Closing Rice Yield Gaps in Asia

In the past decade, rice yield in Asia has increased by an average of 1% per annum, but, to meet the growing food demand and keep the price of rice affordable to the poor, the annual yield increase has to be around 1.5%. Increasing yields can be accomplished through further intensification, but needs to be done under increasing scarcity of resources, while minimizing the negative environmental consequences.

To improve food security and gender equity, and alleviate poverty by optimizing the productivity and sustainability of irrigated rice production systems, and thereby close rice yield gaps in the major irrigated rice granaries in Asia.

Core intervention partners: National Agriculture Research and Extension Systems (NARES), civil society groups, and the private sector associated with the rice value chain; farmer cooperatives, NGOs in China, Indonesia, Mynamar, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. Benefiaries: Smallholder men and women farmers, farmer cooperatives, NARES.

1. Farmer needs and constraints along the value chain are assessed and appropriate monitoring and evaluation systems established for six rice granaries.
2. Conceptual framework for the design and ex-ante assessment of integrated sustainable crop systems is developed.
3. Concept for novel crop systems is proven in two major rice granaries by 2016 and in six granaries by 2020.
4. Novel outreach and scaling out mechanisms developed and are effective as used by 10,000 small-holder men and women farmers in Vietnam, China, and Thailand.
5. Increased knowledge generated changes at the policy level, change of attitudes and behavior of key stakeholders, and increased capacity of national partners.

Results from previous phases:  

Technologies developed under the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC), the former SDC supported program, such as Site-Specific Nutrient Management, Alternate Wetting and Drying, direct seeding, improved post harvest practices, and ecologically-based pest management are meanwhile used by hundred thousands of smallholder farmers in Asia. Most of these technologies are now an integral part of the national management guidelines for irrigated rice in the Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.

Phase 1 15.12.2012 - 31.12.2016   (Completed)