Asian rice bowls threatened by budget cuts

Asian rice bowls threatened by budget cuts

By Martin Abbugao

MANILA (AFP): A budget shortfall is threatening research at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) south of here which aims to increase yields and feed Asia into the next century.

Even a potential "super rice" is under threat, bad news for Asians, the world's most voracious rice consumers.

Director George Rothschild said the institute, which has, since the late '60s, given the region its "miracle" rice varieties, will seek help from the private sector in a major campaign to keep the agency afloat.

"There are some projects that will be curtailed," Rothschild said in a recent interview. One example, he said, are studies on the conservation of soil and water resources to ensure sustainability of the environment.

"In addition, there will be impact on the speed with which we can produce new rice varieties which will yield much higher than present ones," he said.

Cutbacks and realignment by donor countries such as the United States and the European Union has led to a deficit of over six million dollars in IRRI's proposed 37-million-dollar budget this year.

This forced IRRI to retrench 550 employees, or almost 50- percent of its core staff, to save money to maintain its laboratories, a rice gene bank, other vital facilities and its dwindling crop of world-class scientists.

Washington, with a bulk of its foreign aid allotted to preserving peace in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, has cut back its two-million-dollar annual contribution to the institute by about 40 percent.

The EU has realigned its donations, while the United Nations Development Program trimmed its share. Japan, the biggest contributor, has not made any cuts, Rothschild said.

IRRI, an autonomous, non-profit agricultural training and research center, is currently perfecting a new rice variety, dubbed by the media as "super rice", that will increase yields by about 25 percent from 10 tons a hectare (acre) to 13 tons.

The plant's prototype has already been developed but scientists are laboring to implant characteristics that will make it resistant to pests and disease, as well as perfect a taste to suit the palates of Asians.

IRRI's principal plant breeder Gurdev Khush said the institute had originally planned to distribute the plant to farmers by the end of the decade.

Rothschild, however, said that even research on the "super rice" is imperiled, although he stressed that "this is a high priority project, we're trying to protect it at all costs."

IRRI, which lies in the sleepy town of Los Banos south of here, has been credited with developing the IR8 high-yielding rice variety that staved off massive famine in the region.

But IRRI now faces a more formidable challenge with the growing population threatening to overwhelm its meager resources.

"The challenge now is that everyday, 2.5 billion people eat rice. By 2025, or just over a generation, that number will be four billion and that means we have to produce 70 percent more rice from less land with less water and less labor," he said.

"Of course, that means new technologies. There are no quick- fix solutions. Solving it needs solid, good research and this requires secure core funding," he said.

IRRI is launching a campaign to expand its funding base to include big corporations in the private sector, arguing that food security makes good economic sense.

The increase in rice harvests over the past three decades has pushed the price of the cereal down by 40 percent, stemming a potential source of social unrest, Rothschild said.

Next month IRRI will launch, in Bangkok, the Asian Rice Foundation, where the private sector and other donors can channel funds, he said. The U.S.-based Rockefeller Foundation, a major IRRI backer, will provide the seed money.

Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej has agreed to join the campaign to rescue IRRI, which has trained many southeast Asian scientists, including Thais, Rothschild added.

He said IRRI would likewise seek increased financial contribution from China, India and Indonesia, which together produce and consume over 60 percent of the world's rice.

The institution has already devolved some of its functions to the rice research institutes of other countries, and has contracted out services such as catering and vehicle maintenance.

The IRRI was set up in 1960 by the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations with the help of the Philippine government. It is one of 18 non-profit international research centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). CGIAR is sponsored by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Bank and the UN Development Program.