“Super Rice”: The Future of Our Staple
Food?
Zhuang Lingzhen (lz.zhuang.2013@economics.smu.edu.sg), 1st Year
student, Bachelor of Science (Economics), Singapore Management University
Executive Summary
History has proved the importance of agriculture on the human
race 15,000 years ago. The transition, from hunter-gatherer society to
agricultural society in the Fertile Crescent, has changed the face of the
Earth. If not for agriculture, the world will not be revolutionized to what it
is today, where the human population is ever increasing and therefore leading
to advancement in technologies because there will be surpluses supported in
different specialized sectors, this is shown from the past that agriculture had
brought about the development and use of advance technologies in their time to
improve and move forward as a civilization. The bottom-line, if the world does
not have enough food, we are going to slow down and eventually collapse.
Therefore, this
paper, first analyzes the history of agriculture and rice and the importance of
agriculture and rice. Next, the current situation the world is in which
includes the problems that arise from the technologies that spurred the Green
Revolution and the need for sustainable agriculture by adopting hybrid rice
technology. Problems from the environment that affects food security and health
issues are to be discussed. These problems might be the drivers for hybrid rice
technology. The paper finally analyzes
and addresses the future considerations that would arise in the future if this
‘Green Super Rice’ were to replace the current rice technology and thus, the
future of our staple food.
1.
Introduction
As world population is expected to rise from the estimated
“7 billion”, current UN forecasts display a continual rise in population in the
coming future, with the population anticipated to reach “9.6 billion” by
2050. (United Nations, 2013). There is a growing concern on the
sustainability for further world population growth, highlighting the pressing
issues like shortage of global food supplies.
Importance of Rice
Rice is a staple food for beyond half of the population of
earth, providing 20% of the world’s food energy source, while wheat and maize
provides 19% and 5% respectively (Food and Agricultural Organization [FAO],
2004). In addition, rice is a major energy source for food for 17 nations from Pacific
and Asia, 9 nations from both South and North America and 8 nations from Africa
(FAO, 2004).
Food security is a serious problem in developing nations; it is a
condition of having sufficient food to provide ample nutrition for a healthful
lifestyle (“Food Security”, n.d.). Food security is threatened with the loss of
rice in developing nations because of post-harvest problems, problems such as
environment, pest infestation and health.
Not only does the loss of rice threaten food security, it also threatens
the income of the people. Basavaraja, Mahajanashetti, Udagatti & Naveen’s
(2007) stated that farmers from emerging countries such as India, China and
other nations “lose approximately US$89 billion of income in post-harvest farm
losses” owing to the absence of proper storage and retail, and poor transport
that could be prevented. According to the authors, in India alone, if the
post-harvest farm loss could be resolved with improve retail network and
infrastructure, sufficient food would be spared every year to feed “70 to 100
million people over a year” (Basawaraja et al., 2007).
And in recent years, various organizations are looking into
sustainable agriculture, specifically in this paper, it will touch on
sustainable rice production that alleviate these problems as organizations are
clear that this is the way forward. Though the use of hybrid rice technology is
the focus, currently it also has its limitations. Therefore, this paper looks
into the emerging technologies of better hybrid rice for being the future of
sustainable rice. Finally, this paper forecasts and evaluates the impact such
technologies may have.
Thus, this ties in to the topic – “Super Rice”: The Future
of Our Staple Food Source?
Sustainable
Agriculture
It is defined as using farming techniques, to make fiber,
food, or other animal or plant products, which protects human societies and
health, welfare of animal and the environment. This way of agriculture
allows us to create health-giving food without limiting the future generations
to do the equivalent (“Sustainable Agriculture”, n.d.).
Hybrid
Rice
It
is whichever type of rice resulting from crossbreeding of different kinds of
rice. Hybrid rice characteristically
displays hybrid vigor or heterosis- ability to withstand diseases, whereby when
it is cultivated under similar environments compared with high-yielding inbred
rice, hybrid rice can produce an additional of “30% more rice” (International
Rice Research Institute [IRRI], n.d.a as cited in “Hybrid Rice”, n.d.).
Improved high-yield rice strains, such as the hybrid rice, are one of the most
significant methods for tackling issues on food security globally.
2.
Historical Perspectives
History of
Agriculture & Rice
According to Diamond (1997), agriculture took place from
about 15 000 years ago, where crop domestication then animal domestication were
first discovered from the Fertile Crescent which is in the region of modern
Middle-East. And climate change in the region caused the people to migrate and
eventually spread the way of crops cultivation to Europe, and slowly we see a
rise in European power and human population and revolutionary technologies.
Because agriculture brought about surpluses to population, which will be
working in their specialized sectors, hence there will be advance in
technologies, leading to power and rise of civilizations and eventually into a
world today.
