Features

• Troubling trade
  It would be easy to think that the escalating price of rice is a boon for exporters—but, in a Thailand exclusive, Rice Today reports on the chaos that has Thai traders reeling
  Story and photos by Bob Hill
  


• After the storm
  In the aftermath of Cyclone Sidr, the rice farmers of southern Bangladesh are struggling to get back on their feet. Immediate relief is needed, but science can provide technologies that help minimize the damage caused by the next disaster.
  Story and photos by Adam Barclay
  


• The big squeeze
  As well as improving farmers’ incomes and productivity, water-saving technologies can also help to ease social tensions—but not without local experts who champion the cause
  Story by Adam Barclay, photos by Raymond Jose Panaligan
  


• Hungry for Knowledge
  Every year in Bangladesh, millions of rural families suffer the privations of monga, the period after the previous season’s food has run out and before the next season’s harvest. Now, several technologies are helping to close the window of hardship.
  By Trina Leah Mendoza and David Johnson
  


• Bird’s-eye views of an enduring
  rice culture
  Download PDF - 2.4 MB, 6 mins at 56 kbps
  
  Rice Today fulfills its promise to publish more spectacular photography taken from above Ifugao Province in the northern Philippines. What is the significance culturally and scientifically?
  Story by Gene Hettel, color photography
  by Ariel Javellana
  View some of the photos on the opening page of the IRRI Photo Bank and click here to view 22 more images in the bank.

• Out with the wet, in with the dry
  How a farmer achieved a better life by using dry-season rice technology.
  By Nivedita Deka, Kabindra Borkakati, and Zahirul Islam

• When the rain stops
  In August 2007, Rice Today visited drought-stricken areas in the northern Philippines to discover that it takes more than a dry spell to dampen farmers’ spirits.
  Story by Meg Mondoñedo, photography by Ariel Javellana

• Into the unknown
  Every summer, the World Food Prize Foundation sends high school students from the United States to international agricultural research institutes to work with leading scientists and learn about agricultural development.
  By Anna Johnson

• Looking up in the uplands
  In the mountains of Vietnam and Laos, life on the farm is tough. But more productive rice crops can give farmers the security they need to improve their income and help the environment.
  Story by Adam Barclay, photos by Ariel Javellana

• High and dry
  As Chinese farmers face a worsening irrigation crisis, they need a way to grow rice with less water. Aerobic rice may be the answer.
  Story and photos by Adam Barclay

• A hybrid history
  Hybrid rice has helped China feed one-fifth of humanity and avoid mass hunger. Rice Today investigates the international collaboration behind this history-altering technology.
  By Adam Barclay

• Coping with climate change
  Climate change threatens to affect rice production across the globe. What is known about the likely impact, and what can be done about it?

• Preparing for the rat race
  A rare species of flowering bamboo puts rodents in a feeding and breeding frenzy that threatens famine in the Indian state of Mizoram
  By Jason Overdorf, freelance journalist based in New Delhi.

• Rice and the river
  A new research and development initiative is set to build on past successes and lay new foundations for prosperity in the countries that depend on the Mekong River for their rice.
  By Gene Hettel and Meg Mondeñedo

• More crop per drop
  Rice cultivation in the 21st century will need to feed more people while reducing poverty and protecting the environment. Success depends on how the rice industry uses one of its most precious resources: water.
  By Sarah Carriger and Domitille Vallée

• The rice king
  Thai rice farmers are fortunate to have a head of state who does more than offer symbolic support—His Majesty the King of Thailand is a monarch who genuinely makes a difference.
  By Bob Hill

• Once were rice fields
  The week after Typhoon Durian slammed into the Philippines’ Bicol Region, Rice Today ventured into the stricken area to find that the rice-farming communities had been hit hard.
  By Meg Mondeñedo, photography by Ariel Javellana

• Bringing hope, improving lives
  Rice feeds roughly half the planet’s population and approximately three-quarters of a billion of the world’s poorest people depend on the staple to survive. A carefully focused agenda for continued research on this vital crop is as important as ever.
  By Jay Maclean and Gene Hettel

• Conserving the future
  As India’s rice-wheat belt grapples with declining soil health and water tables, a vanguard of young, innovative farmers and researchers is leading a new approach that could hold the key to reversing the region’s waning productivity.
  Story and photos by Adam Barclay

• Breeding history
  Forty years ago, a remarkable rice-breeding project culminated in the release of a rice variety under an unremarkable name—IR8. This is the story of the research that would ultimately change the face of agriculture across Asia.
  by Tom Hargrove and W. Ronnie Coffman
  
  
• I remember Honda rice
  How the fi rst Green Revolution rice variety—IR8—influenced life and death in the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam War.
  by Tom Hargrove

• Tricks of the trade
  In Asia, the question of whether of not to liberalize rice trade is a vexing one. If liberalization is to occur at all, it needs to happen gradually and with an understanding of how people—especially the poor—will be affected.
  by Gene Hettel

• A rice future for Asia
  Thai and Filipino high school students come together to help ensure the rice industry's future in Asia, sparking new friendships—and friendly rivalries—along the way.

• The direct approach
  A return to the ways of their forefathers has seen Indian and Bangladeshi rice farmers reduce their need for water and address the growing problem of labor shortages.
  by Adam Barclay

• Genuinely Lao
  The story of the project that revolutionized rice production in Lao PDR.
  by Adam Barclay and Samjhana Shrestha

• Back to the future
  Smallholders who integrate rice farming with livestock are the mainstay of traditional agriculture in the Greater Mekong Subregion--and a model for sustainable development.
  by Peter Fredenberg and Bob Hill