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Insect Threatens Asian Rice Crops
May 19, 2008 08:00 AM
The brown plant hopper is wreaking havoc on East Asian rice crops, spotlighting the lack of funding for agricultural programs in developing countries.
30-Second Summary
A tiny insect called the brown plant hopper is damaging rice crops in East Asia, compounding an already dire global food crisis.
Experts say the problem could have been prevented if more funding for agricultural research had been provided in recent decades. Researchers claim they know how to make insect-resistant rice varieties, but agricultural budget cuts have forestalled the process.
Global shortages and high prices indicate the seriousness of the threat to the world’s food supply. The World Bank predicts that the crisis will not be temporary, prompting the recent emergence of innovative agricultural ideas.
For example, the potato is being pushed as a worthy replacement for rice and grain. The United Nations has declared 2008 the International Year of the Potato to raise awareness of the vegetable.
Organizations, like The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research and The International Rice Research Institute, are working for change, promoting sustainable growing techniques in poor countries, and lobbying for increased funding for research.
Experts say the problem could have been prevented if more funding for agricultural research had been provided in recent decades. Researchers claim they know how to make insect-resistant rice varieties, but agricultural budget cuts have forestalled the process.
Global shortages and high prices indicate the seriousness of the threat to the world’s food supply. The World Bank predicts that the crisis will not be temporary, prompting the recent emergence of innovative agricultural ideas.
For example, the potato is being pushed as a worthy replacement for rice and grain. The United Nations has declared 2008 the International Year of the Potato to raise awareness of the vegetable.
Organizations, like The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research and The International Rice Research Institute, are working for change, promoting sustainable growing techniques in poor countries, and lobbying for increased funding for research.
Headline Links: Insect damages Asian rice crops
According to The New York Times, a tiny insect called the brown plant hopper is damaging rice crops in East Asia, compounding an already dire global food crisis. Had more funding been available in recent decades, researchers could have provided insect-resistant rice varieties to farmers. Some experts blame governments and development agencies for growing complacent after the threat of world starvation seemed to have been forestalled in the 1970s.
Source: The New York Times
In January 2008, the Vietnam News Agency reported that almost 10 percent of winter-spring crops in the Mekong Delta were suffering from rice diseases. Tens of thousands of hectares of crops were “attacked by brown plant hoppers.”
Source: Vietnam News Agency
Background Links: The global food crisis
The cost of essential foods, including meat, grains, eggs and vegetable oils, spiked in November 2007 for several reasons. Adverse weather conditions and crop diseases were partially to blame, and developing economies relying on food imports were considered at high risk. On average, citizens of poor countries spend a greater percentage of their wages on food than their first-world counterparts.
Source: findingDulcinea
Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail summarizes food and agriculture crises in several countries, including Vietnam, where steep price increases have led Vietnamese exporters and farmers to stockpile rice. Meanwhile, The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts 2007–8 global rice stocks will be the lowest they’ve been since the early 1980s.
Source: The Globe and Mail
Related Topic: Can rice recover?
Cyclone Nargis caused “huge” damage to rice crops in Myanmar, said Chookiat Ophaswongse of the Thai Rice Exporters Association. Myanmar may soon be forced to import rice.
Source: Bloomberg.com
As wheat and rice prices rise, the potato is being pushed as a worthy replacement. The World Bank predicts that the rise in global food prices will not be temporary, prompting the need for alternative staple foods. The United Nations has jumped on board, declaring 2008 the International Year of the Potato to raise awareness of the vegetable.
Source: findingDulcinea
Reference: Agricultural research groups
The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research “mobilizes science to benefit the poor.” The group is a “strategic partnership” of international agricultural research centers working to help impoverished countries that “depend directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihoods.”
Source: The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
The International Rice Research Institute is a nonprofit organization based in the Philippines that works to reduce hunger and poverty by supporting environmentally sustainable methods of rice production.
Source: The International Rice Research Institute
© 2010 Dulcinea Media, Inc.
