Rice Today Special Supplement

Special Supplement for the 15th National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI)
Anniversary Symposium and Exhibition, Vientiane, Lao PDR, 8-10 April 2014
Can less favorable areas obtain food security?

Country highlight: IRRI in Lao PDR
Water mapping with satellites
Making rice less thirsty
Lesson plan:
Save water
by Rona Nia Mae Rojas
Students in the Philippines learn how to save water in planting rice
Bulacan agricultural State college
tudents troop to the middle

alternately flooding rice fields and
of a rice field. With the sun
allowing them to dry for a few days.
at their backs, they listen
With this technology, no losses in
carefully as someone tells them crop harvest were shown when
about the rice crops planted in the
compared to fields using continuous
field. This is how they are introduced
flooding methods and, in general, it
to a type of rice variety that could
can reduce water use by 1530%. In
withstand an environment with less
some irrigated production systems
water. Eventually, these agricultural
in the country, the use of alternate
students from a Philippine state
wetting and drying helped reduce
college will learn more as they get to
tension among farmers because they
visit the field more often.
are assured that water is sufficient for
Such a scene is a picture of an
all of them. Moreover, their farming
outdoor lecture about water-saving
costs decreased, which meant some
technologies such as the aerobic rice
savings in money.
technology and the alternate wetting
The International Rice Research
and drying irrigation method that
Institute (IRRI), through the Irrigated
are used in rice
production.
The aerobic
rice technology
involves growing a
rice variety using
less water than the
regular amount.
The aerobic rice
variety produces
high yields and
is best adopted in
rainfed and upland
areasland that is
generally productive
only during the rainy
season and is left idle
in the dry season.
Dr. Junel Soriano, professor at the Bulacan agricultural State College,
Alternate
Philippines, teaches his students about the principles and benefits of
wetting and drying
water-saving technologies.
is practiced by
Rice Today July-September 2012
Rice Research Consortium (IRRC),

introduced these technologies to
help farmers cope with limited water
resources for rice production. Both
technologies have favorable results
in reducing water requirements and
decreasing input costs.
With these technologies
benefiting farmers, it is only fitting
that the knowledge and practices
be passed on to a new generation of
young agriculturists.
Rice goes to school
Dr. Junel Soriano, an agricultural

engineer and professor at the Bulacan
Agricultural State College (BASC) in
the Philippines who
once worked in the
National Irrigation
Administration,
proposed the
integration of watersaving technologies
in selected courses
in undergraduate
and graduate
academic programs
on agriculture. The
idea was deemed
sound and was
approved by the
BASC council.
Thus, Dr.
Soriano was able to
include technologies
such as aerobic
rice and alternate
3
13
wetting and drying and they are now

integrated in the curriculum.
In La Union Province, Don
Mariano Marcos Memorial State
University (DMMMSU) students
conduct field and laboratory activities
in aerobic rice production systems to
complete their course requirements.
Now, Dr. Soriano is working
closely with Dr. Marina Sabado,
a professor of agriculture in
DMMMSU, to present a proposal to
the universitys academic council to
fully and officially integrate watersaving technologies into the school
curriculum.
More benefits
The collaboration of state

universities and colleges with
IRRI and government institutions
in conducting research and
dissemination activities on watersaving technologies reaped
unintended rewards.
BASC was allocated more funds
because its Aerobic Rice Research,
Development, and Extension
Program caught the attention of
more institutions and agencies that
wanted to be involved in the research,
development, and extension of
aerobic rice.
With more funds, we were able
to improve the facilities of the College
and hire more staff that the whole
College can benefit from, says Dr.
Soriano.
The availability of additional
resources also meant a re-energized
atmosphere for research.
4
14
A unified approach
DMMMSU and BASC have

influenced other state colleges and
universities such as Isabela State
University (ISU) in following their
path in water-saving technology
research, development, and extension.
ISU developed its own program on
aerobic rice technology, formulated
a road map for the Cagayan Valley
region, and has now implemented
projects in Isabela Province and in
some parts of the region.
Dr. Soriano and Dr. Sabado
aim to continuously develop the
technologies and get students
more involved in research. They
acknowledge the need to determine
what aspects of the technologies need
more research. Any new development
DePartment of agriculture technical staff and local officials from lanao del
norte (in southern Philippines), where the Bulacan agricultural State College
has a project for water-saving techonologies, take part in a field demonstration
of aerobic rice technology.
M.N. Budhar (2)
Bulacan agricultural State college (2)
Dr. Junel Soriano (second from left), together with

farmers and technical staff from the Department of
agriculture regional office, visit a site demonstrating
the use of water-saving technologies.
would be included in the schools

instructional and extension materials.
In fact, BASC now has projects
in eight other provinces to continue
its research on water-saving
technologies and has demonstrated
the benefits to students and farmers
as well. Soon, says Dr. Soriano,
students will be able to learn more
on the use of mechanical tools for the
different operations and practices in
the technologies, organic farming
practices for aerobic rice technology,
and weed management.
Another teaching tool being
developed, in coordination with
the IRRC, is a video documentation
of farmers practicing alternate
wetting and drying and aerobic
rice technology. These videos will
showcase the success stories of
farmers from the different provinces.
We will work with other state
colleges and universities in creating
a solid and unified proposal to fully
integrate water-saving technologies
in academe, especially in instruction,
says Dr. Soriano. The IRRC plays a
strong role by providing technical
and financial support.
Meanwhile, schools like
DMMMSU, BASC, and ISU will
continue toward their goal of
educating their studentsthe future
agriculturistson the different ways
to save water, a resource so valuable
in todays food production.
Farmers
get their
groove
back
by M.N. Budhar
Drum seeding finds its way

back to Tamil Nadu as farmers
learn how to control weeds
effectively and maximize
profits using the technology
onsumers in Tamil Nadu, a

predominantly rice-growing
state in India, who preferred
millet grains, particularly finger
millet, for hundreds of years, have shifted
to rice because it is considered a status
symbol.
Rice is important and will continue
to play a vital role in food security for
millions of people in India. The future
of Indian food security and foreign
exchange through rice exports will also
largely depend on desired production
and productivity. Opportunities are great
for attaining high yield in rice through
proper agronomic management practices,
low-cost mechanization in seeding and
weeding, and suitable establishment
techniques. The need for increased
food production at prices affordable to
consumers and profitable to farmers has
been a concern for all.
Tamil Nadu has been recently
dominated by the industrial sector
Mr. Chakravathy decided to use a drum

seeder this year to sow his new crop.
compared with other states. Rice

is grown in all of Tamil Nadus 30
districts comprising a total rice area of
2.05 million hectares. For example, in
Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts,
located in the northwestern agroclimatic
zone of Tamil Nadu (see map), rice is
the staple food crop. It is cultivated on
65,000 hectares in spite of a lack of water
and labor resources, the high cost of
cultivation, and less profitability. These
two districts are situated near industrial
cities, which lure farm laborers with high
wages and stipulated work hours.
Industrialization led to increased
labor migration to city areas and a shift
toward alternative rural employment,
and caused a severe farm labor shortage.
Consequently, it also increased the cost of
labor during peak farming operations such
as transplanting, weeding, and harvesting.
In Tamil Nadu, transplanting is
traditionally done only by women. The
task is labor-intensive and cumbersome.
Rice Today April-June 2011
The major farm activities such as

preparing and managing the nursery,
pulling out seedlings, transporting and
distributing them to the main field, and
transplanting them consume 2530% of
the total cost of cultivation in transplanted
rice. Moreover, expansion of irrigated
area, the availability of short-duration
high-yielding rice varieties, availability
of herbicides to control weeds, increased
transplanting costs, and declining
profitability of rice production have forced
many farmers to shift from transplanting
to direct seeding on puddled and leveled
soils under irrigated conditions. For this,
a drum seeder, a wetland implement,
greatly helps the rice-farming community
by directly sowing germinated rice seeds,
in lines, in the field.
The drum-seeding concept was first
developed and tested by the International
Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and
its plastic version was developed by
Cantho Plastics in Vietnam. Its prototype
5
33
a youNg farmer demonstrates

the use of a plastic drum seeder.
model was refined by the Tamil Nadu

Agricultural University (TNAU) in
Coimbatore, India. The Regional
Agroindustrial Development Cooperative
Kerala Ltd. (RAIDCO), in India, is the
authorized manufacturer of the drum
seeder prescribed by TNAU.
The plastic drum seeder consists of
four drumseach can hold 2 kilograms
of seeds at a time. This eight-row drum
seeder requires only 9 kilograms of
pulling force to operate. Without the seed,
the machine weighs 8 kilograms. And, it
requires two persons to cover 1 hectare
and costs about US$88 for each unit.
The use of drum seeding in sowing
of sprouted seeds in puddled fields has
already been proven successful in many
countries such as Thailand, Vietnam (see
Drumming up success on pages 22-27
of Rice Today Vol. 4, No. 2), Myanmar
(see Drum seeders pick up the beat in
Myanmar on page 3 of Ripple Vol. 3, No.
2), Bangladesh (see The direct approach
on pages 12-18 of Rice Today Vol. 5,
No. 2), and the Indo-Gangetic Plains of
India (Direct seeding of rice gets warm
approval in the Indo-Gangetic Plain on
page 11 of Ripple Vol. 1, No. 2). Farmers
in Tamil Nadu have also accepted the
drum-seeding technology because it
6
34
cuts labor and seed costs, speeds up the

planting process, provides higher yields,
or at least yields similar to those of
Watch out for the weeds

Although farmers had been quick to
adopt drum seeding, they forgot to
control weedseither manually or
chemicallyduring the early stage of
crop growth despite the recommendation
of researchers and extension workers.
Consequently, weeds invaded the crop
and reduced yields drastically. Farmers
also had to shell out extra money to
remove the weeds. Because of this, the
drum-seeding technology was perceived
as no longer viable.
Reportedly, weeds can reduce yields
by as much as 5060% in direct-seeded
rice. To prevent this loss, early control of
INdIa
tamil Nadu
Gains in drum seeding

P. Gunasekaran, a small farmer in Annamaaipatti village in Dharmapuri
District and a regular visitor to RRS in Paiyur, witnessed the success of
a 2-year experiment on drum seeding combined with weed control
methods versus transplanting practices. He adopted drum seeding
and mechanical weeding technology in his 0.4-hectare field. He and
his wife did the sowing, weeding, and spraying. Only for harvesting
and threshing did he hire some labor. He proudly said that his crop
yielded 40 bags (each bag weighs 75 kilograms) of moist-free rough
ricean amount never yet recorded in his rice-farming experience.
Besides this record yield of 7.5 tons per hectare, he could reduce
cultivation expenses to a tune of US$76which came from the
time saved in nursery establishment and management, lower seed
requirement (from 30 kilograms to only 10 kilograms of seed), less
labor cost for transplanting, and less manual weeding cost. Most of
all, he felt happy just being relieved of the drudgery in putting up
a nursery and managing it and transplanting along with laborers.
Satisfied with the technology, he encouraged other farmers to adopt
this technology.
Another beneficiary of RRS is G. Ekambaram, a progressive rice
farmer and rice mill owner, who has adopted the latest technologies
in rice cultivation for the past 3 decades in Pothapuram village
near Kaveripattinam town in Krishnagiri District. RRS scientists
usually conduct on-farm trials first in Mr. Ekambarams field for easy
technology dissemination. His paddy farm is situated in a rice belt
where labor is scarce and costly and transplanting of seedlings is
seldom done at the right time. This forced him to adopt drum-seeding
technology. The first time he tried this technology with chemical
weeds is imperative. Although manual

weeding can control weeds effectively,
it is difficult, time-consuming, and
costlyespecially when labor resources
are not readily available.
In the past, farmers failed to shift
from transplanting to direct seeding
effectively because they lacked
knowledge of weed management using
herbicides. Fear of handling herbicides,
lack of skill in spraying, lack of
knowledge in using an optimum dose, and
unavailability of wide-spectrum herbicide
to control diverse weed flora prevented
the success of drum-seeding technology.
Revival of drum-seeding technology
The key to successful direct seeding
on a large scale lies in the way farmers
manage their weeds and crops. Thus,
to revive the drum-seeding technology
and to respond to the needs of farmers,
experiments were once again conducted
in the Paiyur RRS. A study investigated
the effect of initial weeding, weeding
interval, and frequency of weeding by
mechanically using a cono weeder and
compared it with chemical and manual
weeding control in direct- or drumseeded puddled rice.
A study conducted in 2007 showed
that mechanical weeding and soil stirring
control of weeds was

during the dry season of
2000 in a smaller patch of
0.14 hectare. However, the
preemergence herbicide
applied at 8 DAS did not
control many weeds,
which caused damage to
the crop. So, he decided
to apply herbicide
with safener, which is
a substance applied to
reduce the effect of the
herbicide on crop plants.
In the wet season of 2000
and 2002, he extended
this technology to his
FarMer P. gunasekaran hopes to revive
his farm with the help of drum seeding.
entire farm of one and a
half hectares. The drum
seeder combined with chemical control of weeds increased the net
income of his rice crop by reducing the cost of cultivation. In 2003 to
2006, because of a water shortage, nonavailability of herbicide and
safener, and a lack of finances, he was not able to cultivate rice.
During the wet season of 2007, he sowed his crop using a drum
seeder and adding mechanical weeding in his agronomic practices.
It was then that he was able to harvest a good yield and gain a higher
profit. Satisfied with the benefits derived from the drum-seeding
technology, he spread the news to other farmers. He encouraged them
to use mechanical weeders at the right time.
done at 10 days after sowing (DAS) and

subsequent weeding and stirring done
twice at an interval of 15 days were able
to control weeds effectively and had
maximized productivity and profitability
in a drum-seeded field.
During that time, even while the
experiment was in progress, many farmers
visited the experimental field and saw
the success of the direct-seeded crop.
P. Gunasekaran, a farmer who lives 50
kilometers away from the experimental
station, became interested in the
technology and adopted it on his small
farm (see box for more on his success
story). With the support of RRS, he and
his relatives were able to cultivate a
direct-seeded crop using a drum seeder on
half a hectare of his land. Many farmers
witnessed the practices adopted by Mr.
Gunasekaran and his relatives as well
as the progress of his crop. Hence, other
farmers became interested also. They
were then advised by the RRS scientists to
use mechanical weeding and stir the soil
at appropriate stages using a cono weeder,
which resulted in vigorous crop growth
and good yield. Later on, to celebrate
their successes, the farmers themselves
organized a field day to share the
technology with other farmers in the area.
Through field days, more and
dr. G. uMapathy
dr. G. uMapathy
transplanted rice, and is easy to operate.

In other words, farmers profit more.
Field experiments at the TNAU
Regional Research Station (RRS) in
Paiyur and on-farm trials conducted
in villages of Krishnagiri District
compared traditional transplanted rice
with direct-seeded rice through drum
seeding in 2000. Even then, the results
indicated that drum seeding had a higher
or equivalent yield advantage compared
with transplanting. Plus, it reduced crop
duration by 710 days.
more farmers adopted drum-seeding

technology. Because of the benefits
such as a lower seed rate, no nursery,
no transplanting, no hand weeding, and
less field duration, the drum-seeding
technology regained the confidence
of the farmers. The National Bank for
Agriculture and Rural Development in
Chennai shares this confidence in the
technology by collaborating with RRS
in Paiyur to carry out a scheme for
2010-11, Drum seeding and mechanical
weeding for productivity, profitability,
and prosperity of rice farmers under
a Farmers Technology Transfer Fund
with a budget outlay of $13,890 in 10
agricultural blocks of Krishnagiri District
in Tamil Nadu. The scheme provided
financial support to conduct 20 farmers
field demonstrations to compare drum
seeding with traditional transplanting
and to provide training to 500 farmers.
A drum seeder and cono weeders have
been distributed for free to all farmers
organizations for hands-on trials in the
hope that more farmers will benefit from
this simple yet effective technology.
Dr. Budhar is professor of agronomy at
the Regional Research Station, Tamil
Nadu Agricultural University, India.
7
35
The Malinao DaM in Pilar, on the Philippine

island of Bohol, has been operating since 1998
but has been unable to supply enough water to
irrigate its 4,960-hectare service area.
A Perfect mAtch
irrigaTeD rice fields near

the town of carmen, Bohol.
water-saving technologies find their way to the province

of Bohol in the Philippines and prove to be a perfect
match for the regions climate and irrigation systems
Story by Meg Mondoedo
Photos by Raymond Jose Panaligan
ith three major

reservoir-fed
irrigation systems
operating in the
area, its easy to think that Bohol,
one of the biggest rice-growing
areas in the Philippines Visayas
region, is free of water problems
for irrigated rice. Think again.
Despite these dams, the rice
farmers of Bohol have been struggling
to irrigate their crops, for the simple
reason that the province does not
have enough water. Bohol has
what is known as a Corona climate
type IV, characterized by evenly
distributed rainfall throughout the
year. There is no clear-cut wet or
dry season, though there is a higher
likelihood of heavy showers from
November to January. The average
annual rainfall is estimated at
8
16
around 1,600 millimeters per year.

The three national irrigation
systems operating in Bohol, covering
a total area of 10,260 hectares, are
the Capayas Irrigation System in
Ubay (1,160 hectares), the Bohol
Irrigation System 1 (BIS 1; 4,960
hectares), and the Bohol Irrigation
System 2 (BIS 2; 4,140 hectares).
The Malinao Dam of BIS 1 in
Pilar, the Bayongan Dam of BIS 2 in
San Miguel, and the Capayas Dam
in Ubay are all reservoir-type dams.
However, Bayongan Dam, which was
constructed under the Japan Bank
for International Cooperation (JBIC)
loan program, was built in such a way
that it had to rely primarily on BIS1.
Water from Bayongan Dam will come
mostly from the excess water flowing
from Malinao Dam. The technical
functionality of BIS 2 is therefore
very much dependent on the efficient
operation and management of BIS 1.
Since the start of operations in
1998, however, BIS 1 has performed

poorly because of inefficient water
use. The dam has been beset by
problemsdeclining available water,
asynchronous farming activities
resulting in wasteful use of water,
and poorly maintained irrigation
facilities. All of these have, in turn,
affected farm productivity and
contributed to low farmer incomes.
A JBIC mission conducted in
March 2005 reported that water
from BIS 1 failed to cover the
designated irrigation area and that
the nonirrigated areas are mostly
located farthest from the canals.
Usually, there is insufficient
water available during the years
second cropping (November to April),
especially for downstream farmers
who live farthest from the dam.
This problem is aggravated by the
practice of unequal water distribution
and unnecessary water use by
farmers who insist on continuous
Two Boys paddle their way across the Malinao Dam.

9
17
flooding to irrigate their rice crop.

