General Membership Meeting
Climate change is a threat to global food security – I RRI director general

24 October 2007--The world has been fighting a war against poverty and hunger since the 1960s. The declining rate of growth in rice production is particularly alarming to Asian and sub-Saharan African countries whose people depend largely on rice as the primary dietary staple and source of livelihood. That is almost half of the world's population whose staple food is rice. Majority of these are also the world's poorest people. Clearly, rice production is one of the world's most important economic activities, as well as an integral aspect in the global war against poverty, hunger, and malnutrition.

Speaking before a group of businessmen during the MBC's General Membership Meeting on 23 October 2007 at the Manila Peninsula Hotel, Dr. Robert Zeigler, director general of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), highlighted Asia's progress in combating this war. “We have won the battle,” he says, “but we have yet to win the war.”


The Threat of Climate Change

Dr. Zeigler says that while there may be plenty of food in Asia, we cannot afford to ignore the serious warning signs of decreasing rice area, yield, and production. “Can Asia feed itself? Yes, but not with existing technologies and not without taking into account climate change.”

Since the 1960s, major global changes have presented new challenges and opportunities in rice production. The guest speaker zeroed in on climate change as a major threat, predicting that “climate change will affect rice farmers for decades to come.” 0Ÿ ×ÅÿÿÿÿlZb In fact, studies conducted by the Climate Change Research group at IRRI discovered that for every 1°C rise in temperature, there is a corresponding 10% drop in rice yield.

Compared with the past, weather patterns today have become more severe. He predicts drought, submergence or flooding, and salinity will be the top causes of rice farming losses in the future, which in turn will result in extreme and pervasive poverty over the most populous regions of the world.
However, Dr. Zeigler said that the effects of climate change can be overcome with the use of science, citing as an example the tremendous achievements in research and development which led to the Green Revolution in the mid-60s. This was a breakthrough in rice farming, using IRRI's development of new rice varieties that can withstand extreme weather events and stress.


Resilient Rice Systems

The Green Revolution resulted in the dramatic increase in the supply of rice, pushing rice prices downwards. “Explosion of rice production led to the decline of rice prices, which have driven Asia to economic growth,” said Dr. Zeigler.

Stress-tolerant rice, he says, can be developed using modern technologies. He explains that tolerance is usually controlled by genes with large effect, and transferring these genes into hybrid rice is an effective strategy to develop rice varieties for areas often visited by unfavorable weather conditions. These new varieties shall be most useful in South and Southeast Asia where about 20 million hectares have been affected by uncontrolled flooding and crops “drowning.”

Dr. Zeigler shared that when IRRI was created in the 1960s, the average rice yield in Asia was only 1.5 tons per hectare. Today, due to the proliferation of new rice varieties, the average yield in the region 0Ÿ ×ÅÿÿÿÿlZb has increased to 3.5 tons per hectare.

To overcome uncertainties brought about by climate change and other underlying factors, Dr. Zeigler believes Asia should take full advantage of the revolutions in biology and genetics, computational power, and information technology. Furthermore, he stressed that it is important that Asian countries rev up and start financing research work in rice production as its future economic growth greatly depends on this.


The Case of Juan de la Cruz

Asked about the status of Philippine cereal production, and what our need to import rice signifies, the guest speaker clarified that it is not due to the underperformance of the rice farming sector in the country. “The Philippines is composed of many small islands, with small amounts of land suitable for rice production,” Zeigler pointed out. “But despite this geographical limitation, the Philippines has a steady increase in rice production. The productivity level is something that the Philippines should be proud of.” He added that the need to import is a result of the country's increasing population growth, which has made it difficult for rice productivity to keep up with local demand.


In a Nutshell

In conclusion, Dr. Zeigler underscored three important messages in our war against food supply shortage. First, the world should not be complacent on the issue of global food security. Second, we should not be complacent in minimizing the impacts of climate change. And lastly, we should explore and take advantage of science and technology, as it has a lot to offer in addressing the climate change factor in rice production.