Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Central American, and North and South American regions, and while
production and area are growing, yield remains almost stagnant. Over
the region as a whole, any reduction in area under rice cultivation
releases land for other crops or nonagricultural uses, helps minimize
deforestation, and reduces the environmental footprint. The combined
effect of better agronomy and improved cultivars leading to increased
rice production is an important contribution to the sustainable manage-
ment of natural resources.
II. THE CIAT RICE PROGRAM
Rice is a relatively new staple food in LAC (Sanint 1992), which accounts
for
3.5% of global rice area and 3.8% of total rice production. From
2000 to 2012, rice production in LAC expanded 1.15% annually due to
2.05% annual growth on yield, while area planted has a negative growth
of 0.88% (Table 5.1). This compares favorably with global averages,
since current growth in yield worldwide is
∼
1% (Mohanty et al. 2010).
Rice is one of the most important and fastest growing staple foods
in LAC, especially among urban consumers and particularly the poor,
whose well-being is affected by the amount, quality, and security of
supply and price of the rice they eat. Rice consumption is concentrated
in the tropical countries and per capita annual consumption increased
from
<
2010 and has
reached 70 kg year
1
in Panama and the Caribbean. (GRiSP 2013).
The LAC region has enormous heterogeneity in terms of geography
(e.g. Andean, Amazonian, Paci
9 kg of milled rice in 1924
-
1928 to
30 kg in 2008
-
∼
∼
c, Central America-Caribbean, Savanna,
and Southern Cone ecosystems), people, and socioeconomic conditions.
Rice is grown mostly as a direct-seeded crop under diverse agroclimatic
or soil conditions and production systems (upland, irrigated, temperate
irrigated, and favorable rainfed) (Dawe et al. 2010). Recent
gures suggest
that 46% of rice area is under upland systems, 37% is irrigated, and 16%
is rainfed lowland. In Brazil, area under upland rice has declined and
the irrigated area is now estimated to be around 59% (Dawe et al. 2010).
Farming ranges from small
medium to large farms, from nonextensive to
very extensive farming systems, and from low- to high-yielding environ-
ments, with average rice yields of 2
-
14 t ha
1
. This region is well suited
to rice production because of its land and water resources; opportunities
exist for lowland rice expansion in South America (GRiSP 2013). The
crop is subjected to diverse biotic and abiotic stresses, different from those
of Asia and Africa. Grain quality preferences are also different. Long
and slender translucent grain type with medium to high amylose content
-
