Statements

See also: Official Launch of the International Year of Rice 2004 - J. Diouf (FAO)

Louise O. Fresco
Assistant Director-General
FAO Agriculture Department

The 575 million tons of paddy-rice produced in 2002 are currently the world’s single most important source of dietary energy (21%) since rice is the staple food for about half of the world’s population. Rice has always been vital to fulfilling human food needs, particularly in Asia where population density is high and per capita available arable land very low. Its cultivation expanded up to 1975, when it stabilized at around 145 million ha despite the fact that expansion is on-going in some low income countries where it recently increased from 75 to 92 million ha. World average yield has more than doubled since 1961, reaching 3.8 tons/ha in 2001.

But despite success in coping with the doubling of the global population between 1961 and 2000, the rice sector is currently facing challenges due to the increasing pressure on natural resources. The issues are partly scientific - which is why FAO welcomes this new journal on paddy and the water environment. The major concerns related to paddy are agronomic and environmental in nature and involve agro-eco-systems, food security and poverty, and improving the performance of integrated water management.

For thousands of years, paddy has been associated with fields of standing water in various agro-ecological systems. Water use at field level has always been high due to infiltration and percolation. Paddy is always accused, therefore, of high water consumption (900-2,250 mm per season) compared to other cereals (400 to 600 mm).

The increasing water crisis at global and local levels raises questions about the future of paddy. Competition for water is increasing rapidly and the search for sustainability leads us to consider whether paddy should give way to less water-consuming cereals or crops. But this requires dispassionate debate. There is a need for reliable figures on inputs and outputs, and the advantages and disadvantages associated with paddy cultivation.

Hence, a new look at paddy cultivation should review the value of the traditional paddy system in the context of recent technical developments. The paddy and ponding technique allows weed control without heavy dependence on chemicals or intensive labour. It minimizes soil erosion, controls floods and prevents landslides. In rural areas where paddy has been practised for ages, the issues involved are not only related to rice production but are related to other vital aspects of rural livelihood systems.

Because of the complexity of water flows generated by water ponding, traditional rice-based ecosystems are the habitat for a huge variety of living resources, both terrestrial and aquatic. Rural people rely on the biodiversity associated with rice-based ecosystems, including natural predators of rice pests, and often enhance this biodiversity with cultivated plants, domesticated animals and aquaculture to guarantee their daily food supply and income. Fish, frogs, snails, insects and other aquatic organisms derived from these ecosystems are a source of animal protein and essential fatty acids. In Asia, during dry periods, paddy fields are often the only source of water for valuable trees and home gardens. Moreover, the value of paddy cultivation for local communities lies not only in its product, but also in its social structure. Because of the massive quantities of labour needed to build and maintain terrace systems and synchronize cropping patterns for effective water and pest management, it demands (and therefore promotes) social cohesion.

The paddy ecological environment is based on the peculiarity of water submergence and anaerobic root zones. Submerged rice soils create environments congenial to organic matter build-up, carbon sequestration and nitrogen fixation. Rice ecosystems are important contributors to long-term sustainability of organic resources and nutrients supplying power to soils. However, anaerobic conditions also favour the release of a greenhouse gas, methane, into the atmosphere, so traditional irrigated paddy fields are one of our main methane contributors. Improvements in field techniques can drastically reduce emission by drying the field and aerating the soil (intermittent irrigation; drainage once per season) and varietal improvements can add to this.

Since the late 1960s the traditional paddy system has evolved rapidly as a result of scientific breakthroughs. The main elements are:

• Varietal improvement and sustainability
  New generations of rice varieties - beyond the new hybrid rice and the recently developed New Rice for Africa (NERICA) - may generate higher yields in different ecological zones through special characteristics such as drought or heat tolerance, higher nutritional value and those requiring less water and fertilizer. Though a number of challenges continue to confront the scientific community, current opportunities for facing them exist. The rice genome was made available to the scientific community last year and can provide many opportunities for increasing sustainable rice-based production in developing countries, although application of biotechnology requires careful and specific analysis of expected benefits against potential risks to health and, in particular, the environment. Also, the international research institutions collaborating with national institutions can offer approaches to confront genetic uniformity and erosion. They can encourage the adoption of varieties with higher nutritional value and those requiring less water and fertilizer.

• New field practices
  New field practices are being developed in various parts of the world, many aimed at saving water. Aerobic rice, alternating wet and dry regimes, and other approaches reduce or eliminate water ponding, challenging the thousand-year-old concept that rice is an aquatic crop. Like classic cereals, rice can also be grown in dry soils, but is then much more sensitive to water stress, needing a reliable water supply throughout both wet and dry seasons to compensate for any dry spells. This can only be achieved with a performant irrigation infrastructure. If these techniques confirm their potential, rice will become much more water efficient. As noted before, a wide range of aquatic and terrestrial life forms benefit from sustainably-managed rice production systems, so choices have to be made between increasing crop water efficiency and maintaining water productivity for a wide variety of other uses.

• Water management
  Whether applied to traditional systems or to technologically-advanced paddy systems, improved water management is essential. Users, particularly those practising new water-saving techniques and stakeholder governance arrangements, will need appropriate and reliable supplies of water.

The dedication of an International Year to a single crop is unprecedented. It acknowledges the significance of rice as the staple food for the majority of the developing world and a healthy source of grain in the developed world, and links its production and ecosystem management to broader issues of global food security, poverty alleviation, environmental conservation and the protection and promotion of biodiversity. FAO leads the organization and promotion of the International Year of Rice. We view it as an opportunity to use rice as a focal point for the global community as it works towards internationally agreed goals for sustainable development as identified in Agenda 21, the Johannesburg Summit,and the Millennium Declaration. Enhancing the quality of rice science and its applications will be a major challenge in the International Year of Rice.