In the face of declining irrigated
rice production in Bohol since
2000, the National Irrigation
Administration (NIA) created
an action plan for the Bohol
Integrated Irrigation System.
The plan focused on improving
water distribution equity and
efficiency; improving operations;
strengthening coordination among
the NIA, irrigators associations
(groups of farmers who share
an irrigation canal), and local
government units; rehabilitating and
upgrading irrigation facilities; and
establishing demonstration farms
on water-saving technologies.
A major component of this
plan was the implementation of a
project to improve the performance
of irrigation systems and increase
water productivity. Thus, a watersaving project team for Bohol was
established, with NIA as the lead
agency. To achieve its goal, the
project made use of water-saving
technologies developed by scientists
of the Irrigated Rice Research
Consortium (IRRC) Water-Saving
Workgroup based at the International
Rice Research Institute (IRRI).
After our initial success in
Tarlac (see The big squeeze on pages
26-31 of Rice Today Vol. 7, No. 2),
the national office of NIA got hold
of the technologies, says Ruben
Lampayan, IRRI postdoctoral fellow
and leader of the Water-Saving
Work Group. Since Bohol didnt
have enough water to irrigate their
rice area, despite its three dams,
NIA decided to bring water-saving
naTional irrigaTion administration engineer edmund Mendez.
10
18
FarMers FroM carMen, Bohol,

thresh their rice after harvesting.
technologies, specifically alternate

wetting and drying (AWD), to Bohol.
Consequently, the introduction
of AWD (also called controlled
irrigation) debunked the widespread
belief that rice has a continuous,
insatiable thirst for water. In fact, rice
can be flooded to a lesser extent than
usual (to a depth of 35 centimeters
instead of up to 10 centimeters),
allowed to dry to a degree, then
re-flooded, with this cycle repeated
throughout the season as long as the
soil remains flooded throughout the
flowering period. Up to a quarter
less water is needed, there is no drop
in yield, and farmers dont need to
make any other major changes in
the way they manage their crop.
Many farmers came to realize
that rice doesnt need lots of water
throughout its life cycle, says NIA
Engineer Edmund Mendez. They
Pilar FarMers' group leader

Jardy Bolanio.
Bis suPerinTenDenT olympio

galagala, Jr. is also a farmer.
irri waTer-saving researcher

ruben lampayan.
saw first-hand, from the demo plots,

that rice doesnt have to be flooded all
the time. It only needs puddled water
during the critical stages of growth.
In Pilar, a municipality in the
province of Bohol, where the project
was first launched, water from
the dams started to decline 34
years ago. Only upstream farmers
(those near the main irrigation
canals) could get sufficient water,
leaving downstream farmers
with almost nothing. Water from
the dams was not enough to
serve all the farmers fields.
Today, about 150 farmers
in Pilar alone are using AWD
to grow rice twice a year.
We really saw the need for
AWD and aerobic rice technologies,
says Jardy Bolanio, head of a local
farmers group in Pilar. Even during
the rainy season, we still needed

to save water in the reservoirs as
backup for drier days to come.
So far, our yields using AWD
have been the same as those we get
from growing rice in flooded fields,
he says. However, weeds have been
a minor problem. Since flooding
controls weeds, AWD is more prone
to weed growth because of the dry
stages. But it can be solved easily
through manual weeding. The
weed problem is nothing compared
with the water we save and the
consistent income we now get.
AWDs success didnt
happen overnight though. With
many farmers resisting the
switch from flooded methods,
NIA and its partners carried
out information campaigns,
farm-level demonstrations, and
farmers field days where the
technology was introduced.
Farmers were scared that
AWD might reduce their yield
and they would not earn as
muchbut it didnt happen.
There was no disadvantage from
using AWD, says BIS Superintendent
Olympio Galagala, Jr., who also
farms rice in Pilar. Our yields
were the same, and, best of all,
our water problem was solved.
According to Dr. Lampayan, AWD
in Bohol was adopted by farmers not
because they liked it. It was adopted
because it was forced on them in a
way, as a solution to the weaknesses
The enDangereD Philippine tarsier
(Tarsius syrichta), endemic to the
southern Philippines, including
Bohol, is one of the worlds smallest
primates.
chilDren Play near a pile of rice

grains in their backyard in Pilar, Bohol.
of the water delivery systems, he

explains. Before the project was
implemented, the NIA people tried
to rotate the water in such as way
that everyone would get a fair share,
at least within an area served by
one dam. AWD complemented that
water rotation scheme because
the demand for water became
lower and farmers became less
worried about their crops dying
if they didnt get enough water.
Farmers always thought
that the more water they
had, the more yield they
would get. AWD proved this
wrong. The farmers are happy
not only because they dont
worry about water anymore,
but also because life is
more harmoniousthey no
longer compete for water.
With more and more
farmers seeing the benefits
of using AWD, the Bohol
experience could be a potential
model for success of the WaterSaving Work Groups country

sites across Southeast Asia.
There is so much potential
in AWD because water scarcity
is a real threat, stresses Dr.
Lampayan. People are aware of
the water problem, but they dont
realize its extent. Our next step
is to scale out and spread the
technology to other problematic
areas, not just in the Philippines.
While the IRRC helps Bohol
with the water shortage problem, it
also recognizes the need to address
other production constraints such as
soil fertility, labor, and postharvest
losses. Through the IRRCs Country
Outreach Program, initial efforts
have been made to integrate AWD
with other IRRC technologies to
optimize rice farmers incomes.
As the number of Bohol
farmers who use AWD grows,
the IRRC continues to search
for the next perfect match.
11
19
direct
approach
The
The Indo-Gangetic Plains, running east from

northwestern India across to the Barind area of western
Bangladesh, are some of the most agriculturally important
tracts of land on the planet. Home to Indias rice-wheat
cropping system, the plains are the most productive
area in the country and vital to the food security of
India. Infrastructure, such as irrigation, is relatively well
developed and many farmers have access to mechanical
equipment including tractors and machine seeders.
Despite these advances, farmers here face problems,
such as deteriorating soil health, rising costs, and
declining productivity and labor availability. Without
workable solutions, things are likely to get worse.
As you move east along the plains into eastern
India and then northwestern Bangladesh and the High
Barind Tract, the farm sizes and level of development
A return to the ways of their

forefathers has seen Indian and
Bangladeshi rice farmers reduce
their need for water and address the
growing problem of labor shortages
STORY AND PHOTOS BY ADAM BARCLAY
o understand the importance of rice farming

to Bangladesh, look at the numbers. This
densely populated countrymore crowded
than any other on Earth bar city-states
such as Singaporehas 146 million people.
Around 80 million of them rely on agriculture for their
livelihood. Agriculture alone employs around twothirds of the labor force of almost 70 million and rice
is the countrys most signicant agricultural product,
accounting for more than three-quarters of total cropped
area. Add to this the fact that the average Bangladeshi
receives around three-quarters of his or her calories
from rice and you begin to understand the grains
signicance. Further, in India and Bangladesh, the
poorest people spend up to half their income on rice.
While India doesnt rely on rice in the same way as its
northeastern neighbor, rice remains Indias single most
important agricultural product. Given Indias sheer
numbersits 1.1 billion people constitute almost onefth of the worlds populationmerely maintaining
rice productivity is not enough; as the population
rises, India must produce more rice on less land.
12
12
BABUL, a farmer from Rashantapur

village in Rajshahi, Bangladesh,
describes his experiences with directseeded rice. Two girls (above right)
take a break after harvesting rice in
the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
tend to diminish. In the Barind, farms average less

than 1 hectare in size, on which farmers do their
best to simply grow enough food for themselves and
their families. Rice farming here relies more heavily
on manual labor and simple tillage equipment.
Despite dramatic differences between farms at either
end of the Indo-Gangetic Plains, farmers along their
length share several problemstwo of which have grave
implications for rice production and, by extension, for the
welfare and food security of many millions of people.
First, as people who traditionally made their living
working on farms are uprooting and moving to the cities
to nd work in the developing urban and industrial
sectors, the availability of farm labor is decreasing
particularly during the peak periods of farm operations
and, consequently, becoming more and more expensive.
Second, and perhaps even more pressing, are the
issues of water availability and cost. Farmers the world
over are, of course, dependent on water. In Bangladesh,
and on the least developed farms of the Indo-Gangetic
Plains, farmers rely on monsoon rains. If the rains
are too late or too little, farmers may not be able to
establish the crop and, even where they do, yields can be
decimated. At the other end of the plains, many farms
pump groundwater when and as needed but unless
something changes soon, this cannot continue. Water
tables are falling and, as global fuel prices continue their
steep climb of the last few years, the cost of irrigation
is becoming prohibitive to the point where farmers are
13
13
foregoing the use of their irrigation

systems and, like their Bangladeshi
counterparts, waiting for the rains.
So, what are the alternatives?
One approach, which has emerged
as a promising part of the solution
across the Indo-Gangetic Plains,
is deceptively simple: rather than
transplanting rice seedlings into
ooded elds, sow rice seeds directly
into an unooded eld. Such direct
seeding can offer relief in terms of
both the water and labor problems
and, since 1999, has been investigated
as part of two projectsPromotion
of cost-effective weed practices
for lowland rice in Bangladesh
and Promotion of integrated weed
management for direct-seeded rice
in the Gangetic Plains of Indiawith
collaboration among the International
Rice Research Institute (IRRI),
the U.K.-based Natural Resources
Institute (NRI), and the University
of Liverpool, with additional
funding from the Crop Protection
LEADING the direct seeding charge (four photos from

left to right): Dr. M.A. Mazid observes direct-seeded
rice elds in Rajshahi, Bangladesh, with eld technician Md. Nazmul Hossain; Pantnagar farmer M.S. Grewal (at left), who describes direct seeding as very
benecial, and G.B. Pant University agronomist Dr.
V.P. Singh discuss Mr. Grewals experiences; G.B. Pant
agronomist Dr. K.S. Shekhar describes how researchers are getting information to farmers; and Dr. Y.
Singh, also from G.B. Pant, has played a key role in
developing direct-seeding in northern India.
Programme of the U.K. Department

for International Development.
Through IRRI, the work is linked
with the Irrigated Rice Research
Consortium and the Consortium for
Unfavorable Rice Environments.
With their in-country
collaboratorsthe Bangladesh
Rice Research Institute (BRRI)
and, in India, G.B. Pant University
of Agriculture and Technology
in Pantnagar, Narendra Deva
University of Agriculture and
Technology in Faizabad, C.S. Azad
Agriculture University in Kanpur, and
Rajendra Agriculture University in
Patnathe projects have examined
the advantages, challenges,
DIRECT-SEEDED rice (right)
matures 34 weeks earlier
than transplanted rice
(left), and so is more
likely to avoid damaging
early-season drought and
increase farmers chances
of successfully growing a
subsequent nonrice crop.
EXPERIMENTAL plots at G.B. Pant University show the devastating effect of

no weeding (foreground) versus good
weed management (background).
14
14
opportunities, and constraints of

direct seeding across the IndoGangetic Plains and the Barind.
Although the idea of a rice farm
often evokes images of ooded
paddies and bunded terraces, direct
seeding is not a new approach.
Until the early 1960s, most Indian
and Bangladeshi farmers directseeded their crops. At that time, the
introduction of a more productive
model of rice production, which
exploited high-yielding varieties and
increased fertilizer use, triggered a
move to transplanting. In an everchanging production environment,
and despite its advantages, there
is growing recognition that the
transplanting model isnt ideal for
every location and circumstance.
There are a number of options
for direct seeding, though the
principles remain the same. Rice
can be sown with either dry or wet
(pregerminated) seed, which is
either placed in rows or broadcast.
Bangladeshi farmers have tested

dry-seeding rice in furrows made by a
lithao, a simple, low-cost metal plow
drawn by two people (see photo in A
tale of two farmers, right). In both
Bangladesh and India, if soil moisture
is adequate, pregerminated rice seed
may be either broadcast by hand or
sown in rows with an inexpensive
plastic drum seeder, pulled by a
single user (see Drumming up
success in Rice Today Vol. 4 No. 2,
pages 22-27). Meanwhile, on many
northeastern Indian farms, farmers
use tractor-mounted mechanical
seeders that sow seeds at chosen rates
and simultaneously apply fertilizer.
The specic advantages of
direct seeding vary with farmers
circumstances. David Johnson, an
IRRI weed scientist and one of the
projects investigators, explains
the situation at the eastern end
of the Plains, in Bangladesh.
It takes about 500 mm of
cumulative rainfall for a farmer
to be able to establish a rice crop
through transplanting, says Dr.
Johnson. If farmers direct-seed,
they can establish the crop from
about one-quarter of that.
By direct seeding, therefore,
farmers can avoid the hardships
of 2003, 2004, and 2005, when
the monsoon rains arrived so late
that many growers were unable
to establish a rice crop at all.
Further, even if there is sufcient
rain for farmers to transplant on
time, they are still at the mercy
of the weather. Drought during

the rice plants owering stage
can devastate the crop, causing
yield losses of 50% or more.
M.A. Mazid, principal scientic
ofcer and head of the BRRI
regional station in Rangpur, explains
the situation in the Barind.
Generally, he says, farmers
are supposed to transplant by midJuly. But if theres no rain, they cant
transplant and the seedlings get
older40, 50, even 60 days, while
seedlings should be no older than
around 30 days to get the best yields.
The need for high levels of
rainfall before transplanting means
that direct-seeded rice can be
established around 1 month ahead
of transplanted rice. In addition,
direct-seeded crops are not affected
by transplanting shock, a period
of a few days immediately after
transplanting when the plants dont

grow, and so are further advanced
than those transplanted. When Rice
Today visited rice farms in Rajshahi,
Bangladesh, in early October 2005,
the direct-seeded crops had already
owered and thus escaped the worst
effects of any subsequent drought,
which would have ravaged the laterowering, transplanted crops.
Earlier establishment has
an additional advantage, adds
Dr. Johnson, because it means
earlier harvest, which increases
the chances of growing a dryseason crop like chickpea, a cash
crop that helps increase income
and so improves the livelihood
of farmers and their families.
Traditionally, Barind farmers
transplant a single crop of rice each
year, growing a second crop like
chickpea only if sufcient moisture
A TALE OF TWO FARMERS
bdul Basir and Shadat Hossain, rice farmers from Rajabari village in the Bangladeshi district of
Rajshahi, tried direct seeding for the rst time in 2005, preparing their elds by furrowing the soil
with a locally produced lithao, which they demonstrate with Dr. M.A. Mazid, below (Shadat at left).
Previously, says Shadat, I needed a seedbed that required extra management like uprooting
seedlings and transplanting. If there was enough rain, I could transplant but, if there was no rain,
the seedlings became older and I had to waitin some years, two months or more. If I transplanted
older seedlings, the yield was very poor. In 2003, there was so little rain that we couldnt transplant
at all.
With direct seeding by lithao, we can go ahead, even with little water, concurs the 45-yearold Abdul, who supports a family of seven. With direct seeding I expect that, whatever happens, Ill
harvest something. This gives me a good feeling. Before, we believed that if there was no more rain,
there would be no crop. Now, we believe that even if theres only a small amount of rain, the seed will
germinate and well get some rice.
Both farmers have also been struck by the labor advantages of direct seeding, noting that labor
requirements are less and more labor is available when it is needed.
During transplanting time, explains Abdul, every farmer wants to transplant, so theres a labor
shortage and labor prices go up. Direct-seeded rice requires 15 labor days per hectare; transplanting
requires 30 labor days.
When they transplanted, Abdul and Shadat generally grew only a wet-season rice crop each year.
If there was enough soil moisture following rice harvest, they would plant a chickpea crop too, but in
the past ve years, Abdul managed to grow chickpeas only once. In 2005, both farmers reaped good
yields from their direct-seeded rice elds and consequently grew successful chickpea crops.
There has been keen
interest from surrounding
farmers not directly involved
in the project. Both Abdul and
Shadat invited their neighbors
to see their crop. About 50 local
farmers visited and, according
to Abdul, were so impressed
that they now plan to try direct
seeding themselves.
We should follow this in
the future, concludes Shadat.
We will continue to do this,
even if the extension agents
and the researchers have
gone.
15
15
remains in the eld following

the rice harvest. Currently, in an
average year, about 80% of the
land remains fallow in the second
season. The earlier harvest of directseeded rice increases the chances
of there being sufcient residual
soil moisture for a second crop.
Chickpea is a high-value crop,
says Dr. Mazid, adding that there
is an excellent market for it in
Bangladesh, where it fetches around
two and a half times the price of
rice per unit volume. Generally,
we import chickpea from Australia,
India, or even Canada; there isnt
sufcient production here.
The results of the 2005 harvest
were encouraging. Yields were good
and the early harvest and increased
residual soil moisture allowed the
direct-seeding farmers to establish
chickpea crops, which also produced
good yields. Direct seeding helped
ensure that farmers and their families
had enough food during Monga, the
lean period in October and November
before transplanted rice is harvested.
Back west in Indias rice-wheat
belt, some farmers, like their
Bangladeshi counterparts, do not

have access to irrigation. Many
who do, however, are becoming
increasingly reliant on rain due to
the high costs of pumping while
others face increased competition
from the industrial and urban sectors
that are making water a scarce
resource. If rains arrive too late,
the rice crop is compromised and

the equally important wheat crop
is jeopardized. Wheat needs to be
well established before the weather
becomes cold. For every week beyond
1 November that wheat planting
is delayed, the crop suffers a yield
loss of 10%, or around 400 kg, per
hectare in the most productive areas.
Project team member Y. Singh,
from G.B. Pant University, points out
that the ideal time to transplant is in
June but lack of rain can see farmers
transplanting as late as September.
Even if one good rain comes,
says Dr. Singh, a farmer doesnt
have time to transplant his whole
areahell need more good rain.
With direct seeding, we can make
sure that the entire rice area
is sown and sown on time.
Timely harvests are not the only
benet, with direct-seeded crops
needing less water overall. Dr. Singh
explains that one of the reasons
for this is the way that soil behaves
under different planting systems.
During a period of drought,
he says, when we dont get rains
for many days, the soil in the
A LOCAL MAN cycles past rice elds
near Pantnagar, India, where farmers
are informed about weed management strategies through posters
(above), leaets, demonstrations,
and meetings.
16
16
transplanted crops eld develops

many cracks. Then, to irrigate
it and take care of those cracks
requires a lot of water. This doesnt
happen for direct-seeded crops.
When we work it out, the total
quantity of water used for a directseeded crop is much less than that
used for a transplanted crop.
The other major advantage of
direct seeding over transplanting
is that it requires less labor at
a time when overall farm labor
availability is dropping due to better
opportunities outside agriculture
in urban areas. Dr. Singh points
out that as scarcity has increased,
so have wages. I would say
agriculture is a last priority, he
says. Its low-paid, seasonal, and
has a high degree of drudgery.
K.S. Shekhar, associate
director of extension (agronomy)
at G.B. Pant University, says that
around his state of Uttaranchal,
increased opportunities in
nonagricultural sectors have caused
labor wage rates to skyrocket.
This area is in Indias steel
belt, says Dr. Shekhar. There
used to be a lot of labor, but now
there are so many other industries
established, so farmers want
technologies that require less labor.
Even the farmers themselves
understand why laborers are drawn
off the land. Dr. Shekhar cites a
national survey that showed most
farmers would leave farming for a
reasonable job in another industry.
Farmers have a common lament,
he says, that goes: When I do a
job, I have an 8-hour headache.
Farming is a 24-hour headache.
There are other cost savings, too.
Direct seeding is generally cheaper
than transplanting, which incurs the
expenses of nursery establishment
and care, and the labor that goes
along with that. And, on larger farms,
running tractors and machine seeders
is less expensive on a dry, unpuddled
eld than on a ooded one.
Dr. Mazid says that, in the
Barind, average crop establishment
costs per hectare are around US$120
for transplanted rice and $90 for
direct-seeded ricea reduction of
THE WIDOW FARMER OF SERAPERA
lya, dressed in bright orange and purple, cuts a distinctive

