Rice Systems
Rice systems are one of the major types of farming systems in the world and rice is the most rapidly growing food source in sub-Saharan Africa. Organic rice systems are much less pesticide intensive than conventional rice systems. However, weed control and soil fertility remain major challenges in growing rice organically. Primary weed control practices include crop rotations (including lengthening typical rotations to include a fallow year), land levelling, seedbed preparation, water management, and rotary hoeing.
Because of weed pressure and fallowing, yields tend to be smaller in organic production. Better information on fertilisation strategies from crop rotations, particularly from legumes such as purple vetch, and ways to optimize their use of locally-available nutrients such as rice straw, manure, guano, and rock-phosphate is needed.
Further research topics could include the potential for organic rice systems to emit less methane than conventional rice systems and rice-crop systems. Rice-fish systems have the potential for providing an extra source of food and income. Although these systems are fairly popular in Asia, they are still in the early stages of establishment in Africa.
Much of the current rice research is being done in Asian countries and a gap exists both in organic rice research and African rice research. One example, however, of a conventional research institute doing some research on organic rice farming is the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).
More information
Institutions
- FAO.org/OrganicAG: Institutions that undertake research relevant to the topic of rice in the ORCA database on FAO's organic farming pages