tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/rice-1527/articles
Rice – The Conversation
2023-10-24T19:18:09Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/214388
2023-10-24T19:18:09Z
2023-10-24T19:18:09Z
Brown, red, black, riceberry – what are these white rice alternatives, and are they actually healthier?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555154/original/file-20231023-25-6g0lg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=66%2C225%2C5043%2C3076&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/rice-in-white-ceramic-bowl-1306548/">Suzy Hazelwood/Pexels</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Throughout history, rice has remained an important food staple. It supports the nutritional needs of more than <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/wbt-staple-food-crops-world/">half of the global population</a>. </p>
<p>While you might be familiar with a handful of types, there are <a href="https://journalofethnicfoods.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42779-019-0017-3">more than 40,000 different varieties</a> of cultivated rice – a testament to the diversity and adaptability of this staple crop.</p>
<p>Rice, much like other grains, is the edible starchy kernel of a grass plant. In fact, the vast majority of rice varieties (although not all) belong to just one species – <em>Oryza sativa</em>.</p>
<p>If you have ever found yourself at the supermarket, overwhelmed by the number of rice options available, you are not alone. From aromatic Thai “jasmine” rice used in curries, to the “basmati” rice of India and the sticky “arborio” for making creamy Italian risotto, each variety, or cultivar, is distinguished by its grain length, shape and colour. </p>
<p>Each cultivar also has its own flavour, texture and unique nutrient properties. To make things more complicated, some varieties are higher in anthyocyanins – antioxidants that protect the body’s cells from damage. These rice varieties are known by their colour – for example, red or black rice.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555155/original/file-20231023-21-rohqa5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Close-up of a yellow-green plant cascading with elongated seeds" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555155/original/file-20231023-21-rohqa5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555155/original/file-20231023-21-rohqa5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555155/original/file-20231023-21-rohqa5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555155/original/file-20231023-21-rohqa5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555155/original/file-20231023-21-rohqa5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555155/original/file-20231023-21-rohqa5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555155/original/file-20231023-21-rohqa5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"><em>Oryza sativa</em> is a major food crop – a grass plant cultivated into thousands of varieties.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/paddy-oryza-sativa-major-crop-which-1829709263">Lakhan Rakshit/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>What is brown rice?</h2>
<p>Compared to white rice, brown rice is a whole grain with only the inedible outer hull removed. It is largely <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/crops/rice/rice-sector-at-a-glance/">grown in</a> India, Pakistan and Thailand.</p>
<p>To make white rice, the bran (outer shell) of the grains is removed. In brown rice, the bran and germ (core of the grain) are still intact, giving this type of rice its tan colour and high fibre content. Brown rice naturally contains <a href="https://afcd.foodstandards.gov.au/fooddetails.aspx?PFKID=F007641">more nutrients</a> than white rice, including double the amount of dietary fibre and substantially higher magnesium, iron, zinc and B group vitamins, including folic acid.</p>
<p>Brown rice also contains polyphenols and flavonoids – types of antioxidants that protect the body from stress.</p>
<p>It is often sold as a longer grain option and has a similar nutty flavour to black and red rice cultivars, though some chefs suggest the texture is slightly chewier. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555157/original/file-20231023-17-9f64xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A dark bowl with clumpy tan coloured rice being picked up with wooden chopsticks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555157/original/file-20231023-17-9f64xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555157/original/file-20231023-17-9f64xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555157/original/file-20231023-17-9f64xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555157/original/file-20231023-17-9f64xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555157/original/file-20231023-17-9f64xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555157/original/file-20231023-17-9f64xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555157/original/file-20231023-17-9f64xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Brown rice owes its colour and texture to the fact it contains bran – the fibrous outer layer of the grain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">pro ust/Shutterstock</span></span>
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<h2>Fancy black rice</h2>
<p>While not as common as other varieties, black rice – also called purple rice due to its colouring – is high in anthocyanins. In fact, black rice <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/epdf/10.1021/jf0606609">contains the same antioxidant</a> type that gives “superfoods” like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfca.2022.104697">blueberries and blackberries</a> their deep purple colour.</p>
<p>The <em>Oryza sativa</em> variant of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308814619314165">black rice</a> is grown primarily in Asia and exported globally, while the <em>Oryza glaberrima</em> variant is native to and grown only in Africa. Among black rices there are also different shades, from japonica black rice, Chinese black rice, Thai black rice through to Indonesian black rice. </p>
<p>With its antioxidant properties, some would argue black rice is one of the healthiest choices due to its protective effects for <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13668-023-00496-7">heart health and metabolic diseases</a>.</p>
<p>Black rice can be a short, medium or long grain and has only the outermost layer (inedible hull) removed for consumption. The bran and germ remain intact, similar to brown rice, making it a high fibre food. Black rice has been described by some foodies to have a mild nutty and even slightly sweet flavour. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555193/original/file-20231023-17-f2431i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Close-up of a salad on a dark plate with chickpeas, tomato slices and purple rice in the foreground" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555193/original/file-20231023-17-f2431i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555193/original/file-20231023-17-f2431i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555193/original/file-20231023-17-f2431i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555193/original/file-20231023-17-f2431i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555193/original/file-20231023-17-f2431i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555193/original/file-20231023-17-f2431i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555193/original/file-20231023-17-f2431i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Black rice is also known as purple rice due to its colour when cooked.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/healthy-black-rice-salad-turmeric-chickpea-1679613025">Alp Aksoy/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/these-5-foods-are-claimed-to-improve-our-health-but-the-amount-wed-need-to-consume-to-benefit-is-a-lot-116730">These 5 foods are claimed to improve our health. But the amount we'd need to consume to benefit is... a lot</a>
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</p>
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<h2>Iron-rich red rice</h2>
<p>Similar to black rice, red rice, or <em>Oryza rufipogon</em>, is a medium or long grain variety coloured by its anthocyanin content. Interestingly, it is considered an <a href="https://weeds.org.au/profiles/red-rice-wild-rice/">edible weed</a> growing alongside other rice varieties and primarily grown in Asia as well as Northern Australia. </p>
<p>The difference in colour compared to black rice types is due to the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0963996922007840">amount and type</a> of anthyocyanins (specifically catechins and epicatechins) in red rice. </p>
<p><a href="https://journalofethnicfoods.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42779-019-0017-3">Red rice</a> also contains more iron and zinc compared to white, black or brown varieties. The anthocyanins found in red rice are used as a <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/epdf/10.1021/jf0606609">pigment for colouring other foods</a> such as liquor, bread and ice cream.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555195/original/file-20231023-27-hxhj22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A person rinsing orange coloured rice grains in an aluminium rice cooker pot" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555195/original/file-20231023-27-hxhj22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555195/original/file-20231023-27-hxhj22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555195/original/file-20231023-27-hxhj22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555195/original/file-20231023-27-hxhj22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555195/original/file-20231023-27-hxhj22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555195/original/file-20231023-27-hxhj22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555195/original/file-20231023-27-hxhj22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Red rice has different types of antioxidants in it, giving the grains their russet red colour.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/washing-preparing-black-rice-healthy-concept-1203144292">sungong/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>Is riceberry a type of rice, too?</h2>
<p>Despite the slightly confusing name, riceberry rice was originally developed in Thailand as a cross between a local jasmine rice and local purple rice variety, creating a lighter, <a href="https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/riceberry-rice-for-well-being/119541/">purple-coloured grain</a>. </p>
<p>Increasingly available in Asian grocers across Australia, this type of rice has a more favourable nutrient profile than brown rice and has a shorter cooking time similar to that of white jasmine rice. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/four-simple-food-choices-that-help-you-lose-weight-and-stay-healthy-112054">Four simple food choices that help you lose weight and stay healthy</a>
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</em>
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<h2>Rice is not just another carb</h2>
<p>Rice has many nutritional benefits besides providing the body with carbohydrates – its primary fuel source. Rice contains more than 15 essential vitamins and minerals including folic acid, magnesium, iron and zinc and is naturally gluten free, making it an appropriate substitute for people living with coeliac disease.</p>
<p>Brown, red and black rices are also whole grains, recommended as part of a healthy eating pattern. </p>
<p>In addition, different cultivars of rice have a low glycaemic index or GI – a measure of the speed at which carbohydrates raise blood sugar levels.</p>
<p>Generally speaking, the more colourful the rice variety, the lower its GI. This is a particularly important consideration for people living with diabetes. </p>
<p>Less frequently consumed rice varieties have nutritional benefits, including their anthocyanin and fibre content. However, they can be harder to find and are often pricier than more common white and brown varieties. </p>
<p>If you enjoy trying foods with unique flavours, try experimenting with black or red rice varieties. Whatever the colour, all types of rice have a place in a balanced diet.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/do-you-need-to-wash-rice-before-cooking-heres-the-science-204692">Do you need to wash rice before cooking? Here's the science</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214388/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yasmine Probst receives funding from Multiple Sclerosis Australia and has previously received funding from various industry groups that are not affiliated with the topic of this article. She is affiliated with the National Health and Medical Research Council, Multiple Sclerosis Plus and Multiple Sclerosis Limited. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen Zoszak receives funding from the Australian Government Research Training Program. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olivia Wills receives funding from Multiple Sclerosis Australia.</span></em></p>
There are more than 40,000 varieties of cultivated rice. If you’ve ever wondered about the differences between all the colourful rices at the supermarket, here’s a rundown.
