S. Asia boosts rice output

S. Asia boosts rice output

LOS BANOS, Philippines (AFP): South and Southeast Asia's less
hospitable rain-fed lands are likely to start in efforts to boost
rice harvests and ease a projected supply crunch by the turn of
the century, scientists say.

Agronomists at the International Rice Research Institute
(IRRI) here say that these non-irrigated lands will be the source
of the world's next potential miracle rice seed, which they are
feverishly trying to develop.

Harvests in irrigated farms, which account for 75 percent of
the world's total rice output, have already reached their plateau
at 6.5 to seven tons per hectare (acre), even with the aid of the
most modern scientific techniques.

With population growth out-pacing production, attention is now
focused on breaching the yield barrier in the rain-fed lowlands
and flood-prone fields of Bangladesh, Burma, India, Nepal,
Pakistan and Sri Lanka as well as parts of Southeast Asia such as
Cambodia.

They comprise 40 percent of the world's rice-producing area
but account for only 25 percent of the total harvests of 520
million tons annually.