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Rationale
Global food security requires a major re-focusing of plant sciences, crop improvement and production agronomy towards rice grain over coming decades, with intensive research and development to identify climate-resilient cultivars with improved grain characteristics. Labs contributing to this special issue have undertaken research and breeding to improve varieties, together with innovative production agronomy which contributes to the sustainability of cropping systems. The reviews and research together form an invaluable resource for the research community and policymakers.
Rice production system contributes to the reduction of hunger and poverty, improving long-term food security and adaptation to climate change. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) facilitated the FAO Strategy on Climate Change for Global, Regional, National and Local level in 2017, focusing on rice sector as one of the focus crops. This initiative was introduced with the following objectives to (i) enhance institutional capacities of member states, (ii) improve integration of food security within the international climate agenda, and (iii) strengthen internal coordination and delivery of FAO’s work. The FAO initiative was also linked to a growing recognition of the contribution of rice to critical targets under Sustainable Development Goal 2, particularly regarding food access, malnutrition and smallholder incomes, as well as sustainable and resilient agriculture.
The workshop is aligned with FFTC’s Strategic Action Plan 2019-2020 on climate smart agriculture. Recognizing that increasing the global production of rice has the potential to provide a sustainable solution to food security and resilience to climate change, significant efforts are currently being made to increase genomic resources and apply innovative breeding techniques to improve the yield and nutritional quality of rice. Production agronomy and improved cultivation approaches could also be intensified to address the associated economic and environmental challenges.
Objectives
Themes
Program highlights
The videoconference workshop was broadcasted online through the WebEx virtual meeting room and was also livestreamed through the FFTC Facebook page.
Workshop video can be watched at:
https://www.facebook.com/fftcforasiaandthepacific/videos/326743831748297
Key takeaways were summarized by presentation:
In her welcome remarks, FFTC Director Dr. Susan Chang emphasized that the videoconference is aligned to the Center’s strategic action plan for 2019-2020 on climate smart agriculture. “We wanted to explore the significant efforts being made by scientists to increase genomic resources and apply innovative breeding techniques to improve the yield and nutritional quality of rice,” she said.
On the other hand, Datuk Dr. Mohamad Roff Bin Mohd Noor, Director General of MARDI, underscored the importance of research in rice breeding to improve the varieties and innovative production agronomy to be the most appropriate approach to mitigate the effects of climate change in rice production.
Australian keynote speaker, Dr. Damien Platten, Senior scientist at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) talked about “Breeding for Climate Change” saying that in order to meet the negative effects on crop yields caused by climate change, IRRI had a major redesign of its rice breeding program. He also talked about IRRI’s OneRice strategy which aims to integrate all actors in the variety development and placement chain into an efficient and effective team to produce well-targeted, well characterized new varieties and place these in target markets/regions in as short a time possible. This, he said, will enable rice breeding to adapt and keep pace as climate and social changes shift requirements in rice production.
Below is a summary of the technologies presented by the speakers from which the discussions revolved around:
Major Findings and Recommendations
Outcomes
As per Facebook statistics, close to 5,000 viewers watched the videoconference through the FFTC Facebook page and got engaged. The most number of viewers who stayed long was close to 100. Thirty percent of the viewers came from the Philippines with the rest from Malaysia (26%), Taiwan (5%). The rest came from other countries like New Zealand, USA, Thailand, Vietnam and Japan. Close to half (48%) of the pre-registered participants filled out the online evaluation form, 64% of whom are male while the rest (36%) are female. Close to 70% of those who filled out the online evaluation form rated the videoconference as very relevant, while 71% said it was very useful. Online connection got a 60% rating while the FFTC and MARDI Secretariat got a 67% rating. The participants described the videoconference as highly informative, interesting and very good. When asked what the suggestions for a follow-up activity are, some of the answers include webinar on vegetable production, rice mechanization technologies, rice straw management, etc. Almost all of the participants said that in the future, they would be interested to attend a similar activity organized by the Center.
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