Innovative rice science: A must for global food security

Tuesday, 1 January 2013 00:06 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Climate-change-ready rice varieties, water-saving technologies, more nutritious rice, better access to rice market information, and mobile apps to deliver advice to farmers are just some of the technologies forecast to help reduce poverty and improve food security by the Director General of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Dr. Robert Zeigler, during his Coromandel lecture in India recently.

“As one of the biggest rice-consuming countries in the world, it is essential India continue its improvements in rice productivity to both ensure there is enough affordable rice for all Indians, which will help reduce poverty nationally, and contribute to global rice trade to improve food security worldwide,” said Dr. Zeigler.

In his lecture ‘Cutting-Edge Rice Science for Food Security, Economic Growth, and Environmental Protection in India and Around the World,’ Zeigler noted that IRRI and India have been working together since 1967 to develop and deliver ways to help Indian rice farmers improve the productivity of their rice crops. India has since shifted from importing to exporting rice thanks to science-derived innovations such as new varieties that helped the country’s rice farmers increase their rice yields and incomes.

Managing Director of Coromandel International Ltd. Kapil Mehan said he was honored to have Zeigler give the 2012 Coromandel lecture, remarking, “He brings a global view on the role of agricultural sciences and public policies in ensuring food security for a large and growing world population.

“We believe the Coromandel lecture this year will provide thought leadership to important issues of food security and the economic upliftment of rural people in the vast Indian hinterland of rice cultivation,” Mehan added.

This year’s winners of Coromandel’s Borlaug Award were two rice scientists – K.V. Prabhu and Ashok Kumar Singh from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute – for developing high-yielding varieties of Basmati rice that have significantly boosted farmer incomes and helped India compete in the international market.

“The increasing productivity of India’s rice farms, which is critical to India’s economic development, especially in the rural sector, has been driven by great rice scientists working alongside farmers,” Zeigler said.

He outlined a promising future for young rice scientists who are receiving greater support as part of the Global Rice Science Partnership.

“Many great rice science achievements have been led by Indians – such as the development of key new rice varieties, including one of India’s, and the world’s, most popular rice varieties – IR64 – which was bred by India’s Dr. Gurdev Singh Khush while at IRRI,” Zeigler said. “Other rice science innovations have seen the light of day in India first – such as flood-tolerant rice that is getting adopted at unprecedented rates across India.”

Zeigler also announced that IRRI is establishing the IRRI Foundation India to encourage and facilitate Indian philanthropic investment in rice science.