Philippines Rice Awareness Month launched

The Philippine Department of Agriculture launched Rice Awareness Month, 10 November 2014, to highlight the value of rice as the country’s staple, and promote government efforts to increase rice production.

President Benigno Aquino III signed Proclamation 524, declaring November as Rice Awareness Month, putting to fore the partnerships and programs aimed at increasing the country’s rice productivity.

"Science has been a crucial part in our efforts to be food secure,” said Secretary Proceso Alcala. “We determined underlying problems and corresponding solutions to achieving this through studies conducted by our partners at IRRI and Philrice.”

IRRI Deputy Director General V. Bruce J. Tolentino gave tribute to IRRI and the DA’s strong and long-standing partnership.  “The research that happens at IRRI cannot happen without this partnership. The first seeds and the first attempts at bringing technology to the farmers, start in the Philippines, with the DA,” said Dr. Tolentino.

Dr. Tolentino also noted that IRRI and DA’s collaboration has been strongest under Sec. Alcala's stewardship of DA. “No one can dispute that in the last 3-4 years, the Philippines has been the fastest growing country in Asia in terms of rice yield.”

DA Assistant Secretary for Operations Edilberto de Luna hopes that every Filipino practices responsible consumption of rice to reduce wastage. “Our effort to optimize domestic rice production is two pronged: increase productivity, and reduce wastage. We also encourage all Filipinos to eat brown rice, and other `pigmented` rice, which have been proven to be more nutritious than white rice.”

The RAM puts focus on the Food Staples Sufficiency Program (FSSP), seven-project strong partnership between DA and IRRI with the objective to meet the domestic requirements of the country, aims to strengthen national resilience to impacts of climate change. To address the challenges of increasing adoption of yield-enhancing technologies, improving the delivery of extension and research services, and strengthening the capacities of concerned public institutions.

Featured in the RAM launching exhibit are two of the seven areas of collaboration under FSSP. These are the Heirloom Rice Project, and the Next Generation Rice Project. The heirloom project seeks to provide assistance to heirloom rice farmers in enhancing their productivity and linkage to market, while Next-Gen will help accelerate the development and adoption of higher-yielding varieties and hybrids with resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses.

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Philippines: IRRI opens Rice Survivor Season 4

Jerome Cayton Barradas

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Training Center opened the 4th season of its own “reality show”, Rice Survivor (RS4), on 12 November 2014 at MS Swaminathan Hall, IRRI Headquarters, Philippines. Rice Survivor is a season-long, hands-on, seed-to-seed training on rice production and farm management.

“Rice Survivor gives IRRI staff a first-hand experience of the challenges faced by rice farmers,” said Dr. Noel Magor, head of the Training Center. “It is also an opportunity for different employees in various divisions to interact and work together to build a culture at IRRI, that we are about rice.”

Jason Beebout, a consultant at IRRI and RS4’s coordinator gave an overview of the exercise. Dr. Beebout, a “survivor” from the previous seasons, shared his own experiences with the new batch of participants. “I came face-to-face with rice production challenges,” he said. “I saw rice production as a season-long process and not just individual activities. It boosted my rice production knowledge and it sparked my appreciation for farm workers.”

The opening session was attended by 12 participants from the Crop and Environmental Sciences Division, the Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biotechnology Division, and the Training Center who will be grouped into teams. Each team will cultivate a crop of rice on an assigned plot. They will be tasked with selecting the rice variety to plant, land preparation, crop management, harvesting, and post-harvest processing. The teams' performance will be evaluated based on yield, environmental sustainability, and profitability.

RS4 is still accepting participants until 14 November.  For more information please contact RS4 facilitator Majilene Marikit at m.marikit@irri.org

For other training opportunities please visit www.training.irri.org or e-mail us at IRRITraining@irri.org.


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Philippines: IRRI Training conducts course on science communication and writing for scientific journals

Jerome Cayton Barradas

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Training Center is conducting the Basic Scientific Writing Course (BSWC) from 10-14 November 2014 at MS Swaminathan Hall, IRRI Headquarters, Philippines.

BSWC is a five-day course that helps develop skills in organizing a scientific paper and in preparing each part of the paper to communicate scientific information effectively. The course includes scientific writing, basics of science communication, outlining, preparing abstracts, writing the scientific paper, preparing references, and putting it all together into manuscripts appropriate for submission to journals.
Attending the course are sixteen participants, composed of specialists, scientists, researchers, IRRI collaborators, and members of the academe, from Bangladesh, India, Philippines, and Vietnam.