Yasmine Probst, Associate professor, University of Wollongong
Karen Zoszak, Accredited Practising Dietitian, PhD Candidate, University of Wollongong
Olivia Wills, Accredited Practising Dietitian, PhD candidate, University of Wollongong
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/208641
2023-07-11T12:31:14Z
2023-07-11T12:31:14Z
Modi’s gift of ‘10 danas’ – the 10 donations – to Biden reflects ancient Hindu wisdom and carries a deep symbolism
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536641/original/file-20230710-12423-ykj999.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C5%2C1183%2C668&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An image of one of the gifts that Prime Minister Modi gave to President Biden – the '10 danas,' or 10 donations – each with a specific symbolism.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroompost.com/india/pm-modis-gift-to-president-joe-biden/5261962.html">Newsroom Post Press Release</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>During his state visit to the United States in late June 2023, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented several gifts to U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden. Among those were the “10 danas,” items with symbolic importance in Indian traditions. I study these traditions in my work as a <a href="https://www.etown.edu/depts/religious-studies/faculty.aspx">scholar of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism</a>. Each of the danas is believed to have an auspicious meaning.</p>
<h2>What are the 10 danas?</h2>
<p>The 10 danas are (1) til, or sesame seeds; (2) a gold coin; (3) a cow, though Biden received a silver image of a coconut as a substitute; (4) a piece of land, in place of which Biden received a piece of fragrant sandalwood; (5) ghee (clarified butter); (6) cloth - for which Biden received a piece of silk; (7) long-grained rice; (8) a piece of jaggery, a very sweet brown sugar made in India from palm tree sap; (9) a silver coin; and (10) some salt.</p>
<p>What does <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44146016">each substance represent</a>?</p>
<p>Sesame seeds are a symbol of immortality. According to a story in the Puranas, or books of ancient lore about the Hindu deities, during the churning of the ocean, the sweat of Hindu Lord Vishnu dropped to the Earth in the form of sesame seeds. The <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23002226">churning of the ocean</a> was an event, famous in Hindu literature, in which the devas, or deities, and the asuras, or demonic beings, joined forces to acquire a life-giving substance called amrita that had sunk to the ocean floor. This required great exertion, especially on the part of Lord Vishnu, who transformed himself into a giant tortoise to play his role in the process.</p>
<p>Gold is considered purifying and also is symbolic of wealth and prosperity. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1178915">cow is a symbol of life and of nurturing</a>. The substitution of the silver image of a coconut for an actual cow reflects a common Hindu ritual in which an actual coconut is used in a ceremony to substitute for some other object that is unavailable or that would be impractical to include.</p>
<p>The gift of a piece of land also represents wealth. Traditionally, the gift of an actual piece of land is something one could draw upon in times of financial difficulty. It could be cultivated, rented out, and so on.</p>
<p>Ghee, or clarified butter, is an element in Hindu rituals <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24663482">going back to at least the second millennium B.C.</a> It represents both nourishment and healing.</p>
<p>Cloth represents financial security: one’s ability to obtain the necessities of life, such as decent clothing.</p>
<p>Rice, in India, has long been a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Subhash-Ahuja/publication/321334487_Rice_in_Religion_and_Tradition/links/5bf4de87a6fdcc3a8de62413/Rice-in-Religion-and-Tradition.pdf">symbol of fertility</a>. The ability to grow rice has been vital to life in most of India since before recorded history.</p>
<p>The sweetness of the jaggery represents good news. Giving it represents a hope that one will receive good news and hear <a href="https://journalppw.com/index.php/jpsp/article/view/11683/7568">auspicious things in the years ahead</a>.</p>
<p>Silver is connected with the Moon in Hindu symbolism – as gold is connected with the Sun. The gift of silver is a wish that one will <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0972639X.2004.11886506">have good dreams and undisturbed sleep</a>. </p>
<p>Finally, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44146016">salt is a symbol of Lakshmi</a>, the goddess of prosperity. Like salt, she is said to have emerged from the ocean. Salt thus represents lifelong prosperity.</p>
<h2>A thousand full moons</h2>
<p>The 10 danas are given to someone who has seen 1,000 full moons, or “sahasra chandra.” This is an ancient practice first <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2014.858659">described in a set of texts called the “Grihya Sutras</a>,” which date from roughly 500 B.C. These sutras, or authoritative texts, describe household rituals and regulations. The practices they enjoin are rooted in the culture of the Vedas, the <a href="https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe29/index.htm">oldest sacred literature of Hinduism</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536638/original/file-20230710-11159-5ln9qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeting first lady Jill Biden and President Joe Biden" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536638/original/file-20230710-11159-5ln9qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536638/original/file-20230710-11159-5ln9qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536638/original/file-20230710-11159-5ln9qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536638/original/file-20230710-11159-5ln9qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536638/original/file-20230710-11159-5ln9qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536638/original/file-20230710-11159-5ln9qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536638/original/file-20230710-11159-5ln9qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi presents several gifts to President Joe Biden on his recent state visit.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/5447d3c095c04974a667435d389c14f3?ext=true">AP Photo/Evan Vucci</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The full moon is an auspicious symbol in many Indian traditions. The full moon day, or Purnima, of each month is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/soutjanth.20.1.3629413">time when many people engage in religious observances</a>. The full moon day is the culmination of the “bright half,” or the shukla paksha, of each month in the Indian lunar calendar. The bright half is the roughly two-week period during which the Moon is waxing, and is seen as a better time to undertake any important activity. Seeing the full moon is an auspicious act, so having seen a thousand full moons is a particularly auspicious and noteworthy event in one’s life.</p>
<p>The ceremony is typically <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2014.858659">performed for someone who is between the ages of 81 and 84</a>, though Modi gave the 10 gifts to Biden on the occasion of his reaching the age of 80. Giving these gifts amounts to congratulating the recipient for having lived a long life – itself a sign of virtue and wisdom – and wishing continued good luck, health and prosperity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208641/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeffery D. Long does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
One of the gifts that Prime Minister Modi gave to President Biden symbolizes the recipient’s having seen 1,000 full moons, implying a long and auspicious life.
Jeffery D. Long, Professor of Religion and Asian Studies, Elizabethtown College
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/206787
2023-06-15T14:00:23Z
2023-06-15T14:00:23Z
Nigeria is Africa’s leading rice producer, but still needs more - reusing wastewater for irrigation would boost farming
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530601/original/file-20230607-21-xre1jv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rice is widely eaten in Nigeria. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/general-view-of-grains-of-rice-at-paul-chinedus-shop-in-a-news-photo/1233761507?adppopup=true">Benson Ibeabuchi/AFP via Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Rice is one of the staple foods globally, ranking <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277450587_Rice_Production_and_Water_use_Efficiency_for_Self-Sufficiency_in_Malaysia_A_Review">third after wheat and maize</a> in terms of production and consumption. It contributes <a href="https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jnsv/65/Supplement/65_S2/_pdf/-char/en">over 20% of the total calorie intake</a> of the human population.</p>
<p>In sub-Saharan Africa <a href="https://www.fao.org/3/a0869t/a0869t.pdf#page=51">rice ranks fourth in production</a> after sorghum, maize and millet. Nigeria is the continent’s <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1322372/rice-production-in-africa-by-country/">leading rice producer</a> and produces <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340620325_Effect_of_urea_deep_placement_technology_on_paddy_yield_of_rice_farmers_in_north_central_Nigeria">over 46% of west Africa’s harvest</a>. </p>
<p>The country is also a big consumer. Nigeria is one of the world’s largest markets for parboiled rice, consuming on average <a href="https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/nigeria-agriculture-sector">US$4 billion worth of it each year</a>.</p>
<p>With production of <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1134510/production-of-milled-rice-in-nigeria/">5.4 million metric tonnes in 2022</a> and consumption of <a href="https://ideas.darden.virginia.edu/rising-rice-consumption-in-nigeria">almost 7 million metric tonnes</a>, Nigeria had to import the <a href="http://grainnet-com.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/pdf/grain.pdf#page=12">shortfall</a>.</p>
<p>There are various reasons it’s difficult for Nigeria to produce all the rice it needs. High inflation and production costs, insecurity, policy uncertainty, and artificial scarcity caused by middlemen are some of them. Also, some consumers prefer the imported varieties. </p>
<p>Another major reason is water scarcity. The <a href="https://agricincome.com/rice-farming-in-nigeria-beginners-guide/#:%7E:text=Clay%20or%20clay%20loamy%20soils,are%20ideal%20for%20rice%20cultivation.&text=Moist%20the%20land%20area%3B%20this,by%20irrigation%20or%20by%20rainfall.">soil for rice cultivation</a> should ideally be slightly wet and this can be achieved by rainfall or irrigation. In parts of Nigeria there’s already a <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2021/05/25/improving-water-supply-sanitation-and-hygiene-services-in-nigeria">shortage</a> of water for drinking, so people don’t use this precious resource on a thirsty crop.</p>
<p>A possible solution to the problem is to use wastewater for irrigation. Around the world, the <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/world/wastewater-resource-may-2022">idea is growing</a> that wastewater can be a resource rather than something to be discarded. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Christopher-Akinbile">As a researcher</a> working on wastewater treatment for reuse to increase rice production, I believe Nigeria ought to embrace the idea. It could boost rice production and enhance food security. It would also help in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of <a href="https://www.undp.org/sustainable-development-goals?gclid=CjwKCAjwsvujBhAXEiwA_UXnAIdXCRGZ_FgwPqKvA2ALsMEti6Io1cq3J4ovAoFVtsRvFi83dbj7JxoCvhIQAvD_BwE">zero hunger</a> before 2030.</p>
<p>In this article I offer five steps towards this.</p>
<h2>Wastewater for irrigation</h2>
<p>Information is scanty on the amount of wastewater generated in Nigeria but Lagos, the most populous state, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350034778_Sustainable_groundwater_management_in_Lagos_Nigeria_the_regulatory_framework">produces 350 million gallons (1.3 billion litres) of wastewater daily</a>. </p>
<p>If one-quarter of that water were to be recycled for rice production, nearly 75% of Nigeria’s rice shortage would be eliminated. This is based on an <a href="https://www.medwelljournals.com/abstract/?doi=rjagr.2007.71.75">estimated average water applied of 450mm, and maximum consumptive water use of 3.35mm/day to produce 1.36 tonnes per hectare</a> from a rice field in Ibadan, south-west Nigeria. </p>
<p>In many parts of the world, especially in developing countries such as China, India and Mexico, wastewater has become an important source for <a href="https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/wat2.1234">agricultural irrigation</a>. It is estimated that <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095311921638534">20 million hectares of cropland are irrigated with wastewater globally</a>, accounting for nearly 10% of the irrigated agricultural land. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.hydrotech-group.com/blog/wastewater-treatment-across-the-world-which-countries-recycle-the-most-and-where-is-the-best-water-quality#:%7E:text=Israel%20is%20the%20world%20leader,of%20it%20in%20agricultural%20irrigation.">Israel recycles nearly 90% of its wastewater</a> and uses most of it for irrigation. Europe recycles <a href="https://www.hydrotech-group.com/blog/wastewater-treatment-across-the-world-which-countries-recycle-the-most-and-where-is-the-best-water-quality">60% of its wastewater</a>. <a href="https://iiste.org/Journals/index.php/JEDS/article/viewFile/30832/31665#page=1">Most African countries</a>, except Egypt, Morocco and Algeria, are yet to tap into the benefits of wastewater treatment for reuse, especially for agriculture. </p>
<p>Different methods of wastewater treatment have been tried for use in irrigation with various degrees of success. The most cost-effective is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/biological-wastewater-treatment">treatment using plants</a>, known as phytoremediation. This process uses various types of plants to remove, transfer, stabilise or destroy contaminants in soil and wastewater. It is economically feasible, environmentally and eco-friendly, prevents erosion, and improves soil fertility.</p>
<h2>Nigerian rice production</h2>
<p>Based on my research I suggest Nigeria could increase rice production by following these steps.</p>
<p><strong>1. Identify reliable sources of wastewater supply</strong></p>
<p>For wastewater to be a major alternative source of water for rice irrigation, it has to be reliable and dependable. So, the first step is to identify sources and ascertain their reliability. Rice has to be irrigated for a minimum of 90 days (depending on the variety). </p>
<p><strong>2. Structured harvesting of wastewater</strong></p>
<p>There needs to be an organised way of collecting wastewater. In an organised society, waste is collected strategically and sorted to make processing and recycling relatively easy. </p>
<p><strong>3. Wastewater treatment using phytoremediation</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/phytoremediation-17359669/#:%7E:text=Phytoremediation%20basically%20refers%20to%20the,cost%2Deffective%20environmental%20restoration%20technology.">Phytoremediation</a> is the use of plants and associated soil microbes to reduce the concentrations or toxic effects of contaminants in the environment. It is widely accepted as a cost-effective environmental restoration technology. </p>
<p>All the different categories of wastewater (domestic, industrial and so on) should be treated before administering to plants, except aquaculture wastewater, which already has nutrients that are beneficial to rice crop growth. Extreme caution must be taken when using wastewater for irrigation, especially on some vegetables and fruits that tend to accumulate contaminants that could harm human health. </p>
<p><strong>4. Increase rice cultivation using wastewater for irrigation</strong></p>
<p>Administering the treated wastewater into rice fields in a pre-determined manner and quantity is necessary for growth and optimum yield. Irrigation scheduling can ensure rice cultivation all year round irrespective of climatic variability.</p>
<p><strong>5. Increase land under cultivation using irrigated wastewater</strong></p>
<p>Rice is cultivated on <a href="https://farmcenta.com/shop/prod/31">about 3.7 million hectares of land in Nigeria</a>, representing 10.6% of the 35 million hectares of land under cultivation, out of a total arable land area of 70 million hectares. Out of the 3.7 million hectares under rice cultivation, 77% is rain-fed. The area could be tripled (11.1 million hectares) using treated wastewater. This would lead to higher grain yield, which would increase availability, lower prices and ensure self-sufficiency.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206787/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Oluwakunmi Akinbile receives funding from The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
Christopher Oluwakunmi Akinbile works at the Federal University of Technology Akure, Nigeria</span></em></p>
Nigeria can produce more rice to feed its burgeoning population by harnessing its wastewater.
