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The Latin American rice sector is committed to joining efforts
to confront the current world food crisis. It will promote
a technological revolution as the only viable solution for
meeting regional demand for rice over the long term and for
contributing towards supplying the world with one of humanity's
staple grains.
The announcement was made in Guayaquil, Ecuador, during the
XXIII Meeting of the Administrative Committee of the Latin
American Fund for Irrigated Rice (FLAR, its Spanish acronym).
The Fund brings together 22 public and private institutions
of 15 countries, and their strategic partner, the International
Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT, its Spanish acronym).
In the meetings that led to the so-called "Declaration
of Guayaquil", the rice growers analyzed the global and
regional situation, discussed causes, and proposed three immediate
actions for confronting the crisis.
The first is to promote a technological revolution in the
rice sector. The second is to join efforts, thereby achieving
significant impact through full commitment and dedicating
FLAR's broad and inclusive institutional and scientific platforms
to achieve that technological revolution.
The third action would be to sustain the revolution by encouraging
national and regional systems, both public and private, to
substantially increase their investments in research and technology
transfer. Such promotion would be achieved by fostering strategic
partnerships between the public and private sectors.
The Declaration points out that, for experts, a determining
but little emphasized factor in the food crisis is "a
technological lag, which has occurred in recent years, especially
in developing countries, generating a growing gap between
supply and demand".
A major cause of this deterioration in Latin America and
the Caribbean has been the drastic reduction of investment
in research and development by multilateral donors and local
governments in the region.
Rice experts are sure that the Latin American and Caribbean
region comprises "one of the few in the world with the
capacity for expanding rice production on a large scale, given
the extensive availability of land, solar radiation, and water,
and the existence of commercial agricultural systems and human
resources in the areas of science and business with a capacity
for rapid response."
This region would not only supply regional demand but would
also export surpluses to rice-deficient regions of the world,
indicates the Declaration.
With respect to scientific research, FLAR has a key partner
in CIAT, located in Palmira, Colombia. This partner has already
served as a vital support for the Latin American rice sector
over the last 4 decades.
"We have a solid research platform; we have new rice
varieties that, with adequate crop management, could increase
production by 1 or 2 tons per hectare. With that alone, we
would be responding to the problem", says Dr César
Martínez, geneticist and leader of CIAT's Rice Project.
However, he points out that more action is needed from the
countries involved, FLAR's partners, and the donors to close
the technological gap that exists among the growers themselves.
"In Colombia, for example, some growers are highly advanced,
producing 1 or 2 tons more than the average; others are average,
and a third group are below average", explains the researcher.
"The same occurs in other countries. Hence, we need to
close this gap through technology transfer and the adoption
of best farming practices. Thus, we will improve efficiency
and be more competitive", he concluded.
CIAT is one of 15 international centers sponsored by the
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
(CGIAR).
Download the Declaration
of Guayaquil (320 kb).
Contact:
César Martínez (c.martinez@cgiar.org),
Leader, Rice Project, CIAT.
Phone: +57 (2) 4450000 (ext. 3317), Cali, Colombia.
Gonzalo Zorrilla de San Martín (g.zorrilla@cgiar.org),
Executive Director, FLAR.
Phone: +57 (2) 4450052 / 4450093, Cali, Colombia.
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