gure against the bright green backdrop of the rice eld. A
farmer from Serapera village, in Bangladeshs Rajshahi District,
she is not your typical Bangladeshi rice farmer. Although women
play a signicant role in Bangladeshi rice production, the head
farmers are usually men. Following the death of her husband,
though, Alya (pictured right) was left with no choice but to take
over the farm and single-handedly support her four daughters
and two sons.
In the 2005 wet season, Alya used a drum seeder to directseed 1 bigha of land (just less than a seventh of a hectare).
Through reduced water and labor requirements, she immediately
saved around Tk500 (US$7.40) on the direct-seeded plot but,
early on, it didnt look good.
But now the direct-seeded crop looks better than the
traditional crop, she says. When other people rst saw my
eld, they said, youll lose everything! Now, they say, your plot
looks very good, one of the best in the area. My neighbors are very happy about this.
Alyas 2005 direct-seeded rice, which was 3 weeks ahead her transplanted crop, achieved an
impressive yield and she was subsequently able to grow successful wheat, sesame, and chickpea crops.
In the previous season, when she only transplanted rice, Alya grew chickpea and linseed after rice,
but the chickpea fared poorly because it was planted too late. Her sons, who help on the farm, are
impressed.
One of my sons is saying, Mum, well direct-seed, Alya explains. We wont transplant any
more.
25%. And the results to date show

no yield disadvantage. On the
contrary, Dr. Mazid reports that
in a 2004 study of seven on-farm
sites planted to the popular variety
Swarna, yields in transplanted plots
were 4.7 tons per hectare while
yields in plots that had been direct-
seeded with a drum seeder were

about one ton per hectare more.
If direct seeding offers these
advantages, why transplant at all?
The main answer is simple: weeds.
First, the transplanted rice seedlings,
grown in a nursery before being
moved to the eld, have a head
THRESHING rice in
Uttar Pradesh, India.
17
17
grain of truth
JOSE RAYMOND PANALIGAN
use. In the
past, where
farmers have
changed from
transplanting to
direct seeding, a
lack of good weed
management has
constrained the
development of
IRRI WEED scientist
successful directDavid Johnson examines
seeding systems.
a weed with eld techEffective weed
nician Emil Barcial.
management
is more than
start over any competing weeds.
just spraying a eld with herbicide.
Second, the water in a ooded
After 5 years of on-farm trials, the
eld effectively acts as a herbicide,
researchers are condent that direct
suppressing weed growth. The
seeding is a sustainable practice.
ipside, of course, is that weeds are
However, says Dr. Johnson,
the major problem facing farmers
it is a knowledge-intensive system
who direct-seed, and who can lose
and well need to ensure that the
most of their yield if they dont adopt
farmers have the knowledge and
adequate weed-control measures.
information they need to make the
Its likely that farmers who
right decisions at the right time.
direct-seed will be more reliant on
The key to successful
herbicides, says Dr. Johnson, simply direct seeding on a large scale
because they cant rely on ooding
therefore lies in the way that
to suppress weeds during the crucial
farmers manage their crops.
initial period of crop establishment.
We have to change the farmers
Most Indian farmers already use
mindset, says Dr. Singh. If he wants
herbicides. In Bangladesh, farmers
to do better, he has to be a better
are less familiar with herbicides but
manager. Only then will it be possible
recent years have seen increased
to benet from new technologies.
Productivity
levels, by and
A DECISION TREE, designed to help
large, could
farmers make simple, step-by-step

be improved
decisions on how to best manage
and the gap is

their direct-seeded crops.
partly due to
management. If a
farmer improves
management
and input levels,
certainly his
productivity
will go up.
Sure enough,
when
weeds
are managed
appropriately,
direct seeding
is showing
promising
results. Like
their Bangladeshi
counterparts,
the Indian
18
18
farmers who direct-seeded in 2005

had yields as good as or better
than for their transplanted elds.
Direct seeding wont eliminate
labor issues. As more farmers adopt
the technique, there is likely to
be an increased demand for hand
labor for supplementary weeding.
Even when herbicide is used, crops
generally need at least one followup hand weeding. But this shift
in labor use will be spread over
a longer period than the labor
bottleneck for transplanting.
The challenge, then, is greater
than training farmers to choose the
most appropriate herbicides and use
them safely and effectively at the
correct time. Every eld has its own
weed issues, which reect past crop
management systems. If a farmer
moves to a new system, different
weeds will emerge as problems.
Farmers therefore need decisionmaking tools that allow them to
anticipate changes and adopt the
most effective strategy for combating
weeds (see Work needed to weed
out farmers problems on page 38).
Ultimately, says Dr. Johnson,
we want a series of simple rules
in question-and-answer form. For
example, What direct seeding
method should I use? or If species
A develops as a serious weed in
the eld, what should I do?. This
is the next stepto bring together
the research results and develop a
format that allows farmers to access
the information. (See gure at left)
The real success of these projects
will be seen when farmers over a wide
area feel condent enough to adopt
direct seeding. The research projects
in Bangladesh and India have shown
that successful weed management
strategies that enable direct seeding
can be put in place in both rainfed
and irrigated rice-cropping systems.
It might not be something that
happens on a wide scale until the
circumstances to encourage such a
change are in place, says Dr. Johnson.
But with declining availability of
irrigation water and of labor at peak
periods, its likely that, over the long
term, well see a continued shift towards direct seeding in South Asia.
can less favorable areas

obtain food security?
by
Gelia T. CasTillo
ice is life. So, when the

global rice crisis hit in
2008, it threatened many
lives. The year became well
remembered for the soaring prices, the
long lines in the market, the panic, the
blame game, and the social unrest in
different countries. A sense of alarm
grew when rice, known to be the most
affordable food for the poor, suddenly became unaffordable. It reminded
the world of rices crucial role in human existence. It also revived interest
in agriculture.
Researchers often focus on farming on irrigated, favorable, and accessible farms. But we may fail to realize
that many farmers contend with unfavorable areas just so their families can
have enough rice to eat and survive.
These so-called unfavorable areas are
rainfed parcels; uplands; droughtprone, flooded, and submerged farms;
farms with saline soils; etc.
For a long time, rice science did
not favor investing in unfavorable
areas as they were too diverse, complicated, and difficult. Compared with
irrigated farms, these topographically, ecologically, and climatically
challenged areas provided meager
harvests. When the international
development community adopted
poverty as its flagship challenge, the
opportunity came to establish the
Consortium for Unfavorable Rice Environments (CURE) in 2002. Fostering cooperation between the national
agricultural research and extension
systems and the International Rice
Research Institute, this initiative
involves 10 countries: Bangladesh,
Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR,
Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines,
Thailand, and Vietnam. As CURE
focuses its research on the development of less favorable areas, the goal
is to provide more food security for
the poor families in the marginal
46
and diverse rainfed environments in

monsoon South and Southeast Asia,
through more sustainable and resilient
rice-based production systems.
Using an ecosystems paradigm,
the research sites under the CURE
project include drought-prone plateau
uplands, drought-prone lowlands, saltaffected lowlands, sloping rotational
upland systems, the submergenceprone environment, and the intensive
upland systems with long growing
seasons. The project uses a common
approach to examine eight generic
Using science in combination

with local practices to meet
the challenges of diverse rice
environments, CURE made
rice security in less favorable
areas a realizable goal.
themes (germplasm improvement, rice
varietal diversity, seeds and seedling
management, crop establishment,
cropping system enhancement, upscaling activities, patterns of labor use,
and food security) across the different
sites, but the resulting technologies are
specific to each ecosystem.
Among these technologies, the
primacy of seeds is the most recurrent.
For the Filipino farmers in the Arakan
Valley, for example, rice seed security
is food security. When they run out
of food, the people start to eat their
seeds. Hence, they set up a community
seed bank.
Through participatory varietal
selection, farmers chose seeds among
different varieties that performed well
in the field compared with the traditional ones. Along with this, CURE
introduced the concept of clean and
healthy seeds, lower seeding rates,
and quality seedlings. Direct-seeding

technologies resulted in earlier crop
establishment and harvest, less labor,
and better weed control. With shorterduration varieties and time-saving
crop establishment, it also became
possible to grow nonrice crops for cash
and employment.
Anthropologist Stephen Zolvinski
observed some of the technologies
that resulted from the process. The
submergence-tolerance gene known
as SUB1 was transferred to Swarna,
a popular variety in South Asia. The
development of this variety is an
example of how modern scientific tools
are combined with locally popular
varieties to produce improved varieties
that are stress tolerant and acceptable
to farmers. The SUB1 gene can now be
found in Samba-Mahsuri-Sub1, IR64Sub1, and Swarna-Sub1.
More importantly, these technologies have helped reduce the number of
farmers who migrate to nonfarm jobs
during the hunger months.
If we have enough rice to eat, why
would we leave the village? the farmers said.
In summary, to achieve the
goal of rice security, CUREs general
strategy involves early-duration and
higher-yielding varieties; improved
labor-saving practices; and earlier crop
establishment and harvest, which allow
a nonrice crop to be sown on time and
intensify system productivity, enhance
food security, and generate income.
Using science in combination with
local practices to meet the challenges
of diverse rice environments through
a common approach, CURE found
the common denominators and made
rice security in less favorable areas a
realizable goal.
Dr. Gelia T. Castillo is a national
scientist of the Philippines.
19
by Lanie C. Reyes
IRRI
New drought-tolerant lines developed at IRRI give hope to farmers in drought-prone

areas in eastern India and the Philippines
ince the dawn
of agriculture,
drought has
been the bane of
farmers, especially those
who grow rice, a crop
that has special water
requirements. Drought
stress severely limits rice
productivity in the rainfed
ecosystem in which farmers
often experience total crop
failure because of a lack of
water at one critical plant
growth stage or another,
according to Arvind
Kumar, a plant breeder
at the International Rice
Research Institute (IRRI).
Most rainfed areas
receive a reasonable
amount of rainfall during
the growing season.
However, says Dr. Kumar,
its erratic distribution and
shortage, particularly at flowering and
again at grain-filling, can seriously
curtail productivity. He adds that
Asia alone has around 23 million
hectares (20% of the total rice area)
that are prone to drought under these
conditions and where climate change
may make matters, particularly
water scarcity, only worse.
Without assured irrigation,
farmers are completely dependent
on rainfall to water their crops. The
possibility of drought has made rice
farming a risky endeavor. Because of
the risk, farmers do not invest enough
in inputs to increase rice production.
To help farmers cope with water
20
12
scarcity, IRRI has bred several new

lines that are as high-yielding as
any normal varieties with sufficient
water. They have a 0.8 to 1 ton per
hectare yield advantage whenever
drought occurs. Two of these droughttolerant breeding lines have been
recommended for official release:
IR74371-70-1-1 in India and its sister
line IR74371-54-1-1 in the Philippines.
IRRI has intensified efforts
to develop drought-tolerant and
aerobic cultivars to cope with this
looming water shortage, says David
Mackill, leader for IRRIs rainfed
program. Drought has been a
complex trait to improve, and I am
very happy to see the recent

advances and progress
in developing droughttolerant lines at IRRI.
Most farmers in
rainfed/drought-prone
areas grow varieties bred
for irrigated conditions
such as IR36, IR64,
Poornima, MTU1010,
Lalat, Swarna, and
Sambha Mahsuri, among
others. Unfortunately,
these varieties are highly
susceptible to drought.
Whenever a severe drought
occurs, these irrigated
varieties suffer high losses
and farmers are lucky to
harvest even half a ton
per hectare from them.
With the cultivation of
the newly bred droughttolerant lines, in normalrainfall years, farmers
will have the same high yield of
irrigated varieties, and in drought
years they can harvest 1.5 to 2 tons
from 1 hectare, says Dr. Kumar.
IRRI works with the national
agricultural research and extension
systems (NARES) for the evaluation
of newly developed breeding lines.
Before a breeding line is identified for
release, it undergoes testing in the
national system and is recommended
for release after its superior
performance in the national trials.
The newly developed drought-tolerant
lines IR74371-70-1-1 and IR7437154-1-1 outperformed the current
varieties in national trials in India
lanIe c. Reyes
leSS thirSty
gene hettel
Making rice
120 days to mature.

and the Philippines
Dozens of promising drought-tolerant
The new line yields
and have been
cultivars are being tested on the IRRI
farm
in
the
Philippines.
Here,
Dr.
Kumar
recommended for
an average of 4.5
shows drought-tolerant rice on his right
release for farmers
tons per hectare.
compared with a susceptible variety on his
cultivation. The two
Also, it is very
immediate left.
breeding lines also
resistant to pests
performed well under
and diseases and, so
aerobic and alternate
far, farmers have not
wetting and drying
experienced tungro
(AWD) situations
or any other disease.
(see The Big Squeeze,
Mr. Concepcion
pages 21-31 of Rice
proudly announces
Today Vol. 7, No.
that the rice he
2 and Every drop
planted in February
counts, pages 16-18).
was harvested in
IRRIs System
May. Because of its
for Temperate and
shorter duration, it
Tropical Aerobic Rice project under
in coordination with IRRI. They
allows me to harvest not just two but
invited farmers, technicians, and
the Challenge Program for Water and
three times a year, he says. And, as
researchers during the PVS.
Food has been building a network on
this variety is tolerant of drought, I
During that PVS, one
participatory varietal selection (PVS)
can plant the crop even during the dry
testing and evaluation since 2004.
impressed farmer eagerly asked,
season without any fear of crop loss.
The project aims to develop prototype Can I reproduce that line on my
Since his farm is on higher
aerobic rice production systems
farm? That farmer was Nemencio
ground, he needs to pump in water.
for water-scarce environments.
Concepcion, 49, of San Ildefonso,
With AWD technology, he is thankful
According to Ruben Lampayan,
Bulacan. He became interested
that he does not need to flood his
water management scientist
in the drought-tolerant variety
paddies. He pumps water only a
at IRRI, a major component of
because it seemed tailor-made for
few times a month and only when
his drought-prone upland area.
the project was to identify rice
necessary. I save much on water and
On his own initiative, he
varieties with high yield potential
on gasoline for the pump, even during
reproduced the line and was happy
under aerobic conditions from
the dry season, Mr. Concepcion says.
with the results. His neighboring
among IRRIs advanced lines
His recent crop experienced
farmers were eager to try it on
more than 2 weeks of drought. So,
through PVS. They tapped their
their farms. Eventually, the line
he pumped water to his upland
project partners to collaborate in
became popular among farmers,
rice area. However, there was one
implementing PVS with farmers.
and is known among them as 5411
rice area where he was not able to
(instead of IR74371-54-1-1).
in the Philippines
pump water because of insufficient
According to Dr. Soriano, 5411
Dr. Lampayan has found in Junel
available water. I sacrificed that
matures 2 weeks ahead of their
B. Soriano, director for research,
area and accepted its fate because
previously used variety, which takes
extension, training, and production
the rice plants wilted already, he
at Bulacan Agricultural
stated. But, when rain
State College (BASC), the
came, he was surprised
heart and passion to reach
to see that his plants
Mr. Concepcion (right) a farmer
out to more partners and
recovered from wilting.
in Bulacan, explains to Dr. Soriano
stakeholders with aerobic
Although the rice that
of BASC, that this part of his rice
farm wilted because of drought.
rice and other water-saving
recovered from drought is
But, when rain came, it fully
technologies. Hence, in
expected to be harvested
recovered.
the Philippines, IR74371about 2 weeks later than
54-1-1 has been tested at
the rest of the 5411, it is
BASC since 2004 and in
still within an acceptable
farmers fields in Bulacan,
duration. Above all, he is just
La Union, Bataan, and
glad to be able to harvest
Palawan since 2006.
rice despite the drought.
Dr. Soriano recalls
(For drought-susceptible
a time during the dry
varieties, more than 2
season of 2004 when a
weeks of drought in upland
trial was conducted in a
fields may yield almost
small testing plot at BASC
nothing for farmers.)
21
13
22
14
started to coordinate with other

state universities such as Bataan
Polytechnic State University, Palawan
State University, and Mindanao
Foundation College, among others.
in eastern india
Similarly, in eastern India, IRRI
introduced a drought-tolerant
breeding line, IR74371-70-1-1, which
has also consistently performed
well both at research centers and in
farmers fields. Since eastern India
is one of the largest drought-affected
areas, a variety that can cope with a
dry spell is a welcome change in rice
farming.
IR74371-70-1-1
was initially tested
under an India-IRRI
collaborative project,
the Drought Breeding
Network (DBN),
whose partners are
the Central Rainfed
Upland Rice Research
Station (CRURRS)
in Hazaribag; Indira
Gandhi Krishi
Vishwa Vidyalaya,
Raipur; Birsa
Agricultural Univ.,
Ranchi; Narendra
Dev University
of Agriculture
and Technology,
Faizabad; Tamil Nadu
Agricultural University, Coimbatore;
University of Agricultural Sciences,
Bangalore; and Barwale Foundation,
Hyderabad, India. Courtesy of the
DBN, researchers have identified this
entry as promising for the droughtprone ecosystem.
Since this line is a product of
a joint endeavor, the team from
CRURRS suggested the name
Sahbhagi dhan, which means, in
Hindi, rice developed through
collaboration. Recently, the Variety
Identification Committee (VIC)
recommended it for release to
the Central Subcommittee on
Crop Standards, Notification,
and Release of Varieties.
Nimai P. Mandal, a plant breeder
at CRURRS, tested Sahbhagi dhan
during the wet season of 2004. It
has consistently performed well,

better than any other entries of that
duration, since then. In 2007, we
started testing this variety in farmers
fields in two villages near Hazaribag,
he says.
Kailash Yadav, 34, and Naresh
Paswan, 38, of Mahesha, Hazaribag,
Jharkhand, are two farmers who
had the opportunity to observe a
demonstration using Sahbhagi dhan
conducted by CRURRS and they
tried it on their respective farms.
As a result, they were delighted to
harvest 4.5 tons of rice per hectare
in a good monsoon year. Before
An agricultural field assistant of the

Central Rainfed Upland Rice Research
Station interviews farmers who have
tested Sahbhagi dhan on their farms.
Though he describes the drought

as not so severe, it still affected
the people of his village. Finances
were so difficult then that he needed
to borrow money from another
farmer for his transportation.
Sahbhagi dhan gave the two
farmers opportunity and hope in
rice farming. I have confidence that
this variety will be a blessing for
farmers in drought-stress situations,
says Mr. Paswan. And, we can
manage the problem of drought
by growing this variety, adds Mr.
Yadav. Because both are impressed
by the qualities of Sahbhagi dhan,
The soon-to-be-released drought-tolerant