Christopher Oluwakunmi Akinbile, Professor of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Akure
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204692
2023-06-12T20:00:49Z
2023-06-12T20:00:49Z
Do you need to wash rice before cooking? Here’s the science
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527941/original/file-20230524-21-2zy4a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=242%2C44%2C5595%2C3943&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/jasmine-rice-cooking-electric-cooker-steam-1786700948">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Rice is a staple food for billions of people in Asia and Africa. It’s also a versatile ingredient for many iconic dishes from around the world, including dolmades from Greece, risottos from Italy, paella from Spain and rice puddings from the United Kingdom.</p>
<p>Despite its universal appeal, the question asked in every kitchen, be it a professional one or your own home, is whether you should pre-wash (or rinse) your rice before cooking.</p>
<h2>What do chefs and cooks say?</h2>
<p>Culinary experts claim pre-washing rice <a href="https://www.americastestkitchen.com/articles/3946-do-you-really-need-to-rinse-your-rice">reduces the amount of starch</a> coming from the rice grains. You can see this in the cloudy rinse water, which <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924224416300619">studies have shown</a> to be the free starch (amylose) on the surface of the rice grain produced by the milling process. </p>
<p>In culinary circles, washing is advocated for some dishes when a separated grain is sought after. Yet for other dishes such as risottos, paella and rice puddings (where you need a sticky, creamy effect), washing is avoided.</p>
<p>Other factors, such as the type of rice, family tradition, local health warnings and even the perceived time and effort required will influence whether people pre-wash their rice.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527943/original/file-20230524-19-867jpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Close-up of a golden mushroom risotto with flakes of parmesan on top" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527943/original/file-20230524-19-867jpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527943/original/file-20230524-19-867jpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527943/original/file-20230524-19-867jpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527943/original/file-20230524-19-867jpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527943/original/file-20230524-19-867jpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527943/original/file-20230524-19-867jpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527943/original/file-20230524-19-867jpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">For risotto, traditionally cooked with arborio rice, rinsing the rice is not recommended, to help enhance the creamy texture of the dish.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/macro-close-small-portion-fungi-risotto-173037734">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Is there evidence that washing rice makes it less sticky?</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308814618313293#b0005">recent study</a> compared the effect of washing on the stickiness and hardness of three different types of rice from the same supplier. The three types were glutinous rice, medium grain rice and jasmine rice. These different rices were either not washed at all, washed three times with water, or washed ten times with water.</p>
<p>Contrary to what chefs will tell you, this study showed the washing process had no effect on the stickiness (or hardness) of the rice. </p>
<p>Instead, the researchers demonstrated the stickiness was not due to the surface starch (amylose), but rather a different starch called amylopectin that is leached out of the rice grain during the cooking process. The amount leached differed between the types of rice grains.</p>
<p>So, it’s the variety of rice – rather than washing – that’s critical to the stickiness. In this study, glutinous rice was the stickiest, while medium grain rice and jasmine rice were less sticky, and also harder as tested in the laboratory. (Hardness is representative of the textures associated with biting and chewing.)</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527944/original/file-20230524-29-eqan30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Close-up of a fried rice dish with chicken, vegetables and a sunny side egg on top" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527944/original/file-20230524-29-eqan30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527944/original/file-20230524-29-eqan30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527944/original/file-20230524-29-eqan30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527944/original/file-20230524-29-eqan30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527944/original/file-20230524-29-eqan30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527944/original/file-20230524-29-eqan30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527944/original/file-20230524-29-eqan30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fried rice dishes, such as nasi goreng, tend to use less sticky varieties of rice, leading to a more fluffy texture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/fried-rice-nasi-goreng-chicken-egg-759039364">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>You may still want to wash your rice, though</h2>
<p>Traditionally rice was washed to rinse off dust, insects, little stones and bits of husk left from the rice hulling process. This may still be important for some regions of the world where the processing is not as meticulous, and may provide peace of mind for others. </p>
<p>More recently, with the heavy use of plastics in the food supply chain, microplastics have been found in our foods, including rice. The washing process has been shown to rinse up to 20% of the plastics <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304389421007421?via%3Dihub">from uncooked rice</a>.</p>
<p>This same study found that irrespective of the packaging (plastic or paper bags) you buy rice in, it contains the same level of microplastics. The researchers also showed plastics in (pre-cooked) instant rice have been found to be fourfold higher than in uncooked rice. If you pre-rinse instant rice, you could reduce plastics by 40%.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/youre-eating-microplastics-in-ways-you-dont-even-realise-97649">You're eating microplastics in ways you don't even realise</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Rice is also known to contain relatively high levels of arsenic, due to the crop absorbing more arsenic as it grows. <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23245893/">Washing rice has been shown to remove</a> about 90% of bio-accessible arsenic, but it also rinses out a large amount of other nutrients important for our health, including copper, iron, zinc and vanadium.</p>
<p>For some people, rice offers a small percentage of their daily intake of these nutrients and hence will have a small impact on their health. But for populations that consume large amounts of heavily washed rice daily, it could impact their overall nutrition.</p>
<p><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29363749/">Another study</a> looked at other heavy metals, lead and cadmium, in addition to arsenic; it found that pre-washing decreased levels of all these from between 7–20%. The <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/arsenic#:%7E:text=Long%2Dterm%20exposure%20to%20arsenic,increased%20deaths%20in%20young%20adults.">World Health Organization has warned </a> of the risk of arsenic exposure from water and food.</p>
<p>Arsenic levels in rice vary depending on where it’s grown, the cultivars of rice and the ways it is cooked. The best advice remains to pre-wash your rice and ensure you <a href="https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/guidelines/australian-guide-healthy-eating">consume a variety of grains</a>. The most <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16124284/">recent study in 2005</a> found that the highest level of arsenic was in the United States. However it is important to keep in mind that arsenic is present in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969714010614">other foods</a> including products made from rice (cakes, crackers, biscuits and cereals), seaweed, seafood and vegetables.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/high-levels-of-cancer-causing-arsenic-in-rice-so-why-isnt-it-regulated-in-our-food-33691">High levels of cancer-causing arsenic in rice – so why isn’t it regulated in our food?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Can washing rice prevent bacteria?</h2>
<p>In short, no. Washing rice will have no effect on the bacterial content of the cooked rice, as high cooking temperatures will kill all bacteria present.</p>
<p>What is more concerning is how long you store cooked rice or washed rice at room temperature. Cooking rice does not kill the bacterial spores from a pathogen called <em><a href="https://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumer/safety/foodborne-illness/Pages/bacillus-cereus-.aspx">Bacillus cereus</a></em>.</p>
<p>If wet rice or cooked rice is kept at room temperature, this can activate the bacterial spores and they begin to grow. These bacteria then produce toxins which can not be deactivated by cooking or re-heating; these toxins can cause severe gastrointestinal disease. So, make sure you avoid keeping washed or cooked rice at room temperature for too long.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204692/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Evangeline Mantzioris is affiliated with Alliance for Research in Nutrition, Exercise and Activity (ARENA) at the University of South Australia. Evangeline Mantzioris has received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, and has been appointed to the National Health and Medical Research Council Dietary Guideline Expert Committee.</span></em></p>
Some people swear by it, while others don’t bother. But what does the evidence say about washing rice, and when should you do it?
