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Report Outlines Massive Growth and Latest Figures on Bean, Rice Production across Latin America

Rice and Beans — a Perfect Protein Meal — Pull Rural Areas Out of Poverty

September 1998

In addition to CIAT, sources of data for the report include the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and national agricultural research programs of almost every country in Latin America and the Caribbean.

"Latin America has accelerated its rice and bean production over the past two decades with extraordinary speed, allowing millions of the region's poorest consumers to keep one of the world's most important pair of staple foods at the center of their diet," said Aart van Schoonhoven, Director of Genetic Resources Research at CIAT and an author of the study. "The growth in rice and bean production has also allowed farmers in isolated areas to sell their products to urban centers in Latin America and even as far away as Japan. Furthermore, improved bean varieties are offering farmers in many destitute areas of the Andes of Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru with viable farming alternatives."

Rice Production

Rice supplies Latin American consumers with more calories than wheat, maize, cassava, and potatoes, and is consumed widely among Latin Americans, 70 percent of whom reside in urban areas. Over the last 30 years, national agricultural research programs across the region have released, on average, a total of 10 new lowland rice varieties each year, according to the

CIAT report. In all some 300 varieties have been released. Nearly 40 percent of these varieties have come from crosses made at CIAT; 11 percent from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines; and the rest from national programs in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. These modern, "semidwarf" varieties of rice today account for virtually all of rice production in Latin America.

CIAT economists have applied an "economic surplus model" to determine the stream of benefits to consumers and farmers of this improved rice production from 1966 to 1995. They have found that the new varieties and accompanying improvements in crop management increased the average rice yield in wetland areas from 3.3 tons per hectare in the mid-1960s to 4.6 tons (5.0 tons for irrigated rice) in 1995. Mainly as a result of the yield gains, total production doubled during that period to 20.6 million tons, making Latin America almost self-sufficient in rice. Meanwhile, the area planted to rice rose modestly, from 5.8 million hectares in the mid-1960s to 6.7 million in 1995.

"More efficient production of the crop on such a large scale has brought down its price by about 50 percent in real terms over the last three decades," said Douglas Pachico, PhD, Director of Impact Assessment at CIAT and an author of the study. "As a consequence, consumers have enjoyed savings of US$518 million per year since 1966. Price savings have been especially helpful to the poor, since they spend half of their total income on food, and rice accounts for 15 percent of their total food purchases."

Bean Production

Latin America is the most important bean-producing region in the world; its 8 million hectares account for nearly half of global bean output. In contrast with rice, the crop is grown chiefly on small, non-irrigated farms in marginal environments, such as those characterized by steep, erosion-prone slopes and by low soil fertility.

National agricultural research programs in Latin America have released about 180 new varieties of beans, according to the report, based mainly on experimental lines developed at CIAT. Information provided by the national programs suggests that the new seed is now planted on at least 40 percent of Latin America's total bean-growing area. According to figures from FAO, over the last decade or so, total bean production in Latin America has risen 25 percent—to 5.3 million tons in 1993-95 from 4.2 million tons in 1983-85. At the same time, total area in production has risen by only two percent—to 8.1 million hectares from 7.9 million—and the annual rate of growth in area has actually declined to -0.5 percent.

"Increased bean production has resulted mainly from higher yields," said Pachico. "The annual growth rate in bean yields is now at about 2.7 percent compared to 1.9 percent a decade ago."

The increases in production have been even more dramatic in some parts of Latin American than in the region as a whole, according to the report. A 1996-97 study conducted by CIAT in Peru's Cuzco area 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, the new varieties constituted 64 percent of the total bean farming area. The study further determined

that the combination of improved varieties and higher plant densities boosted average yields by 110 percent from 1985 to 1996. Other field studies from Bolivia, Colombia, and Ecuador have registered similar production increases.

"Modern production of beans has boosted incomes in rural areas, contributing to economic growth in Latin America across the board," said van Schoonhoven. "Unlike some other traditional staples, the crop has fit rather easily into urban life and eating habits. This rapid growth in urban demand for beans, combined with improved bean production, has created new cash-earning opportunities for the small farmers who grow beans."

"However, the production increases in rice and beans crops need to be multiplied many times over if Latin America is to continue to provide sufficient food at reasonable prices for its burgeoning urban population," continued van Schoonhoven. "These gains are also important for reducing rural poverty. Expanding economic opportunities in areas already under cultivation is critical for reducing human pressure on Latin America's vast store of natural resources, especially its forests, biodiversity, and fresh water."

Funding for CIAT rice research has been provided by the United States and Colombia. Funding for bean research has been provided by the U.S., Switzerland, and Canada.

CIAT is a nonprofit, nongovernment research organization dedicated to alleviating hunger and poverty and to protecting natural resources in the tropics. It is one of the international centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, an association of nations and international agencies that funds research for development.

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