Sahbhagi dhan in eastern India thrives
under drought conditions.
cRURRs (2)
Mr. Concepcions experience

is consistent with what Dr. Kumar
says about the new drought-tolerant
lines: They withstand drought at
any stage of the crop cycle. Moreover,
they withstand drought even at the
reproductive stage, when the plant
suffers more loss due to drought.
Since that line can be
broadcast-seeded instead of
transplanted, I saved a lot on labor
costs, relates Mr. Concepcion.
I dont need to hire laborers to
plant seedlings in the nursery, pull
them from the seedbed, tie them
together, and transplant them.
Every harvest, Mr. Concepcion
earns around US$638 to $850
per hectare from his rice field (of
4 ha) planted with 5411. Plus, he
can harvest three times a year.
Mr. Concepcion is indeed
one happy and satisfied farmer.
His influence on other farmers to
adopt 5411 reaches Nueva Ecija and
Pampanga provinces. Even if rice
fields in these areas are irrigated,
there is no problem because 5411
still performs well in wet areas.
According to Dr. Soriano,
Mr. Concepcion is so effective in
influencing other farmers to adopt
5411 and increase the productivity
of their lands that he considers
Mr. Concepcion not just a farmer
cooperator but a partner in BASCs
extension efforts.
Mr. Concepcion was one of the
first 13 farmer cooperators in 2004.
They increased to 50 in 2005, to
70 in 2006, and BASC now has
more than 100 farmer cooperators.
According to Dr. Soriano, the success
of adoption can be attributed to
farmer-to-farmer influence and
support from the local government.
Dr. Soriano is more than
encouraged in sharing the benefits
of 5411 along with its management
technologies, the aerobic system, and
the AWD system in the Philippines,
because he believes that more
farmers can benefit from all this,
particularly those in rainfed areas.
He plans to expand extension
activities at BASC by involving
other state universities and colleges
all over the country. He has
using the drought-tolerant variety,

they harvested only 3 to 3.7 tons
per hectare. They are also pleased
with its traits such as the ability to
tolerate a month-long drought, early
maturity, and good eating quality.
Farmers in rainfed areas such
as Mr. Yadav and Mr. Paswan
largely depend on rain for a good
harvest. But, good years may be
few and as unpredictable as the
onset of drought. If the rains are
poor, this can spell catastrophe for
all. Mr. Yadav still remembers the
2006 drought that affected their
village. Without any income from
farming, he somehow managed
some earnings from his small
grocery store. But, many villagers
migrated to town to work as daily
laborers. One was Mr. Paswan.
they are going to recommend it

and share it with their neighbors as
soon as they have sufficient seed.
Drought-tolerant lines have
received high farmers preference
scores in both normal and drought
trials and farmers look convinced
of adopting such superior varieties,
says Dr. Stephan Haefele, soil
scientist and agronomist and
responsible for testing the lines in
farmers fields under PVS in India.
More farmers besides Mr.
Paswan and Mr. Yadav will benefit
from Sahbhagi dhan. According
to Dr. Mandal, the rainfed upland
area in India occupies about 6
million hectares. But the target
area for Sahbhagi dhan could be
more because it is also suitable for
drought-prone shallow lowlands.
U.S. Singh, the regional

coordinator for South Asia of the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundationsupported project on Stress-tolerant
rice for poor farmers in Africa and
South Asia and responsible for
seed production and dissemination
of Sahbhagi dhan, plans to have
large-scale seed multiplication
of this line in 2009 and produce
100 tons of seed to distribute to
as many farmers as possible by
the next wet season in India.
National Food Security Mission
of India, National Seed Corporation,
various public- and private-sector
seed corporations and
companies, research
organizations, and
NGOs are interested
in, reproducing
and disseminating
Sahbhagi dhan seeds.
Our purpose is to
take this variety
to the maximum
number of farmers in
the shortest possible
time, says Dr. Singh.
As the scientist
now responsible for
developing droughttolerant varieties,
Dr. Kumar says that
he is very lucky to
witness the success
of this teamwork.
When asked whether this is
his greatest accomplishment as a
scientist, he says, This is IRRIs
achievement. Other scientists before
me have been working for about 40
years to achieve this. Dr. Brigitte
Courtois attempted the crosses,
which has led to the development
of these two lines. And it was Dr.
Gary Atlin, who introduced the
concept, initiated and conducted
experiments on direct selection
for grain yield under drought
stress. He combined high yield
potential under irrigated situation
with good yield under drought.
Forty years? What turning point
along the way led to high-yielding
drought-tolerant rice? IRRI scientists
started working in a different way:
working directly on improving
grain yield in rice under drought.

Dr. Rachid Serraj, a drought
physiologist involved in dissecting
the mechanisms of drought tolerance
and its genetic variation in rice, says
that combining high yield potential
and drought tolerance through direct
selection for grain yield is one of
the right approaches for developing
drought-tolerant lines, in addition
to marker-assisted selection and
GM (gene modification) approaches
(see Overcoming the toughest stress
in rice: drought on page 30).
In the years before that,
scientists had been working on
improving the traits thought to be
related to drought tolerance such
as leaf rolling, rooting depth, and
other traits. They believed that yield
under drought could be increased by
improving these secondary traits.
In 2004, IRRI breeders started to
work on direct selection for grain yield
under drought stress. At first, they
were not sure that this would show
results. But, subsequent experiments
confirmed that this approach worked.
For a plant breeder like Dr.
Kumar, developing drought-tolerant
cultivars is the most efficient way
to stabilize rice production in
drought-prone areas. Higher yield
of drought-tolerant lines in drought
years should encourage farmers to
apply more inputs such as fertilizer
that further raise the productivity of
the rainfed drought-prone system.
Because of drought-tolerant lines,
farmers will indeed lower their
risks of investing their money and
time in drought-prone areas.
Sahbhagi dhan and 5411 and
other similar drought-tolerant lines
that may be developed in the future
will benefit and provide confidence to
rice farmers not just in India and the
Philippines but also in other droughtprone areas in Asia, Africa, and other
parts of the world. In fact, a few other
promising drought tolerant lines
and aerobic cultivars are now being
tested in India, Bangladesh, Nepal,
and the Philippines under projects
supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation,
Generation Challenge Program,
and Asian Development Bank.
23
15
As well as improving farmers incomes and productivity, watersaving technologies can also help to ease social tensionsbut
The main canal from

Pantabangan Reservoir
irrigates around 90,000
hectares in the Philippines
central luzon region.
iRRis Ruben lamPayan points at dry, fallow

fieldsa common sight in central luzon, where
water-saving technologies can help farmers grow
dry-season crops.
not without local experts who champion the cause
The big
Story by Adam Barclay,
photos by Raymond Jose Panaligan
n 1998, the farming community

of Canarem, 120 kilometers
north of Manila in the Philippine
province of Tarlac, had reason
to celebrate. The Philippine
National Irrigation Administration
(NIA) funded the construction of
a deep-well pump, designated P38, that would allow the farmers to
irrigate their rice fields. Previously
dependent on rain or shallow
tubewell pumps, which often run dry,
P-38 promised to help Canarems
several dozen farmers produce
24
26
called controlled irrigation).

Scientists at the International
Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
and the Philippine Rice Research
Institute (PhilRice) had established
that rice need not be continuously
flooded. It can be flooded to a lesser
extent than usual (to a depth of
35 centimeters instead of up to
10 centimeters), allowed to dry
to a degree, then re-flooded, with
this cycle repeated throughout the
season if the soil remains flooded
throughout the all-important
flowering period. Up to a quarter
less water is needed and there is no
drop in yield. Importantly, farmers
dont need to make any other major
changes to the way they manage
their crop (see also The benefits of
a hole in the ground, on page 29).
The practice, confirmed in
experimental fields, needed to be
extended to real farms. So, IRRI
and PhilRice initially teamed up
with NIA staff to introduce AWD
to farmers. Canarem seemed the
squeeze
higher-yielding, more reliable crops.

Sure enough, P-38 did improve
things. Farmers had access to
more water and started growing an
additional dry-season rice crop each
year. But the celebration was muted.
NIA paid in advance for the diesel
that fueled the pump, with farmers
repaying with a portion of their
harvest at the end of the season. With
a steady source of irrigation water
and no need to pay up-front fuel
costs, farmers adopted a too much
is better than not enough policy.
As new members joined the

cooperative, enticed by P-38s
promise, each farmers wait between
irrigationswhich should have been
7 daysgrew to almost 2 weeks. In
the dry season, the interval became
so long that fields dried out and
the soil began to crack. Some of the
increasingly anxious farmers would
sneak out at night and divert water
into their own fields by placing holes
underneath their paddy dikes. Others
turned to alcohol. Village officials
were called in to resolve conflicts.
For 3 years after the construction

of P-38, tensions and distrust grew
among the families of Canarem.
Then, in 2002, two events
conspired to turn things around.
First, with the rising cost of fuel,
NIA announced it would no longer
pay for diesel, which had more
than quadrupled in price since
P-38 began operating. Second,
a team of researchers arrived,
hoping to introduce a water-saving
technology known as alternate
wetting and drying, or AWD (also
ideal place to start but, according

to Vic Vicmudo, manager of NIAs
Tarlac Groundwater Irrigation
Systems Reactivation Project,
this was easier said than done.
For centuries, farming in the
Philippines has been based on the
idea that, the more water, the higher
the yield, says Dr. Vicmudo. Its
not easy to reverse that belief.
But the plain fact is that, in many
areas, rice farmers simply dont
have enough water. Bas Bouman,
water scientist and head of IRRIs
Crop and Environmental Sciences
Division, says that it was this
understanding that drove not only
the initial collaboration but also the
participation of other organizations
such as state colleges and universities.
It started in 2000 with NIA
and PhilRice on a very small scale,
recalls Dr. Bouman. Step by step,
more and more partners came on
boardnow, we can barely count
the number of partners involved.
Many of these attended a training
sTanding in fRonT of the P-38 deep-well pump are

(left to right) Ramon ganiban, dario antalan, and
manuel apoloniopresident, treasurer, and secretary,
respectively, of the P-38 irrigation service cooperative.
25
27
nias armilito lactaoen.
course we ran in 2004, and took

it from there on their own.
Dr. Bouman says the urgency
stems from farmers lack of choice.
We often get asked, How can you
convince farmers to save water? My
standard reply is that we dont need
to convince them to save what they
dont have. These technologies are
really about helping farmers who
are unable to keep fields flooded
to get the best out of the limited
water they have, he explains.
Jump forward to the present, and
Canarem is a different place, says
Manuel Apolonio, secretary of the
P-38 Irrigation Service Cooperative
and owner of a 2-hectare farm.
There used to be so many
conflicts between cooperative
members and managers, Mr.
Apolonio recalls. Now, the farmers
know how to manage water. Before,
if the soil started to crack, people
thought the crops would die. Now,

they know that small cracks are OK.
In a way, farmers were
practicing AWD before it was
formally introduced. But it was an
uncontrolled AWD, forced onto
farmers by insufficient and poorly
managed irrigation. With the
knowledge of how to use water more
efficiently, the yields obtained by
Canarems farmers using AWD, at
56 tons per hectare, are the same
as when they tried to maintain
continuously flooded fields.
Ramon Ganiban, P-38
cooperative president and owner
of a 4-hectare farm, says that
when the researchers and NIA
staff introduced them to AWD,
many of the cooperatives 61
farmers were skeptical. Now, the
cooperatives success has inspired
neighboring communities.
Ironically, having farmers pay
for their own fuel was a key to the
technologys success, as it provided
a financial incentive to use less
water. Before they learned about
AWD, farmers ran the pump for
1012 hours to irrigate a single
hectare. That has been reduced by
more than half, to 45 hours.
AWD rice crops also require less
labor and are 2025% cheaper to
manage than continuously flooded
crops, meaning higher profit for
farmers. In fact, under AWD, some
Canarem farmers have gone from
barely breaking even from rice
farming to making a modest income.
Theres really been a big change
childRen Play in the

outlet channel of deepwell pump P-38.
26
28
Vic Vicmudo,
manager of nias
Tarlac groundwater
irrigation systems
Reactivation
Project.
The benefits of a hole in

the ground
malaya iRRigaToRs association

President Victorino erese.
in the farmers mind-set and culture,

says Mr. Ganiban. Now, people
know that, if theyre short of money
for fuel, they can just flash-flood
the crop and it will be OK. We dont
need to prove AWD anymore: weve
done it for 6 years and we know it
works. AWD has really strengthened
the cooperative. There are no more
conflicts and farmers understand
each others needs much better.
Armilito Lactaoen, one of
NIAs senior technical staff, works
with farmers in the nearby GP-125
Irrigation Service Cooperative.
He cautions that, although AWD
can solve the problem of greed in
irrigating, it needs good people
management. Some cooperatives
have failed to adopt AWD, he
says, because of human resource
problems, such as a lack of strong
co-op leadership or management
problems within the co-op.
NIA is working with farmer
groups at 72 irrigation systems across
Tarlac. Around 20% of the farmers
have adopted controlled AWD (as
opposed to uncontrolled AWD, which
has been forced onto Tarlacs farmers
through a lack of water), but some
systems have seen 100% adoption.
Dissemination is now the main
challenge. Dr. Vicmudo is optimistic,
pointing out that, once farmers
are convinced, they themselves
become key disseminators.
NIA, PhilRice, and IRRI have
held several harvest festivals,
he says. Yields from farms
using traditional irrigation and
AWD were directly compared,
so farmers could see that theres

nothing hocus-pocus, no magic.
Just north of Tarlac in Nueva
Ecija Province, IRRI, PhilRice,
and NIA are working with farmer
groups that get their irrigation water
from subcanals running off the
main canal of the Upper Pampanga
River Integrated Irrigation System
(UPRIIS). Fed by Pantabangan
Reservoir in the foothills of northern
Nueva Ecija, UPRIIS irrigates an
area of around 90,000 hectares in
Central Luzon, the region north of
Manila (the area will soon undergo a
35,000-hectare expansion), and is the
countrys largest irrigation system.
One of the biggest challenges of
managing UPRIIS is ensuring that
the farms farthest from the reservoir
and the main canal receive their
share of water, especially given that
those closest to the source tend to
use more than they need. Evangeline
Sibayan, agricultural engineering
division head at PhilRice, likens the
problem to 50 people sharing a 10liter bottle of water. The people who
drink first need to take into account
those who will drink later, she says.
Ms. Sibayan says that finding
farmers to try AWD in 2007
was extremely difficult. It took a
demonstration trial at PhilRice
and, ultimately, a promise to
compensate farmers for any yield
loss compared with 2006 production
to convince a farmer group serviced
by a subcanal named Lateral F.
The result? Perhaps the best
evidence is the fact that PhilRice
barely paid out any compensation.
Not only were yields as high as

they had been under continuous
flooding, but 2007 was also the
first year for many during which
downstream farmersthose
farthest from Lateral Fdidnt
complain about a lack of water.
The Malaya Irrigators
Association (MIA), a group of 264
farmers covering 265 hectares in
the municipality of Santo Domingo,
also adopted AWD in 2007. The
farmers here also agree that the
practice has reduced tensions
and improved social harmony.
With AWD, theres better
unity among MIA members,
says MIA President Victorino
Erese. Before, people looked
out only for themselves.
Prior to AWDs introduction,
60% of MIA farmers grew dry-season
rice. Despite initial doubts, that
figure has increased to 80% after
only one year. An unanticipated
bonus is that lenders now have more
confidence in the MIA members
ability to repay loans and thus
are happier to offer credit.
One major difference between
implementing AWD in an area
serviced by a gravity-fed irrigation
system like UPRIIS versus a deepwell system like P-38 is direct
economic incentive. In Canarem,
where farmers pay for their own fuel,
the less water they use, the higher
their income. In Santo Domingo,
farmers pay a flat fee, regardless
of how much water they use. So, if
youre an upstream farmer with good
access to water, why conserve it?
o help farmers move to alternate wetting

and drying, IRRI devised a simple way to
check when a crop needs water. A pipe with
holes drilled into it is pushed part way into
the rice-field soil. Farmers can then observe
the water level, irrigating when it reaches
a certain distanceusually around 15
centimetersbelow the surface. Anywhere
above that level, the plants roots will reach
the water and the crop will be fine. The
tool is simple enough for farmers to easily
construct it from cheap local materials such
as PVC or bamboo. After one or two seasons,
farmers no longer need the tube and are
able to judge when to irrigate simply by
looking at the crop. If a new technology
relies on complex, difficult-to-make, or
expensive methods, it is bound to fail.
Simple, adaptable toolslike a hole in the
groundare crucial.
Ms. Sibayan argues that

farmers recognize and value the
social benefits. If downstream
farmers didnt get water, she
danilo esTeban, vice president of the malaya

irrigators association, checks the water level in his
aWd rice field.
27
29
PhilRices evangeline sibayan.
says, at night they would walk

upstream, armed with their bolos
[traditional Philippine knives],
and reposition the flow.
In this light, Ms. Sibayan
describes AWD as a peace-making
technology. And, as well as fostering
camaraderie among farmers, AWD
is allowing downstream farmers to
grow two rice crops per year and thus
improve their income. Previously,
many downstream farmers could
grow rice only in the wet season.
We need to make AWD part of
the farmers culture, says Jovino
De Dios, supervising science
research specialist at PhilRice.
Mr. De Dios is confident that,
with wise water management, the
entire UPRIIS can be successfully
irrigated, but he stresses the need to
educate the farmers in the UPRIIS
expansion area before the system
becomes operational. If they farm
without water-saving knowledge,

without good technology, farmers
tend to irrigate wastefully, he says.
PhilRice and NIA aim to
convert the 50,000 or so rice
farmers in the UPRIIS area to AWD
by 2010. There are also plans to
spread the technology through the
neighboring Magat River Integrated
Irrigation System service area. Its
an ambitious goal, but, if it can be
achieved, a quarter of the entire
Philippine irrigated rice system will
be under AWD. Then, says Ms.
Sibayan, hopefully, it will trickle
down to smaller systems too.
Ruben Lampayan, IRRI
postdoctoral fellow and leader of the
IRRC Water-Saving Work Group,
has been involved with the research
and dissemination of AWD for the
past 7 years. He says that AWD has
enormous potential not only in the
Philippines but also across Asia.
In many Asian countries,
we see the same problems, same
mind-set, same challenges,
explains Dr. Lampayan. People
are aware of the problems but they
are astonished when told of their
true extent. If we are successful,
UPRIIS can be a model that can
be replicated throughout Asia.
To help AWDs impact reach its
full potential, IRRI anthropologists
Flor Palis and Rica Flor are looking
at how and why (or why not) AWD
is being adopted. Dr. Palis says
foR The childRen of canarem, Tarlac,

irrigation water means fun as much as
it means rice.
28
30
PhilRices
Jovino de dios.
that adoption of new technologies