Evangeline Mantzioris, Program Director of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Accredited Practising Dietitian, University of South Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/202084
2023-05-08T12:18:30Z
2023-05-08T12:18:30Z
Gain-of-function research is more than just tweaking risky viruses – it’s a routine and essential tool in all biology research
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523909/original/file-20230502-4095-u8oni1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C94%2C1500%2C1221&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Gain-of-function experiments in the lab can help researchers get ahead of viruses naturally gaining the ability to infect people in the wild.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/molecule-illustration-royalty-free-illustration/1423893041">KTSDesign/Science Photo Library via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The term “gain of function” is often taken to refer to research with viruses that puts society at risk of an infectious disease outbreak for questionable gain. Some research on emerging viruses can result in variants that gain the ability to infect people but this does not necessarily mean the research is dangerous or that it is not fruitful. Concerns have focused on lab research on the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/mar/28/bird-flu-mutant-strains">virus that causes bird flu</a> in 2012 and on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-gain-of-function-research-matters-162493">virus that causes COVID-19</a> since 2020. The National Institutes of Health had previously implemented a <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/nih-lifts-3-year-ban-funding-risky-virus-studies">three-year moratorium</a> on gain-of-function research on certain viruses, and some U.S. legislatures have <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/senate/texas-state-ban-gain-function-research-covid-pandemic">proposed bills prohibiting</a> gain-of-function research on “potentially pandemic pathogens.”</p>
<p>The possibility that a genetically modified virus could escape the lab needs to be taken seriously. But it does not mean that gain-of-function experiments are inherently risky or the purview of mad scientists. In fact, gain-of-function approaches are a fundamental tool in biology used to study much more than just viruses, contributing to many, if not most, modern discoveries in the field, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.3201%2Feid2305.161556">penicillin</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/anti-cancer-car-t-therapy-reengineers-t-cells-to-kill-tumors-and-researchers-are-expanding-the-limited-types-of-cancer-it-can-target-196471">cancer immunotherapies</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150204134119.htm">drought-resistant crops</a>.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=IXDoiY4AAAAJ&hl=en">scientists who</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=GBQiazwAAAAJ&hl=en">study viruses</a>, we believe that misunderstanding the term “gain of function” as something nefarious comes at the cost of progress in human health, ecological sustainability and technological advancement. Clarifying what gain-of-function research really is can help clarify why it is an essential scientific tool.</p>
<h2>What is gain of function?</h2>
<p>To study how a living thing operates, scientists can change a specific part of it and then observe the effects. These changes sometimes result in the organism’s gaining a function it didn’t have before or losing a function it once had. </p>
<p>For example, if the goal is to enhance the tumor-killing ability of immune cells, researchers can take a sample of a person’s immune cells and modify them to express a protein that specifically targets cancer cells. This mutated immune cell, called a <a href="https://theconversation.com/anti-cancer-car-t-therapy-reengineers-t-cells-to-kill-tumors-and-researchers-are-expanding-the-limited-types-of-cancer-it-can-target-196471">CAR-T cell</a> thereby “gains the function” of being able to bind to cancerous cells and kill them. The advance of similar immunotherapies that help the immune system attack cancer cells is based on the exploratory research of scientists who synthesized such “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00820662">Frankenstein” proteins</a> in the 1980s. At that time, there was no way to know how useful these chimeric proteins would be to cancer treatment today, some 40 years later. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mXADrg_ckhI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">CAR-T cell therapy involves giving a patient’s immune cells an increased ability to target cancer cells.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similarly, by adding specific genes into rice, corn or wheat plants that increase their production in diverse climates, scientists have been able to produce plants that are able to grow and thrive in geographical regions they previously could not. This is a critical advance to maintain food supplies in the face of climate change. Well-known examples of food sources that have their origins in gain-of-function research <a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/rice-agriculture-feeds-world-climate-change-drought-flood-risk">include rice plants</a> that can grow in high flood plains or in drought conditions or that contain vitamin A to reduce malnutrition.</p>
<h2>Medical advances from gain-of-function research</h2>
<p>Gain-of-function experiments are ingrained in the scientific process. In many instances, the benefits that stem from gain-of-function experiments are not immediately clear. Only decades later does the research bring a new treatment to the clinic or a new technology within reach. </p>
<p>The development of most antibiotics have relied on the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2021.684515">manipulation of bacteria or mold</a> in gain-of-function experiments. Alexander Fleming’s initial discovery that the mold <em>Penicillium rubens</em> could produce a compound toxic to bacteria was a profound medical advance. But it wasn’t until scientists experimented with <a href="https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/how-was-penicillin-developed">growth conditions and mold strains</a> that therapeutic use of penicillin became feasible. Using a specific growth medium allowed the mold to gain the function of increased penicillin production, which was essential for its mass production and widespread use as a drug. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523678/original/file-20230501-1518-hmu9o0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Worker monitoring penicillin capsules coming down production line" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523678/original/file-20230501-1518-hmu9o0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523678/original/file-20230501-1518-hmu9o0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523678/original/file-20230501-1518-hmu9o0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523678/original/file-20230501-1518-hmu9o0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523678/original/file-20230501-1518-hmu9o0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523678/original/file-20230501-1518-hmu9o0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523678/original/file-20230501-1518-hmu9o0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gain-of-function research played a key role in the development and mass production of penicillin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/penicillin-capsules-being-checked-as-they-come-off-the-news-photo/2667016">Wesley/Stringer/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Research on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1128%2FAAC.02381-18">antibiotic resistance</a> also relies heavily on gain-of-function approaches. Studying how bacteria <a href="https://theconversation.com/looming-behind-antibiotic-resistance-is-another-bacterial-threat-antibiotic-tolerance-200226">gain resistance</a> against drugs is essential to developing new treatments microbes are unable to evade quickly.</p>
<p>Gain-of-function research in virology has also been critical to the advancement of science and health. <a href="https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2018/oncolytic-viruses-to-treat-cancer">Oncolytic viruses</a> are genetically modified in the laboratory to infect and kill cancerous cells like melanoma. Similarly, the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/overview-COVID-19-vaccines.html">Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine</a> contains an adenovirus altered to produce the spike protein that helps the COVID-19 virus infect cells. Scientists developed <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/(SICI)1099-1654(199910/12)9:4%3C237::AID-RMV252%3E3.0.CO;2-G">live attenuated flu vaccines</a> by adapting them to grow at low temperatures and thereby lose the ability to grow at human lung temperatures. </p>
<p>By giving viruses new functions, scientists were able to develop new tools to treat and prevent disease.</p>
<h2>Nature’s gain-of-function experiments</h2>
<p>Gain-of-function approaches are needed to advance understanding of viruses in part because these processes already occur in nature.</p>
<p>Many viruses that infect such nonhuman animals as bats, pigs, birds and mice have the potential to <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-spillover-bird-flu-outbreak-underscores-need-for-early-detection-to-prevent-the-next-big-pandemic-200494">spill over into people</a>. Every time a virus copies its genome, it makes mistakes. Most of these mutations are detrimental – they reduce a virus’s ability to replicate – but some may allow a virus to replicate faster or better in human cells. Variant viruses with these rare, beneficial mutations will spread better than other variants and therefore come to dominate the viral population – that is <a href="https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/darwin/evolution-today/natural-selection-vista">how natural selection works</a>.</p>
<p>If these viruses can replicate even a little bit within people, they have the potential to adapt and thereby thrive in their new human hosts. That is nature’s gain-of-function experiment, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ve/veaa016">it is</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2020.08.011">happening constantly</a>.</p>
<p>Gain-of-function experiments in the lab can help scientists <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126%2Fscience.1222526">anticipate the changes</a> viruses may undergo in nature by understanding what specific features allow them to transmit between people and infect them. In contrast to nature’s experiments, these are conducted in <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/labs/BMBL.html">highly controlled lab conditions</a> designed to limit infection risk to laboratory personnel and others, including air flow control, personal protective equipment and waste sterilization.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523674/original/file-20230501-20-lxf4la.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People in protective clothing collecting dead pelicans on a beach" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523674/original/file-20230501-20-lxf4la.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523674/original/file-20230501-20-lxf4la.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523674/original/file-20230501-20-lxf4la.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523674/original/file-20230501-20-lxf4la.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523674/original/file-20230501-20-lxf4la.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523674/original/file-20230501-20-lxf4la.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523674/original/file-20230501-20-lxf4la.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Researchers and public health officials are concerned that the bird flu virus is evolving to more readily infect people.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BirdFluMutations/6895d38a33de468c93c14da427b4dfff">Guadalupe Pardo/AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is important that researchers carefully observe lab safety to minimize the theoretical risk of infecting the general population. It is equally important that virologists continue to apply the tools of modern science to gauge the risk of natural viral spillovers before they become outbreaks. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-bird-flu-continues-to-spread-in-the-us-and-worldwide-whats-the-risk-that-it-could-start-a-human-pandemic-4-questions-answered-200204">bird flu outbreak</a> is currently raging across multiple continents. While the H5N1 virus is primarily infecting birds, some people have gotten sick too. More spillover events can change the virus in ways that would allow it to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adi1013">transmit more efficiently among people</a>, potentially leading to a pandemic. </p>
<p>Scientists have a better appreciation of the tangible risk of bird flu spillover because of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1213362">gain-of-function experiments</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10831">published a decade ago</a>. Those lab studies showed that bird flu viruses could be transmitted through the air between ferrets within a few feet of one another. They also revealed multiple features of the evolutionary path the H5N1 virus would need to take before it becomes transmissible in mammals, informing what signatures researchers need to look out for during surveillance of the current outbreak.</p>
<h2>Oversight on gain of function</h2>
<p>Perhaps this sounds like a semantic argument, and in many respects it is. <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2021/12/23/gain-of-function-research-advances-knowledge-and-saves-lives/">Many researchers</a> would likely agree that gain of function as a general tool is an important way to study biology that should not be restricted, while also arguing that it should be curtailed for research on specific dangerous pathogens. The problem with this argument is that pathogen research needs to include gain-of-function approaches in order to be effective – just as in any area of biology.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1128/jvi.00089-23">Oversight of gain-of-function research</a> on potential pandemic pathogens already exists. Multiple layers of safety measures at the institutional and national levels minimize the risks of virus research.</p>
<p>While updates to current oversight are not unreasonable, we believe that <a href="https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/who-we-are/nih-director/statements/statement-report-national-science-advisory-board-biosecurity">blanket bans or additional restrictions</a> on gain-of-function research do not make society safer. They may instead slow research in areas ranging from cancer therapies to agriculture. Clarifying which specific research areas are of concern regarding gain-of-function approaches can help identify how the current oversight framework can be improved.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202084/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Seema Lakdawala receives funding from National Institutes of Health and the Flu Lab. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anice Lowen receives research funding from the National Institutes of Health and Flu Lab. </span></em></p>
From cancer immunotherapy and antibiotics to GMO crops and pandemic surveillance, gain of function is a cornerstone of basic research.
