Rice Improvement for Latin America and the Caribbean
The Challenge
In this century rice has gradually become the most important food grain in tropical
America. The region's per capita consumption of this staple rose from 10 kilograms in the
1920s to about 30 in the 1990s. The displacement by rice of traditional staples, such as
cassava and plantain, which are bulkier and more perishable, has been driven largely by
rapid urbanization throughout the region. Rice is clearly a more convenient food for the
approximately 70 percent of the population who now live in cities. Sustained improvement
in the production of this crop is thus critical for food security in tropical America.
It is also vital for alleviating poverty in the region. About half of the people in
Latin America and the Caribbean live below the poverty line, as defined by FAO. Food accounts for half of poor people's
total expenditures, and 15 percent of what they spend on food is for rice. More efficient
rice production in lowland irrigated areas offers the further advantage of reducing the
pressure to expand cultivation of upland rice and other crops onto ecologically fragile
land in the savannas and forest margins.
The Product
In the mid-1960s, Latin America's entire rice area was planted to tall traditional
varieties. Throughout the 1970s farmers rapidly adopted new semidwarf varieties developed
by national programs and international centers. This was merely the beginning of a process
that continues to the present. Over the last 25 years, national programs across the region
have released, on average, a total of 10 new lowland rice varieties each year. A total of
about 275 new varieties have been released, 90 percent of them targeted to flooded
environments. About 39 percent of the varieties have come from crosses made at CIAT and 12
percent from IRRI crosses; some of the
rest have progenitors from the international centers in their parentage. In general, each
new variety represents significant improvement for at least one key trait, on top of the
gains already achieved.
The Impact
Modern semidwarf varieties now account for 93 percent of all flooded rice production,
which represents 80 percent of Latin America's total output of this crop. In the irrigated
rice areas, average yield increased from 3.3 tons per hectare in the mid-1960s to 4.6 tons
in 1995. As a result, total rice production doubled during that period to about 20 million
tons of paddy, making the region largely self-sufficient in rice. More efficient
production has brought down the price of this staple by about 50 percent in real terms
over the last 3 decades.
According to recent results from an ongoing study, consumers have been the main
beneficiaries of technological change, receiving US$518 million per year since 1966.
Producers in irrigated areas have also captured large benefits, amounting to $437 million
per year. These gains have been offset somewhat by losses in other rice production
environments, mainly upland, rainfed areas.
Cassava Starch Processing in Colombia
The Challenge
Cassava provides food and a livelihood for roughly 120 million people in tropical
America, where the starchy root crop originated. Traditionally, it has been considered a
"poor man's crop," grown mainly for subsistence by small farmers in marginal
environments. In recent years, though, the image of cassava has begun to change with the
advent of new uses and markets. In addition to being consumed in fresh form, the crop has
also become a component of animal feeds and a source of starch for a wide range of
industrial products. As such cassava now offers small farmers, not just their next meal,
but a reliable option for increasing their incomes.
The Product
In the 1980s, CIAT and various national partners embarked on a search for ways to
enable farmers to make a better living from cassava. This work was aimed particularly at
farmers in marginal areas (characterized by poor soils and drought) where cassava is often
one of the few crops that will grow. The product of this work was an integrated approach
to cassava research and development, in which partner institutions work toward sustainable
crop production in a given area, while simultaneously creating new or improved cassava
products and markets.
One such project was established in Colombia's Cauca department, focusing on
small-scale extraction of cassava starch for local markets. In 1989 various NGOs in that
region joined CIAT and CIRAD, with
financing from the French government, in an integrated project aimed at speeding the
development of Colombia's cassava starch industry. Specifically, the project sought ways
to improve the quality of the final product and to increase the efficiency of processing
by improving equipment and procedures and by introducing and testing improved cassava
varieties.
The Impact
A recent study divided the 208 starch processing operations in Cauca into three
groups—low, medium, and high—according to their level of processing technology.
Just over 15 percent of the units had adopted all or part of the improved technology
introduced by institutions. The majority of processors (67 percent) were using
technologies improved locally with institutional support. About 26 percent were processing
roots of an improved variety with high dry matter content. Another 20 percent were mixing
this variety with the best local variety.
Analysis of economic impact showed that from 1988 to 1996 the new technology had
generated benefits valued at about US$25 million. Producers profited from the higher
demand and somewhat better price for cassava roots, with benefits amounting to $6.4
million. Processors took an approximately equal share of the gains through reduced
processing costs. The rest of the economic benefits accrued to industries that consume
starch, because they were able to buy it at a lower cost. All these gains in turn
benefited Colombian society by injecting cash into the economy and by generating
employment. Given that the project cost about $8.9 million, its net benefits of $16.4
million represent an 80 percent internal rate of return.
Adoption of Climbing Beans in Rwanda
The Challenge
Beans are grown on more than 3.5 million hectares in Africa, cultivated for subsistence
and, increasingly, as a cash crop by poor farmers, mainly women. In Rwanda alone, 95
percent of all farmers grow beans, which provide 32 percent of all calories and 65 percent
of all protein consumed in the country.
During recent decades high population density and land scarcity in Rwanda have given
rise to extremely intensive production of beans and other crops on small plots. In the
absence of sufficient organic and inorganic fertilizers, soil quality appears to be
declining, and this poses a major threat to the country's food security. One warning sign
of the problem was the emergence in the 1980s of a complex of bean diseases referred to
collectively as "root rots." Serious outbreaks occur only in areas, like Rwanda
as well as southwestern Uganda and western Kenya, where circumstances force farmers to
exhaust the soil through ever more intensive cultivation.
