Shafiq Islam / drik news

AS the curtain fell on this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, leaders from across the globe left the Swiss ski resort with a plethora of new ideas about how to cope up with a looming global economic recession, and fight hunger. The head of Bangladesh's interim government also returned home, gaining the world community's confidence in his government's firm resolve to handover power to a people's government through credible national elections in 2008.

Dr. Fakhruddin's commitment to democracy was re-spelt before an international hi-profile audience amidst much applause, at a time when the home economy is bleeding. An overwhelming majority of impoverished Bangladeshi's now find it difficult to survive with their income-level grossly mismatching the prices of basic necessities, particularly rice, the staple.

Bangladesh has never seen such an output shortage-driven price hike of rice since the 1998 deluge that had engulfed two-thirds of its landmass. Even then, the import-line was so efficient and prompt that prices of coarse rice varieties had not jumped so high. Now that prices have shot up to an unprecedented level, there is no "quick-fix" answer to it.

A Boro boon may offset the situation to a great extent. Channeling of more funds on research and development (R&D) of our staple should be one priority focus once we get over the present crisis. That's the message we got from Davos last weekend.

From the same Davos podium, the worlds richest man, Bill Gates, announced a grant of $19.9 million over three years to initially help place improved rice varieties and related technology into the hands of 400,000 small farmers in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Farmers are expected to achieve a 50 percent increase in their yields within the next 10 years.

The announcement made on Friday (January 25) on behalf of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation would enable the International Rice Research Institute (Irri) to acquire new funding to harness major scientific advances and address some of the biggest unsolved problems in agriculture. Irri's new project will help develop and distribute improved varieties of rice that can be grown in rain-fed ecosystems -- where farmers have little or no access to irrigation -- and withstand environmental stresses such as drought, flooding, and salinity.

Irri will draw on its past success in improving incomes for millions of poor farmers to reach its ultimate goal -- more than 18 million households benefiting from improved rice varieties that will generate income increases and help lift farmers out of poverty. Irri will work closely with other national and international agricultural research centers, including the Africa Rice Center. In addition, the project will build the capacity of researchers and seed producers in poor rice-dependent countries.

The grant to Irri is part of a package totaling $306 million, that nearly doubles Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's investments in agriculture since the launch of its Agricultural Development initiative in mid-2006. The initiative, part of the Seattle-based foundation's Global Development Program, is focused on a range of interventions across the entire agricultural value chain -- from planting the highest quality seeds and improving farm management practices to bringing crops to market.

The foundation believes that with strong partnerships and a redoubled commitment to agricultural development by donor, and developing, country governments, philanthropy, and the private sector, hundreds of millions of small farmers will be able to boost their yields and incomes and lift themselves out of hunger and poverty.

Now that Irri, the Philippines-based world's leading rice research and training center having offices in 13 countries including one in Dhaka, is getting the resources to pursue ways and means for higher productivity in rice, Bangladesh needs to take immediate measures on how to get the maximum benefit out of it.

As Irri is an autonomous, nonprofit institution focused on improving the well being of present and future generations of rice farmers and consumers, particularly those with low incomes, Bangladesh needs to take full advantage of it. Bangladesh's has agro-ecological variations -- salinity, drought and submergence -- and if any Irri-led scientific advancement in rice seed development results in varieties tolerant to salinity, drought and submergence, Bangladesh would be extremely benefited.

The success of the Green Revolution in the 1960s and '70s -- that sharply boosted production, causing rice prices to steadily fall -- helped lay the foundation for the economic growth and prosperity in Asia in the following two decades. The new funding comes at a vital time for rice farmers, who are now facing major production pressure and rising prices that threaten Asia's continued economic growth.

A team co-led by Irri scientists made a key breakthrough in 2006 with the discovery of a gene that allows rice to survive up to two weeks flooding with minimal yield loss. Varieties without this gene that are subjected to more than a few days flooding can be completely ruined. The gene, known as Sub1, has been bred into several popular varieties -- which in the absence of submergence behave exactly as the original variety -- and these are already being tested in rice fields in Bangladesh and India.

Even Bangladeshi farmers who were devastated by Cyclone Sidr in November last year -- which was so fierce that no rice crop could fully withstand it -- can benefit from new varieties with sufficient tolerance of submergence, salinity, and stagnant flooding. Such varieties can mitigate the immediate effects of severe storms and offer yields that will avert hunger until the next harvest, claimed a recently issued Irri news release.

Rice is a food staple for 2.4 billion people and provides more than 20 percent of their daily calorie intake, and up to 70 percent for the poorest of the poor. In order to meet the projected global demand for rice production in the 21st century, the world's rice production must increase by nearly 70 percent -- from 520 million tons today to nearly 880 million tons in 2025. With nearly all irrigated rice-growing lands already in production, there is considerable potential to increase rice yields on rain-fed lands.

While Bangladesh gets a little over half of its total yearly rice production from irrigated Boro, the rest comes mainly from rain-fed agro-ecological system. As Irri's project targets the poorest rice farmers in Africa and South Asia, who have little or no access to irrigation and who are totally reliant on sufficient, timely rains, its high time Bangladesh gets itself involved in the rice R&D process.

Bangladesh's rice growers and agricultural scientists should also get their due shares of neo-science exposures to develop national capabilities using Irri resources, as the Institute has recently received a flurry of grants -- $ 4.7 million from the government of Japan, $ 1.45 million from Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in combination with the Eiselen Foundation, and $ 1.5 million from the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Besides, the country needs to pool its own funds to invest on rice R&D so that we don't become too vulnerable to natural calamities. We can brave one or two routine floods a year, or a big-time Sidr once a while.

Reaz Ahmad is a Cochran Fellow of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), and a freelance contributor to The Daily Star.