Seema Lakdawala, Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Emory University and Adjunct Professor Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Pittsburgh
Anice Lowen, Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Emory University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/199833
2023-04-27T18:02:36Z
2023-04-27T18:02:36Z
Could African farmers slash their reliance on mineral fertilisers by growing legumes?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522831/original/file-20230425-18-ztm7x9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">file dklr j</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Ending hunger by 2030 is one of the Sustainable Development Goals set by the UN. This is a huge challenge in sub-Saharan Africa, where one third of all households are still <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26712016/">exposed to food insecurity</a>. To meet the demand of the rapidly growing African population, there is widespread consensus that farmers need to boost <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1610359113">cereal crop yields</a>. </p>
<p>Crop yields in the region are severely limited by depleted soils, following decades of relentless cropping with insufficient fertilisation. This is because African farmers struggle to access affordable mineral fertilisers, while a lack of biomass also places organic fertilisers out of reach. </p>
<p>Currently, the quantity of nitrogen input would need to increase 15-fold to produce the cereal crop yields <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211912418301445">required for food security</a>.</p>
<h2>The precious nutrients in green manure</h2>
<p>Mineral fertilisers provide one solution to inject nitrogen into crops. Although they are crucial for improving cereal crop yields, they can nevertheless harm the environment if used in excess, and are often too expensive for farmers. The war in Ukraine has only worsened the region’s fertiliser shortage, though <a href="https://www.ifpri.org/blog/russia-ukraine-war-after-year-impacts-fertilizer-production-prices-and-trade-flows">prices have stabilised</a> since their peak in 2022. </p>
<p>Another fertilising method seeks to harness the nitrogen from legumes. Through symbiotic bacteria, these plants have the unique ability to fix nitrogen present in the atmosphere to their tissues. To secure it for cereals cultures, farmers can adopt a technique consisting in growing legumes and pushing their residues into the soil prior to sowing cereals seeds.</p>
<p>This effect is well known in temperate and tropical systems, but can vary considerably from one year to another. In cases where there is an abrupt temperature increase, legume residues will decompose more rapidly, while heavy rains can cause the nitrogen obtained by residue decomposition to leach.</p>
<h2>Fertilizers, climate and rice growth in Madagascar</h2>
<p>For more than 20 years, FOFIFA (institute of agronomic research in Madagascar) and CIRAD have been exploring different avenues aimed at sustainably intensifying agricultural production in Madagascar and alleviating poverty.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378429022002829">In a recent study</a>, we looked at the possibility of boosting the yields of a rain-fed rice fields in Madagascar by replacing some of the mineral fertilizers with green manure. The <a href="https://www.presidence.gov.mg/19-a-la-une/66-la-ligne-directrice-de-la-pge.html">country’s state policy</a> provides for an increased in rice production in order to ensure food self-sufficiency in the country.</p>
<p>Both the saturation of the floodplains used for irrigated rice and the emergence of upland rice varieties have led many farmers to take up rain-fed rice cultivation in Madagascar’s highlands. </p>
<p>However, they currently obtain an <a href="https://agritrop.cirad.fr/586881/1/2017_SPAD_Description_EA_Moyen%20Ouest.pdf">average yield of 1.6 t/ha</a>, which is well below the maximum yield of around 4 to 6 t/ha that can be obtained in research stations under experimental conditions, in other words when nutrients are not limited and when pests – insects, diseases, weeds – are controlled.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wHOZn_fRNXY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">How will rice react to climate change? (CIRAD, September 2019)</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Mucuna and Crotalaria</h2>
<p><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506616/original/file-20230126-24-b090i3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"></a>C rotalaria. CIRAD, provided by the author</p>
<p>In our experiment, the green manure grown was a combination of “Mucuna” and “Crotalaria” legumes. Thanks to their complementary growth and above-ground structures, these two plants can produce a large quantity of plant biomass and thereby fix atmospheric nitrogen. This green manure was grown during the rainy season in the first year of a two-year rotation based on rain-fed rice, and residues were then incorporated into the soil, before tillage and rice sowing for the following crop season.</p>
<p>The rotation was repeated twice for the purposes of the experiment and compared to rice monoculture. We conducted in-depth monitoring of this experiment, measuring the quantity of nitrogen in soil and plants, the dynamics of rice growth, the biomass produced and the grain yield. The data collected enabled us to adapt a crop simulation model to the case of rain-fed rice in Madagascar, in order to reproduce the impact of green manure incorporation and decomposition on rice growth.</p>
<h2>A promising model</h2>
<p>The model then enabled us to explore the potential advantages of green manure for rice growth, for 24 hypothetical rice growing seasons, built using climate measurements corresponding to our study region, for the period from 1994 to 2018. In this virtual experiment, we set the quantity of green manure incorporated into the soil prior to rice cultivation at 6 t/ha (or 140 kg of nitrogen), based on results obtained in the field.</p>
<p>Our findings showed that the cultivation and integration of green manure made it possible to reduce the mineral fertilizers required to improve rice yields. We set the target yield at 3.7 t/ha, or <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167880921002802">75% of the maximum yield obtained in the on-station experiments</a>. We achieved this with 40 kg/ha of nitrogen provided by mineral fertilizers when green manure was added to the soil. By way of comparison, more than double this quantity or 100 kg/ha, was necessary without the use of green manure.</p>
<h2>Trade-offs to be made</h2>
<p>This promising practice nevertheless requires considerable adjustments to make it appealing to family farms in Madagascar. Three key aspects need to be taken into consideration.</p>
<p>First, and as previously noted, heavy rainfall will dampen the benefits of green manure on rice productivity. To tackle this, farmers will have to dynamically manage residues and fertilisers and tailor them to individual crops.</p>
<p>Next, the gains linked to the use green manure do not entirely offset the losses resulting from its cultivation. In the process, farmers have to use a part of the land that would otherwise serve to grow rice for self-sufficiency. Crop rotation remedy this problem, as well as helping (<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167880921002802">control pests, nematodes and weeds, higher soil fertility over time and maintain biodiversity</a>).</p>
<p>Finally, crop residues are typically left on the land to be grazed by cattle in the region. Alternative solutions are therefore required to feed cattle, and suitable value chains need to be developed to guarantee supplies for these farmers, who often live a long way from any infrastructure. It is also essential to once again ensure that mechanisms exist to offset this additional spending for farms, the majority of which live on <a href="https://agritrop.cirad.fr/586881/1/2017_SPAD_Description_EA_Moyen%20Ouest.pdf">less than 540 euros per year per agricultural worker</a>.</p>
<h2>Dual purpose legumes</h2>
<p>Obstacles linked to rainfall can be overcome by adjusting the dates at which green manure is incorporated and rice is sown. The model that we have calibrated can help to make this type of assessment <em>in silico</em>.</p>
<p>Likewise, farmers needn’t have to make the choice between food security and fertilisers. Certain pulse crops, such as groundnuts, can be both used as green manure and sustenance for farmers. Experiments in Southern Africa are currently focusing on the assessment of these “dual” legume crop rotations. However, it is important to ensure a market exists for these products with a sufficiently high price. </p>
<p>Time is short, but we are convinced that a change can occur rapidly to transform the current cereal production system toward greater productivity and sustainability. Solutions exist, including green manure, but extension officers, researchers, value chain actors and policymakers need to help farmers to invest in these techniques that will maximize production in the short term, but will be more sustainable in the long term.</p>
<p>Recent decades have seen the emergence of many talented African researchers. Now it is up to the leaders to make decisions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199833/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aude Ripoche has received funding from Agropolis (Stradiv Project n°1504-003) and CGIAR (CRP Rice programme).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>François Affholder, Gatien Falconnier, Lalaina Ranaivoson et Louise Leroux ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur poste universitaire.</span></em></p>
Growing legumes could at once provide African farmers with fertilisers and food crops. However, researchers warn this is not a one-size-fits-all solution.
Lalaina Ranaivoson, Chercheure en agronomie, Cirad
Aude Ripoche, Chercheure en agronomie du système de culture et modélisatrice, Cirad
François Affholder, Principal Investigator in Agro-ecology and sustainable intensification research unit, Cirad
Gatien Falconnier, Écologue agronome, Cirad
Louise Leroux, PhD, Remote sensing scientist, Cirad
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/178684
2022-03-16T14:01:12Z
2022-03-16T14:01:12Z
Why the cost of food is not yielding to Nigeria’s government policies
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451571/original/file-20220311-18-oa09dj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Threatened by insecurity, Nigerian farmers are increasingly abandoning their land, adding to food inflation</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Kola Sulaimon/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nigeria has had a series of policies directed towards improving food supply at affordable prices. <a href="https://www.irglobal.com/article/impact-of-selected-agricultural-policies-and-intervention-programs-in-nigeria-1960-till-date/">Policies</a> have kept coming since the 1960s, including the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0309586X85900779">National Accelerated Food Production Programme of 1972</a> and the most recent – <a href="https://sciencenigeria.com/natip-policy-implementation-will-fast-track-agricultural-revolution-shehuri/">the National Agricultural Technology and Innovation Policy of 2021 to 2025</a>. </p>
<p>Essentially, these policies aimed at improving food production, through land reform, mass literacy, affordable funding, subsidised farm inputs, research, mechanisation, linkages and extension services. </p>
<p>Yet food prices have continued to rise. </p>
<p>I have previously <a href="https://theconversation.com/food-prices-in-nigeria-have-shot-through-the-roof-but-is-the-pandemic-to-blame-144028">written</a> about food price inflation in recent times, arguing that the COVID pandemic was not solely responsible. Other drivers included the dearth of capital, technology, infrastructural facilities and insurgency.</p>
<p>These factors still feature prominently as drivers of food inflation in Nigeria. They show that policies aimed at tackling food inflation have failed.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pandemic-underscores-flaws-in-nigerias-farming-and-food-supply-chains-156998">Pandemic underscores flaws in Nigeria's farming and food supply chains</a>
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<p>Well out of the COVID lockdown, <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1118891/monthly-consumer-price-index-in-nigeria/">Nigeria’s consumer price index</a> has persistently increased. Between September 2020 and January 2021, there was an 8.13% increase, and a further rise of 8.07% by July 2021. By January 2022, the composite food index <a href="https://nairametrics.com/2022/02/25/fuel-scarcity-drives-food-prices-up-in-lagos-as-traders-lament-surge-in-transport-cost/">rose</a> by <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/nigeria/food-inflation">17.13% year on year</a>, in spite of government efforts to stabilise food prices. </p>
<p>An example is the <a href="https://allafrica.com/stories/202201180515.html">rice pyramid initiative</a> by the federal government. In a bid to improve the local supply of rice and suppress prices, the government, through the Central Bank’s <a href="https://www.cbn.gov.ng/Out/2021/CCD/ABP%20Guidelines%20October%2013%202021%20-%20Final%20(002).pdf">Anchor Borrower’s fund</a>, supported local rice farmers to double their production capacity between 2015 and 2021. The output of that programme was stacked in pyramids displayed to the public in January 2022. Two months after this display of rice, the price of the staple food rose by 15%. </p>
<p>This is further evidence of some disconnection between policy and results. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-nigeria-should-first-support-rice-farmers-before-it-cuts-off-imports-108095">Why Nigeria should first support rice farmers before it cuts off imports</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The reason policies haven’t worked is that they lack substance and are not implemented appropriately. The danger is that food inflation will continue if these problems are not attended to. </p>
<p>The government needs to be more inclusive in formulating policies. From the start, it should involve those who will implement these policies. </p>
<h2>2022 food prices</h2>
<p>The price of a 50kg bag of rice rose by 17.58% from March 2021 to March 2022. A 100kg bag of beans became 5% more expensive in the same period. Tomatoes went up by <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1121161/prices-of-selected-food-products-in-nigeria/">11.93%</a> for a 60kg basket and onions by 5.27%.</p>
<p>Most Nigerians can’t afford meat, a source of protein. The price of boneless beef rose 24.4%, frozen chicken prices 14.3%, and titus fish (mackerel) a whopping 34.5%. </p>
<p>Perhaps the most jarring are the <a href="https://nairametrics.com/2022/02/25/fuel-scarcity-drives-food-prices-up-in-lagos-as-traders-lament-surge-in-transport-cost/">45.5%</a> increase in the price of eggs and the 44.4% increase in the price of bread. The price of milk has increased by 50% and noodles by 24%. </p>
<p>Fruits are no longer within the reach of lower earners, as essential as they are for a balanced diet. Price increases have ranged from <a href="https://www.legit.ng/1401550-legitng-weekly-price-check-traders-reveal-top-seasonal-fruits-lagos-market.html">50% to 100%</a>.</p>
<p>The cost of <a href="https://punchng.com/transport-fares-jump-by-283-amid-rising-fuel-subsidy-nbs-report/">transport</a>, which is a key service required for food supply, increased by 283% between January 2017 and December 2021. This was without an official fuel pump price increase. </p>
<h2>What’s going wrong</h2>
<p>Obviously, the rate at which food prices have risen shows that they do not reflect the expected outcomes of government policies aimed at tackling the cost of food. </p>
<p>My <a href="https://theconversation.com/food-prices-in-nigeria-have-shot-through-the-roof-but-is-the-pandemic-to-blame-144028">previous research</a> highlighted some of the reasons, including inadequate financing, technological know-how and banditry.</p>
<p>A further factor is errors of policy. As I have found in my <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/jafrideve.21.1.0096">research</a> that focused on the agribusiness value chain in sub-Saharan Africa, increased technology and land usage have not improved output. This indicated the possibility that digital technology introduced into the agriculture value chain was not being accessed by those who really needed them or would have used the technology. </p>
<p>Firstly, policy makers often lack the deep and intensive preliminary groundwork they need. Policies therefore lack substance. Policy formulation requires deeper work, broader scope, workability testing and the inclusion of those who will eventually implement the policy. These elements are often missing in the various policies Nigeria has designed to tackle rising food prices. </p>
<p>Secondly, policies are usually implemented in a way that is detached from the formulation process. This often flows from the fact that those who must implement the policy are not carried along in its formulation. Since they were not part of the formulation, what they require in implementation is often not taken into consideration. The policies become unworkable and unimplementable. </p>
<p>Another factor in food price inflation is Nigeria’s rate of population growth. Policies often fail to take adequate account of this. In 2022, the population <a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/NGA/nigeria/population-growth-rate">growth rate</a> is expected to be 2.53%. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nigerias-2022-census-is-overdue-but-preparation-is-in-doubt-177781">Nigeria's 2022 census is overdue but preparation is in doubt</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This explains the need to import enormous quantities to meet demand. For example, <a href="https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/nigeria-agriculture-sector">52%</a> of the rice demand was met from imports in 2018. For wheat, 99.7% of total demand is sourced from imports. About 70% of dairy products demand is imported. </p>
<p>This is why price volatility in the global commodity market directly affects domestic food prices in Nigeria. For instance, Russia’s war on Ukraine could destabilise international trade and the commodity market and this would have direct implications for food prices in Nigeria.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-russia-ukraine-conflict-could-influence-africas-food-supplies-177843">How Russia-Ukraine conflict could influence Africa's food supplies</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Though policies have acknowledged the need to produce more, the supply of food has not improved. One reason is these deficiencies in formulation and implementation of policy. </p>
<h2>How to get ahead</h2>
<p>The government needs to be more inclusive by incorporating its officials at state and local government levels as well as smallholder farmers and other key players in the agricultural value chain in the formulation of policies that they would later be expected to implement. </p>
<p>This improves understanding, enhances commitment and optimises the policy progress monitoring. </p>
<p>The country needs to import less food and produce more, sustainably. </p>
<p>Nigeria can achieve sufficient food supply at reasonable prices. It only requires policies that focus on relevant issues, and their sound execution.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178684/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Folasade Bosede Adegboye does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In spite of policies aimed at tackling food inflation, food prices in Nigeria have continued to rise.
