Rice crop innovations and natural resource management - a glimpse to the future
- Publication Type
- Lecture
- Authors
- Asch, F.
- Year of publication
- 2010
- Published in
- Africa Rice Congress 2010, Innovations and Partnerships to realize Africa's Rice Potential
- Editor
- AfricaRice
- Conference name
- Africa Rice Congress 2010, Innovations and Partnerships to realize Africa's Rice Potential
- Conference location
- Bamako, Mali
- Conference date
- 22-26 March 2010
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Rice is and will be the major global food crop. Cultivars, rice-based cropping systems, and the species itself will have to undergo adaptations and improvements in order to meet future demands for both food security of the growing population and environmental conservation. Growing more food will increase the pressure on natural resources such as land, water, and nutrient availability and thus requires an efficient and sustainable use. The challenge posed by the imminent climate change forces to speed-up the innovation process and thus collaboration by a large number of scientific disciplines and stakeholders is needed. Rice’ path into the future will have to follow several parallel lanes. On one hand, we cannot slacken our efforts to improve existing cropping systems management to decrease the gap between potential and current productivity. On the other hand, we need to increase the knowledge base on the genomic, proteomic and metabolomic make-up of rice to pave the way for future innovations through genetic engineering based on a thorough in-depth knowledge of physiological processes. A third highly important approach is to maximize productivity in clearly defined high-input environments such as irrigated rice or intensive rainfed production using a strong systems approach. Another parallel approach must focus on the low intensity production systems and those environments most vulnerable to changes in climate. Here, in contrast to the intensive systems, genotypic elasticity and region specific management options need to be exploited to ensure a secure level of production in highly variable and transition environments. Finally, existing networks addressing some or all of the above options should be more tightly knit to increase information flow among and innovative power of the scientists involved. This includes also a strong focus on scientific capacity building through north-south collaboration in research and education with a strong role of the CG in streamlining the combined efforts. The talk will illustrate the above mentioned approaches with examples and will try to contribute to the ongoing debate on the future of rice-based systems improvement.