Showing posts with label Food Security. Show all posts
Salt-Tolerant Rice 'Could Aid Japan's Tsunami Farmers'
Posted by Unknown in Flood, Food Security, Japan, Plant Breeding, Research and Technology, Rice, United Kingdom (UK) on Tuesday, 29 January 2013
UK
scientists have claimed a breakthrough in research on rice that could
help farmers devastated by last year's tsunami in Japan.
Researchers
in Norwich said a method of identifying and isolating crop traits has
been developed that means new varieties could be created in a year.
A Sainsbury Laboratory scientist said Japanese farmers could now grow a salt-resistant crop within two years.
It previously took up to 10 years to develop new crop strains, he said.
Much
of the agricultural land to the north east of Japan was drenched in sea
salt from the tsunami, which has since made it hard for rice to grow.
As
part of the research between the UK and Japan, a spokeswoman from the
Sainsbury Laboratory said seven salt-tolerant mutants have now been
identified in a particular type of rice, meaning breeders could be
creating usable varieties for Japanese farmers in the next few years.
"This is a huge leap forward," said Dr Brande Wulff from the Sainsbury Laboratory at Norwich Research Park.
Crop traits
"Advances in technology allow us to sequence plant genomes and identify gene variants that give rise to desirable traits.
"Our colleagues in Japan have already identified mutants that are more salt-resistant.
"Now
it's just a matter for them to back-cross those mutants to the parental
variety and clean up the background - get rid of the bad mutations and
keep the good one - and then bulk up the seed provided to the farmers,"
he said.
Crop
traits such as drought and salt tolerance, plant height and yield are
often controlled by many genes, with each having a subtle effect, the
laboratory spokesman said.
It is therefore difficult to identify the complete genetic basis for a particular characteristic, he added.
But
in the new research method, called MutMap, the laboratory said
scientists can now identify the characteristics by working with an
"elite" rice and creating mutants that harbour different traits.
'Genomics revolution'
Once
a mutant is identified with the desired trait, for example salt
tolerance, this can then be crossed with the original rice and grown in a
field.
The difference between the offspring of this cross and the elite rice can then be identified.
The
changes detected are called single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPS) and
insertion-deletions (indels), which are tiny genetic improvements that
can be observed using genome sequencing.
"Until
now, plant breeding has not been able to take advantage of the genomics
revolution," said Professor Ryohei Terauchi, from Japan's Iwate
Biotechnology Research Centre.
"MutMap
overcomes one of the greatest limitations, which has been the time it
takes to identify genetic markers for desirable traits."
Results from the study have been published in Nature Biotechnology.
Food Security in Bangladesh
Posted by Unknown in Agriculture and Farming, Bangladesh, Climate Change, Food Security, Problems in Agriculture on Sunday, 27 January 2013
Food
security plays an important role in social and political stability of a
country. But sustaining agricultural growth and food security is a
challenge for the present day world, especially for developing
countries.
Climate
change and disasters aggravate the risk further. International
organisations are warning about hunger and food insecurity risks in many
countries. In this context, the Bangladesh government is considering
the issue with utmost priority because Bangladesh is one of the most
disaster prone countries of the world.
The
disaster-hit people need emergency food assistance, as their capacity
to access to markets falls drastically. Increasing population, poverty
(31.5% of the population is still poor), decreasing availability of land
resources and seasonal umemployment in agriculture sector compound the
problems. Thus, ensuring food security and effective disaster management
are the two enormous challenges for the government.
The
country saw unprecedented agricultural growth during the Awami League
government in 1996-2001. This was possible due to pragmatic plans and
effective implementation by the then government of Sheikh Hasina. The
country became cereal surplus for the first time in 1999-2000. Food
grain production rose from 19 million MT in 1996 to 26.9 million MT in
2000-2001.
That,
a rise of about 8 million MT in five years, was almost equal to the
achievements in the previous 25 years (1971-1996). Agricultural growth
was 8.10% and 6.18 % in 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 respectively. Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina was awarded the prestigious CERES Award by FAO
for the country’s unprecedented success in agriculture production and
food management.But the growth trend did not sustain during BNP’s regime
in 2001-2006.
They
did not fulfil their commitments to the people and there was severe
mismanagement in procurement and distribution of agricultural inputs
like fertilizers, seeds, diesel etc.
The
average agricultural growth came down below 3.5%. The BNP government
did not buildup sufficient public stock to face any food crisis.
Consequently, the country’s food security fell to an all-time critical
level in 2007 and 2008, compounded by the global food crisis during the
rule of the caretaker government.
International
prices of rice price rose from $301 per MT in 2006-07 to $665 per MT in
2008-09. This, along with other failures, resulted in domestic price
increase of Tk.35-50 per kilogram. Wheat price also increased similarly
during this period. In this situation, the present government took
office on January 9, 2009 with the pledge to bring down the prices to an
acceptable level. Pledge and renewed focus on food securityThe present
government had to start with the residual shocks and impacts of the
2007-08 food crisis.
In
addition to this, cyclone Aila hit south-west Bangladesh on May 25,
2009. It caused huge damage in agriculture production and water
infrastructure along the coastline.
The
government, therefore, opted for augmenting production and took up
massive programmes. It halved the prices of non-urea fertilizers, made
quality seeds available, increased subsidy on inputs including diesel,
and eased the credit provisions.
Thus,
agriculture production growth bounced back from 3.5% to 4.5%. In the
last two years, the growth increased further. The government has also
maintained conducive output prices for the farmers.
Market
monitoring has also been strengthened to procure food grain after
harvest. International support for improving food securityAfter
assumption of office, the present government launched the National Food
Policy Action Plan (2008-2015) and initiated formulation of the Country
Investment Plan for Food Security (2011-2015). This plan consists of 12
programmes for improving availability of, access to, and utilisation of
food with an involvement of $7.8 billion, of which $5 billion need to be
mobilised.
The
Asia-Pacific Food Security Investment Forum held in Manila in July 2010
and the 36th session of the Committee on World Food Security held in
Rome in October 2010 honoured Bangladesh as a “showcase country” for
this unique policy planning framework. This Plan has thus opened the
window for international support for food security in the
country.Initiative for enhancing access to food for the poorDelivering
food to the poor through the Public Food Distribution System (PFDS) is
the main strategy for ensuring food security for the poor.
The
government has taken initiatives to enhance the coverage and
effectiveness of social safety-net programmes. As a result, the overall
distribution under PFDS in 2010-2011 stood at over 2.29 million MT as
compared to 1.25 million MT in 2005-06.
Accordingly, the allocation to safety-net as percent of GDP increased from its earlier 1.6% to 2.5-2.6% in recent years.
Muhammad Abdur Razzaque
