Rice is the primary food grain consumed by almost half of the world's population. During the past half century, rice has become available to consumers on increasingly favorable terms. Rice yields have risen more rapidly than demand arising out of population and income growth. These gains have resulted from the development of new and more productive rice varieties, increased intensity of fertilizer use. expanded irrigated area, improved crop protection, and the development and use of better management practices by agronomists and fanners.
The success in generating rapid growth in rice yields, often referred to as the Green Revolution, has given rise to excessive complacency on the part of national governments and international aid agencies. While yields have continued to rise at the farmer level, maximum yield in trials at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and at other leading rice research centers has remained static for almost two decades. Does this imply a new biological ceiling on rice yields that will limit them to the 8-10t ha(-1) now being achieved by the best fanners in the most favored rice-growing areas?
This concern has led to a new and broader rice research agenda, focusing on the new possibilities being opened up by advances in molecular biology and genetic engineering for plant breeding and crop protection. Researchers are working to develop knowledge - intensive fanning systems, and attempting to ensure the conservation of rice geimplasm diversity and to expand the use of underexploited relatives of cultivated species...