Evidence in the form of genetic has revealed that production
of rice began from a solitary domestication in the Pearl Valley region of
China, in 8,200–13,500 years ago (Huang et al., 2012).
History of Hybrid
Rice
Professor Yuan Long
Ping from China, is publicly known as the “Father of Hybrid Rice”,
because his work in the period between year 1960-1970, had led to the evolution
of rice strain with “genetically inherited male sterility” (International Rice
Research Institute [IRRI], n.d.b). This means, self-pollination was blocked in
this rice; this is to allow the same rice to be pollinated by a different
parent. Hence this technique is known as cross-pollination, rice breeders
globally to develop hybrid rice now extensively use this technique.
In addition, according to IRRI (n.d.b), the initial three
hybrid rice variations were used in China
in 1974 and across-the-board commercialization of hybrid rice was
established in 1976. Though the initial creation of the hybrid rice grain had
greater returns, the rice grain likewise had substandard quality and poor
resistance to diseases and pests. Despite of this, rice scientists had overcame
these issues and the present group of such hybrid rice has quality that is
improved and the resistance threshold to diseases and pests improved, this type
of hybrid rice is either similar to or superior to the inbred rice.
From the analysis of the history, we can see the importance
of agriculture and how big an impact it has on the world especially its
economic development. This can be closely related to the importance of rice
because it is the leading consumption grain, and a leading staple food of the
world being produced. With Food Security being the main focus of global world
crisis, we see the importance of sustainable food production and further the
importance of hybrid rice technology that solves this imminent global crisis
which is caused by the technologies based from Green Revolution – the heavy use
of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides for to produce high yield crops.
3.
Current Situation
Rice is a main staple food source and a basis and food security
for the people in the rural regions. For the workers in the non-agricultural
sectors, rice also provides incomes to them. It is essential for much of the
people’s nutrition in Asia, likewise in the Africa, Caribbean and the Latin
America. It is vital to more than half the world population’s food security. Nations
that are developing account for “95% of the total rice production”; India and
China are accountable for nearly half of the total production (FAO, 2003).
Rice is the number one crop produced for human consumption,
and this important grain attributes to greater than “one fifth of the calories”
ingested globally (Smith, 1998 as cited in “Rice”, n.d.). With risk of decrease in food security
being the driver behind the Green revolution. The Green Revolution based on the
technologies of high yielding strains and the dependence on chemical
fertilizers and pesticides, these have played a huge beneficial role in rice
production and food security but these also comes with a great cost and
problems. Problems like environmental and health issues, which lead back to
food security. Therefore, these could be the drivers for new technologies on
sustainable rice production.
More than a billion people, who are one fifth of the world’s
population, are dependent on the jobs from rice farming. “In Asia, where about
90% of rice is grown, have more than 200 million rice farms.” (International
Rice Research Institute [IRRI], n.d.c). Farming of rice is the core economic
occupation for tons of people in Asia’s rural regions. In Africa, the Caribbean
and Latin America, rice is the fastest growing staple. In many of the nations
that are developing, rice is associated with food security and is narrowly
linked to “political security”, because the change in the availability of rice
leads to a change in price, this change had triggered social turmoil in some
countries. Above everything else, the challenge is to create a surplus of rice
supplies with less water, labor and land, in a certain production method that
is more effective, environmentally friendly and is unaffected to climate change
(IRRI, n.d.c).
With the pressing problems after the 1960s Green Revolution,
sustainable agriculture has been a focus and the way forward to alleviate them.
With the use of hybrid rice has ever since been the focus but there are still
limitations to them. Hence, this section of the paper first looks into the
benefits then the limitations of current technology, which might be the driving
factor that calls for better technology of hybrid rice.
Problems arising from
the Green Revolution
The advantages of the technologies that spurred the Green
Revolution, which saved millions from the threat of famine, have diminished,
because of the problems from the heavy use of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers.
These problems indirectly threaten the food security of the world. Therefore,
this section of the paper will look into how these factors and also other
factors that impact food security.
Environmental Factor
Degradation of Soil
Green Revolution relies heavily on synthetic fertilizers,
which made land become hard and soil organic carbon content has gone down,
making the soil infertile (Pimentel, 1996), thus this will lead to a decrease
in food security.
Long Term Dependence on Pesticides
Rice pests are whichever living things are able to decrease
the value or amount of the rice harvested (“Rice”, n.d.). Though pesticides are
used to eliminate rice pests to increase rice-yields, they have their
drawbacks. In the long run, heavy dependence on pesticides have made pests
resistant to the pesticides and this leads to a rise in pest infestation (PBS,
2001 as cited in “Pest Resistance” 2011), which results in a reduction in rice
yield, and thus threatens food security. This shows that there is a need to
produce a strain that does not need pesticides.
