This Week in Green – Nov. 12, 2010
Global rice strategy to aid the poor
Falling into the category of the best solution being the most obvious one, a new initiative involving rice is being announced that may help reduce global poverty, ease worldwide hunger and be a boon for the environment. Rice being a staple food for half the world population, it is a natural for such a widespread program.
Called the Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP), it will mark “for the first time ever, a single strategic and work plan for global rice research,” said the International Rice Research Institute in announcing the project Thursday in Hanoi.
The plan behind the plan is to inextricably enhance crop production through, as the IIRRI explains “new generations of climate-ready rice with flooding tolerance and other traits that are essential for adapting production in the face of climate change.” Those advances will help reduce production costs for the farmers and food costs for the planet.
The goal of GRiSP is to lift 70 million people out of poverty in the next decade, and a total of 150 million out of poverty by 2035.
If the GRiSP initiative is successful in increasing rice yields, it will have a major impact on millions of small farmers in Asia, where more than 90 percent of the world’s crops are grown and where more than 65 percent of the world’s hungry live.
And as an added benefit for the environment, if the host of changes are implemented — including reducing deforestation and improving irrigation methods — greenhouse gases would be slashed by more than 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide.