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Rice TodayJuly-September 2004 Rice TodayJuly-September 2004

The environment willalways feel the impact ofagriculture, not least ofrice farming. Rice is thestaple food of almost 3

billion people, and rice farms coveralmost 150 million ha more thanany other crop. Much of this landis ooded paddies, whose unique

environmental implications includeland leveling and terracing, heavy

water demand, and greenhousegas emissions. In addition, therice landscape is in many areas

extremely rich in biodiversity, thesurvival of which depends on carefulmanagement.

More than merely acknowledgingthe impact of agriculture on the

environment, the International RiceResearch Institute (IRRI) recentlyacted to ensure that environmentalsustainability will always be central

to its research program, as well asto its day-to-day operations at itsresearch campus and its relationship

with neighboring communities.IRRI management decided the time

was ripe to codify the instituteslongstanding commitment toenvironmental protection andsustainable rice production. Formalimplementation of the resulting

Environmental Agenda will takeplace over the coming year.

The initiative arose partly inresponse to the 1992 Rio Earth

Summit and the 2002 World Summiton Sustainable Development inJohannesburg. These events rmly

established a global commitmto protect and conserve theenvironment while achievingand economic development

which inuence, and are inu

by, agriculture in general andfarming in particular. Compothis commitment, the UnitedMillennium Development Go

set a target of halving 1990 leof world poverty by 2015, whensuring environmental sustand reversing the loss of naturesources.

Environmental concernhave long been apparent in Iresearch, says Ren Wang, IRdeputy director general for reand a core contributor to the

Environmental Agenda. Buthe environmental approach holistic way, to consciously cto conserving the environme

achieving sustainable develoand to package it in this way that is something new.

TheEnvironmental Ageidenties seven key environm

whole wayGoing the distance with a holisticEnvironmen

Agenda that captures decades of experience

in environmental protection

The

by Adam Barclay

CENTRAL TO MAKING farming more envi-ronmentally friendly, and so preserving andrestoring such magnicent landscapes as thisone in Bhutan, is the application of integratedpest management. This includes adopting farmpractices that encourage the natural enemiesof insect pests, such as spiders ( right), andso eliminating the market for toxic and oftenmisapplied pesticides (overleaf).

GENE

HETTEL

IRRI

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27Rice TodayJuly-September 2004

of less than 2 t/ha. Without thisintensication, current rice productionwould need twice as much land as iscurrently sown to rice. IRRI aims tocontinue to raise rice productivity infavorable environments, so reducingthe pressure to farm marginal lands.At the same time, the institute seeks

to ensure that farmers who need togrow rice in fragile environmentsdo so using environment-friendlytechnologies.

Water scarcityAgriculture accounts for about 70%of the water drawn from freshwatersources worldwide. In Asia, this gureis 90%, and more than half of thatis used to irrigate rice. Recent yearshave seen widespread deteriorationof water quality and stiffening

competition for often-depletedwater resources from domesticand industrial users. The resultinghigher water costs make irrigatedrice less economically sustainable.

By 2025, more than 30 million ha ofAsian irrigated rice lands will sufferphysical or economic water scarcity.IRRIs modern rice varieties possessup to 3 times the water productivityof traditional varieties, and theinstitutes integrated approach seeksto develop rice plants and production

practices that use water even moreefciently.

Reducing poverty is key toenvironmental sustainability becausesimple survival requires largenumbers of poor people to exploitthe natural environment, sustainablyor otherwise. IRRIs research toimprove rice productivity and soraise incomes for farmers and farmlaborers and lower prices for all riceconsumers can help, especiallyin Asia, where 800 million people

live in poverty. IRRI has had a handin developing about 1,000 modernrice varieties or half the varietiesreleased over the past 40 years inAsias 12 main rice-growing countries.

By boosting production, these modernvarieties have helped to slash worldrice prices by 80% in the last 20 yearsleaving poor rice consumers withmore money to spend on the healthcare and education they need to climbout of poverty.

Billions of people from poor

countries depend on rice for mostof their nourishment. Today, IRRIsefforts to develop more nutritiousrice, through both conventionalbreeding and biotechnology, promisefurther public health improvementby combating hidden hunger for theessential micronutrients iron, zincand vitamin A.

The bottom line is that farmersacross the rice-producing world needto grow more rice more efciently.Smart research, carefully managed

according to the environmentalprinciples now enshrined in IRRIsEnvironmental Agenda, will helpthe worlds rice harvest grow in anenvironmentally sustainable way.