Rice
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Rice (Oryza sativa), is a cultivated grain in the grass family. More than one-half of the world's population relies on rice as their staple source of food energy. [1] Rice plays a critical role in ensuring food security in developing nations in Asia and Africa, but increasing population densities and limited land and water resources assert pressure on fragile natural environments. The Food and Agriculture Organization advocates measures that intensify rice yields on existing cultivated land, if future global demand is to be met in an environmentally sustainable manner. [2] Research is currently being done into the potential for non-consumable rice straw (which is left over after the fruiting stalks are harvested) to be converted to bioethanol. This resource could provide an important source of bioenergy.
Contents |
History
Sustainability
Environmental Sustainability
- According to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), rice is cultivated on "more than 140 million hectares worldwide and is the most heavily consumed staple food on earth."[3] (PDF)
Greenhouse Gases
- Because of the semiaquatic nature of rice, global rice cultivation is responsible for significant emissions of the greenhouse gas, methane. According to the International Food Policy Research Institute, "recent assessments of methane emissions from irrigated rice cultivation estimate global emissions for the year 2000 at a level corresponding to 625 million metric tons (mt) of carbon dioxide equivalent." [4] (PDF)
Biodiversity
Pollution
Land Degradation
Social Sustainability
Technology/Science
- The System of Rice Intensification is an improved yield rice farming method originally developed in Madagascar that modifies fundamental growing conditions such as increasing root zone area, controlling irrigation, and regularly eliminating competition, to stimulate rice plant development and radically increase yields. This technique is promoted in developing countries in Africa and Asia as method for ensuring food security and reducing the environmental impacts of agriculture in areas of high density rice production.
- In The System of Rice Intensification Developed in Madagascar(PDF) Dr. Norman Uphoff of Cornell University's International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development (USA) presents an example of the effectiveness of the SRI method in Madagascar, where rice is the staple crop and slash and burn agriculture for rice production has led to severe forest degradation and erosion. By using the SRI technique, "farmers in Madagascar – where rice yields average about 2 tons per hectare (t/ha), even with irrigation – have been able to get yields averaging around 8 t/ha, with top yields in the 15 to 20 t/ha range, above what has usually been considered to be the biological maximum....This is done without new seeds or chemical fertilizers, and with considerably less water..." [5]
- System of Rice Intensification in India: Innovation, History and Institutional Challenges (PDF) presents information on the agricultural and social impacts of the adoption of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in Indian rice farming.
Economics/Policy
News
2010
- Haiti's Rebuild May Be Biochar's Big Breakthough, 4 March 2010 by TreeHugger: "Biochar, the 'co product' of burning wood or agricultural waste in a pyrolitic (oxygen free) environment, has garnered both praise and criticism for its possibilities as a CO2 sequestration tool."
- "WorldStoves, a company that makes a number of pyrolitic stoves, has partnered with the NGO International Lifeline Fund and a private Haitian company to bring its 'Lucia' stove designs to Haiti. In Haiti, the use of wood for charcoal for home cooking needs is widespread, which has led to a continuing cycle of deforestation and soil [degradation]."
- "What makes the Lucia stove so magic is that a Haitian woman or man could cook for a five-person family using just about 300 grams of twigs, groundnut shells, rice husk or dung."
- "[If] biochar is included in the UN's Certified Emission Reductions (CER) and Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) schemes, creating it in cookstoves and sequestering it in soil could help Haiti economically as well."[6]
- From palm oil to cotton, Benin now shifts to rice, 4 January 2010 by Daily Nation: "Known for its palm oil and cotton production, Benin’s agriculture sector wants to become known for high-quality rice and to quit importing rice by 2011, according to the government."
- "FAO estimates Benin is using 8 per cent of available land for rice cultivation and could save $55 million and cover 70 per cent of domestic demand if it invested more in rice production."
- "West African rice imports reached six million tonnes in 2001 and are likely to rise to 11 million by 2010, according to FAO."
2009
- Charcoal trade threatens gorillas, 12 December 2009 by UPI: "The habitat of rare mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo is being threatened by charcoal production, officials said."
- "To break the reliance on charcoal, villagers and refugees are being urged to use presses, paid for by the Rwandan wildlife service, that turn...leaf mulch, rice husks and other organic waste into fuel briquettes".[7]
- The Other Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis in Global Land Use, 5 October 2009 by Yale Environment 360: "Our use of land, particularly for agriculture, is absolutely essential to the success of the human race. We depend on agriculture to supply us with food, feed, fiber, and, increasingly, biofuels. Without a highly efficient, productive, and resilient agricultural system, our society would collapse almost overnight."
- "[L]and use is also one of the biggest contributors to global warming....The vast majority comes from deforestation, methane emissions from animals and rice fields, and nitrous oxide emissions from heavily fertilized fields. Yet, for some reason, agriculture has been largely able to avoid the attention of emissions reductions policies."[8]
- Rice straw has a soft spot for bioethanol, 2 June 2009 by Checkbiotech: "Production of biofuels from inedible parts such as rice straw is so far not economically viable", however further advances in research could allow Japan to produce "2.6 billion liters of bioethanol per year from the accumulating rice straw." [9]
- Test Project on Bioethanol Fuel from Rice Straw Starts in Akita, (Japan), 28 March 2009 by Japan for Sustainability: "The Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries recently announced that it has chosen Akita Prefecture...[for] a model project utilizing soft cellulose. The model project aims to conduct verification tests to establish a technology for production of bioethanol made from soft cellulose biomass, such as rice straw and husk that do not compete with food supply."
- "Raw materials for the bioethanol production will be rice straw and husk produced in Ogata Village on the reclaimed land of Hachirogata, one of the leading rice-growing areas in Japan."[10]
2008
- Japan Plans to Support Replacing Petrol With Wood, 29 January 2008 by PlanetArk: "Japan is set to embark on a five-year plan this year to harness a new form of energy using unused wood biomass to produce auto fuels and other industrial products currently made from imported petrol."
- Japan's Ministry of Agriculture has proposed allocating 1.2 billion yen (US$11.2 million) in the coming year for private projects including for development of cellulosic ethanol technology, in addition to support for "consortiums comprising farmers, engineers and regional governments to produce ethanol from non-food soft plant parts such as rice stems and use it locally."
Events
2009
Organizations
- The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is "the largest non-profit agricultural research center in Asia". It's mission is "to reduce poverty and hunger, improve the health of rice farmers and consumers, and ensure that rice production is environmentally sustainable." [11]
Films
Time-lapse video showing "a rice plot over a 112-day growth cycle (21 February-12 June) on the upland farm of the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines." Video by Irrivideo.
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