The need for a second Asian Green Revolution amid a growing world food and rice crisis became a dominant theme at the Asian-European Editors Forum recently in Bangkok, Thailand.

The forum gathered journalists and rice experts from Asia and Europe in a discussion of policy issues on the world food crisis, its effects on Asia, along with the search for solutions to a global problem.

Two experts, current and past, from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Baños, spoke at the forum.

Duncan Macintosh, development director and spokesperson, IRRI, led the discussions on the rice crisis as a way to another Green Revolution.

Dr. Kwanchai Gomez, executive director, the Asia Rice Foundation in Los Baños, discussed an Asia minus rice (“it isn’t Asia anymore”). She worked with IRRI from 1967 to 1996.

Dr. Sebastian Faust, executive director, Asian Development Bank, discussed the effects of the food crisis on Asia and Europe, citing short-term and eight structural factors that, he said, sparked the problem.

All throughout the forum, a question nagged the participants: Could rising food prices be a threat for Asian democracies? Food riots have erupted from West Africa to South Asia. Thirty-three countries are threatened with political and social unrest on rising food and energy costs. The government in Haiti has fallen. Fragile democracies are feeling the pressure of food insecurity.

Werner vom Busch, director, Media Programme Asia, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, urged the journalists to use their influence to raise consciousness over poverty and food scarcities and to speak for the poor and the middle class in the quest for food sufficiency and ending hunger.

Rice, staple food of half of mankind
“Rice is the staple food for half the human population, and growing it is the single most important economic activity in the world,” The Washington Post said in a recent issue.

“Rice farming is also the main economic activity of millions of rural poor, many of whom do not own their land,” added Duncan Macintosh.

Macintosh noted economic growth in Asia has been driven by the “rice sector.” Of the world’s 1.1 billion poor people, almost 700 million with income of less than a dollar a day reside in the rice-growing countries of Asia. Poor people spend as much as 30 percent to 40 percent of their income to buy rice.

Adam Barclay, editor, Rice Today, an IRRI publication, has summarized the scope of the problem succinctly: Declining rice stocks. The world is eating more cereals than it is producing. Thailand and Vietnam, the world’s two largest rice exporters, have capped exports at lower levels than previously to ensure domestic supplies. Rising energy costs are hitting farmers. Increasing demand for meat from Asia’s growing urban population is diverting production from food grains to animal feed. The rising thirst for biofuel is starting to affect food production. And climate change threatens to hamper production.

The first Green Revolution grew 40 years ago in the rice bowls of Asia to fight hunger. “The Green Revolution is generally believed to have saved one billion lives over six decades, making it arguably the single-most-effective philanthropic initiative in human history,” wrote The New York Times in its March 8 issue.

IRRI spearheaded 1st Green Revolution
The International Rice Research Institute, established in 1960 in Los Baños, Laguna, by the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, spearheaded the Green Revolution.

In the late 1960s modern, newly developed, high-yielding rice varieties launched the Green Revolution, which rapidly pushed up yields and allowed rice production to keep pace with population growth.

Dr. Kei Kajisa, agricultural economist, said the Green Revolution alleviated poverty by reducing the real rice price on the world market by more than 50 percent without depleting producers’ profit.

The Green Revolution made possible the Masagana 99 rice production program of the Marcos administration. Under Arturo “Bong” Tanco, Marcos’ agriculture minister, the Philippines became rice-sufficient and began to export Philippine-grown rice for the first time in history.

Philippine administrations subsequently relegated rice production from state priorities, relying on imports and the little that was grown domestically to feed a fast-growing population.

Experts at the forum said IRRI could help solve the rice crisis and prevent its recurrence through additional investments in key research and development areas.

Macintosh said that the experience and lessons of the Green Revolution showed that farmers will use new varieties and technologies and consumers will use them if price and quality are acceptable.

Increase productivity in rainfed rice
The world is better positioned to take advantage of whatever science has to offer since the public platforms required for success are in place to support a new Green Revolution.

Global food security will depend on sustainable high outputs from intensive irrigated systems, he noted, adding poverty reduction and global food supplies will depend on increasing productivity in rainfed rice.

Finally, he advocated a better understanding of the cultural, social and economic factors that positively influence the adoption of integrated technological advances.

The Konrad Adenauer Foundation established the Media Programme Asia in 1996 to promote a free and responsible press in Southeast Asia, particularly in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, through regional conferences, training seminars and meetings. The program is proud to have founded and supported the Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University.