COP15, or the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference, was widely expected to pave the way for an agreement on climate change after 2012—when...

Increasing population and competing demands from agriculture, industry, and urban areas, is quickly turning water into a limited resource. Global water...

A spectrum of varieties. Rice genome diversity reflects the landscapes where rice is grown – from lowland paddies to sloping uplands. (Photo:IRRI) The...

Rice production in Africa In sub-Saharan Africa, rice is a very important staple and cash crop. In 2006, the region produced more than 21.6 million metric...

(Photo: IRRI) “Rice is life” truly lives up to its meaning in India, where its origin dates back to as long ago as 2500 B.C. In this vast country,...

A low-cost, farm-level dryer is tested at a farmer’s house in Savannakhet Province, Lao PDR. (Photo: IRRI)  Even though rice prices have come down...

It takes, on average, 2,500 liters of water (by rainfall or irrigation) to produce just 1 kilogram of rice using traditional cultivation methods. Considering...

A new rice noodle product, which won a prize in the national food contest held by the agricultural ministry in 2007. (Photo: Masaru Yamada) Yuko Kimura,...

Compared with the prices of other cereals such as wheat and maize, rice prices were relatively subdued for much of 2007. In late 2007, however, prices...

Rising fertilizer prices and misperceptions about environmental degradation in intensive agriculture have stimulated claims that so-called “low-input” technologies relying on organic nutrient sources may provide a more sustainable means of producing food crops and increasing farmers’ income. However, the sole use of organic technologies would likely perpetuate food...