Meeting the challenges of global rice production

Abstract

Rice is the second most widely grown cereal crop and the staple food for more than half the world's population. More than 3 billion people consume more than 100 kg of rice per year. Rice is cultivated on 155.5 million ha with an average growth rate of 0.39% a year, in the last 30 years. In the near future, the possibility for expanding areas under rice-based systems will remain very limited because of the scarcity of global water resources for agriculture, the expansion of urban and industrial sectors in Asia where land is already limited and the high costs of developing new lands that are suited for rice production in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. The average growth rate of rice yield was 3.68% per year in the early 1980s, but it has decreased to 0.74% per year in the late 1990s. Several factors may contribute to the decline of the area under cultivation and in yield growth. The most important of these factors are: limited returns as we approach the yield potential of the high yielding varieties, declining productivity in intensive rice production systems, pressures from abiotic and biotic stresses, low returns in developing countries, increasing production costs in industrialized countries, and increasing public concern for the protection of environmental resources. One of the most effective means of addressing the issues in rice cultivation and raising the average yields at the farm level is through research and subsequent dissemination of the resulting data. Rice science has made considerable progress. In the area of rice varietal improvement, recent advances in hybrid rice and the new rice for Africa (NERICA) are just two examples of the successful contributions of science to the development of rice. Research could also help reduce the gap between the potential yield obtained on experimental stations and the actual yield obtained in the fields. This could be possible by developing and promoting rice integrated crop management (RICM) systems for improving productivity and reducing the production cost per unit of output. The need for a sustainable increase in rice production affects everyone. The International Year of Rice provide us with a chance to improve food security, alleviate poverty and preserve the environment for the billions of people for whom Rice is Life.