Folasade Bosede Adegboye, Senior Lecturer in Finance, Covenant University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/172596
2022-01-05T16:02:17Z
2022-01-05T16:02:17Z
A competitive cooking show puts a humble fermented rice dish on the global stage
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436732/original/file-20211209-25-116pmlz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6000%2C3997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A growing interest in fermented foods may direct people to a Bengali fermented rice dish.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 175px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/a-competitive-cooking-show-puts-a-humble-fermented-rice-dish-on-the-global-stage" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>It was Kishwar Chowdhury, a competitor and second runner-up on the 13th season of <em>MasterChef Australia</em>, <a href="https://www.indiatimes.com/entertainment/originals/meet-kishwar-chowdhury-who-is-making-aloo-bhorta-panta-bhat-popular-in-masterchef-australia-544845.html">who made a dish called panta bhat internationally famous</a>. A rather humble dish from eastern India (Assam, Odisha and West Bengal) and Bangladesh, one could never have imagined it achieving such a level of critical acclaim.</p>
<p>Panta bhat is cooked parboiled rice that is soaked in cold water and left to ferment. Very often it’s left overnight, although some may even ferment it longer. The rice is then eaten with accompaniments that can vary depending on the economic condition of the family or the individual — ranging from basics like mustard oil, raw onion and green chillies to more elaborate sides like fried fish, batter-fried veggies and potatoes. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mOc1QdNHHEw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">How to make panta bhat.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fermenting in pond water</h2>
<p>Ten years ago, panta bhat was <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/764530">associated with several cases of cholera</a>. The dish is a rural staple and popular breakfast in eastern India and Bangladesh, but the use of contaminated water in the preparation of the rice created the perfect conditions for the development of disease. </p>
<p>Using pond water in making panta bhat <a href="https://doi.org/10.3329/jhpn.v29i5.8895">had been a major cause of the disease</a>. There were several public health campaigns that were specifically designed to prevent the villagers from using pond water, but they were often ineffective. </p>
<p>Despite its role in causing cholera, the popularity of the dish never declined. It’s a cheap meal that needs no refrigeration. Further, one can cook the rice in a pot and soak the leftovers in the same pot. Finally, it is not only cheap and convenient, but also needs very little time to make.</p>
<p>The role of panta bhat is so central to Bengal that there is a popular folkloric figure called Panta Buri — “old woman who eats panta” — who has many adventures after a thief steals her panta bhat. In order to seek justice for the theft, she goes on a long journey to meet the king. On her way, she meets many eclectic characters like a talking knife, a catfish, a bael (a native fruit species) and an alligator. While the characters change in different versions, <a href="https://golpojuri.blogspot.com/2019/12/panta-buri-bangla-golpo.html">the context of her journey remains the same</a>. </p>
<p>Panta bhat is a dish that reflects the soul of rural Bengal. Yet the dish has now made it to a very popular television show, and feeds into the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizzysaxe/2019/02/06/fermented-foods-are-up-149-percent-as-long-as-theyre-unfamiliar/">growing interest in fermented foods</a>. </p>
<p>Panta bhat is an acquired taste — a penchant for fermented rice is certainly not as widespread as, say, fried potatoes. Immigrant chefs are now pushing us towards bolder taste, a taste that is defiant, and not overshadowed by past colonial ambivalence. </p>
<h2>Acceptance through food</h2>
<p>Increasingly, immigrants have become unapologetic about their culinary roots. For example, British-Ghanaian chef Zoe Adjonyoh actively discusses issues like colonialism and racism that <a href="https://www.foodandwine.com/chefs/chef-zoe-adjonyoh-is-not-here-to-summarize-african-food-for-you">influence how traditional cuisines are perceived and accepted</a>. Nadiya Hussein became popular after winning the 2015 season of <em>The Great British Bake Off</em>, and helped <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/apr/18/nadiya-hussain-i-never-even-dreamed-of-being-a-part-of-all-this">popularize unique fusion foods through her writing and a series of television cooking shows</a>.</p>
<p>This interest in ethnic cuisines can also be seen in the growing number of food shows and documentaries like <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/david-chang-ugly-delicious-asian-american-culture_n_5a85c109e4b0774f31d33120"><em>Ugly Delicious</em></a>, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-20/this-netflix-series-gets-to-the-heart-of-black-american-food-culture"><em>High on the Hog</em></a>, <a href="https://time.com/5896336/china-us-food-flavorful-origins-netflix/"><em>Flavorful Origins</em></a> and many others that show a growing interest in the subject and a curiosity about authentic culinary storytelling. </p>
<p>We have a very long way to go when it comes to embracing versatile tastes from non-western cultures. In 2019, American national security affairs professor Tom Nichols felt the need to openly disparage Indian food on Twitter.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1198349042683658241"}"></div></p>
<p>While it sparked a major controversy, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50550735">Nichols’ tweet exposed the fault lines of racism that so frequently get expressed in belittling immigrant tastes</a>.</p>
<p>But there is hope, and a lot of curiosity. Instead of trying to alter and adjust their cuisine to existing western standards, young immigrant chefs are learning about their culinary past, and slowly trying to integrate their unique flavours into the growing world of global cuisine in very honest, authentic ways.</p>
<p>Let’s face it, fermented rice with strong mustard oil and spicy green chillies is like a bold, raw taste of defiance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172596/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aditi Sen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A rice dish’s debut on a cooking competition show reflects the growing acceptance of ethnic foods.