is almost always a challenge. We
need to understand what enables
adoption, she says. What are the
social and cultural factors as well as
economic factors, and what allows
faster diffusion of the technology?
The point is, even if a technology
works in experimental trials, it still
may not succeed. For example, there
are areas where AWD has failed
because of free ridersfarmers
who managed to obtain the water
without paying their share of the
cost. In this case, strong leadership
from cooperative managers is the
key to success. The decision by the
P-38 leaders to make farmers pay
for their own fuel not only provided
incentive to use less water but also
eliminated the free-rider problem.
What happens, though, if farmers
have access to neither gravity-fed
nor pump irrigation? Such is the
case in many areas of Bulacan
Province, immediately north of
Manila. At Bulacan Agricultural
State College (BASC), researchers
believe the answer is aerobic rice
growing rice in unflooded fields,
much like wheat or maize, instead
of transplanting seedlings into a
flooded field (for more on aerobic
rice, see High and dry on pages
28-33 of Rice Today Vol. 6, No. 4).
Junel Soriano, director for
research, extension, training, and
production at BASC, has led the
colleges aerobic rice project since it
began in 2004. He says that farming
life can be extremely difficult in an
area such as Bulacan, where farmers
are almost entirely reliant on rain.
The benefit of aerobic rice, says
a young boy crosses an irrigation canal near Ramos, Tarlac.
Dr. Soriano, is that you can establish

wet-season rice in early May, up to
one-and-a-half months earlierand
therefore harvest earlierthan
transplanted rice, which needs much
more water before it can be planted.
Then, following harvest in August
or September, theres still enough
rainfall to establish another crop.
Dr. Soriano says the ultimate
goal of the project is to increase
cropping intensity. Without aerobic
rice, Bulacan farmers manage a
single rice crop per year. The project
results so far suggest that as many
as three-quarters of those farmers
who adopt aerobic rice, which needs
irrigation only once a week or so, will
be able to plant a second rice crop.
So far, farmers yields have
been around 4.5 tons per hectare,
which is similar to what they
achieved with transplanted rice.
One constraint is seed availability,
but two 1-million-peso (US$25,000)
projects, funded by Japan through
the Philippine National Economic
Development Authority and by the
Philippine Commission on Higher
Education, have enabled BASC to set
up a seed production business that
will also help raise revenue. Local
governments in the Norzagaray,
Doa Remedios Trinidad, and
San Rafael municipalities have
also stepped in and are currently

subsidizing seeds for farmers by 50%.
In the Philippines, local
government is responsible for
agricultural technology dissemination
and training, so administrative or
financial support from mayors and
local extension officials is crucial
if a new technology is to succeed.
BASC has also recruited
partners from other provinces.
Bataan Polytechnic State College and
Palawan State University have already
begun aerobic rice projects and, in
2008, organizations from Mindanao,

in the southern Philippines, and
northern Luzon, in the north, are
set to join in. We want to be the
research-and-development center
for aerobic rice in the Philippines,
says BASC president Josie Valdez.
In many ways, the burgeoning
success of AWD and aerobic rice
is not a story about technologies.
Its a story about people, about
the local champions without
whom the best technologies in the
world would languish on shelves
and in academic journals.
We need these people who go
beyond the limits of their institution
and, really, beyond their own limits,
says Dr. Lampayan. IRRI did not
assume that its partners would
champion the technology in the way
they have. It was quite spontaneous.
Without people like Vic
Vicmudo, Evangeline Sibayan,
and Junel Soriano to provide the
sparks, promising technologies
too often fail to ignite.
bulacan agRiculTuRal state colleges

Junel soriano.
The development and dissemination of watersaving technologies for rice as reported here
are carried out through the Water-Saving
Work Group of the Irrigated Rice Research
Consortium and the Consultative Group
on International Agricultural Research
Challenge Program on Water and Food.
29
31
MAPS
Water mapping with

by Yann Chemin and Robert Hijmans
ice is often produced

in the lowest parts of
the landscape. These
are good places to
grow rice because of the clayey soils
and the relatively humid conditions
because the groundwater is nearby.
However, this low position, often in
the oodplain of a river, makes the
crop prone to ooding. If excessive
water causes the crop to submerge,
serious yield losses can occur. It has
been estimated that, in Bangladesh
and India alone, approximately 4
million tons of rice are lost every
year. In South Asia, this is about
equivalent to the amount annually
consumed by 30 million people.
However, these estimates of
production loss are rather uncertain
because ooding is highly variable
in time and space, and farmers
have, in part, adjusted their
cropping practices to expected ood
occurrences. We would like to have
a clearer understanding of where,
when, and for how long ooding
is likely to occur. This could help
us understand where the benets
of submergence-tolerant varieties,
which the International Rice
Research Institute has developed (see
Scuba rice on pages 26-31), would be
greatest, and where these varieties
would most likely be adopted by
farmers.
We use satellite remote sensing
to map the area of rice production
and the occurrence of ooding in
Asia. We use freely available data
from the Modis (Moderate-resolution
Imaging Spectroradiometer)1 sensor.
SATELLITES
This sensor is on board the Terra

and Aqua satellites. These satellites
create a daily record for each place
on Earth at a spatial resolution (pixel
size) of 250 to 1,000 m. Because of
clouds, however, the rainy season
can have many days when certain
areas do not have values, but,
generally, one can expect to get at
least one good observation per week.
The Modis sensor records
reectance (the fraction of incoming
radiant energy that is reected
from a surface of the Earth) in 36
different wavelengths across the
electromagnetic spectrumfrom
the visible to the thermal infrared
(0.4 m to 14.4 m). Water can
be easily identied by combining
reectance in the red, near-infrared,
and shortwave. Rice is identied
using a combination of water
and vegetation indices computed
from the reectance data.
The large map illustrates the
results using the Modis data for
identifying water. The lower left
map shows surface water during
4-12 August 2007, when
parts of eastern India and
Bangladesh were affected
by severe inundations.
The three small maps of
northeastern Thailand
show areas with water
in three different years:
7-15 October 2002, 21-29
September 2004, and
15-23 October 2006.
Identifying surface
water is relatively simple.
The challenge is to
integrate it with data on rice planting

and development to see where elds
get submerged, and during which
stage of crop development. We are
also trying to identify areas where
farmers delay planting until the risk
of submergence has diminished.
The availability of free daily
satellite images, and algorithms
implemented in open-source software
for geographic data analysis, such
as GRASS and R, allows us to use
satellite technology to map rice
areas and some of the constraints
that farmers have to deal with. In
the future, we also plan to estimate
yield loss caused by drought.
Dr. Chemin is a postdoctoral fellow

and Dr. Hijmans is a geographer in
the IRRI Social Sciences Division.
See http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/ and http://onearth.jpl.nasa.gov/.
30
38
31
39
Technologies meet farmers
n Asia, where about 90% of rice is

grown, hundreds of millions of rural
poor grow rice on less than a hectare
of land.
Producing affordable rice for the
poor has been a challenge for the last 50
years. During the 2008 rice price crisis,
changes in rice availability and price
caused social unrest in some developing
countries. The International Rice
Research Institute (IRRI) estimates that
an additional 810 million tons of rice
need to be produced each year to keep
rice prices stable.
The challenge now is to grow more
rice with less land, less water, and less
labor amidst climate change.
A regional approach to food security
In 1997, the Swiss Agency for

Development and Cooperation (SDC)
began funding the Irrigated Rice
Research Consortium (IRRC), which
provides a platform for partnership in
research and extension in the intensive
lowland irrigated rice-based production
systems.
Initially, the IRRC focused on
integrated pest management (IPM)
and nutrient management. However,
since 2002, the IRRCs research has
featured water-saving technologies, labor
sustainability (including direct seeding
and weed and rodent management),
postharvest management, crop health
initiatives, and, recently, climate change
in 11 countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia,
China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR,
Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam,
and the Philippines.
The IRRC develops partnerships to
identify the needs of rice farmers and
potential solutions to their problems,
and to facilitate the adoption of suitable
technologies. It provides a range of
technologies for rice farmers and other
stakeholders in Asia to improve their
32
22
david johnson
Hundreds of thousands of Asian farmers are adopting a range of IRRC-facilitated

technologies because of the many impressive economic, social, and environmental benefits
A fArmer in myanmar directly seeds

his rice crop using a drum seeder.
livelihoods and increase rice production

to maintain food security.
Hundreds of thousands of Asian
farmers are now adopting these
technologies because of impressive
economic, social, and environmental
benefits. This article examines some of
these successes.
More rice, less water
Irrigated lowland rice is usually grown

under flooded conditions, and kept
flooded to help control weeds and pests.
However, researchers found that rice
needs to be continuously flooded only at
the flowering stage. Through alternate
wetting and drying (AWD), a watersaving practice, fields can be dried
for 110 days before being re-flooded.
Farmers can save 1530% of water and
still harvest the same yields. The water
saved can be used to irrigate more fields,
thus increasing overall production. If
AWD were to be adopted all across
Asia, the amount of water saved in one
Rice Today October-December 2011
year would equal 200 times the water

consumption of Paris for a year.
The IRRC Water-Saving Work
Group led by IRRI water scientist Ruben
Lampayan began studying AWD with
Philippine partners and farmers in
several national irrigation systems in
2002. In 2009, the Philippine government
approved the endorsement of AWD for
nationwide adoption. By July 2011, more
than 80,000 Filipino farmers had adopted
AWD.
Introduced in Bangladesh in
2004, AWD is now being promoted
by government and nongovernment
agencies. The secretary of the Ministry of
Agriculture endorsed AWD in 2009, and
directed the governments Department
of Agriculture and Extension (DAE)
to promote the technology nationwide.
Along with other agencies, the DAE
promoted AWD in over 50 districts in
2010. Field studies reported a decrease
in pumping cost and fuel consumption,
and an increased income of US$6797
by Trina Leah Mendoza and Grant Singleton
per hectare. In 2009 alone,

A fArmer from Vinh Phuc Province,
Vietnam, uses the leaf color chart
partners reported 120,000
to check the nitrogen needs of his
farmers adopting AWD.
rice crop.
The private sector
promotes AWD by
producing tubes that are
used to monitor water
levels in the field. Although
thousands of farmers are
practicing AWD in the
country, a 2010 adoption
study reported that, with
millions of farmers still to
be reached, adoption is in
its infancy.
Around 40,000 farmers
in Vietnam are practicing
T.T. son
AWD, and more farmers
are expected to be reached through a
smallholder farmers in Ha Tay and Ha
new IRRC-An Giang Department of
Nam provinces, respectively. Farmers
Agriculture and Rural Development
who used SSNM reported a reduced use
initiative: the One Must Do, Five
of pesticides.
Reductions Program. In 2010, Lao PDR,
Encouraging farmers to use SSNM
Indonesia, Myanmar, and Thailand
has been a challenge because it is
started or successfully demonstrated
knowledge-intensive and many factors
AWD.
need to be considered, such as crop yield
and the use of organic materials. This has
slowed down farmers adoption of these
Personalized precision farming
improved practices.
Most farmers lack knowledge on the
But, this speed bump did not slow
most effective use of fertilizer. They
down
Dr. Buresh and his group, who
either apply too much or too little, or
looked
for ways to make their science
apply it at the wrong time. Too much
simpler
for the farmers. The leaf color
nitrogen fertilizer leads to increases
chart
(LCC)
was developed as a tool for
in diseases and pests, damage to the
farmers
to
assess
the nitrogen needs of
environment, and low profit. For more
their
crop.
In
Bangladesh,
an estimated
than a decade, IRRI soil scientist Roland
600,000
farmers
use
LCCs,
which has
Buresh, leader of the IRRC Productivity
increased
the
efficiency
of
urea
fertilizer
and Sustainability Work Group, has been
use,
enabling
farmers
to
harvest
more
working with partners in Asia to provide
rice
with
less
expense
for
purchased
site-specific nutrient management
fertilizer.
(SSNM) practices for rice.
Farmers learned about the use of
Since 2003, correct fertilizer timing
potassium
and phosphorus fertilizers,
and application rates have greatly
and
gained
new knowledge on other
increased farmers yields compared with
micronutrients.
They were able to save
traditional practices. Yield increases
$25
per
hectare
in production costs and
from adopting SSNM have improved
harvested
higher
yields.
net returns by $100 to $300 per hectare
In
2008,
SSNM
principles were
per year in China, India, Indonesia,
packed
into
a
computer-based
decisionVietnam, and the Philippines. An impact
making tool called Nutrient Manager
assessment study on SSNM in the Red
for Rice. A farmer or extension worker
River Delta in Vietnam revealed a 2%
only needs to answer about 15 questions
and 3% increase in net present values for
and, within 510 minutes,

a fertilizer guideline is
provided for a field. In 2010,
Web and mobile phone
versions were developed
in the Philippines. Web
applications of the Nutrient
Manager are now available
for Guangdong, China, and
Indonesia, while applications
for Bangladesh, Vietnam,
southern India, and West
Africa are under way.
Saving labor and water costs
In the Indo-Gangetic Plain,

which covers most of
northern and eastern India,
and almost all of Bangladesh, farmers
face rising costs, waning productivity,
worsening soil health, and labor
shortages, as many people move to the
cities to find work. Farmers depend on
the monsoon rains, and they cannot plant
if the rains come too late.
Led by IRRI weed scientist David
Johnson, the IRRC Labor Productivity
and Community Ecology Work Group
promotes direct seeding of rice as an
alternative way to establish a crop. In
direct seeding, pregerminated seeds
are sown directly into a nonflooded but
saturated field, using a drum seeder.
Direct seeding allows quicker land
preparation, and farmers can save 20%
in labor costs and 30% in water costs.
It takes 50 person-days to transplant a
hectare of rice, but it takes only 2 persondays to directly seed using a drum
seeder.
Direct-seeded rice matures 1015
days earlier, allowing farmers to plant
other crops earlier. In a partnership
with Indias Ramakrishna Mission in
2010, direct seeding (wet or dry) in 90
farmers fields helped the early harvest
of autumn and winter paddy, providing
new opportunities for improved winter
cropping practices through earlier timing
of planting, new cultivars, and new crops.
An earlier winter rice harvest meant
earlier potato planting and a larger potato
33
23
Chris QuinTana
It is not uncommon for farmers to

lose half of their entire crop to rats,
because rat damage is usually patchy
and family rice plots are small, says
Grant Singleton, IRRC coordinator and
rodent expert. Surprisingly, only 10% of
the many different species of rodents are
pests in agriculture. The challenge is to
postharvest losses by providing best

practices and technologies to farmers and
other stakeholders. Since 2005, activities
have been funded by SDC and the Asian
Development Bank.
The mechanical flat-bed dryer,
which produces better quality rice
than sun drying, was introduced in
Cambodia, Myanmar, and Lao PDR.
Farmers groups and private companies
themselves provide funds to install
more dryers in different provinces. As
develop ways to control the pests without

greatly affecting those that are beneficial
in our environment.
Farmers are adopting a simple,
environment-friendly community
method called ecologically based rodent
management (EBRM). With EBRM,
farmers are encouraged to conduct
control methods as a community, such as
planting synchronously and hunting rats
together. EBRM reduces rodent damage
by 3350%, and increases rice yield by
25%. It also reduces rodenticide use by
6290%.
EBRM has been adopted as the
national policy for rodent management
in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Myanmar. It
also was recently included in a national
integrated crop management program in
Indonesia, which was promoted through
50,000 farmer field schools in 2009 and
2010.
The impact of rodent outbreaks
in different parts of the world was
highlighted in the 2010 book Rodent
outbreaks: ecology and impacts,
published by IRRI.
In northwest Bangladesh, direct seeding, combined with

early-maturing varieties, appropriate weed management,
and crop diversification, is helping to ease seasonal hunger
called monga.
rAt PoPulAtIons can be successfully managed if

farmers work together as a communityapplying
their control at the right time and in the right
habitats.
34
24
Asian rice farmers lose 3050% of

their earnings from harvest to market.
IRRI postharvest specialist Martin
Gummert leads the IRRC Postproduction
Work Group in tackling problems on
T. Mendoza (2)
Reducing postharvest losses
many as 35,000 farmers in Myanmar

benefited from using flat-bed dryers. In
Cambodia, traders pay 20% higher for
dry paddy, and an additional 1012%
for mechanically dried paddy. In the
Philippines, third-generation flat-bed
dryers were transferred from Vietnam,
and adaptation trials are ongoing.
Stakeholders in Cambodia,
Indonesia, Myanmar, Lao PDR, Vietnam,
and the Philippines tested small-scale
hermetic (airtight) storage systems for
grains and seeds. Local distributors were
established as well. An impact survey
indicated that Cambodian farmers who
use IRRI Super bags reduced their seed
rates by 22 kilograms per hectare. In
Myanmar, a locally manufactured bag
for rice seeds was developed, with over
10,000 bags sold to farmers.
Partners share their experiences
in using these postharvest technologies
through national learning alliances
(LA) in Cambodia, Vietnam, and the
Philippines. Five regional LAs have been
established in Vietnam.
Successes in Sulawesi
Through country outreach programs

in Myanmar, Vietnam, Indonesia, and
the Philippines, combinations of IRRC
technologies are showing positive results
in trials in farmers fields.
From 2008 to 2011, an IRRC-led
project funded by the Australian Centre
for International Agricultural Research
After A suCCessful field trial, the women in

Bone, south sulawesi, proudly carry the seasons
bountiful rice harvest.
focused on raising rice productivity in

South and Southeast Sulawesi, two major
rice-producing provinces in eastern
Indonesia.
Farmers in four villages tested
AWD, integrated pest management, and
direct seeding (using a drum seeder) with
appropriate weed management. EBRM,
storing seeds using the IRRI Super bag,
and fertilizer management (using a soil
test kit and the computer-based Nutrient
Manager) were also benchmarked.
Farmers obtained a substantial
increase in yields of 0.5 to 2.3 tons per
hectare. The increase in mean farmer
income ranged from 22% to 566%,
significantly higher than the 10% target
of the project.
The number of farmers adopting
direct seeding almost doubled in
Southeast Sulawesi, from 26% in the
2008 wet season to 48% in the 2010 wet
season.
None of the farmers had heard of the
Nutrient Manager in 2008, but, in 2010,
1455% of the farmers had heard about it
and 1020% had used it.
Compared with farmers in control
villages, the number of farmers with
improved knowledge on key insect pest
management principles doubled. For
water management, none of the farmers
had heard of AWD in 2008, but, in 2010,
1980% of the farmers in the project
villages had adopted AWD.
The projects adaptive research
approach was integrated into a national

program called Integrated Crop
Management-Farmer Field Schools.
Closing yield gaps in Southeast Asia
The IRRC has proven to be an effective

platform for delivering new technologies
to small-scale rice farmers across Asia.
With over a decade of valuable learning
experiences under its belt, the IRRC
envisions that it will continue to provide
scientific leadership and essential
networks for environmentally sustainable
increases in rice production in Southeast
Asias main rice bowls.
The impacts have been impressive
so far, and the IRRC, through its
national partners in both the public and
private sector, has a key role to play in
facilitating food security in the region.
Dr. Singleton is coordinator of the IRRC.

