April 11, 2008 | posted by Michael Baxter in commodities |

First there was oil, then it was wheat, and in China, pork; now it’s rice that is shooting up in price. It has risen by 70 per cent over the last year.    The big rice exporters, China, Vietnam and India are focusing on supplying their own internal markets; where is the rice to come from?

Nowhere is the crisis more serious than in the Philippines.    And to address its problems, has turned to wheat instead.  But even then, there are shortages.    The country’s government asked China for some, but she said sorry, we need all the wheat we grow for our own people. 

Good news, the US has promised to wade in and provide all the wheat the country needs.

But why has rice joined the list of products in short supply?

A part of the problem is that land once used to grow rice, is now being used to grow crops for feeding livestock.    As Chinese and Indian middle classes demand more meat, less land is available for rice.   

As economic developments occur, and while the population rises, more land is being lost to industry, or urbanisation.

Then add to all that, bad luck.  2007 was a year of awful weather.

What’s the answer?  Hope comes in the form of technology.

The International Rice Research Institute is placing emphasis on new hybrid rice technologies.

Robert Zeigler, director general at the Institute said, “Certainly, the success of hybrid rice in China is well known, and the potential for hybrid rice to have an impact across the rest of the rice-growing world is something that we all believe is real.”

In the Philippines, an initiative has been kicked-off to encourage private and public co-operation in the development of hybrid technologies in the region.

Critics of modern farming techniques, especially of GM crops, need to focus more thought to the potential disaster in the making.   As the world’s population grows, and as economic prosperity brings with it demand for meat products and the need to grow more animal feedstocks, only technology can stop a lunge backwards to starvation.