Aditi Sen, Assistant Professor, History, Queen's University, Ontario
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/167924
2021-09-26T08:35:43Z
2021-09-26T08:35:43Z
Ghana’s rice farmers need finance for new technologies, but banks don’t trust them
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422165/original/file-20210920-15-1t72s3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Farmers harvesting rice </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/farmers-busy-harvesting-rice-dakhla-oasis-western-sahara-news-photo/640236621?adppopup=true">DeAgostini/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>New farming technologies have the potential to improve livelihoods and food security in Sub-Saharan Africa. Better seed varieties, soil fertility practices and pest management can all increase productivity. A United Nations Development Programme <a href="https://sdgfinance.undp.org/products-and-country-experiences/knowledge-sharing-report-%E2%80%9Cadvancing-regional-agro-food-value-chains">report</a> says growth in the region’s agriculture is more effective than other economic sectors when it comes to ending hunger and reducing poverty.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19376812.2014.1003308">Steps</a> have been taken over decades to enhance farmers’ access to improved seeds and technologies that are essential to stimulate agricultural transformation on the continent. The efforts were at both <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19376812.2014.929971">local</a>, national and regional levels by government and donors. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2021.665297/abstract">studies</a> continue to show that the adoption rate of modern technologies is low among the region’s farmers. This situation has resulted in poor agricultural productivity, high-levels of food insecurity and rural poverty. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41538-020-00073-0">Over 65%</a> of the households in Sub-Saharan Africa are mainly smallholder farmers, many are poor and vulnerable.</p>
<p>Smallholder farmers in the region have a common problem. They tend to <a href="https://thejournalofbusiness.org/index.php/site/article/view/22/21">lack access to the finance</a> they need to adopt modern technologies. Finance could be in the form of loans or credit.</p>
<p>Using the case of rice farming in Ghana, we conducted a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03736245.2021.1962395">study</a> to understand the challenges smallholder farmers face in accessing loans. We wanted to find out if this was preventing them from adopting modern technologies, and whether these technologies would improve their productivity and incomes. </p>
<p>We found that banks and financial institutions don’t trust smallholder farmers. They relay their mistrust by, for example, requesting outrageous collateral, a high sum of savings capital, and a high-interest rate for agriculture loans. There are also usually long delays in accessing any funds.</p>
<p>We suggest mechanisms to improve access to finance that would help farmers produce more rice. </p>
<h2>Our research</h2>
<p>We interviewed 100 smallholder rice farmers in the Shia-Osuduku district in the Greater Accra region of Ghana. In focus group discussions and interviews, we asked about access to credit and loans, and how this influenced their use of modern production technologies. </p>
<p>We focused on rice farmers because rice is the second most important food crop in Africa. Rice is also a significant <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41538-020-00073-0">source of income</a> for rural farmers. In Ghana, rice is the <a href="http://riceforafrica.net/downloads/CARD%20DOCS/Ghana_Mapping_report_Final_version.pdf">second most important cereal</a> and is fast becoming a cash crop for many farmers. Rice demand in Ghana is <a href="https://journalajaees.com/index.php/AJAEES/article/view/28074">projected</a> to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11.8%. </p>
<p>At the moment, most rice farmers are planting old rice variety seeds using broadcast seeding. These <a href="https://www.scidev.net/sub-saharan-africa/news/new-tech-increase-production/">give</a> poor yields compared to those using modern technologies. Such technologies include new rice varieties, a high-capacity thresher for rice, a mobile application called RiceAdvice that provides tips on rice farming, mechanical weeders that could reduce labour in rice production, and localised farmer advice for nutrient management. </p>
<p>These farmers are optimistic that if they can access these technologies, they will obtain better yields and improve livelihoods but said during a focus group discussion:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We are poor farmers and cannot afford these technologies unless we get some financial support from government or we get loans from banks to invest in these technologies. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another farmer said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you are lucky and you get money from the bank on time, and you invest it in modern technologies, you are sure of a good yield. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Our study revealed that the greatest obstacle to access loans from banks and village savings companies by farmers is the inability of smallholder farmers to pay back loans when the harvest fails or they suffer post-harvest crop losses. A situation that is likely to be reduced to near zero when farmers adopt modern rice technologies that have been proven to be climate-smart as well. </p>
<p>These financial institutions, usually village savings and loan group, microfinance companies or rural banks don’t trust that farmers will be able to repay loans. So they use certain tactics to avoid granting loans. For example they are unwilling to share information about innovative financial products. Or they insist on farmers having huge amount of saving capital before borrowing. Some financial institutions demand outrageous collateral and multiple guarantors for credit. Others impose high interest rates <a href="https://www.businessworldghana.com/agriculture-average-interest-rate-hits-31-0-percent-september-bog-report/">beyond</a> the 31% average interest rate set by the Bank of Ghana in 2017. </p>
<p>Some institutions erect unnecessary bureaucratic delays to process loans for smallholder farmers. </p>
<p>Microfinance companies and rural banks are more willing to approve credit facilities and loans to non-agricultural sectors than to smallholder farmers. Nevertheless, our study shows that farmers who invest in modern technologies such as improved seeds and fertiliser see an increase in yields and household income, and are able to pay back their loan on time. </p>
<p>Overall, 88% of the rice farmers interviewed said their inability to adopt modern technologies to improve productivity and achieve household economic well-being was connected to their lack of access to loans to invest in these technologies. </p>
<h2>What we recommend</h2>
<p>To improve smallholder farmers’ access to loans, government must provide support for the sector. It can introduce agriculture insurance policy systems to reduce the risk of non-payment of loans if harvests fail. This is essential to addressing mistrust by financial institutions of smallholder farmers. </p>
<p>Smallholder farmers should also develop a saving culture and join farmer group associations for collective bargaining for loans from financial institutions. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-affecting-agrarian-migrant-livelihoods-in-ghana-this-is-how-156212">Climate change is affecting agrarian migrant livelihoods in Ghana. This is how</a>
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</p>
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<p>Innovative solutions such as a warehouse receipt financing system that allows farmers to deposit their harvest in a certified warehouse and then be issued with a document called warehouse receipt that they can use to access loans from financial institutions, would address two barriers: lack of savings and lack of collateral and guarantors.</p>
<p>The banks and other financial institutions must employ innovative ways to reduce the bureaucracy in processing loan facilities. They should make more effort to educate farmers about their processes and requirements to acquire loans before the onset of the rainy season. This is critical to enable smallholders to prepare adequately before applying for credit.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167924/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip Tetteh Quarshie receives funding from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund, and the Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. He is also affiliated with the Guelph Institute of Development Studies, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Evan Fraser receives funding from both Canadian and Provincial governments and the Arrell Family Foundation. He is affiliated with the Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council, the Maple Leaf Centre for Action on Food Security and the European Commissions High Level Expert Group on Food Systems Science. </span></em></p>
Smallholder rice farmers in Ghana should be supported by the government to access finance needed to adopt modern technologies for greater productivity.
Philip Tetteh Quarshie, PhD Candidate/Graduate Teaching/Research Assistant, University of Guelph
Evan Fraser, Director of the Arrell Food Institute and Professor in the Dept. of Geography, Environment and Geomatics, University of Guelph
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/146869
2020-09-29T03:18:57Z
2020-09-29T03:18:57Z
Soy, oat, almond, rice, coconut, dairy: which ‘milk’ is best for our health?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360209/original/file-20200928-14-v9izxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5982%2C3988&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A trip to the supermarket presents shoppers with an overwhelming number of milk choices. And far from just being the domain of the modern hipster, plant-based milk alternatives are going mainstream.</p>
<p>These alternatives may be suitable for people who are intolerant to dairy milk, or have ethical or other personal preferences. They tend to be lower in saturated fats and energy than dairy milk, but also lower in protein (except soy) and calcium (unless fortified). Some are also high in added sugars.</p>
<p>As to which milk is best, there’s no simple answer. Dairy milk tends to come out on top for nutrient quality, though soy is a good substitute from a nutrition perspective. And it should be noted these alternatives aren’t technically milks, as they’re not derived from mammals.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the nutritional quality of the different alternatives varies considerably, so it’s important to take note of these differences when making a selection.</p>
<h2>Dairy milk</h2>
<p>Milk provides us with important nutrients including calcium, protein, vitamin B12, vitamin A, vitamin D, riboflavin (B2), zinc, phosphorus and iodine. The quantity and quality of cow’s milk proteins is high, with both whey and casein containing all nine essential amino acids. Milk plays an important role in <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29560832/">bone health</a> and is a particularly rich source of dietary calcium.</p>
<p><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17160208/">Research</a> investigating the ability of the body to absorb and utilise calcium determined the best-absorbed calcium source is dairy milk and its derivatives.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-how-do-our-bones-get-calcium-and-why-do-they-need-it-75227">Explainer: how do our bones get calcium and why do they need it?</a>
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<p>Although dairy foods do contain some saturated fats, the fat in dairy doesn’t seem to be overly problematic for heart health. A large study featuring people from 21 countries, <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31812-9/fulltext">published in 2018</a>, found dairy consumption was associated with lower risk of heart disease and death. </p>
<p>Although dairy milk has a high nutritional value, there’s no reason why people need to drink it if they choose not to. All of the nutrients in milk can be obtained elsewhere in the diet.</p>
<h2>Soy</h2>
<p>If you’re seeking a dairy-free alternative, then soy is a good choice (though some people may be intolerant to soy). It’s made from ground soy beans or soy protein powder, water and vegetable oils and is usually fortified with vitamins and minerals including calcium.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007/s13197-017-2915-y?sharing_token=dSGQOoFqAnaBksQKDPHeXPe4RwlQNchNByi7wbcMAY566j3jpTfl6ce1UkWrDc7nH_pgea0Y1AeHuE68v7CZL6-wCNCUK0cCDGuRKeUB071F3K3JSW9MzFGQuu0vPD_QgsmZ452V4FEMEhHsN8iiNQaFntL05mN-GYC8Iv0UJPs%3D">2017 study</a> found soy fared considerably better than other milk alternatives including almond, rice and coconut varieties in terms of nutritional profile.</p>
<p>Available in full-fat and low-fat versions, soy is a good source of plant protein, carbohydrates, B vitamins and most are fortified with calcium making it nutritionally comparable to dairy milk. The ability of the body to absorb and utilise the added calcium in soy drink is approaching that of dairy milk. <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/71/5/1166/4729243">One study</a> indicated calcium from fortified soy drink was absorbed at 75% the efficiency of calcium from dairy milk, though there appears to be limited data on this.</p>
<p>It typically contains more protein than other plant-based alternatives, and contains healthy unsaturated fats and fibre.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Milk varieties on a supermarket shelf" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360214/original/file-20200928-14-1f5ohil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360214/original/file-20200928-14-1f5ohil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360214/original/file-20200928-14-1f5ohil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360214/original/file-20200928-14-1f5ohil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360214/original/file-20200928-14-1f5ohil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360214/original/file-20200928-14-1f5ohil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360214/original/file-20200928-14-1f5ohil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One study found soy to be more nutritious than many other plant-based milk alternatives.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It also contains compounds called phytoestrogens. Phytoestrogens are natural plant compounds that imitate the body’s own natural oestrogen but to a lesser extent. There was initially some <a href="https://www.aicr.org/resources/blog/soy-and-cancer-myths-and-misconceptions/">speculation</a> based on earlier <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3192476/">animal studies</a> about potential adverse effects of phytoestrogens on the risk of breast cancer and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-40647-x">hyperthyroidism</a>. However, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24586662/">studies</a> conducted in <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21177797/">humans</a> don’t support this.</p>
<p>Conversely, there is some evidence to suggest they may have a protective effect against some cancers. A review study from 2019 found soy consumption is <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/mnfr.201900751">more beneficial than harmful</a>. In a <a href="https://wiki.cancer.org.au/policy/Position_statement_-_Soy,_phyto-oestrogens_and_cancer_prevention">position statement</a> on soy, phytoestrogens and cancer prevention, the Cancer Council of Australia supports the consumption of soy foods in the diet but doesn’t recommend high dose phytoestrogen supplementation, especially for women with existing breast cancer.</p>
<h2>Almond</h2>
<p>Nut drinks such as almond consist mainly of ground nuts and water. Despite almonds being a good plant source of protein, almond drink is significantly lower in protein and calcium than dairy milk. Consumers should take care with almond drink to ensure essential nutrients are met elsewhere in the diet. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.choice.com.au/food-and-drink/dairy/milk/articles/almond-milk">2017 survey</a> of widely available commercial almond milks, consumer group Choice found almond drink contained only 2-14% almonds, with water being the predominant ingredient. It tends to be low in energy and saturated fat and contains some healthy unsaturated fats as well as vitamin E, manganese, zinc and potassium.</p>
<p>Almond drink often contains added sugars. Terms to keep an eye on include those indicating added sugars, such as organic rice syrup, agave syrup, organic evaporated cane juice, raw sugar, or organic corn maltodextrin. It’s best to look for unsweetened varieties if you can.</p>
<p>Almond drink may be suitable for people who are intolerant to both dairy milk and soy, but isn’t suitable for those with nut allergies.</p>
<p>If you’re using almond milk as an alternative to dairy milk and wanting similar nutritional benefits, look for one that’s fortified with calcium aiming for as close to 115-120mg per 100mL (similar to dairy milk) as possible.</p>
<h2>Oat</h2>
<p>Oat milk is made by blending oats and water and straining off the liquid. It’s a source of fibre, vitamin E, folate and riboflavin. It’s low in fat and is naturally sweet, containing double the carbohydrates of cow’s milk, so it may not be suitable for people with diabetes.</p>
<p>It tends to be low in both protein and calcium, so look for a fortified brand. It’s not suitable for people with a gluten intolerance, nor is it a nutritionally adequate substitute for young children. </p>
<h2>Coconut</h2>
<p>Coconut milk is low in protein and carbohydrates, and high in saturated fat. Some brands have added sugars. Similar to nut drinks, it doesn’t naturally contain calcium and isn’t a suitable substitute for dairy milk nutritionally.</p>
<h2>Rice</h2>
<p>Rice drink is produced from milled rice and water. It’s naturally high in carbohydrate and sugars, and has a high glycaemic index meaning the glucose is quickly released into the blood which may mean it’s not suitable for people with diabetes. It’s also particularly low in protein and needs to be calcium fortified. </p>
<p>Rice is the least likely to trigger allergies of all of the milk alternatives. However, it’s not a suitable milk substitute, particularly for children, due to its low nutrient quality.</p>
<p>Ultimately, when deciding which plant-based alternative to drink, you should choose fortified and preferably unsweetened varieties. Also, look for those with a calcium content as close to 115-120mg per 100ml (or 300mg per cup) as possible, as this is similar to dairy milk.</p>
<p>Your choice should also take into account your overall diet and nutrient requirements. This is especially important for children, adolescents, older adults and those following a restricted diet. Finally, factors such as flavour, taste, texture and mouth feel are all important considerations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146869/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leah Dowling does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
There are so many milk alternatives these days, but it can be difficult to tell how beneficial they might be for our health. So we asked a dietitian to run through the main options.