GranT sinGleTon
Ecologically based rodent management
men, women, and childrenand their

dogshunt rats together in An Giang,
Vietnam.
M. CasiMero
harvest, and reduced fungicide usage and

drought risk.
In northwest Bangladesh, direct
seeding combined with shorter duration
rice varieties, appropriate weed
management, and crop diversification is
helping to ease monga, a seasonal hunger.
Each year, farm workers suffer from
monga from September to November as
they wait for the wet-season harvest.
In monga-affected districts of
Rangpur and Nilphamari, farmers who
directly seeded their rice got higher net
returns in both the wet and dry seasons.
Yields of directly seeded crops in the wet
season were higher by 493 kilograms
per hectare, and total production costs
were lower by $47 per hectare than on
farms with transplanted rice. Planting of
potato, maize, and wheat on time in the
dry season allowed farmers to sell their
crops at higher prices, because they were
able to harvest earlier when supply in the
market was still relatively low. On-time
planting of these dry-season crops also
resulted in better yields. Net incomes
of farmers who directly seeded during
the wet and dry seasons were higher by
$441 per hectare than for farmers who
transplanted.
With the earlier harvest of the
directly seeded rice crop in the wet
season, 5559 person-days per hectare
can potentially be hired during
harvesting, thus easing the problem of
unemployment.
ChIldren And their families across Asia have

more reasons to smile as the IrrC continues to
help bring rice to their tables.
35
25
Country highlight:
internationally recruited staff

are presently posted there: Dr.
Benjamin Samson, agronomist and
representative to Lao PDR, and
Dr. Rubenito Lampayan, water
management specialist.
On 11 May 2012, his Excellency
Thongsing Thammavong, prime
minister of Lao PDR, visited IRRI
headquarters in the Philippines.
IRRIs work in Lao PDR is
supported by the International
Fund for Agricultural Development,
SDC, the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, the Australian Centre
for International Agricultural
Research, the government of Japan,
and Germanys Federal Ministry
for Economic Cooperation and
Development.
IRRI in Lao PDR
Current research and development

activities with Lao PDR
Total rice production, 2010 (ha)

< 150,000
150,000250,000
250,000350,000
> 350,000
Lao PDR and IRRI
Lao PDR-IRRI collaboration began in

the late 1960s. This continued in the
1970s with the testing of improved
rice breeding material from IRRIs
rice breeding and selection work in
Lao PDR. Systematic multilocation
yield trials followed by the
multiplication and dissemination of
several IRRI lines and varieties to
farmers took place in 1973.
The first memorandum of
understanding between Lao PDR and
IRRI was signed in 1987. Heightened
collaborative work began when the
Swiss Agency for Development and
Cooperation (SDC) supported the
Lao PDR-IRRI Research and Training
1
2
Project from 1990 to 2007. This project

aimed to improve and strengthen rice
research capacity within the country.
On 12 January 2007, Dr. Sitaheng
Rasphone, Lao PDR minister for agriculture and forestry, and Dr. Robert
Zeigler, IRRI director general, signed
a memorandum of understanding to
establish a regional hub in Lao PDR;
thus, the IRRI-Greater Mekong Subregion office in Lao PDR was formally
opened. The office has since become
the IRRI-Lao PDR office.
To intensify Lao PDR-IRRI
collaboration, foster new partnerships,
and strengthen current ones, IRRI
held a consultation workshop on
26 October 2011 in Vientiane, with

government researchers, scientists,
extension workers, policymakers,
and donors in the rice sector.
The workshop defined areas of
collaboration to start and strengthen,
including the improvement of seed
production practices and the testing
and establishment of public-private
partnership models for disseminating
agricultural technologies.
IRRI has had at least 13 staff
members posted to Lao PDR. Two
World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization, and IRRI. 2012. Laos Rice Policy Study. Rome (Italy): World Bank, 115 p.
Ibid.
36
20
Population:
Total rice production:
Average rice yield:
Area planted to rice:
Average annual rice
consumption per person:
6.2 million
2.7 million tons
3.47 tons per hectare
870,000 hectares
165 kg (2009)
Source: FAO data on World Rice Statistics
tolerance, that are important for

Lao farmers and that suit different
growing regions and conditions.
Coping with climate change. IRRI
is collaborating with Lao PDR
researchers to test seasonal weather
forecasting, adapt crop management
systems, and produce decision
support systems.
These information resources and
tools will help farmers cope with
climate change.
Better grain quality and
value. Under the Grain Quality
Improvement Network, IRRI is
enhancing the aroma of Lao PDRgrown rice to help improve its
quality, value, and export appeal.
Sharing knowledge. IRRI is helping
to further develop the Lao PDR
Rice Knowledge Bankan online
repository of effective and practical
best management practices for rice
production.
Helping farmers in uplands. Through

the Consortium for Unfavorable
Rice Environments, IRRI is helping
farmers in Lao PDRs northern
mountain region upgrade their
agricultural practices and find
varieties that suit their environment
and minimize environmental impacts
on this fragile environment.
Helping farmers in irrigated areas.
As part of the Irrigated Rice Research
Consortium, IRRI is helping farmers
in irrigated areas adopt beneficial
Key achievements in Lao PDR
postproduction processing and water Conserved Lao PDRs rice genetic
management technologies.
diversity. Lao PDR has deposited
Helping farmers
in southern Lao
PDR. For farmers in
rainfed regions in
southern Lao PDR,
IRRI is developing
improved soil,
nutrient, water, and
crop management
technologies
to improve the
livelihoods of rural
people.
Breeding better
rice varieties. IRRI
is developing
varieties with
In Lao PDR, rice production
beneficial traits,
is an important livelihood of
such as drought
724,000 farmers.
and submergence
irri
Nel garcia
ice production is an
important livelihood of
around 724,000 farmers
in Lao PDR, whose rice
sector is rapidly transforming from
pure subsistence to more commercial
production. Rice farmers who sell
their produce increased from 6% in
1998-99 to 30% in 2010-11.1
Generally, rice is produced by
small farm households with an
average farm size of less than 2
hectares. Although rice farming in
Lao PDR is small-scale, its average
size of rice holdings has increased
over the last 12 years. Almost 90% of
the rice area in Lao PDR is rainfed,
predominantly in the lowlands.2
Rice remains the staple food for
Lao PDR and glutinous rice is the
most popular type of ricemore than
90% of the rice produced is glutinous.
Lao PDR also appears to be the center
of biodiversity for glutinous rice and
has one of the highest concentrations
of biodiversity of rice in the world.
Lao PDR: fast facts (2010)
more than 15,000 types of rice in

IRRIs International Rice Genebank,
making the country the secondlargest contributor. In turn, IRRI has
dispatched 750 rice samples to Lao
PDR for breeding and other research,
and restored more than 11,000 types.
Improved rice production. Total rice
production in Lao PDR increased
from 1.5 million tons in 1990 to more
than 2 million tons in 1999, at which
time the country achieved rice selfsufficiency, while the SDC-supported
Lao PDR-IRRI project was under way.
Current rice production exceeds 3
million tons.
Modern rice varieties adopted. By
2004, modern rice varieties had been
adopted in Lao PDR by 80% of the
farming households and on 69% of
the land planted to rice. Rice varieties
developed with IRRI accounted for
51% of the planted modern varieties
and included TDK1 and 5, and PNG
1 and 2. A 2008 study showed that
87% and 67% of farmers, inside and
outside, respectively, of the major
rice-growing plains of Lao PDR grew
improved glutinous rice varieties.
Improved crop management
practices. Researchers developed
and adapted a seven-step best
management practice manual and
poster for rainfed lowland rice, which
covers variety selection, good seed
production, land preparation, crop
and field management, harvesting,
and storage.
Supported
rice science in Lao
PDR. IRRI has
contributed to a
fully functional
national rice
research system in
Lao PDR, hosted 60
Lao scholars, and
trained 179 people
from Lao PDR
in short courses.
Currently, Mr.
Phetmanyseng
Zangsayasane
from Laos is
completing his
PhD with IRRI
and Khon Kaen
University.
37
21
Rice BReeDeR huaqi Wang

surveys his aerobic varieties at
china agricultural university
experimental fields.
Ariel JAvellAnA
As Chinese farmers face a

worsening irrigation crisis,
they need a way to grow
rice with less water. Aerobic
rice may be the answer.
High and dry

Story and photos by
Adam Barclay
n a steaming hot Beijing

day in August 2007, a
group of researchers
from China Agricultural
University (CAU) visited
their experimental station on the
edge of the gigantic city. Several
hectares of what has come to be
known as aerobic ricegrown
like any other nonrice crop, in
unflooded fieldsstood oblivious
to the brutal, unforgiving sun.
This is why Rice Today was in
38

China. The push to establish a largescale aerobic rice production system,

which achieves high yields using a
fraction of the water required for
flood-irrigated rice (known simply as
lowland rice), is gaining momentum.
There are wrinkles to be ironed
out, but the potential, in the face
of widespread and ever-worsening
water availability, is enormous.
On this day, though, it wasnt
the aerobic rice that grabbed
our attention. As we climbed
into the car to head back to

the university campus, Huaqi
Wangthe breeder responsible for
the several aerobic rice varieties
wed inspectedturned to us.
Before we return, I want
to show you something, said
Prof. Wang, director of CAUs
Upland Rice Research Center.
Without any explanation, we
drove to another rice field, a few
kilometers away. This half-hectare of
healthy looking rice, belonging to a
local farmer, represented something

truly momentous. It was the last
remaining plot of commercial lowland
rice in the municipality of Beijing.
With a wry laugh, Prof. Wang
told us that soon it would be gone too,
muscled out by a still rapidly growing
population and fast-encroaching
urban and industrial works, whose
prodigious hunger for land and thirst
for water mean that there simply isnt
enough of either for lowland rice.
CAU water expert Xiaoguang
Making a point
about aerobic rice:
iRRi water scientist
Bas Bouman.
Yang, who researches water-saving

agricultural technologies, says
that the water situation, especially
in northern China, has become
desperate. In Beijing, she says, the
groundwater depth is very lowat
least 20 meters below the surface
and dropping further every year.
Beijing, in Chinas north, is
home to more wheat and maize
than rice, but the field in front of us
symbolized not only a dying practice
but also the promise of water-saving
technologies like aerobic rice.
Perhaps, we lamented, it should be
preserved as a museum exhibit.
According to Prof. Yang, as
recently as 10 years ago, a lot of
lowland rice was grown in Beijing.
Now, she says, apart from this field,
theres none. But people here want
ricetherefore, we need aerobic rice.
When water is scarce, rice
is inevitably the worst-affected
crop. Compared with the worlds
other major staples, wheat and
maize, rice uses around twice as
much waterroughly 2,000 liters
to produce a single kilogram.
Plant nutritionist Shan Lin, from
CAUs Department of Plant Nutrition,
points out just how thirsty lowland
rice is. In China, 70% of water is used
in agriculture; 70% of that is used in
rice production, he says. In terms of
rainfall or irrigation water, lowland
rice needs approximately 1,000
1,500 millimeters. Aerobic rice needs
around 600 millimeters. Aerobic
rice can really help us save water.
Bas Bouman, senior water
scientist and aerobic rice work-group
leader at the Philippines-based
International Rice Research Institute

(IRRI), is acutely aware of this
problem. When he arrived at IRRI in
1999, Dr. Bouman had an idea: why
cant we grow rice as an irrigated but
unflooded dryland crop, like wheat or
maize? There already existed upland
rice cropstraditional varieties that
yield poorly but are able to cope
with extremely harsh conditions,
including very dry climates, poor
soils, and often sloping land. What
if the sturdiness of upland rice
could be combined with the highyielding traits of lowland rice?
So, in 2000, Dr. Bouman
started asking agronomists and
plant physiologists about the idea.
The answer I always got, he
says, was, Its just not possiblerice
is not like that, rice is different.
So I parked the idea for a while,
until I learned about the work
to improve upland rice in more
favorable environments. There were
people at IRRI with basically the
same idea, but not in the irrigated
lowland environment. They were
working in the sloping uplands,
trying to improve upland rice.
Like most good ideas, aerobic rice
was, in theory, fundamentally simple.
It also turned out that it wasnt the
first time somebody had thought
of it. The IRRI upland researchers
introduced Dr. Bouman to Prof.
Wang, who, at that time, had been
working on aerobic rice for more
than a decade. Sure enough, he had
anhui pRovince farmer guangyun Dai

shows off one of his aerobic rice plants.
39

boosts the
potential of
aerobic rice.
Anhui Province, China
Although rainfall
in many parts
of China is high,
it is also very
unstable. In such areas, the
majority of the years rain
Mengcheng
can fall over a couple
of months in summer,
Fengtai
Funan
causing floods that
badly damage or totally
destroy traditional
dryland crops such as maize
Hefei
and soybean. Aerobic rice,
though, can still handle
flooding. In a year when
rainfall is spread out and no
floods occur, a maize crop will
yield higher than an aerobic
rice crop. But, if the floods
hitand they often doaerobic
rice will give farmers a few tons
per hectare, where maize would
have left them with nothing.
The day after witnessing Beijings
last field of lowland rice, Rice Today,
urban and industrial development
with CAU agronomist Guanghui Xie,
is staggering and the flow-on effects
headed south to Anhui Province,
for farming are sobering indeed.
where rice is a much more important
Rivers have been diverted to provide
crop (see map above). The farmers in
water for cities, groundwater is
Anhui are some of Chinas poorest
dropping every year, and laborers
any technology that can increase their are leaving the farms in droves to
water productivity and help them
find better-paid work in mining and
secure rice for their own consumption construction. Compounding the
can also help reduce poverty.
problems, much of the provinces
Anhui, like Beijing (and much
irrigation infrastructure is outdated
of northern China), is also facing a
and in bad need of maintenance.
water crisis. Here, too, the pace of
The worsening shortage of farm
the sun sets over hefei (left); rice
fields are dwarfed by a new power
station in fengtai. Rapid, large-scale
urban and industrial development is
pushing laborers off the farms and
into the cities. the consequent rising
cost of rural labor makes less laborintensive aerobic rice more attractive.
40

aerobic believers
lthough many farmers are impressed by

aerobic rices potential, most would opt
for lowland (flood-irrigated) riceand its
significantly higher yieldsif they had the
choice. But, as water becomes scarcer and
more and more farmers lose that choice,
aerobic rice is becoming an increasingly
important technology.
Two neighboring villages in Fengtai
County, Anhui Province, offer a graphic
illustration of the difference between farming
with and without plentiful access to water.
Xiwang and Cuihai villages may share a
boundary, but they dont share water.
In 2000, the irrigation system that
fed Cuihai from the nearby river ceased to
operate. Xiwang, meanwhile, has a functioning
irrigation system that delivers enough water
for lowland rice production.
At the village boundary, Xiwangs lowland
rice crops stand side by side with Cuihais
aerobic rice fields. The aerobic rice is doing
well at this stage of the 2007 season, but,
until varieties and crop management systems
improve further, it cant compete with the
lush, green lowland rice.
Three farmers from CuihaiChungao
Wang, Chunjian Wang, and Chunqiao Wang
would love to have access to Xiwangs
irrigation, but theyre not complaining. Before
2000, all three grew lowland rice. The next 2
years, with no rice in their fields, their maize
ShAobing Peng
crossed hardy upland rice varieties

with modern lowland varieties.
I realized that what Prof.
Wang was doing was exactly what
I had in mind and that, yes, it is
possible, recalls Dr. Bouman.
Prof. Wangs progress was
encouragingdespite very little
research support, he claimed to
have achieved yields of above 6 tons
per hectare. He was working in
low, flat areas where farmers have
insufficient irrigation to flood the
field, but have access to enough water
for two or three small irrigations
per season or as much rainfall as
is needed for wheat or maize. This,
says Dr. Bouman, is precisely the
target zone for aerobic rice. In waterscarce China, it is an environment
growing in area every year.
For farmers who have been
forced by lack of irrigation to end
their lowland rice production,
aerobic rice offers the chance to
grow rice once more. Rice is so
fundamentally important to the
diet of most Chinese people that
farmers will go to great lengths to
grow rice for themselves and their
family, even if it means sacrificing
income that would allow them to buy
rice on the market. It is a cultural as
much as an agricultural decision.
When we say, well, you
can also buy it on the market,
says Dr. Bouman, they look at
you and say, yes, thats fine, but
I want it in my backyard.
And, another factor further
aeRoBic Rice faRMeRs (from

left) chunjian Wang, chunguo
Wang, and chunqiao Wang.
labor and consequent rising labor

wages further boost aerobic rices
attractiveness to farmers. Lowland
rice, which requires seedlings to
be maintained in a nursery and
subsequently transplanted, is much
more labor-intensive than aerobic
rice, which farmers can plant by rowseeding or broadcasting dry seeds.
According to Jianbo Yang,
president of the Anhui Academy of
Agricultural Sciences, the labor
situation is making aerobic rice
very attractive to the farmers in
Anhui. Many farmers are willing to
sacrifice 50 kilograms per mu [750
chunqiao Wang (left) and chunjian Wang examine their aerobic

rice crop. in the background are maize and a lowland rice crop
belonging to a farmer from the neighboring village.
crops were flooded and returned very low

yields. In 2003, they heard about aerobic rice
from a local agricultural technician and were
immediately interested.
With the other village farmers, the three
men started growing aerobic rice in 2004. The
villages combined aerobic rice area that year
was 35 mu (2.3 hectares). In 2006, it climbed
to 50 mu (3.3 hectares). When Rice Today visited
Cuihai in August, the 2007 crop was looking
good, and the farmers were expecting a yield
of around 350 kilograms per mu (5.25 tons per
hectare). If this prediction holds, the village
may plant 150 mu (10 hectares) in 2008.
In July and August of 2007, the maize
crops were again hammered by heavy rain
and floods; the farmers expect yields 4050%
JianBo Yang, president of the anhui

academy of agricultural sciences.
lower than in 2006. The aerobic rice, however,

withstood the weather unscathed.
Chunqiao Wang is a true aerobic rice
believer, renting neighboring farmers land so
he can grow 9 mu (0.6 hectares) of aerobic
rice2 mu more than the total amount of
land he actually owns.
Overall, I feel good about aerobic rice,
especially if the yield can reach 400 kilograms
per mu [6 tons per hectare], he says. The
future will be bright if we can get improved
varieties. Even if the irrigation improves, if
we get improved varieties, I might stick with
aerobic riceit costs much less than lowland
rice. If everything goes well, our village can
grow more than 200 mu [13.3 hectares] of
aerobic rice.
kilograms per hectare] compared

with lowland rice because of the
labor aerobic rice saves them.
Even without the labor savings,
aerobic rice is less expensive than
lowland rice. Ding Guangli, head
of the Funan County Agricultural
Research Institute in Anhui, says
that, taking into account agricultural
materials only, aerobic rice costs
farmers around 3,750 Chinese yuan
(US$480) per hectare per season
3,000 yuan ($405) per hectare less
than lowland rice. Mr. Ding adds
that, 20 years ago, rice was planted
on around 30,000 hectares in Funan
41