Global Warming leads to fall in Yield, which threaten Food
Security
A 2010 study that is based on the proceedings from “227
farms” in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Vietnam and Thailand, uncovered
that, due to the increasing temperatures and declining solar radiation during
the late 20th century, the rate of growth of rice yield has decreased “10-20%”
in various regions of the Asia continent, comparing to the results observed had
the solar radiation and temperature movements not happened (Black, 2010; Welch
et. al, 2010).
Health
Factor
The frequent heavy use of chemical pesticides also affects
human health. The direct and indirect consumption of the pesticides may
increase the possibility of suffering from cancer in some of the villages using
them because of their unprofessional ways of farming, which includes over-usage
of the chemicals compound and non-compliance to usage of masks (Loyn, 2008).
Economic Factor
The United Nations Millennium Development project aims to
develop the economy of Africa. With the “Green revolution” quoted as the excellent
example for developing economy of the world, shown from the success of Green
revolution on the emergence of Asia in “agronomic productivity”. Hoping to
replicate this success, organizations are doing research on agriculture
structures in Africa to increase agricultural productivity. But, the methods
based in Green Revolution do not improve the food security of Africa, because
conditions in such countries are harsh and arable land is scarce. Furthermore,
the population is constantly expanding. (“Rice”, n.d.)
Need for Hybrid Rice Technology
Again, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, rice is the utmost economically fundamental crop in the world (FAOSTAT,
n.d. as cited in “Perennial Rice”, n.d.). Rice is the leading cereal crop in
the human diet, supplying 23% of total human caloric intake (Khush, 2003 as
cited in “Perennial Rice”, n.d.).
The problems from Green Revolution
are the driving factors to look into a better technology for sustainable rice
production. Research on hybrid rice began when it was identified be a solution
to alleviate the problems surfaced. Hence, the first consumable hybrid rice was
used in China in 1974; thereafter it was spread globally and had continuously
been improved. But, there are still limitations even with relentless
improvements. So in this part
Limitations to Current Hybrid Rice Technology
Although there are benefits, there are also limitations like
it does not solve the economic problem of developing countries and rice being
mostly consumed in Asia-where most of the countries that are still developing-
big players in the rice industry, such as China and India, the results from the
degradation in soil quality have led to scarcity in arable land in these
regions. Further, rice is an increasing staple food in Africa where it has
harsh growing condition and lack of arable land, current hybrid rice are unable
to alleviate this problem of scarce arable land (Zhang, 2007). Therefore, a
better rice or ‘Green Super Rice’ strain is needed to solve these problems. As
we learnt that China is forecasted as the future superpower and Africa being
projected as the emerging market, it is important to look into better rice
strains that could ensure food security in both regions as food security
determines economic development.
Infertile Soil
Utilizing the infertile soil is still a challenge as most of
the land used for agriculture are infertile due to heavy use of fertilizers,
and even though current hybrid rice save land, its approach is saving land
through seeds that could yield more in small land area thus saving land, but it
still does not eliminate the use of fertilizers which could lead to even more
infertile soil, hence this still does not alleviate the current problem of
using fertilizers and eventually solving the long term problem of large amount
of unusable large infertile soil (Zhang, 2007). Therefore this could lead back
to an economic problem and food security problem.
Need for Pesticides
Use of Pesticides leads to complicated health issues and the
current hybrid rice technology still requires the need to use pesticides, which
are harmful to health of people. According to an approximation by WHO and UN, there
were around “1 million human pesticide poisonings annually” (WHO & UN, 1989
as cited in “Green Revolution”, n.d.).
4. Future
Considerations
Acceleration of sustainable rice
production technology could indicate an age of revolutionary change. With the
focus shifting to hybrid rice and ongoing research for better hybrid rice, we
might see a 2nd Green Revolution which is only based on hybrid rice.
We can see this from numerous research that concentrate on hybridizing the best
rice strains for sustainable rice production.
The Need for A
Revolutionary Hybrid Rice Technology
The United Nations Millennium Development project aims to
develop the economy of Africa. With the “Green revolution” quoted as the excellent
example for developing economy of the world, shown from the positive economic
impact of “Green revolution” had on the emergence of Asia in “agronomic
productivity”. Hoping to replicate this success, organizations are doing
research on agriculture structures in Africa to increase agricultural
productivity. These rice strains are chosen to withstand the harsh cultivating
environments of Africa, therefore considerably increase rice harvests in and
enable an economic recovery (“Rice”, n.d.). Therefore in the next part of this
paper, we will look into the ‘Green Super Rice’, which is a breakthrough in
hybrid rice research that could result in better food security and
sustainability for both Asia and Africa, through the elimination of the
limitations of current hybrid rice.
