RiceStrawPH: IRRI teams up with Philippine partners for sustainable rice straw management project

The Philippines produces 15.2 million tons of rice; leaving 11.3 tons of rice straw spread out in the field. The abundance of rice straw can be used for a number of profitable practices like composting, mushroom production, and as feed for animals.

However, it is still perceived to have of little value in the Philippines because of its difficulty in collection and lack of opportunities to use rice straw as an additional source of income. Rice producers would prefer burning it in open fields for easier management. About 60-80% of rice straw is burned in the open field, which contributes to greenhouse gas emission and air pollution.

To develop optimal, localized, and sustainable rice straw management solutions in the country, IRRI, the Philippine Rice Research Institute, and the Philippine Carabao Center, launched the Sustainable Rice Straw Management for Bioenergy, Food, and Feed in the Philippines (RiceStrawPH) project. Funded by the Philippine’s Department of Agriculture Bureau of Agricultural Research, the two-year project aims to develop sustainable technologies and practices in using rice straw for bioenergy, mushroom, and animal feed production.

“It is very  exciting to see how we are taking further steps, through strong collaboration with our Philippine partners, to find ways to manage rice by-products, for optimal resource-use efficiency in farms in the most environmentally sustainable manner. This is very crucial for us to achieve a sustainable impact in rice–based ecosystems,” said Jon Hellin, IRRI Platform Leader on Sustainable Impact.

“We must create incentives for farmers to stop burning and to do this under the umbrella of enabling legislative framework,” he said.

Together with other project collaborators from the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech), Bureau of Plant Industry, and the University of the Philippines Los Banos, a two-day workshop was held on 26-27 June at IRRI  to discuss and align the project’s plans with the Philippine Rice Program.

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Rice stakeholders highlight importance of creating value-adding activities for rice

In Asia, achieving food security remains an important issue, as the consumption of rice appears to be decreasing in some rice-growing countries, and farmers face increasingly challenging conditions. As rice is a political crop so culturally intertwined with life in Asia, the need for marketing it innovatively through value-adding activities is more relevant than ever.

The International Seminar on Promoting Rice Farmers’ Market through Value-Adding Activities held on June 5–9 at the Kasetsart University gathered rice experts from 11 countries to share  experiences in rice value addition during production, processing, and marketing.

Opening the doors to food security through genomics

The development of Green Super Rice, a new breed of stable, climate-smart, high-yielding varieties, opens up the potential of understanding and using genomics of agroecosystems in responding to the increasingly complex challenges the agricultural sector is facing today.

As the global population continues to increase exponentially each day, so does the demand for rice, a major staple food and livelihood for more than 3.5 billion people. Given the current growth rate, it is expected that global population will reach around 10 billion by 2050. Much of this increase will occur in poor, densely populated regions in Asia and Africa that are already highly dependent on rice for food, nutrition, and livelihood.

The article “The Rice Genome Revolution: from an Ancient Grain to Green Super Rice” published in Nature Reviews Genetics discusses how genomes from domesticated and wild rice can be used to improve other breeding programs, making it more responsive to global needs.

Stakeholders learn about sustainable rice straw management in Vietnam

Rice straw management remains to be one of Vietnam’s biggest agricultural challenges. On average, 60% of the straw generated from rice production in the country is burned in the field every year. The burning of what amounts to 20 million tons of straw annually is dangerous and not environmentally sustainable because it increases greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which leads to environmental pollution. This could cause respiratory problems in humans and emanate a thick cloud of smoke that causes serious vehicle accidents.

To discuss best practices and policy recommendations on sustainable rice straw management, a workshop was organized by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Hanoi, Vietnam, 05 June 2018. The workshop is aligned with the three-year BMZ-IRRI Straw Management Project, and aimed to present the project’s research outputs on effective rice straw management technologies and practices for improved livelihoods, sustainability, and low environmental footprint in rice-based production systems.

Increasing farmers’ income through post-harvest technologies and value chain upgrading

IRRI aims to improve the lives of smallholder farmers in Southeast Asia by delivering comprehensive and market-oriented solutions to reduce post-harvest losses, boost farmer income, and increase rice production sustainability.

During the 13th International Rice Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean, IRRI joined fellow global experts in a forum where they shared solutions and approaches to sustainable rice production, such as recent developments in post-harvest technologies and learning alliances.

Nine Asian countries learn novel technologies in Rice Technology Transfer Systems in Asia (RTTS) Training Workshop at RDA in South Korea

Participants of the Rice Technology Transfer Systems in 

Asia Training Workshop in Korea

IRRI Education, in collaboration with the Rural Development Administration (RDA) of the Republic of Korea, trained a new batch of agricultural technicians and extension agents, at the International Technology Cooperation Center (ITCC) in Jeonju, South Korea, May 16-25, 2018. The group, which consisted of 17 participants from nine Asian countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam, included a strong representation of women (15 females out of 17 participants).

WateRice project demonstrated laser guided land leveling technology to Iloilo farmers

IRRI works with national partners to promote technologies that maximize water-use efficiency and to reduce rice’s ecological footprint through the Water-efficient and risk mitigation technologies for enhancing rice production in irrigated and rainfed environments (WateRice) Project. In cooperation with the Western Visayas Integrated Agricultural Research Center (WESVIARC), WateRice Project conducted a demonstration of laser-guided land leveling to farmers of Iloilo, Philippines.