Every dr p counts
by Bas Bouman and Mia Aureus
Water scarcity is crippling the worlds food supply balance. So, IRRI has developed water-saving
technologies to help farmers cope with the problem and, more importantly, to sustain global rice
production.
ater makes
up 70% of our
planet. But
despite this
vast availability, our fresh
water reserve is finite.
Over the years, improper
use has led many to waste
this precious natural
resource, unaware of its
dire crippling effects on
the worlds food supply
balance, particularly for
ricethe staple food of
about 3 billion people
around the world.
Like all other plants,
rice needs water to
survive. However, unlike
most plants, it needs
twice as much water to
produce good yields. For
1 kg of rough rice, for
example, an average of
2,500 liters of water needs
to be supplied by rainfall
and/or irrigation (see
How much water does
rice use? on pages 28-29
of Rice Today Vol. 8, No.
1). About 1,400 liters are
used up in evaporation
and transpiration, while
the remaining 1,100 liters are lost
by seepage and percolation. A
farmer, then, constantly needs to
ensure that sufficient irrigation
water is provided (to complement
rainfall if that is insufficient) to
match all these outflows. Note that
transpiration (the process by which
the rice plant absorbs water, takes
it up to bring essential nutrients
from roots to leaves, then releases
it to the atmosphere) is the only
productive water use, as it helps
the plant stay alive and healthy.
42
16
An irrigation canal
in northern China
dries up because of
water scarcity.
Growing water scarcity

Fresh water for agriculture around
the world, however, is becoming
increasingly scarce, thereby
threatening rice productivity and,
consequently, the worlds food supply.
In the next 25 years, some 1520
million hectares of irrigated rice
are projected to suffer some degree
of water scarcity, particularly the
wet-season irrigated rice regions
of China, India, and Pakistan.
Dry-season irrigated rice areas
everywhere in Asia rely on expensive
irrigation water and

need to be managed in
the most water-efficient
way. The causes for
increasing water scarcity
are diverse and locationspecific. They include
falling groundwater
tables, chemical pollution,
malfunctioning of
irrigation systems, and
increased competition
from other sectors such as
urban and industrial users.
In the face of this
troubling reality, the
International Rice
Research Institute (IRRI)
has developed several
water-saving technologies
to help farmers cope
better with water scarcity
in their paddy fields.
Farmers primarily need to
reduce the nonproductive
outflows (percolation,
seepage, and evaporation),
while maintaining
transpiration flows.
This can be done during
land preparation, crop
establishment, and the
actual crop growth period.
Get the basics right

In preparing the landthe
foundation of the whole cropping
seasonit is crucial for farmers to
get the basics right. To establish
good water management early on,
they need to properly build field
channels, level the land, prepare solid
bunds, and effectively implement
tillage operations (puddling).
In most irrigation systems in
Asia, water flows from one field
into another and there are no field
channels to convey irrigation water to,

and drainage water from, individual
fields. So, farmers usually have a hard
time controlling the flow of water
in and out of the fields. Either the
farm loses much of its water to other
farms or it gets too flooded as water
from other farms pours in. Water
that continuously flows through
the rice fields may also remove
valuable nutrients. Constructing
separate channels to convey water
to and from each field will help
improve individual control of water.
This is the recommended practice
in any type of irrigation system.
Another prerequisite for good
water management is a well-leveled
field. Logically, when fields are
not even, water cannot be equally
distributed. Some parts may suffer
from water stagnation, while other
sections may become dry. This results
in uneven crop emergence, uneven
early growth, uneven fertilizer
distribution, and weed problems.
Most farmers puddle their fields
to prepare the land for transplanting
of seedlings. Puddling is the repeated
harrowing of the soil under flooded
conditions and it results in a muddy
layer 1520 cm thick. Before puddling
takes place, farmers need to soak the
land at the end of the previous fallow
period. Sometimes, large and deep
cracks are present in the soil and a
lot of water is lost at soaking by water
flowing down these cracks. A shallow
tillage to fill the cracks before soaking
can greatly reduce this water loss.
Puddling creates a so-called
plow layer of some 5-cm thickness
just below the muddy layer. This
plow layer is very compact and it
prevents water from percolating
downward, where the roots of
the rice plants cannot reach it
anymore. Thorough puddling after
soaking the field results in a more
compacted soil. Puddling is especially
effective in clay soils that form
cracks during the fallow period.
Good bunds or paddy dikes
also help limit water losses by
seepage and underbund flows. Bunds
should be well compacted. Any
rat holes should be plastered with
mud at the beginning of the crop
Saving water: alternate

wetting and drying
Water scarcity
Worldwide, water for agriculture is
becoming increasingly scarce. By 2025,
15 to 20 million hectares of irrigated
rice may suffer some degree of water
scarcity. Interventions to respond to
water scarcity are called water savings
and imply a reduced
use of irrigation water.
What is AWD?
Alternate wetting and
drying (AWD) is a watersaving technology that
lowland (paddy) rice
farmers can apply to
reduce their water use
in irrigated fields. In
AWD, irrigation water
is applied to flood the
field after a certain
number of days have
passed following
the disappearance
of ponded water.
Hence, the field is
alternately flooded
and nonflooded. The
number of days of
nonflooded soil in AWD
in between irrigations
can vary from 1 day to
more than 10 days.
A farmer can start AWD a few days

after transplanting (or with a 10-cm-tall
crop in direct seeding). If there are too
many weeds, AWD can be postponed
for 23 weeks, until the ponded water
suppresses weed growth. Local fertilizer
recommendations for flooded rice can
be used. Apply nitrogen
fertilizer preferably on
the dry soil just before
irrigation.
A sample field water tube made from

polyvinyl chloride. Note the holes on
all sides.
Safe AWD
The threshold of 15
cm is called Safe AWD
as this will not reduce
yields. In Safe AWD,
water savings are on the
order of 1530%. Once
farmers feel confident
that Safe AWD will not
reduce their yields,
they can try to drop
the threshold level for
irrigation to 20 cm,
25 cm, 30 cm, or even
lower. This will help save
more water, although
production may be
slightly affected. This
minor setback may be
acceptable when the
price of water is high
or when water is very
scarce.
How to implement
AWD?
A practical way to
The field water tube
implement AWD is
This tube can be made
to monitor the depth
of a 40-cm-long plastic
of ponded water in a
pipe or bamboo, with
The soil inside the tube is removed
field using a field water
a diameter of 15 cm or
after sticking it into the ground.
tube. After irrigation,
more, to allow farmers
the depth of ponded
to see and monitor the
water will gradually decrease. When
water table. Put holes on all sides of
ponded water drops to 15 cm below the the tube. Stick the tube into the soil,
soil surface, irrigation should be applied but leave 15 cm above the soil surface.
to re-flood the field up to 5 cm. From a
Remove the soil inside the tube so that
week before until a week after flowering, the bottom will be visible. Make sure
ponded water should always be kept at
that the water table inside the tube is
5-cm depth. After flowering and during
the same as that on the outside. The
grain filling and ripening, the water level tube can be placed in a flat part of the
can be allowed to drop again to 15 cm
field close to a bund so that it is easy to
below the surface before re-irrigation.
monitor the depth of ponded water.
43
17
grain of truth
Circle irrigation:
lobal water scarcity and

its implications for rice
production have been an area
of significant concern and
discussion. Water scarcity is a problem
of sufficient magnitude, that a one-sizefits-all solution is unlikely. Breeding
programs aimed at improving drought
tolerance in rice, as well as innovative
and novel production systems, will be
required to adequately address the issue
of water scarcity, as it relates to rice
production. One topic that has had little
discussion, however, is the use of centerpivot irrigation systems to help resolve
this problem.
Research is currently underway to
evaluate and adapt center-pivot sprinkler
systems to rice production. The impetus
for this research is threefold: to reduce
the water required to produce rice, to
expand the geographic area suitable for
rice production, and, finally, to reduce the
cost of overall production by automating
irrigation operations and fertilizer and
chemical applications.
Center-pivot sprinkler systems have
many advantages over other forms of
irrigation. They apply water much more
uniformly to fields than do either flood
or furrow irrigation; and, since pumping
requirements are reduced, water outflows
are lessened allowing farmers to save
on both water and energy. Moreover,
another added benefit is, fertilizers
and chemicals can be applied through
the center-pivot system with the same
high efficiency as the irrigation water.
This can significantly reduce labor and
application costs. The loss of fertilizers
and chemicals to leaching and runoff
is minimized, thereby increasing input
efficiencies and reducing potential
environmental impacts. Furthermore,
in-season application of nutrients
(particularly nitrogen) through fertigation
enables plants to better utilize the
nutrients, as the system matches the plant
need and uptake.
44
18
58
bas bouman (2)
season. Farmers need to

drained, nonpuddled,
Farmers puddle their fields
to prepare the land for
also check for, and repair,
and nonflooded soils.
transplanting seedlings.
new rat holes, cracks, and
With good management,
pores dug by earthworms
aerobic rice can produce
throughout the growing
up to 46 tons per hectare
season. Plastic sheets can
while using less than
be used to fix permeable
half the water required
sections of the bunds.
in flooded paddy rice.
During the crop growth
period, farmers are best
Every drop counts
advised to keep their
Todays problem of water
ponded water at a 5-cm
scarcity has reminded
depth to minimize the loss
everyone of waters finite
of water by seepage and
nature. IRRI continues
percolation. This is also the
to further develop and
advised level in another
refine water-saving
water-saving technology
technologies to help
called alternate wetting and
farmers cope. As water
drying (AWD) (see The big
scarcity increases and
squeeze on pages 26-31 of
climate change aggravates
Rice Today Vol. 7, No. 2).
the problem, IRRI is also
AWD, also known as
stepping up its efforts
controlled irrigation, does
in disseminating these
not require rice fields to
technologies to farmers.
be continuously flooded.
Outreach efforts include an
Farmers flood the fields up
array of training activities
to 5 cm for a few
and the production
days, and then
of information
Farmers must make sure that
the bunds are well compacted
let them dry to
materials such as
to
limit
water
loss.
leaf lets, brochures,
a certain extent,
posters, manuals,
before re-flooding
and eventually
them. This cycle
e-learning courses
goes on throughout
to reach out to
the season, but
as many people
with a period of
as possible. New
continuous flooding
partnerships
during flowering
are being forged
to prevent sterility
among scientists,
from occurring.
extension agencies,
In the practice of
irrigation system
safe AWD, farmers
managers, and
use a field tube
farmers to jointly
to monitor the
tackle the problem
underground water
of water scarcity
level in the field:
and implement
when the ponded
solutions. To
water has dropped
alleviate the fate
to 1520 cm below
of water-scarce
the surface of the
farmers and to
soil, it is time to
even intermittently flood the field
ensure global food security, every
flood the field again. It was found that
drop of water counts.
this technology reduced the amount of such as in AWD, the system of
aerobic rice may be useful (see
water required by a quarter and, more
High and dry on pages 28-33 of
importantly, it did not reduce yields.
Rice Today Vol. 7, No. 2). Aerobic
Dr. Bouman is a senior water
Aerobic rice
rice is a production system in
scientist and head of the Crop and
When water is really very scarce,
which especially developed aerobic
Environmental Sciences Division at
and there is not enough water to
rice varieties are grown in wellIRRI.
a new response to climate change

by
blake Onken
Center-pivot systems perform well

on sloped fields of up to 30 degrees,
which eliminate the cost of expensive
land leveling operations. Additional
cost savings can be realized from
reductions in labor and expenses for land
repair, heavy tillage, puddling, lateral
canal construction, surface smoothing,
and check (bund) construction and
maintenance. Expansion of rice ground
without expensive land development
can occur by using center-pivot systems.
Areas previously unsuitable for rice
production due to topographic or soil
type constraints may now be considered
for cultivation. Sloped fields, uneven
ground, and lighter textured soils could
all be put into rice production.
Established rice paddies are suitable
only for rice production. To rotate
rice with other crops can be difficult
or impossible. The use of center-pivot
systems would help facilitate crop
rotation for healthier crops and soils. It
would also make farmers more flexible to
respond to changes in markets, weather,
and other conditions. Because a field
irrigated by a center-pivot system does
not require maintaining flood water,
puddling operations, which make crop
rotation difficult would be eliminated.
From a green perspective,
published estimates place the methane
production of rice paddies at between
50 and 100 million tons per year.
Greenhouse gas emissions could be
reduced by not flooding and water

logging rice soils. In addition, reducing
the number of flooded fields would
reduce breeding areas for mosquitoes.
Research performed in Missouri
and Arkansas in the United States and
in Brazil has shown that irrigating rice
with a center-pivot system reduces water
applications from 28% to 50% compared
with conventional flood methods, while
maintaining or improving rice yields.
Reported yields from these studies have
been between 6 and 8 tons per hectare.
Because a center-pivot irrigated field
is never flooded, early season rains are
less likely to drown direct-seeded rice
as it germinates. This was documented
this season in field trials in Arkansas.
While paddy fields had to be replanted
due to excessive spring rains, the centerpivot irrigated field sustained very little
damage. Plus, center-pivot irrigated fields
will dry out more quickly at the end of
the growing season allowing harvest
equipment into the field sooner. Also,
earlier harvesting will reduce yield losses
from seed-head shatter, lodging, and
pests.
A number of factors do have to be
taken into account when considering
the use of center-pivot systems for rice
irrigation. The use of blast resistant
rice varieties is essential as overhead
sprinkler systems will regularly wet the
rice canopy. Increased dependence on
herbicides will also occur without flood
water to keep weeds in check. Herbicide
and fungicide programs will have to be
carefully monitored. The cost of these
programs should be offset by reduced
production and pumping costs, however.
Center-pivot sprinkler systems may
not be applicable to every field and every
situation, but the expectation is that,
the advantages of center-pivot sprinkler
irrigation can be successfully adapted to
widespread rice production. More research
is required to confirm the sustainability of
rice yields in using this technology. Early
indications, however, show that centerpivot sprinkler systems will provide the
same water, labor, and nutrient savings for
rice as for other field crops.
Mr. Onken is the director of Application
Engineering & Education of the Lindsay
Corporation based in the United States.
45
Scuba rice
Stemming the tide in flood-prone South Asia

by Adam Barclay
New versions of popular varieties of rice, which can withstand 2 weeks of complete submergence,
are set to make a big impact in South Asia
cientists had long known

of an Indian rice variety,
unromantically dubbed FR13A,
that could handle a week or
more of complete submergence
and recover sufficiently to offer a
reasonable harvest. Rice, although
often grown in standing water, will
drown like any other plant if hit with
severe flooding.
Despite its remarkable
properties, FR13A (FR stands for
flood resistant), as a low-yielding
traditional variety grown across
limited areas in the Indian state
of Orissa, was never expected to
make a big impact on a wide scale.
Nevertheless, rice breedersincluding
David Mackill, a young Californian
plant breeder working at the
International Rice Research Institute
(IRRI) in the 1980ssaw the potential
to breed FR13As sought-after trait
46
26
into some of the modern high-yielding

rice varieties planted over vast floodprone areas across Asia.
His reasoning, which emerged
from discussions with IRRI
deepwater rice breeder Derk
HilleRisLambers, was that a floodtolerant version of a popular modern
variety could have an enormous
impact. In Bangladesh and India,
for example, farmers suffer annual
crop losses because of flooding of up
to 4 million tons of riceenough to
feed 30 million people. To the farm
families and workers, and to the poor
consumers who rely on rice for the
bulk of their food, flooding can be
truly disastrous.
So, the IRRI breederspeople
who spend their careers mixing
the genes of plants to develop new
varieties that can handle harsh
climates, or resist diseases and pests,
IRRI plant breeder Dave Mackill (right) swaps

notes at BRRIs Rangpur station with UC Davis
professor pam Ronald.
or cope with problem soilstried.

And they succeeded. Sort of. They
created higher-yielding rice plants
that could handle major floods,
but they never even got close to
releasing them to farmers. During the
breeding process, which transferred
to the modern varieties whichever
genes were giving FR13A its flood
tolerance, too many unwanted genes
moved across as well. The result
was poor-tasting, flood-tolerant rice
that yielded no more than existing
varieties. And so the idea moved to
the back burner.
In 1991, Dr. Mackill left IRRI
for the University of California (UC)
at Davis. With FR13A still on his
mind, he and his graduate student
Kenong Xu took up the challenge of
identifying the genes responsible
for FR13As scuba abilities. They
eventually pinpointed the precise
stretch of DNA that made the variety
so interesting, and named the
assumed gene SUB1.
The group subsequently teamed
up with another UC Davis researcher,
Pamela Ronald, an expert in isolating
genes that give plants particular
traits. Working in Dr. Ronalds lab,
Dr. Xu and his wife, Xia, discovered
a single gene, which they named
SUB1A, and demonstrated that this
alone was responsible for most of the
flood tolerance.
Dr. Mackill, who by now had
returned to IRRI, realized that the
FR13A game was back on. By that
time, 25 years after the first breeding
attempts, agricultural science had
come a long way. A new precisionbreeding method, known as markerassisted selection (MAS; see On your
mark, get set, select on pages 28-29
of Rice Today Vol. 3, No. 3; also see
From genes to farmers fields on
pages 28-31 of Rice Today Vol. 5, No.
4), allowed breeders to do much of
their work in the lab. The new method
shortened the breeding process and
vastly improved the precision with
which specific traits could be moved
from one variety into another. He
and his team were able to transfer
adam barclay
Gene Hettel (2)
Even after 17 days of submergence in IRRI research

plots, Sub1 rice lines show their waterproof trait as
they are still standing to the left, right, and further
behind IRRI plant physiologist abdel Ismail.
DR. ISMaIl and UC Riverside scientist Julia BaileySerres share a laugh at BRRIs Rangpur station.
SUB1A into widely grown modern

rice varieties without affecting other
characteristicssuch as high yield,
good grain quality, and pest and
disease resistancethat made the
varieties popular in the first place.
By 2006, the first Sub1 varieties
were ready for testing at IRRI. The
researchers set up plots of what
they hoped would be flood-tolerant
versions of several varietiesIR64,
Swarna, and Samba Mahsurinext to
plots of their non-Sub1 counterparts.
Once the plants had established
themselves, the plots were flooded,
completely submerging the rice for 15
days. Next, the water was drained to
reveal muddy plots of limp, flattened,
deathly looking plants.
Then, a remarkable thing
happened. Within 2 weeks of the
flood, almost all of the Sub1 plants
recovered. They came back to life
1
as if coached by Lazarus himself. A
few scattered clumps of the original
versions made a comeback, but there
was no comparison. At harvest, the
Sub1 rice yielded more than twice
as much as its neighbor (to view a
dramatic time-lapse video of the
experiment, visit http://snipurl.
com/ebql8).
Around the same time, following

