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Improved Rice Cultivation in Cambodia

Editor — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 14:01:49 +0000

Being essentially an agrarian country, Cambodia is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The main staple food is rice – and rain-fed lowland rice production accounts for more than 80% of the total rice area – but flooding, drought, and pests and disease are increasingly common due to changes in the climate, thus affecting crop yields. In the last five years, rice production loss can occurred mainly due to the occurrence of floods (70%), drought (20%) and pests and disease (10%). This has a great impact on the health of the poor and marginalised groups, most of which are farmers. Their lack of resources reduces their ability to adapt.

In 2008, CamFAD (the Cambodia Farmers’ Association Federation for Agricultural Development) started an initiative to help adapt the sector to climate change impacts. The organisation formulated a new sustainable farming practice called ‘System of Rice Intensification’ (SRI) which helps smallholder farmers increase their yields by following the principle of ‘transplanting young seedlings singly and widely spaced’, a technique that has the advantage of requiring less seeds and minimum irrigation.

CamFAD set up training workshops to promote this practice to farmers that, through a ‘learning-by-doing’ approach, allowed them to witness for themselves the benefits of the practice. Through farmer-to-farmer training, the SRI practice led to a widespread implementation of the new system, which has optimized rice production for smallholder farmers. Today, more than 17,000 farmers in Cambodia are using elements of SRI in their farming.

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Green Rice: Climate-Friendly Rice Strains in Thailand

Editor — Sat, 02 May 2009 17:15:39 +0000

As a response to methane emission from rice production being flagged as part of the global climate debate, Thailand’s agricultural ministry, as reported in the Bangkok Post, has prioritised its research efforts towards developing climate-friendly rice strains.

Prasert Gosalvitra, Director General of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives’ Rice Department said:

We are developing a number of modern rice strains that will reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are generated during rice production.

Traditional rice production practices generate large quantities of methane; a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide. The Thai ministry is developing strains of rice with smaller food conducting tissues which will assist in reducing greenhouse gas emissions during the photosynthesis process. Additionally, the ministry is researching strains to reduce carbon dioxide during the harvesting process.

Gosalvitra commented that in the future he hopes that this innovation in ‘green-rice’ will help Thai farmers gain access to markets with climate-conscious consumers, notably in the EU.

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Post-harvest Losses Demonstrate the Need for Better Storage Techniques

Editor — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 10:40:10 +0000

A study by the Inter-American Development Bank (ADB) in Vietnam and Cambodia recognized that farmers in the two countries could require two or three times as much rice grain as they consume to meet their food needs because of spoilage from poor storage techniques.

The full article is available here.

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‘Waterproof Rice’ Could Help Prevent Losses from Flooding

Editor — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 10:53:09 +0000

Losses to crops can also come from excess water rather than drought or damage from pests.

In areas prone to flooding, the development of ‘waterproof rice’ could make a dramatic difference.

Scientist at IRRI have identified a gene which allows rice plants to withstand be submerged for two weeks without damage. The gene has already been transferred to a rice variety used in Bangladesh and is showing positive results.

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Saving Water by Improving Rice Production in Asia

Editor — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:20:25 +0000

Around 90% of the agricultural water in use in Asia is used for rice production.

It takes about 5,000 litres to produce 1 kg of rice. Practices such as seeding pre-germinated rice have saved about 15-20% water compared with the traditional transplanting method.

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Ugandan Farmers Getting Tips on Market Prices and Activity

Editor — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:30:54 +0000

FICOM, the Farmers Information Communication project in Uganda is helping farmers access information on market prices and activity.

Important tips on growing crops are relayed from the Uganda National Farmers Federation headquarters to district level offices, and then to 24 ‘village phone centres’, in which each farmers’ group owns a mobile phone.

The farmers also send and receive SMS messages with updates on market prices, saving at times a whole day’s travel to market with help from the program, which is sponsored by the Syngenta Foundation.

For example, Milly Sekandi is a member of Zibula Atudde Women’s Group. After she purchased a village phone, she and other farmers who grow upland rice and maize are now able to confirm prices in Kampala and the border trading markets in Busia, Kenya. A few years ago it would have been the middlemen who dictated the price and made the most profit from sales.

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