8/9/2019 Rice Today vol. 14, no. 2 What Latin America’s rice sector offers the world

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34 Rice Today  April-June 2015

There is one occasion thatBrazilian farmer GeovanoParcianello never misses. Everyyear, he travels 503 kilometers

from his farm in the municipality ofAlegrete to the city of Cachoeirinha,where the most important riceexperiment station in the state of RioGrande do Sul is located. Being therewith a thousand other rice growersgives Mr. Parcianello an opportunityto nd out about new varieties,disease control measures, and options

for crop rotation—knowledge he canapply on his own 900 hectares of rice.

An internationaltechnology festivalThis year, the “technology festival”organized by the Rice Institute of RioGrande do Sul (IRGA) had an extradimension. Not only did participantscome from places such as Alegrete,Santiago, San Antonio, and Itaqui but they also came from 33 countries

of Latin America and the Caribbean(LAC), Europe, and Asia, making theeld day international. The foreignguests were among 460 participantsat the XII International Conferenceon Rice in Latin America and theCaribbean, which took place in PortoAlegre, Rio Grande do Sul, on 23-26February 2015.

“Listening to presentationson topics such as genetics, cropimprovement, agronomy, andclimate change, and visiting the eld

plots opened our minds to what’shappening in the rice sector, not onlyin the region but in the whole world,”said Eliécer Araya, president of CostaRica’s National Rice Corporation(Conarroz, its acronym in Spanish).“This also gave us an opportunityto further reinforce the knowledgenetwork that strengthens us all.”

Taking LAC’s rice sector to new“horizons of competitiveness”—theslogan of the conference—is a central

aim for organizations such as theLatin American Fund for IrrigatedRice (FLAR) and its 35 members,the International Center for TropicalAgriculture (CIAT), IRGA, and theBrazilian Agricultural ResearchCorporation (Embrapa). The regionalalliance draws as well on supportfrom the International Rice ResearchInstitute (IRRI), CGIAR’s leadcenter for the Global Rice SciencePartnership (GRiSP)—which believesin the important role of this region in

the coming decades to meet the risingglobal demand for rice.

A world-stage performanceHigh productivity (with somecountries obtaining yield as highas 16 tons per hectare), extensivemechanization, the use of directseeding, and excellent grain qualityare among the key features of LAC’sproduction that are aracting worldaention.

by Adriana Varón Molina

8/9/2019 Rice Today vol. 14, no. 2 What Latin America’s rice sector offers the world

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35Rice Today  April-June 2015

“Latin America has enormousland resources and abundant water,and its rice production is technicallyadvanced,” said Robert Zeigler, IRRIdirector general. “The challengefor this region is to analyze globalmarkets carefully and designstrategies that will enable production

to meet demand.” Joe Tohme, director of CIAT’s

Agrobiodiversity Research Area,stressed the importance of regionalintegration through networks such asFLAR and the Consortium on HybridRice for Latin America (HIAAL).“CIAT’s Rice Program helps countriesacross the region to strengthen theircapacity and make production morecompetitive by using the geneticmaterials and agronomic practicesthat we and FLAR are developing,”

Dr. Tohme said.“Strategic alliances are what can

make us strong as a region,” saidFlavio Breseghello, director generalof Embrapa Rice and Beans. “Thepresence of Asian scientists in LatinAmerica, thanks to GRiSP, makesthem more aware of our strengthsand us more aware of theirs. Thegood practices of each continentcomplement one another.”

National governments have

a key role to play in buildingstrategic alliances, explained BasBouman, GRiSP director. “The wayforward is to strengthen nationalcapacity, working side by side withgovernments and their programs, anddevise strategies that enable countriesin LAC to compete with the biggestrice producers in the world.”

Ingredients of aproduction miracle“There’s lile point in doing

research without extension. Themost important thing is transferringknowledge to producers—that’s thekey,” said Carlos Pereira, formerpresident of IRGA, who now worksas an agronomist with the state’sAgricultural Secretariat.

IRGA, with its 75-year history,oers a good example of howthe rice production chain can bestrengthened. In 10 years, growersin Rio Grande do Sul managed to

raise average rice yield by 50%. Thisproduction miracle resulted mostlyfrom a training program created for100 IRGA technicians and extensionagents from private companies andfarmer cooperatives.

“We reviewed the latestknowledge from dierent researchcenters—CIAT, IRGA, IRRI, anduniversities—and took it to the eld by means of the technicians,” saidSergio Gindri, an IRGA researcher. “It

was important to develop consistentmessages on basic concepts, suchas early weed control and the useof high-quality seed of improvedvarieties. But the route by which theLatin America and the Caribbeanregion reaches its goal of serving asa food basket for the world won’t beeasy.”

“To position ourselves ininternational markets, we have totackle basic issues such as seed

quality, improved infrastructure forexports, and lower operating costs,with the aim of oering a higherquality product at a lower price,” saidEduardo Graterol, FLAR’s executivedirector. “The goal is to place surplusproduction in international markets,while ensuring that each countrycan supply enough rice for its ownpopulation.”

The sun-drenched internationaleld day ended with a banquet for

Mr. Parcianello and the rest of the1,500 guests, who feasted on carreteiro a typical dish of Rio Grande do Sul,in which rice, of course, is the mainingredient—just as it is in the dailydiets of more than half of the globalpopulation.

 Ms. Varón Molina is communicationscoordinator for Latin America and theCaribbean at CIAT.

BOTH INDOORS viaposter sessions andother presentations andoutdoors via IRGA fieldplot demonstrations,

conference participantslearned about thelatest developmentsin rice genetics, cropimprovement, agronomy,and the effects ofclimate change.