BSWC is coordinated by Maria Socorro S. Arboleda, senior specialist at the Training Center.

The course will be offered again in November 2015. For more information and other training opportunities, visit www.training.irri.org or email IRRITraining@irri.org.


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Community news: IRRI promotes nutrition education in Los Baños and Bay

The Partnerships Office of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has partnered with municipal nutrition action officers, IRRI spouses (SUHAY), Rotary Club of West Bay, and the Rotary Club of Los Baños to sponsor Pabasa sa Nutrisyon, a nutrition education program for IRRI's host communities of Los Baños and Bay. Pabasa sa Nutrisyon is a major project of the National Nutrition Council of the Philippines to prevent protein-energy and micronutrient deficiency among low-income families. The program focuses on nutrition education among women who are pregnant or lactating as well as mothers with underweight and malnourished children, and those with children in preschools and primary schools.

The 5-day activities include public readings of Nutri-Guide and sharing of personal experiences on meal planning and cooking. It also uses fun learning activities such as interactive games, exercises, and demonstrations to strengthen nutrition messages and encourage the participation of mothers. The Partnerships Office and the co-sponsors of the program will also continue to support the monitoring and evaluation of the weight increases among malnourished and underweight infants and children.

From July to November 2014, Pabasa sa Nutrisyon activies were held in Bayog, Anos, and Batong Malake in Los Baños, and Tranca, Sta. Cruz, Bitin, Puypuy, Masaya, and Paciano Rizal in Bay. IRRI plans to sponsor the program in all the barangays in both towns as part of its commitment to promote nutrition education.

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IRRI scientists play leading roles in the joint CRPs CGIAR conference on 'Unlocking the production potential of the Ganges coastal zone'

The CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) conference on Revitalizing the Ganges Coastal Zone attracted leaders of development projects, donors, government policymakers, NGOs, and researchers from local and international research institutes. The participants shared plans, progress and ideas for unlocking the potential of the coastal zone. 

Several scientists from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) played key roles in organizing the conference. Dr. Manoranjan Mondal, collaborative research scientist under the Crop and Environmental Sciences Division and the Social Sciences Division of IRRI, chaired the organizing committee. Dr. Liz Humphreys, lead of the Water Science Group at IRRI, chaired the science program committee. 

The first day of the conference featured the participation of policymakers led by Barrister Anisul Islam Mahmud, Honorable Minister of the Ministry of Water Resources. With him were Dr. Zafar Ahmed Khan, secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources and Dr. Shelina Afroza, secretary of the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock. Director General of Bangladesh Water Development Board Md. Shahidur Rahman chaired the event. Other highlights included presentations from some of the large development projects operating in the coastal zone, presentations on the messages from the CPWF project by former IRRI scientist Dr. T.P. Tuong, and by Dr. Humphreys and International Water Management Institute (IWMI) researcher Dr. Marie-Charlotte Buisson, and "Voices from the Coastal Zone" (messages from local government representatives and farmers from the coastal zone).

This was followed by a two-day science conference which attracted over 100 participants who showed keen interest right to the end. Papers were presented on a range of topics including the past, current and future status of coastal zone water resources, the coastal environment, and water governance;  opportunities for improving agricultural, aquacultural, and homestead production systems; and technology/cropping system extrapolation domains. Two IRRI scholars won prizes for their presentations - Nibir Saha (PhD scholar) was awarded the best early career scientist oral presentation by a panel of four judges, and Nefaur Rahman (MSc scholar) received the best poster award (people's vote).

The conference was jointly sponsored by the CGIAR Programs on Water, Land and Ecosystems, Aquatic Agricultural Systems, and the Global Rice Science Partnership. The conference, held in Dhaka on 21-23 October, also served as the official launch of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems’ Ganges Focal Region program. The conference proceedings, a peer-reviewed collection of about 40 papers, will be published in early 2015.

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Investment in temperate rice research pays dividends

Dr. Jong-Min Jeong and Dr. Russell Reinke at the Korean Rural Development Administration's Chuncheon sub-station, where rice is tested under cold water treatment.

BANGKOK, Thailand - “Their investments are paying off,” says Dr. Russell Reinke, head of the Temperate Rice Research Consortium (TRRC), referring to the support given by the Korean Rural Development Association (RDA). RDA is the consortium's primary investor.

Temperate rice is generally grown in regions with long days and lower temperatures than the tropics, at latitudes greater than 23.5° south or north. Areas that produce this type of rice are widely dispersed around the world, making regular scientific interaction a big challenge.