Dr. Ronalds groups success in
proving that SUB1A was indeed the
right gene, Julia Bailey-Serres, a
geneticist from UC Riverside who also
worked on the genes identification,
began investigating exactly how
SUB1A confers flood tolerance. It
turns out that the secret is all about
saving energy.
With colleague Takeshi Fukao,
Dr. Bailey-Serres has determined
that, when submerged, rice without
SUB1A responds by increasing the
pace of its elongation in an attempt to
escape the submergence. Deepwater
rice varieties are able to do this
rapidly enough to succeed. In modern
high-yielding varieties, however, the
elongation is insufficient. If the flood
lasts for more than a few days, the
normal varieties expend so much
energy tryingunsuccessfullyto
escape that theyre unable to recover.
Submergence of FR13A or any of
the new Sub1 varieties, on the other
hand, activates the SUB1A gene,
which suppresses this elongation
strategy, effectively shunting the rice
plant into a dormant state until the
floodwaters recede. Thus, the plants
conserve their energy for a postflood
recovery.
Understanding things from this
very basic perspective should allow us
to achieve an even better plant more
rapidly, says Dr. Bailey-Serres.
According to Dr. Mackill, the
Sub1 project has shown the advantage
of combining practical, applied work
such as breeding and upstream,
fundamental research.
Knowing the exact gene
responsible for a trait is not absolutely
necessary for the MAS breeding
approach, because a larger piece
of the chromosome is transferred,
normally containing many genes,
he says. However, by understanding
the processes triggered by SUB1A in
detail, we hope to improve on the
existing Sub1 varieties by identifying
novel flood-tolerance genes that
allow us to develop hardier plants
that survive even longer periods of
A Biblical name used to connote apparent restoration to life.
47
27
BRRI DIRECtoR General Mohammad Firoze Shah

Shikder (left) and BRRI scientist M.a. Mazid explain
the flood-tolerant rice trials carried out at BRRIs
Rangpur station.
48
28
adam barclay (5)
flooding, yet retain the characteristics

that farmers want.
With the Sub1 concept well and
truly proved, seeds were sent for
testing and refinement to national
organizations in South Asia, including
the Bangladesh Rice Research
Institute (BRRI) and, in India, the
Central Rice Research Institute
(CRRI) in Orissa and Narendra
Dev University of Agriculture and
Technology in Faizabad, Uttar
Pradesh. The trial results there were
also extremely promising.
In short, scientists had developed
rice that could handle more than a
weeks flooding with almost no loss
of yield (1 week is enough to severely
dent the harvest of the nontolerant
versions) and would recover to
produce a reasonable yield after even
2 weeks submergence (enough to
almost wipe out nontolerant versions).
Aside from the flood tolerance, the
new varieties were virtually identical
to their counterparts: farmers would
be able to manage them in exactly
the same way and, in the absence of
flooding, achieve the same yield.
But, as any agricultural scientist
will tell you, there is a vast gulf
between the tightly controlled
environment of the experiment
station and the more capricious
nature of a real farm. By 2007,
the time had come to test the Sub1
BRRI SCIEntISt M.a. Mazid (second from right) speaks to onlookers about the success of farmer Mostafa
Kamals (right) flood-tolerant rice trials. Mr. Kamals neighbor, Mohammad Shahidul Islam (left), is keen to
grow the new varieties himself.
varieties in farmers fields. In

this setting, there was no way of
controlling when flooding would
occur, how long it would last, or
whether it would even happen at all.
Moving forward to November
2008, to a small farm in Rangpur
District in northwestern Bangladesh,
researchers from IRRI, UC, and
national institutes in India and
Bangladesh commenced a South
Asian tour to mark the completion of
the project From genes to farmers
fields: enhancing and stabilizing
productivity of rice in submergenceprone environments, funded from
2004 to 2008 by Germanys Federal
Ministry for Economic Cooperation
and Development (BMZ).
If ever there was a country with
flooding problems, Bangladesh is it.
More than 1 million hectares20%
of the countrys rice lands are flood
prone.
In those areas where flooding
occurs once or twice and recedes
within 1214 days, says BRRI
Principal Scientific Officer M.A. Mazid,
who has overseen the Sub1 trials at
BRRIs Rangpur station, the Sub1
varieties could survive and improve
yields by up to 3 tons per hectare.
Given that Bangladesh is forced
to import around 2 million tons of
rice each year, BRRI Director General
Mohammad Firoze Shah Shikder

says that successful flood-tolerant
rice could substantially reduce, if not
eliminate, the countrys imports.
Sub1 varieties will add to the
total production of the country, he
says. They will save a lot of money
that would otherwise be used for
importing rice.
Moreover, within that single,
large-scale outcome, there would be
thousands and thousands of equally
positive, smaller-scale achievements.
Many farm families, eking out a living
on less than a hectare, could ensure
that they had enough rice to eat yearround. Others would harvest enough
to sell their surplus on the market and
increase their income.
Mostafa Kamal is one of the
farmers BRRI recruited to test the
Sub1 varieties in his field. He and his
brothers have a 6-hectare farmlarge
by Bangladeshi standardsthat needs
to produce enough rice each year to
feed 22 members of the Kamal family.
The farm suffers heavy losses because
of flooding every 4 out of 5 years.
In the past, many of my plots
became fallow because they were
flooded too often, says Mr. Kamal,
referring to the lowest-lying 2
hectares of the farm. If we can
cultivate on these plots, it will help
us produce rice to sell on the market.
Two extra hectares is a big jump.

So, how did the flood-tolerant
varieties fare? Twenty-three days
after the 8 July transplanting of
the 2008 wet-season crop, the farm
was hit by a 15-day flood. When the
waters receded, Mr. Kamal witnessed
a wonderful thing. In his Sub1 plots,
9598% of the plants recovered. In
the non-Sub1 plots, the figure was
1012%. Many of his neighboring
farmers, who were not involved
in the trial, lost their entire crops.
So encouraged was Mr. Kamal, he
planned to give awaynot sella
kilogram of flood-tolerant seeds to
each of his neighbors.
When I saw Mostafas field
flooded, and then saw it recover, I was
surprisedit was like magic, recalls
Mr. Kamals neighbor, Mohammad
Shahidul Islam. The annual flash
floods mean that Mr. Islam grows
rice on only the upper half of his 1.6hectare farm in the wet season. Each
year, he needs to buy 1 to 2 months
worth of rice to cover his familys
shortfall. He believes that floodtolerant varieties will allow him to
plant on his low-lying 0.8 hectare and
cover that shortage. These varieties,
FoRGEt SwaRna! Go for Swarna-Sub1! says

Basant Kumar Rao, a rice farmer from nuagaon
Village near Cuttack in orissa. Here, he stands in
his crop of Swarna-Sub1, which recovered well after
two floods hit his farm in the 2007 wet season.
FollowInG a 10-Day flood, orissa farmer Bidhu

Bhusan Raut saw his Swarna-Sub1 recover well
while his nontolerant Gayatri perished. Better
yielding is better living, he says.
he says, will mean more food, higher

income, and a better livelihood.
Observing the success of the
flood-tolerant varieties in Bangladesh
was a watershed moment for Sigrid
Heuer, an IRRI molecular biologist
who contributed to the analysis of
SUB1A.
I knew all along SUB1A was
working in any type of rice we put it
in, she says. Ive seen it many times
at IRRI and Ive seen the data from
the field experiments in India. But Id
never seen it in farmers fields with
my own eyes. Here, Ive seen it after
natural flooding for 15 daysthe

maximum time we think SUB1A
should be able to withstandand its
working. Its really fantastic.
A short flight away in eastern
India, it is the same story. The states
of West Bengal and Orissa, along
with Uttar Pradesh in the northeast,
have all seen equally promising trial
results and plan to completely replace
Swarna with Swarna-Sub1 as soon
as it is officially released by state
seed certification agencies. In West
Bengal, Swarna dominates, with 80%
of the rice area already planted to
the variety. A move to Swarna-Sub1
would therefore be relatively easy and
stands to have enormous impact.
Forget Swarna! Go for SwarnaSub1! is the advice from Basant
Kumar Rao, a rice farmer from
Nuagaon Village near Cuttack in
Orissa. I trust Swarna-Sub1. Ill keep
growing it. I got good money for it in
2007, he says.
That year, his farm was hit by
two floods, one of 11 days and one
of 7 days. The flood-tolerant rice
recovered after both floods and,
although he was able to salvage a
little of his regular Swarna, it yielded
nowhere near as well.
Better yielding is better living,
according to another Orissa farmer,
Bidhu Bhusan Raut. In the 2008 wet
season, Mr. Raut grew Gayatri, a
popular Indian variety, and SwarnaSub1 on his entire 1-hectare farm.
tHE DEVElopMEnt and testing of flood-tolerant rice varietieson show here at BRRIs Rangpur station
have attracted keen interest from plant scientists across the world.
49
29
a patCH of the popular rice variety Swarna

lies flattened and dying after several days of
flooding. In contrast, the flood-tolerant version,
Swarna-Sub1, rebounds to good health.
simply had to face flooding and blame

their luck if they didnt get a harvest.
IRRI plant physiologist
Abdel Ismail, who is studying the
mechanism of SUB1As action, says
there is a strong case for rapid release
of the new varieties.
When you develop varieties
using marker-assisted selection, he
says, you do not change the variety
much. Because the SUB1A gene is
very specific in its expression and
action during submergence, the Sub1
varieties should not have any other
problemssuch as susceptibility
to diseases or insectsthat their
nontolerant counterparts wouldnt
have also. In the future, we expect
adam barclay (4)
After a 10-day flood, the Sub1 plants

recovered well, while the Gayatri
plants perished.
According to CRRI Director
T.K. Adhya, the release of floodtolerant rice has become more and
more important as India has grown
economically.
People used to grow rice in more
favorable areas, where you had an
assured source of water and good soil
quality, he explains. Now, those
interior areas are being taken over
by human habitation and industry,
so farmers are forced onto marginal
lands in the coastal areas where
flooding, salinity, and many other
problems occur. In the past, farmers
ExaMInInG tRIalS at BRRI headquarters in Gazipur, K.M. Iftekharuddaula (right) has bred flood tolerance
into popular Bangladeshi rice variety BR11, which accounts for more than one-third of the countrys
wet-season plantings.
50
30
many new varieties to come out

as products of MAS. If you have a
submergence-tolerant or salt-tolerant
variety, for example, you want it to
go to the field as quickly as possible,
where it can make a big difference.
N. Shobha Rani, principal scientist
at Indias Directorate of Rice Research,
says that traditionally bred rice must
undergo testing for 3 years in all-India
trials, but this has been reduced to 2
years for MAS-derived varieties.
The second year of testing is
2009, says Dr. Rani, so, April 2010
is the earliest time the Sub1 varieties
could be recommended by the Central
Variety Release Committee for
national release. She notes, however,
that release could occur on a state
basis before then.
In fact, on 27 February 2009,
only a few months after Dr. Rani
talked to Rice Today, the Uttar
Pradesh State Varietal Release
Committee officially released
Swarna-Sub1. Being nearly identical
apart from its flood toleranceto
Swarna, this inaugural release of
a Sub1 mega-variety occurred very
quickly: only 6 years after the first
cross was made at IRRI.
A quick release is also possible
because plants developed through
MAS are not transgenic (that is,
genes of interest are transferred to
the target species or variety using
particular biotechnological tools
rather than conventional breeding).
Therefore, the new Sub1 varieties are
not subject to the regulatory testing

that can delay release of transgenic
products for several years.
The Sub1 trait also came along
with an additional bonus, a gene
linked to SUB1A that turns the
normally golden color of the hull of
Swarna into a straw color. Although
the hull color is not considered an
important varietal requirement,
this allows the seeds of SwarnaSub1 to be easily distinguished
from those of Swarna. This will be
useful to maintain seed purity as
seed producers start ramping up the
production of foundation seed for
distribution to farmers.
Another success to emerge
from the Sub1 work has been
the strengthening of national
organizations such as BRRI and
CRRI.
In India now, MAS has a lot of
support from the government, says
Dr. Ismail. In Bangladesh, BRRI has
its own lab for MAS, and not just for
SUB1. In the national agricultural
research and extension systems, the
project has boosted capacity through
resources and expertise, and also
through government support.
BRRI researcher K.M.
Iftekharuddaula is a good example.
He carried out his Ph.D. research
under Dr. Mackills supervision at
IRRI headquarters in the Philippines,
developing a flood-tolerant version
of popular Bangladeshi variety BR11,
which accounts for more than one-
third of the countrys wet-season

plantings. After completing his thesis
research, he returned to Bangladesh,
where he is now the BRRI breeder
responsible for refining BR11-Sub1
varieties for official release.
We are very much hopeful that
well be able to release at least two
varieties from our efforts, says Mr.
Iftekharuddaula, who is also working
with IRRI to incorporate disease
resistance and salinity tolerance into
BR11-Sub1.
As Sub1 varieties are officially
released over the next 2 years,
the key will be dissemination to
smallholder farmers in flood-prone
areas. IRRI is leading this initiative
through the project Stress-Tolerant
Rice for Poor Farmers in Africa
and South Asia, funded by the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation. IRRI
is also collaborating with national
organizations to test Sub1 varieties in
Southeast Asian countries, including
Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia,
Vietnam, and the Philippines,
through a project funded by Japans
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Dr. Ismail adds that SUB1As
effectiveness offers hope for research
into tolerance of other so-called abiotic
stresses, such as drought and salinity.
The general notion with abiotic
stresses used to be that it would be
very difficult to find a single gene that
can make much difference, he says.
This work has shown that you can

get a single gene of great agronomic
value. I think this has set the tone for
solving other major difficulties in the
field, such as problem soils.
The story of the SUB1 research
underscores the capacity of science
to improve peoples lives, as well
as the power inherent in a gene. It
seems a long and unlikely journey
from experimental plots in the
Philippines and the laboratory
benches in California to a small farm
in Bangladesh.
For Drs. Ronald and BaileySerres, the chance to get out of the
lab and see the Sub1 varieties in
farmers fields has been a profound
experience.
It was amazing to see that this
detailed genetic and physiological
analysis ultimately has potential for a
grand impact on people who are often
living in pretty desperate situations,
Dr. Bailey-Serres says.
Even Dr. Heuer, who, through her
work at IRRI, is no stranger to Asias
rice fields, has been moved. I had no
idea about the impact we can have
before seeing it with my own eyes,
she adds. Ive learned about the
power of agricultural research here.
I think it will have a huge impact.
Mr. Barclay is a freelance writer
based in Australia. See www.irri.
org/flood-proof-rice.
IRRI MolECUlaR biologist Sigrid Heuer (center) with her ph.D. student namrata Singh (left) and IRRI
assistant scientist Darlene Sanchez at the Chinsurah Rice Research Station, in west Bengal, India.
51
31
Whats cooking?
Laotian
congee
C
by Leigh Vial
chris quintana (3)
ongee is the first meal of the

day in many parts of Asia,
and it makes a wonderful
snack too. It is simply rice
cooked in an excess of stock such as
pork or chicken, with a range of savory
additives. In Lao PDR, it is called khao
piak khao, which literally means wet
rice. Both the stock and rice require
some forward-planning, but it is well
rewarded.
Boil stock
In a large pot, put 45 liters of water, then add:
A large piece of pork or chicken (up to 1 kilogram)
A few pieces of ginger, according to taste
23 whole onions, according to taste
23 whole small coriander plants
r. Vial came to the Philippines to

head IRRIs Experiment Station
in early 2011, after a 15-year career
in the Australian rice industry, then 3
years pursuing a PhD and consulting to
an Australian Centre for International
Agricultural Research (ACIAR) lowland
rice project in Lao PDR. Three years in
Lao PDR exposed him and his family
to the full range of Southeast Asian
cooking. Congee proved a particular
favorite for him, his wife, Sue, and two
boys, Digby and Rory.
Add toppings
Some suggested toppings are the following, for one person:
A tablespoon of fried garlic
A tablespoon of chopped spring onions
A tablespoon of chopped coriander
One sliced boiled egg
A pinch of dried or fresh chillies
Boil slowly for 3060 minutes. Powdered stock with added

ginger is a much quicker option if you have less time.
Cook rice
Add a cup of rice (good for four persons) to about 2 liters of
stock, but you can dilute the stock according to taste. Some
people use some or all glutinous rice for a creamier texture. Boil
slowly for 3060 minutes. Rice can be cooked ahead of time
(cooked in the standard way, one part rice and one part water),
then simmer the precooked rice in stock when required.
Add ground pepper and soy sauce to taste.

Note: Other toppings are limited only by your imagination!
Source of the recipe: Thanks to my instructor Deng, the proprietor
of Kungs Caf Lao, just around the corner from Wat Simuang,
Vientiane, Lao PDR.
Watch Dr. Vial demonstrate how to prepare this dish in a 8:52 video on YouTube at http://snipurl.com/lao_congee.
52
36

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Special Supplement for the 15th National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI)

Can less favorable areas obtain food security?

Students in the Philippines learn how to save water in planting rice

Bulacan agricultural State college

tudents troop to the middle

Rice Today July-September 2012

Rice Research Consortium (IRRC),

Rice goes to school

Dr. Junel Soriano, an agricultural

wetting and drying and they are now

The collaboration of state

DMMMSU and BASC have

Rice Today July-September 2012

M.N. Budhar (2)

Bulacan agricultural State college (2)

Dr. Junel Soriano (second from left), together with

would be included in the schools

Drum seeding finds its way

onsumers in Tamil Nadu, a

Mr. Chakravathy decided to use a drum

compared with other states. Rice

The major farm activities such as

a youNg farmer demonstrates

model was refined by the Tamil Nadu

cuts labor and seed costs, speeds up the

Watch out for the weeds

Rice Today April-June 2011

Gains in drum seeding

weeds is imperative. Although manual

control of weeds was

done at 10 days after sowing (DAS) and

transplanted rice, and is easy to operate.

more farmers adopted drum-seeding

The Malinao DaM in Pilar, on the Philippine

irrigaTeD rice fields near

water-saving technologies find their way to the province

ith three major

around 1,600 millimeters per year.

1998, however, BIS 1 has performed

Two Boys paddle their way across the Malinao Dam.

flooding to irrigate their rice crop.

naTional irrigaTion administration engineer edmund Mendez.

FarMers FroM carMen, Bohol,

technologies, specifically alternate

Pilar FarMers' group leader

Bis suPerinTenDenT olympio

Rice Today July-September 2008

irri waTer-saving researcher

saw first-hand, from the demo plots,

the rainy season, we still needed

chilDren Play near a pile of rice

of the water delivery systems, he

model for success of the WaterSaving Work Groups country

The Indo-Gangetic Plains, running east from

A return to the ways of their

o understand the importance of rice farming

BABUL, a farmer from Rashantapur

tend to diminish. In the Barind, farms average less

foregoing the use of their irrigation

LEADING the direct seeding charge (four photos from

Programme of the U.K. Department

EXPERIMENTAL plots at G.B. Pant University show the devastating effect of

Rice Today April-June 2006

opportunities, and constraints of