduating from Leipzig University in then communist East Germany in 1987, he spent two years doing field research in Russian rice fields.
He ended up in the IRRI, he said, because of German reunification. 'IRRI's director-general at the time was a West German, Dr Klaus Lampe, and he wanted to make a personal contribution to the unification process by helping a young East German scientist come to the Philippines to develop a career.'
amcindoe@yahoo.com
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