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Editorial Service Issue 06: Rice - food for the world
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Bayer CropScience Editorial Service - Issue 6
Rice - food for the world
About 120,000 varieties of rice are grown all around the world
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About 120,000 varieties of rice are grown all around the world
Rice is the staple diet of half the world's population. In some Asian languages, the word "eating" is actually synonymous with "eating rice". In Western cultures, however, these slender grains are usually served as a side dish; wrongly so, as brown rice contains valuable carbohydrates as well as vitamins and minerals that are essential to life. But the popular grain is in crisis, as climate change and pests are making life tough for rice plants. And a growing global population needs ever-increasing amounts of this precious foodstuff.
Nutrition and health
Health-giving grains
Rice is good for you: whole-grain brown rice in particular provides the body with vital nutrients. One of these is vitamin B1, which helps our metabolism obtain energy from food and strengthens the nerves. Rice is also rich in vitamin B6, used in blood formation. The elongated grains also contain biotin, another vitamin, which keeps our hair healthy and our nails strong. In addition, they are packed with minerals like potassium and zinc, which not only help keep our blood pressure healthy but also boost our immune system. And the proteins in brown rice are particularly valuable since they contain all the essential amino acids that are vital to life.
Rice is also low in calories and very low in fat. And one particularly appealing property of brown rice is that we feel full for longer after eating it because our body takes quite a long time to process the carbohydrates it contains. Brown rice also contains fiber, which aids. It is perfect for people who are ill as it provides energy but does not lie heavy in the stomach. Its diuretic properties help the body eliminate toxins from the body via the kidneys. And one other beneficial feature: it is thought that the protease inhibitors in rice can help prevent cancer.
Rice in all its forms
There are about 120,000 varieties of rice grown all around the world. The main distinction is between short-grain and long-grain rice. Brown rice, which still has its bran intact, is particularly healthy. This bran contains many of the vitamins and minerals in rice. White rice is more popular, but it has been polished and so has lost the bran and these vital nutrients. People who rely only on polished rice are at risk of beri-beri, a disease caused by vitamin B1 deficiency which can lead to nerve paralysis and cardiovascular disorders.
The parboiling process has been in use since the early 1940s and helps to retain valuable components even in white rice.
Economic factors:
Helping rice out of a crisis
These tiny grains are the most important cereal in the world: around 600 million tons of rice are harvested each year throughout the world. But rice-growers are already finding it hard to keep pace with consumption as it stands, let alone the increase in demand that will follow the rapid rise in the global population. Rice yields in Asia have been around four tons per hectare since the mid-1990s – too little for too many people. More than 780 million tons of rice would have to be produced annually in order to safeguard the supply of food for the world by 2020 – a 30 per cent rise on today's figures.
Since 2000 the world has been consuming more rice than it is producing. Although stocks have been rebuilt in 2007, it is likely that the demand for rice will exceed supply again in the medium to long term which could lead to a dramatic rise in food prices.
There was a global food crisis back in the 1970s, which led to the formation of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) based in the Philippines and research into breeding new high-yielding varieties and improving farming methods. The results were record harvests. We now need to build on this first "green revolution".
A greater commitment to robust seeds
The IRRI recognized the problems now facing rice more than a decade ago. Although the international community undertook to do more for agriculture after the first global food crisis, the will to take action waned as prices fell. "International agricultural research has been neglected for years," criticizes Professor Stefan Tangermann, former OECD Director for Agriculture. "Now we wonder why agriculture cannot manage to feed a hungry world." As increasing the acreage of land under cultivation is scarcely an option, the challenge is to increase yields and develop varieties that are better able to cope with climatic influences. "Farming methods must be improved, and these could boost yields per hectare by up to three tons in most regions," explains Dr. Achim Dobermann, Director at the IRRI. Efficient water management is vital too, as rice is the thirstiest of all crops. It takes about 5,000 liters of water to produce a kilogram of rice. Wheat, by comparison, is less demanding, requiring only about 1,200 liters to produce the same amount. The effects are worrying, as the water table in India is falling by one and a half meters a year. "Better seed that is resistant to pests and diseases is the most important requirement," says Dr. Dobermann, "and another point is that 15 to 20 per cent of the harvest is lost worldwide in transport and storage."
