Putting rice on our plates

In fact, the most cost-effective source of calories for the poor in a country like Bangladesh is rice. But as people move up the income ladder, dietary diversification tends to take place with more non-rice commodities -- e.g. vegetables, fish, egg, meat etc. -- pouring onto their plates. These products are rich in vitamins and micronutrients. In other words, the income elasticity of cereals is low, and that of non-cereal foods is high.

But note one thing, that the decline in per capita consumption of cereals as human food is over-compensated by the increase in per capita demand for cereals as livestock feed, since the amount of cereals needed to have the same level of calories from livestock product is many times higher than when it is used as direct human food. However, no matter whether you are at the top of the income scale in Asia, or not, rice is your favourite food: quantity declines but the relationship with rice remains.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

The Japanese -- with one of the highest per capita incomes in the world -- consume rice at almost every meal. Noodles are another cereal to cite. I learnt that the names "Toyota" and "Honda" are the names of varieties rice. The words mean, respectively, "bountiful rice fields" and "the main rice fields."

I saw the sympathy for cereals, especially, for rice in Korea too. At the IRRI cafeteria (Philippines), during breakfast time, I found about 60 per cent of the Phillipinos asking for rice. In the noon and evening meals, almost 90 per cent have rice on their plates. In between, 20-30 per cent have rice with evening tea. They are in fact, the educated and the wealthier groups of people in the Philippines.

There is, perhaps, hardly any educated and wealthy Bangladeshi who would eat rice at breakfast or with evening tea, excepting in rural areas. By and large, there is a difference in rice eating: people of the countries I mentioned just now, mix rice with vegetables and other items while we, in Bangladesh, mix vegetables with rice. Anyway, whether as the main or a secondary item, rice has become a culture in Asia.

Almost 90 per cent of the rice area is located in Asia, with India and China sharing 50 per cent of the global rice area. China has a fairly homogeneous production environment and differences in yield across regions are marginal. India has diverse agro-ecological conditions across states and so the yields vary vastly across states. The three giant economies of Asia -- India, China, and Indonesia -- account for 60 per cent of the global rice areas.

The reason why rice reaches our dishes every day at affordable prices is the technological breakthrough achieved over the years in the field of rice. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) first made the breakthrough in 1966 by developing a semi-dwarf rice variety (IR 8) that saves land. The HYV package helped increase yield by few times, compared to the traditional varieties, and thus increased the availability of land for farms.

When the population pressure on limited land resources in the developing countries accelerated, the need for technological progress was acutely felt (necessity is the mother of invention!).

Built on that success, successive generations of improved varieties, and breeding materials (germplasm), were developed to address other concerns such as pest pressure, reduction in the duration of crop maturity, and improvement of grain quality. Over the years, however, IRRI abandoned the practice of releasing varieties and, instead, national institutions (like BRRI in Bangladesh) have been entrusted with the role, facilitated by IRRI.

But, after a hefty growth of yields, despair loomed large with a drop in yields over the years. Dr Mahabub Hossain (IRRI) recently researched on yield levels and changes in 43 countries, dividing the total periods under study into two phases: 1970-90 (the Green Revolution period), and the 1990-2005 (the post-Green Revolution period).

Among 43 countries under study, the growth in yield declined in 19 countries. In China and Indonesia, where rice is grown mostly in irrigated conditions, the adoption of MVs is almost complete, and the yield level has reached the peak. India witnessed a moderate decline. It means that expansion has been in marginal lands.

On the other hand, nine countries experienced a rise in yield levels and Bangladesh is one of those "fortunate" few. In all these countries (excepting Peru and Brazil) rice is grown mainly in rain-fed conditions, and the increase in yield was low in the base period.

Indonesia and the Philippines were early gainers in yield with a developed irrigation infrastructure to facilitate technological progress. Over time, investments dwindled and the countries with population growth reverted to import dependence from self-sufficiency.

Bangladesh has substantially reduced the yield gap in the irrigated eco-system over the last decade with rapid private sector investment in small-scale irrigation facilities. But the productivity growth may slow down in the future with boro crops hitting the plateau in yield and slow technological progress in large flood-prone and salinity-prone coastal areas. Research also shows that in rain-fed areas of different countries the yield level is comparatively low but the poverty level is relatively high, pointing, perhaps, to the paucity of technology in those areas.

As I was on my evening walk, I saw two Bangladeshi scientists -- Messrs Alamgir and Iftekhar from BRRI -- standing on an experimental plot of paddy. They are trying to infuse a gene in BR-11 (the most popular variety in aman season covering half of the cultivated land) so that it can withstand submergence for 15 days, keeping all other traits constant. The researchers are hopeful that, after the research is completed, farmers in low lying areas would immensely benefit, as floods tend to damage cropland.

Challenges await rice everywhere and countries should tighten their research belts. The challenges are, for example, shifting the yield potential for irrigated system, sustaining the current yields in irrigated system and reducing yield gaps for unfavorable rain fed environments. Meeting the challenges calls for the mobilization of support to crop improvement research in the public sector.

No way is it a time to put scale back rice research, in fact, it is possibly a time to put more resources in. Keep in mind that in Bangladesh, for 70 per cent of those coming from the functionally landless group, and for most of those without any formal schooling and for many of the older people, crop farming is till now the primary occupation. To pull them out of poverty we should put in more research and resources into rice.

Abdul Bayes is Professor of Economics, Jahangirnagar University.