The Product
In the early 1980s, CIAT began working with Rwanda's national bean program to test and
improve experimental germplasm introduced from tropical America. The work has been funded
by the Canadian, US, and Swiss governments. A prominent feature of this program was the
participation of Rwanda's women bean farmers in the improvement scheme. Since the women
tend to grow complex mixtures of beans, their early involvement in selection was
considered essential for achieving wide adoption of new varieties.
One important finding of this work was that climbing beans of Mexican origin show
marked advantages over bush beans and local climbing varieties, especially in terms of
yield and root rot resistance. They proved to be the ideal technology for a country where
producing more food on less land is of the utmost urgency. Eventually, more than 20
climbing bean varieties were released. At first farmers complained about the need to use
tall stakes, but with help from local NGOs they found a number of environmentally sound
ways to obtain them.
The Impact
During recent years CIAT staff have carried out a series of studies on the adoption of
climbing varieties in Rwanda. In 1990, for example, six growing seasons after release of
the variety Umubano, scientists observed an adoption rate of about 70 percent.
The mean yields of Umubano were 1.4 to 1.6 tons per hectare, compared to 0.8 to
1.0 tons for local climbing bean mixtures.
Then, in 1993 a nationwide survey showed that about 43 percent of Rwandan families were
growing improved climbing beans introduced 5 years earlier. It was estimated that up to 20
percent of Rwanda's total bean area was sown to the new varieties. The study concluded
that the use of improved climbing beans increased production by as much as 66,000 tons per
year, generating extra income of about US$15 million.
In late 1995 a survey was conducted to monitor the impact of seed aid in Rwanda (under
the Seeds of Hope project) after the genocide of 1994. Remarkably, the study found that,
despite the violence, improved climbers were being grown by 48 percent of the bean farmers
surveyed and accounted for a third of the bean seed sown.
Adoption of Improved Beans in Peru
The Challenge
For many centuries common bean has been an essential part of the Andean zone's diet and
culture. Here and throughout tropical America, the crop offers a protein-rich food that
low-income families can afford. Beans are the fourth most important source of protein in
tropical America, and as a source of calories, they surpass both potato and cassava. Beans
also provide a livelihood for millions of small farmers, whose best hope for overcoming
poverty is to produce food efficiently for expanding urban markets at home and abroad.
Until the early 1990s, production of this staple in the Andean zone as a whole was
essentially stagnant, with rates of growth in yield and production lagging well behind
population growth. The outlook for beans in the region was bleak, with trends in supply
and demand pointing to large deficits by the year 2000.
The Product
CIAT responded to this challenge in two ways: first, through an international bean
improvement scheme that channeled improved germplasm to national programs around the world
and, second, through bean networks in key production regions. These have provided national
programs with a mechanism for sharing research results and responsibilities, and they have
notably strengthened local capacity to solve problems in bean production. PROFRIZA, the regional
network for the Andean zone, was set up in 1988, with funding from the Swiss government.
As of 1996 the countries taking part in the network—Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador,
and Peru—had released 31 improved varieties. In addition to offering higher, more
stable yields and good local adaptation, most of these varieties supplied genetic
solutions to important disease problems in specific environments.
The Impact
By 1995 bean production in the Andean zone had risen sharply, mostly as a result of
higher yields. The annual rate of increase in production now exceeds the pace of
population growth, with a resulting increase in per capita bean consumption. A growing
body of evidence from adoption studies in the Andean zone suggests that improved varieties
have contributed importantly to those increases. For example, a 1996-97 study, in Peru's
Cuzco department examined the adoption and impact of five new varieties that had been
developed in the late 1980s through farmer participatory schemes. According to the study,
94 percent of farmers were growing new varieties. Moreover, these constituted 52 percent
of the bean germplasm available, and they accounted for 64 percent of the total bean area.
The study further determined that the combination of improved germplasm and higher plant
densities boosted average yields by 110 percent from 1985 to 1996.
Reducing Pesticide Use on Beans in Colombia
The Challenge
In parts of Colombia, farmers have raised their incomes during the last two decades
through intensive production of beans and other vegetables for urban markets. They have
done so by adopting new varieties and practices, including pesticide application.
Unfortunately, though, a dangerous "chemical culture" has arisen in many
rural communities. For fear of yield losses, farmers spray frequently and habitually,
without accurate knowledge or assessments of the economic threat from insect pests.
Indiscriminate use of chemicals has come to pose a serious threat to the environment and
human health. And, ironically, it has made pest problems worse by destroying the natural
balance between them and their natural enemies.
In the late 1980s, problems arising from total dependence on chemical controls became
evident in the Sumapaz region, which supplies snap beans and other vegetables to markets
in the nation's capital. Farmers were spraying snap beans about a dozen times during a
growing season, roughly once a week.
The Product
During the early 1990s, a pilot project supported by CIAT and financed by IDRC began searching for ways
to put chemical use on a more rational basis in Sumapaz. Through farmer participatory
research, the project developed an integrated pest management strategy for snap beans in
the area, which consisted of six technologies, involving cultural, mechanical, and
chemical controls.
The Impact
In 1992 an adoption study showed high levels of adoption for at least some of the
component technologies. Very few farmers accepted the entire IPM package. The most popular
innovations were the cultural practices. Together with other measures, these enabled
farmers to lower pesticide use by about 33 percent.
In 1996 a second showed that, although parts of the package were still in use, many
farmers had abandoned them, and the average number of sprays per growing season had
returned almost to its 1988 level.
The study put forward various explanations for this. For example, because snap bean
prices vary greatly, farmers have a strong incentive to spray as a defensive measure to
reduce the risk to their income. Another key consideration is that snap beans account for
only 22 percent of farmers' total pesticide use in Sumapaz. Apparently, any effort to
change the chemical culture there will have to deal with the whole farming system rather
than a single crop.
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Further Information on CIAT's
Mandate Crops