This section of the paper examines the
‘Green Super Rice’ that is an evolution to current hybrid rice and could be
revolutionary as it looks to deal with environmental stresses caused by current
technologies of agriculture. This paper will look into the advantages and
disadvantages and assess the impacts that could arise in the future if the
‘Green Super Rice’ is to replace current hybrid rice on a global scale and
become the future of our staple food.
Advantages of ‘Green Super Rice’
This section of the paper
discusses the advantages of this new unique rice strain. Zhang (2007) analyzed
on what are the advantages of this unique rice strain should possess. Briefly,
Zhang mentioned, the ‘Green Super Rice’ does not depend on fertilizers, so it
could be cultivated in infertile lands caused by current practices also in
scarce arable lands in Africa, hence, this leads to sustainability in rice
production without the cost of environment and this also leading to economic
development in the rural regions as it could provide jobs for them. Secondly, this rice strain is resistant to drought, why is
this important? Because, rice depends greatly on water to grow, global warming
is a massive factor in climate change, and this brings about drought in large
rice production areas such as China and India, therefore “drought stress” is
still acknowledged as the main limitation in producing rice. Thirdly, this
unique rice strain is resistant to pests and diseases, and this means that
pesticides will not be used, therefore this has a positive impact on health of
the people and likewise as important, the risk of food security problem from
the loss of rice due to pests invasion and diseases. Lastly, the rice strain is
high in quality compared to current the hybrid rice strain. According to Zhang,
in the past, lots of crossbreeding methods took “yield potential” as the main
goal, subsequently; many common high-yielding hybrids have comparatively
reduced quality. With the living standards increased, the priorities are the
better appearance quality of rice, better cooking and eating, further, “more
than half “of the population of the world, mostly the underprivileged from
emerging nations such as Africa, suffers from the damaging results of lack of
micronutrient in their diet. For those nations, where rice is the main staple
food, in order to increase the consumption of micronutrients, it is necessary
to enhance the nutrition or rather the quality of the rice grain.
Hence, emphasizing on the environmental
problems, which leads back to the problems on food security and economic, and
with the advantages stated above, the ‘Green Super Rice’ eliminates all the
problems that lead to food security and economic problems, because this unique
rice strain not only emphasizes on being a high-yielding rice strain but also
taking into account the long-term problem that is actually caused by the
environment.
Considerations on the Implications
Though,
people might not be convinced due to the fact that it is a genetically modified
food, that might have health implications in the long run, the author foresees
that this ‘Green Super Rice’ will still be well received across the world
provided if it is implemented in stages starting from the poor developing
countries because many poor countries spend precious resources importing rice
and African nations account for about one-third of global rice imports, this is
due to the scarce arable land and harsh conditions therefore with this new
strain, it can reduce the resources use for importing and better use for
developing rice for the nation and could be one of the large exporter of rice
that also improves the nation’s GDP and by using this new strain, it can also
meet the demands of Africa and Asia, as both of these big players in rice faces
challenges such as drought, flooding and diseases, which reduces the yield, so
by using this strain which are weather and disease resistant, this will not
only stop yield reduction but yield will also increase. So by starting out with
these regions, clearly it will lead to many benefits. Benefits like increasing
in yields, solve food security issues, improved economy and developing nations
will thrive, which will improve standard of living, which will alleviate the
problems on social well being and health. Hence, people will realize how much
the benefits has brought and transformed a developing nation and finally they
will accept this because these benefits are way more important, further, since
the Green Revolution, people are already consuming genetically modified rice, which
are also pesticide laden, while this ‘Green Super Rice’ strain is not only
high-yielding but nutritionally dense. Therefore, with this analysis, ‘Green
Super Rice’ will replace the current rice technology and be the future of our
staple food source.
5.
Conclusion
In summary, we see the importance of agriculture and its
impact on the earth that leads to a revolution. Rice, being the leading
consumer grain, which is also a food for life for beyond half of total
population of planet earth together with the amount of people increasing and
concerns of food security still arising even after Green Revolution, this
signals a problem with the method based from Green Revolution, therefore the
focus is being shifted from high use of pesticide and fertilizers to produce
high yielding crops to researching on hybrid rice, though the hybrid rice
technology solves some of the problems, it still has limitations which still
indirectly leads to food insecurity and economic problem. Therefore, the ‘Green
Super Rice’ is produced and looks to be spread on a large scale. Though it
eliminates the indirect effect of environment and health and eventually solving
food security and economic issues in the long run. The idea that this is a type
of GMO food, which will still be hard for people to accept will not be a major
factor because of the many benefits as compared to this small factor and the
fact that people are already consuming on genetic food and even unhealthier
pesticide laden rice, they would want a change to a more nutritional and
environmentally friendly rice.
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