RDA’s funding made TRRC possible, as well as the recent research developments and breakthroughs on temperate rice. In recent years, there has been an increased sharing of germplasm among partners. TRRC now has 22 member-countries. Because of the isolation of some temperate regions, it’s also crucial to have a reason for temperate rice regions to come together and share research developments.

Key results on sustainability, cold tolerance, and grain quality were presented during the 5^th Temperate Rice Conference (TRC5), integrated this time around into the science program of the 4th International Rice Congress or IRC2014 in Bangkok, Thailand.

TRC5 is seen as a way of educating the tropical researchers about the extent and diversity of rice-production regions (e.g., temperate rice).

“This conference has provided a venue for us to interact. Just as RDA’s investment is paying dividends, I hope that the effort that researchers have made to come here will also pay dividends for them,” adds Dr. Reinke.

Since its creation, TRRC has accomplished more through collaborative research aimed at increasing rice production in temperate and high altitude regions, as well as overcome constraints to better yield and quality of temperate rice.

Among several constraints that limit rice production in temperate areas is low temperature. It affects several million hectares of rice cultivation area in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and South and North America resulting in annual yield losses. In addition, low temperature at the seedling stage damages boro rice production in Bangladesh and in high-altitude regions of Bhutan, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Nepal.

Also, biotic stresses such as blast and bacterial blight are problems in areas with lower temperature---a disease-conducive environment in temperate as well as high-altitude regions.

Even though temperate japonica rice occupies only 20% of the rice cultivation area worldwide, the decline in its production is a major cause of food insecurity.

Thus, research and sharing of information through TRRC play important roles in understanding how yield potential can be increased in temperate areas.

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Around 1,500 participants from 69 countries are attending the 4th International Rice Congress, or IRC2014, at the Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Centre (BITEC).

IRC2014 is being held under the patronage of the Royal Government of Thailand, specifically the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, and is touted as the “Olympics of rice science,” being the largest gathering of rice science and industry held every four years. 

For more information: ricecongress.com 

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Coastal Bangladesh can be twice more productive

IRRI Photos/Flickr

BANGKOK, Thailand - Land and water productivity in the polders of coastal Bangladesh have tremendous potential to be improved, profitable, and resilient to problems brought about by climate change. This was IRRI collaborative scientist Manoranjan Mondal's take-off point during his symposium presentation at the 4^th International Rice Congress, or IRC2014 on 31 October 2014.

More than 130 polders in the country were constructed in the 1950s-60s to prevent tidal flooding and saline water intrusion. Despite enormous investment, land productivity remains low and water resources underutilized.

To unlock the productivity potential in the polders, Mondal argued for investment in improved water management, with special emphasis on drainage and infrastructure. He also discussed the need to organize community-based resource management and link water users with the production system. He said that improving drainage in polders will increase fresh water availability during the dry season. Moreover, drainage must also be able to avoid prolonged flooding during the aman crop, and allow salt to leach from the shrimp farm prior to transplanting the aman crop.

Mondal also reported that trials in farmers’ fields from July 2011 to August 2014 under the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food suggest that, in coastal areas with low and medium salinity, land productivity can be increased two- to three-fold by adopting suitable high-yielding rice and rabi crops, and improved water management practices.

In areas where water salinity is too high for rice production during the dry season, productivity of brackish water shrimp farming can increase by at least two-fold by replacing shrimp monoculture with more resilient shrimp-fish polyculture grown in rotation with salt-tolerant rice, plus fish, during the rainy season.

The polders of the coastal zone of Bangladesh are home to the world’s poorest, 80% of whom live on US$1.25/day or less. They depend mainly on agriculture and aquaculture for their livelihoods. These are some of the marginal areas that were left behind during the Green Revolution of the 1960s-70s. 

These coastal areas are prone to flooding and salinity, lack access to fresh water, and are vulnerable to sea-level rise. Productivity in these areas is so low that farmers usually grow one crop per year using low-yielding traditional rice varieties and most of such land areas remain fallow during the dry season. 

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Around 1,500 participants from 69 countries are attending the 4th International Rice Congress, or IRC2014, at the Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Centre (BITEC).

IRC2014 is being held under the patronage of the Royal Government of Thailand, specifically the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, and is touted as the “Olympics of rice science,” being the largest gathering of rice science and industry held every four years. 

For more information: ricecongress.com 

Learn more about IRRI (www.irri.org) or follow us on the social media and networks (all links down the right column).