The Hindu Business Line : The price of rice

NOT many people may be aware that this year has been declared the International Year of Rice by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations. This should strike a chord with Malayalees everywhere, especially in Kerala where eating rice is too common to merit comment as was cultivating paddy at one time.

Today, in the backdrop of farmers committing suicide in Palakkad, once Kerala's rice bowl, the FAO initiative assumes greater significance.

The impetus for this move came in 1999, when the Manila-based International Rice Research Institute, responding to its members' growing concerns over the serious issues facing rice development, requested FAO's collaboration in declaring an international year for rice. This led to an FAO resolution requesting the UN General Assembly to declare this year to rice.

The dedication of an international year to a single crop is unprecedented in the history of the General Assembly. FAO's mission statement proclaims that the International Year of Rice promotes improved production and access to this vital food crop, which feeds more than half the world's population, while providing income to millions of rice producers, processors and traders. Development of sustainable rice-based systems will reduce hunger and poverty and contribute to environmental conservation.

The theme of the year - Rice is life - reflects the importance of rice as a primary food source. It draws from an understanding that rice-based systems are essential for food security, poverty alleviation and improved livelihood.

For over half of the world's population, rice is the staple food. In Asia alone, more than 200 crore people obtain 60 to 70 per cent of their energy intake from rice and its derivatives. Rice is the fastest growing food source in Africa.

However, as Kerala has found out painfully, rice production is facing serious constraints, including declining yield growth rates, natural resource depletion, labour shortage, gender issues, institutional limitations and environmental pollution.

FAO notes that enhancing the sustainability and productivity of rice-based production systems, while protecting and conserving the environment, needs the commitment of many parts of civil society, as well as government and inter-governmental action.

A successful rice strategy involves four key areas:(1) improving food security and nutrition (2) enhancing the productivity of rice-based systems (3) managing water resources and (4) ensuring environmental protection.

In the case of Kerala, productivity of paddy cultivation has long been an issue, driving farmers out of the field. Sustainable rice development requires: (i) genetic improvements for higher yield potential, e.g. hybrid rice (ii) better crop management techniques (iii) reduced post-harvest operations and (iv) development of integrated production systems. It also requires improved technical capacity, through training and information exchange, and transfer of safety-tested new technologies to the field.

The Thiruvananthapuram-based non-governmental organisation Thanal has joined the `Save Rice' campaign in the rice-growing States of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, Orissa and Chhattisgarh. The Thanal initiative uses a four- pronged approach: sustaining rice, fighting genetically modified organisms, ensuring safe food and protecting community wisdom.

Should these initiatives return Kerala to its glorious past as a significant rice-growing State, that would be a wonder indeed.

The writer can be contacted at kgkumar@gmail.com

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