The Hindu Business Line : Beijing meet calls for more research to raise rice output

For the first time, agricultural ministers from some of the world's most populous and pivotal countries considered the future of rice, the food that is essential to their continued stability and food security.

Held a day ahead of the International Rice Congress scheduled for September 16-20, the roundtable hosted by Chinese Ministry of Agriculture recognised that rice production and consumption formed a common economic and cultural tie shared by many nations around the world; especially in Asia, and including China, India and Indonesia.

Rice production is the foundation of food security and social stability for almost half of the world's population, the ministers agreed. 2.6 billion people are dependent on rice for livelihood.

In addition, rice research and access to new technologies were essential to the future development and economic growth of the more than half of world's rural families involved in rice production.

According to Dr Ronald P. Cantrell, Director-General of the Manila-based International Rice Research Institute, rice is the unifying economic and cultural feature of Asia. Given the continent's various political and economic systems, its many levels of development and wealth, and its array of religious and cultural traditions, rice is the thing that the nations of Asia have most in common, he added.

The global rice industry meet which started on Monday with 1,000-plus delegates will be grappling with a host of issues including how to grow the extra rice the planet is predicted to need to feed a growing population, while using less land, labour and water.

The impact of liberalisation on the international rice trade — with the possibility that some national rice industries could be wiped out — and the terrible poverty trap that ensnares millions of rice farmers will also come in for discussion.

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