Guangdong gung-ho on new rice technology

It’s never a simple life for rice farmers. They get up at dawn, toil in the mud all day, and don’t get home until sunset. And, even with all their hard work, they still aren’t assured a bountiful harvest, with nagging problems such as pests and diseases, less land, less labor, and less water, and more.

But, in Guangdong, one of China’s major rice-growing provinces, farmers have a reason to celebrate. A new, environment-friendly technology that will help them achieve high rice yields with fewer pests and diseases has received the stamp of approval and is now ripe for adoption.

On 10 January, the ‘three-controls nutrient management technology for irrigated rice’ was appraised successfully in Guangzhou by an appraisal committee of seven scientists and specialists organized by Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Bureau.

The three-controls technology, developed by the Rice Research Institute of the Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences (GDAAS) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), is based on the site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) approach. A series of studies led by Dr. Xuhua Zhong showed astonishing results—increased and stable grain yield, increased nutrient-use efficiency, reduced pests and diseases, and a high potential to improve food safety and the environment.

Dr. Xuhua Zhong (standing) discusses farmers’ current practices after the completion of the SSNM project. Dr. Roland Buresh (second from left, sitting) looks on. (Photo by Jiewen Ou)

The three controls refer to controlling (1) total nitrogen fertilizer input and nitrogen fertilizer applied basally and topdressed at tillering stage, increasing efficiency of nitrogen use, and reducing pollution in the environment; (2) unproductive tillers, reducing the maximum tiller number, and increasing productive tiller percentage and population quality; and (3) the occurrence and development of insects and diseases, reducing pesticide and fungicide use, and improving food safety.

The technology received high scores from the appraisal committee. Both committee members and the officials endorsed its adoption in Guangdong Province soon. They believed that the faster this technology is shared and adopted by farmers, the more beneficial it will be in protecting the environment, improving food safety, and increasing farmers’ income.

In the past, farmers in China have applied too much nitrogen to their rice crops, and, unfortunately, it has not been used efficiently and has even caused some problems. SSNM’s inclusion in the three-controls technology is a major plus, as past studies have proven its many benefits.

SSNM was introduced in Guangdong in 2001 by IRRI scientists Roland Buresh and Shaobing Peng. After 2 years of field experiments, SSNM was proven more advantageous than farmers’ traditional fertilizer practices, saving 20–30% nitrogen fertilizer and producing 5–10% more grain yield. Disease and insect incidence was lower, especially leaf roller, sheath blight, and brown planthopper. Pesticide use decreased—from five applications in a planting season to only two or three. Lodging, the tendency of weak-stemmed rice plants to fall over, also decreased dramatically in the early-season rice crop.

Beginning in 2003, in a joint effort between IRRI and the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, volunteer farmers from three villages in Xinxing County applied SSNM using the farmer participatory research approach (see SSNM works in China in RIPPLE Vol. 2, No. 1).

Dr. Shaobing Peng (left) inspects the rice crop in an SSNM field in October 2006. (Photo by Nongrong Huang)

Most of the volunteer farmers produced higher yields with less nitrogen input, prompting their relatives and neighboring farmers to try SSNM in their own fields too. The SSNM fever continued into 2004 and 2005. Training courses and field visits were organized. Farmers who weren’t able to attend the courses learned from those who did. Now, years after the experiment, farmers continue practicing SSNM and, by 2006, the technology had spread to the northern, western, and eastern parts of Guangdong.

With the integration of SSNM into a new three-controls technology that is ready for adoption, farmers in Guangdong, China, can look forward to a healthier harvest of rice with higher yields and reduced pesticide use.

Trina Leah Mendoza (t.mendoza@cgiar.org)

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