Los Baños, Philippines — Recent extreme cold snaps in Europe and North America demonstrate how much trouble a temperature change can cause. For rice, the cold can be devastating as it can cause sterility, which means no grain is produced.
Rice Today's January-March 2010 edition explores how tropic-loving rice is being adapted to cold environments to boost rice yields in Korea and across rice-growing nations in Africa where rice is exposed to cold temperatures.
Demonstrating the extent of the "cold" issue, Rice Today also publishes maps of rice production in cold temperate regions and high-altitude areas in the tropics that experience cold temperatures. We also hear from rice farmers in the upland regions of the Philippines who are eagerly awaiting cold-tolerant rice varieties to help prevent yield losses.
Furthermore, taking a look at the upland regions of Chiang Mai, Thailand, life for farmers is already looking more promising. Their path out of poverty – by diversifying into high-value vegetable crops while still producing rice to ensure personal food security – is shared through an exposé on IRRI's rice landscape management research to improve livelihoods.
African rice farmers and researchers are also addressing food security issues as they work together to adapt African rice production to climate change.
IRRI's climate change researcher, Dr. Reiner Wassmann, shares his thoughts on what the absence of agriculture in the final agreement of the COP15 – the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference held in December 2009 – may mean for rice production.
On rice trade matters, Dr. Samarendu Mohanty, IRRI economist, outlines an initiative to develop a digital rice information gateway that can provide real-time rice crop monitoring and generate short- to medium-term projections on production, consumption, trade, and prices under different scenarios. In his medium-term outlook, Dr. Mohanty says that "rice prices will continue to rise as production fails to keep pace with demand growth because of low yield growth and limited area expansion."
This issue's Pioneer Interview features retired economists Randy Barker and Robert Herdt as they reminisce about their IRRI days and reflect on the evolution of IRRI's social science research.
In this issue, we report more about the kickoff of IRRI's 50th anniversary celebrations, starting with the 6th International Rice Genetics Symposium, the launch of IRRI's 50th anniversary, and other related events. We also feature the Philippines in our first country highlight for the year.
All of these, plus the latest news, views, and books, are available now in Rice Today's January-March 2010 edition. Free online registration for the full content and notification of future issues of Rice Today is now available. Subscribers' copies are being mailed.