Research and development
Securing the world's food supplies is one of the greatest challenges of our time
There are more of us than ever before on our planet: it is estimated that by 2050 the world's population will reach nine billion. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that agricultural production would need to double in order to feed all these mouths. In the final report of the conference on food security, bioenergy and climate change in June 2008, it therefore called on "the international community, including the private sector, to decisively step up investment in science and technology for food and agriculture."
Comments Professor Stefan Tangermann, "More must be done to increase agricultural productivity and thereby expand the supply of food. This depends particularly on more research and development, and a more open-minded attitude to the opportunities offered by modern biotechnology." Research into breeding and molecular biology therefore needs to be strongly supported. Companies such as Bayer CropScience AG and public bodies like the International Rice Research Institute have joined forces to assist in the development of improved rice varieties. The Hybrid Rice Development Consortium (HRDC), which was created as part of this move, has set itself the task of increasing rice production in Asia and introducing new varieties.
Resistant to flooding
Using modern breeding technologies, scientists are able to transfer useful genes from one rice variety to another. "For instance, we have found a gene that makes rice resistant to flooding. This is important for coastal areas that are repeatedly affected by to this problem," comments Dr. Achim Dobermann, Director at the IRRI. Many rice varieties thrive when grown on flooded fields and terraces, but if they are completely covered with water they can only survive for a few days. Natural disasters like this are already threatening a quarter of the land on which rice is cultivated, due mainly to climate change. The new rice plant can survive for two weeks entirely immersed in water. When the plant is submerged, a gene is activated which stimulates cells to form proteins that adjust the plant's metabolism to cope with the low-oxygen conditions that prevail under water. Scientists are now working with genes for salt resistance and tolerance to prolonged periods of drought.
Identifying the right genes
Bayer CropScience is also working to develop new, high-yield rice seed. Scientists developed the new hybrid Arize® dhani which is resistant to Bacteria Leaf Blight, one of the most serious global threats to rice plants and the potential cause of drastic losses. It is caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas oryzae.
A hybrid is the result of a cross between two genetically distinct parent lines. Scientists working on breeding hybrid rice need parent plants with a particular set of characteristics. They stop the rice plants from self-pollinating, which it would normally do, and deliberately transfer pollen from one to the other plant. When the right parents are combined, a hybrid will have both greater vigor and yield than either of the parents. Furthermore, hybrid varieties are more robust in adverse growing conditions, especially in unfavorable soil and climatic conditions or biotic stresses.
Hybrid rice has already proved successful in China, where an area of 30 million hectares has produced 184 million tons of rice. In the summer of 2008 Bayer CropScience opened a new research laboratory in Singapore with the aim of further boosting the contribution of high-yield rice to global rice production. This laboratory supports breeding of rice hybrids with very high yields and special additional properties.
| Additional information on rice A brief history of rice | | |
Links that you may wish to follow up:
This German-language page on the website of the German Plant Breeders' Association provides information about crossing and selecting, hybridization and smart breeding.
http://www.bdp-online.de/de/Pflanzenzuechtung/Methoden/
Clicking on the “Pflanze” tab of this website of the Agricultural Information Centre takes readers to information in German about cultivation statistics, the biology of rice, harmful pathogens and other details.
http://www.proplanta.de
The Rice Knowledge Bank pages of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI ) are a wealth of information about rice - from seed to market.
http://www.knowledgebank.irri.org/Rice/Ricedefault.htm
To mark the International Year of Rice in 2004, the FAO presented a rich resource of knowledge about rice and what it means for our diet.
http://www.fao.org/rice2004/en/aboutrice.htm
The publications of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) explain the food and financial crises and their consequences for poor populations.
http://beta.irri.org/solutions/images/publications/papers/ifpri_food_financial_crisis_dec2008.pdf
The magazine Rice Today, published by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), looks at rice research, the food situation and environmental protection around the world.
http://beta.irri.org/news/images/stories/ricetoday/8-1/RT_8-1_complete.pdf
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