Leah Dowling, Lecturer in Dietetics, Swinburne University of Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/139458
2020-09-15T19:28:35Z
2020-09-15T19:28:35Z
Ancient DNA is revealing the genetic landscape of people who first settled East Asia
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352993/original/file-20200814-22-dg3488.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=310%2C222%2C3016%2C2074&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pulverized ancient bone can provide DNA to scientists for analysis.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Xin Xu Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The very first human beings originally emerged in Africa before <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.21455">spreading across Eurasia</a> about 60,000 years ago. After that, the story of humankind heads down many different paths, some more well-studied than others.</p>
<p>Eastern regions of Eurasia are home to approximately 2.3 billion people today – roughly 30% of the world’s population. Archaeologists know <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2011.02.017">from fossils</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat8824">and artifacts</a> that modern humans have occupied <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature23452">Southeast Asia for 60,000 years</a> and East Asia for 40,000 years.</p>
<p>But there’s a lot left to untangle. Who were the people who first came to these regions and eventually developed agriculture? Where did different populations come from? Which groups ended up predominant and which died out?</p>
<p>Ancient DNA is helping to answer some of these questions. By sequencing the genomes of people who lived many millennia ago, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3sRfg2sAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">scientists like me</a>
are starting to fill in the picture of how Asia was populated.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353009/original/file-20200814-20-otal1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Ancient skull without bottom jaw" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353009/original/file-20200814-20-otal1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353009/original/file-20200814-20-otal1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353009/original/file-20200814-20-otal1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353009/original/file-20200814-20-otal1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353009/original/file-20200814-20-otal1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353009/original/file-20200814-20-otal1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353009/original/file-20200814-20-otal1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Well-preserved DNA from ancient bones holds clues about how human beings spread into East Asia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wei Gao, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Analyzing ancient genomes</h2>
<p>In 2016, I joined Dr. Qiaomei Fu’s Molecular Paleontology Lab at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. Our challenge: Resolve the history of humans in East Asia, with the help of collaborators who were long dead – ancient humans who lived up to tens of thousands of years ago in the region. </p>
<p>Members of the lab extracted and sequenced ancient DNA using human remains from archaeological sites. Then Dr. Fu and I used computational genomic tools to assess how their DNA related to that of previously sequenced ancient and present-day humans.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357984/original/file-20200914-24-1frozem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="map where aDNA samples were excavated in Asia" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357984/original/file-20200914-24-1frozem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357984/original/file-20200914-24-1frozem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357984/original/file-20200914-24-1frozem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357984/original/file-20200914-24-1frozem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357984/original/file-20200914-24-1frozem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357984/original/file-20200914-24-1frozem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357984/original/file-20200914-24-1frozem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tianyuan Man, from near present-day Beijing, and Hòabìnhian people, from present-day Laos and Malaysia, represent two very old lineages that are distinct from today’s East Asians.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Map © OpenStreetMap contributors, modified by The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of our sequences came from ancient DNA extracted from the <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/110/6/2223">leg bones</a> of the Tianyuan Man, a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.09.030">40,000-year-old individual</a> discovered near <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/449/">a famous paleoanthropological site</a> in western Beijing. One of the earliest modern humans found in East Asia, his genetic sequence marks him as an early ancestor of today’s Asians and Native Americans. That he lived where China’s current capital stands indicates that the ancestors of today’s Asians began placing roots in East Asia as early as 40,000 years ago. </p>
<p>Farther south, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat3628">two 8,000- to 4,000-year-old Southeast Asian hunter-gatherers</a> from Laos and Malaysia associated with the Hòabìnhian culture have DNA that, like the Tianyuan Man, shows they’re early ancestors of Asians and Native Americans. These two came from a completely different lineage than the Tianyuan Man, which suggested that many genetically distinct populations occupied Asia in the past. </p>
<p>But no humans today share the same genetic makeup as either Hòabìnhians or the Tianyuan Man, in both East and Southeast Asia. Why did ancestries that persisted for so long vanish from the gene pool of people alive now? Ancient farmers carry the key to that answer. </p>
<h2>DNA carries marks of ancient migrations</h2>
<p>Based on plant remains found at archaeological sites, scientists know that <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151214084754.htm">people domesticated millet</a> in northern China’s Yellow River region about 10,000 years ago. Around the same time, people in southern China’s Yangtze River region <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1308942110">domesticated rice</a>.</p>
<p>Unlike in Europe, plant domestication began locally and was not introduced from elsewhere. The process took thousands of years, and societies in East Asia grew increasingly complex, with the rise of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-091908-164513">first dynasties</a> around 4,000 years ago.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357986/original/file-20200914-18-z19zh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="map showing migration of ancient people north from Yellow River area and south from Yangtze River area" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357986/original/file-20200914-18-z19zh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357986/original/file-20200914-18-z19zh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357986/original/file-20200914-18-z19zh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357986/original/file-20200914-18-z19zh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357986/original/file-20200914-18-z19zh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357986/original/file-20200914-18-z19zh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357986/original/file-20200914-18-z19zh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rice farmers, possibly from around the Yangtze River, moved south into Southeast Asia, while millet farmers from around the Yellow River moved north into Siberia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Map © OpenStreetMap contributors, modified by The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That’s also when rice cultivation appears to have spread from its origins to areas farther south, including lands that are today’s Southeast Asian countries. DNA helps tell the story. When rice farmers from southern China expanded southward, they introduced not only their farming technology but also their genetics to local populations of Southeast Asian hunter-gatherers. </p>
<p>The overpowering influx of their DNA ended up swamping the local gene pool. Today, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat3628">little trace of hunter-gatherer ancestry</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat3188">remains in the genes of people</a> who live in Southeast Asia. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353002/original/file-20200814-24-czv093.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Excavation of human skeleton" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353002/original/file-20200814-24-czv093.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353002/original/file-20200814-24-czv093.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353002/original/file-20200814-24-czv093.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353002/original/file-20200814-24-czv093.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353002/original/file-20200814-24-czv093.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353002/original/file-20200814-24-czv093.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353002/original/file-20200814-24-czv093.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The skeleton of a person who lived about 8,700 years ago in Xiaogao, Shandong, China near the Yellow River. This individual’s northern East Asian ancestry can be found in the remains of people who lived up into the eastern steppes of Siberia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jianfeng Lang, Shandong University</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Farther north, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1279-z">a similar story played out</a>. Ancient Siberian hunter-gatherers show little relationship with East Asians today, but later Siberian farmers are closely related to today’s East Asians. Farmers from northern China moved northward into Siberia bringing their DNA with them, leading to a sharp decrease in prevalence of the previous local hunter-gatherer ancestry.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353000/original/file-20200814-14-1aipm61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Scientist in protective gear pipetting under a hood" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353000/original/file-20200814-14-1aipm61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353000/original/file-20200814-14-1aipm61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353000/original/file-20200814-14-1aipm61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353000/original/file-20200814-14-1aipm61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353000/original/file-20200814-14-1aipm61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353000/original/file-20200814-14-1aipm61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353000/original/file-20200814-14-1aipm61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Professor Qiaomei Fu, head of the Molecular Paleontology Lab at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, prepares samples for ancient DNA extraction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Past populations were more diverse than today’s</h2>
<p>Genetically speaking, today’s East Asians are not very different from each other. A lot of DNA is needed to start genetically distinguishing between people with different cultural histories.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353004/original/file-20200814-18-mdsmzw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Folded up ancient skeleton being excavated" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353004/original/file-20200814-18-mdsmzw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353004/original/file-20200814-18-mdsmzw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353004/original/file-20200814-18-mdsmzw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353004/original/file-20200814-18-mdsmzw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353004/original/file-20200814-18-mdsmzw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1091&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353004/original/file-20200814-18-mdsmzw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1091&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353004/original/file-20200814-18-mdsmzw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1091&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This individual, who lived about 8,300 years ago on Liang island in the Taiwan Strait, has the southern ancestry found in inhabitants of coastal mainland southern China.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hunglin Chiu, Institute of Anthropology, National Tsinghua University</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What surprised Dr. Fu and me was how different the DNA of various ancient populations were in China. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aba0909">We</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.25.004606">and</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16557-2">others</a> found shared DNA across the Yellow River region, a place important to the development of Chinese civilization. This shared DNA represents a northern East Asian ancestry, distinct from a southern East Asian ancestry <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aba0909">we found in coastal southern China</a>. </p>
<p>When we analyzed the DNA of people who lived in coastal southern China 9,000-8,500 years ago, we realized that already by then much of China shared a common heritage. Because their <a href="http://www.kaogu.cn/en/Research_work/Excavation_Report/2018/0122/60804.html">archaeology</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-35426-z">morphology</a> was different from that of the Yellow River farmers, we had thought these coastal people might come from a lineage not closely related to those first agricultural East Asians. Maybe this group’s ancestry would be similar to the Tianyuan Man or Hòabìnhians.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357988/original/file-20200914-18-160rygb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="map showing different ancestral populations in Asia based on aDNA" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357988/original/file-20200914-18-160rygb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357988/original/file-20200914-18-160rygb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357988/original/file-20200914-18-160rygb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357988/original/file-20200914-18-160rygb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357988/original/file-20200914-18-160rygb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357988/original/file-20200914-18-160rygb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357988/original/file-20200914-18-160rygb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People with different lifestyles who lived far apart in northern China near the Yellow River and along the southern China coast as far back as 9,000 years ago both passed their distinct DNA down to present-day East Asians and Southeast Asians. Austronesians are the closest descendants of the ancient population from coastal southern China.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Map © OpenStreetMap contributors, modified by The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But instead, every person we sampled was closely related to present-day East Asians. That means that by 9,000 years ago, DNA common to all present-day East Asians was widespread across China.</p>
<p>Today’s northern and southern Chinese populations share more in common with ancient Yellow River populations than with ancient coastal southern Chinese. Thus, early Yellow River farmers migrated both north and south, contributing to the gene pool of humans across East and Southeast Asia. </p>
<p>The coastal southern Chinese ancestry did not vanish, though. It persisted in small amounts and did increase in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16557-2">northern China’s Yellow River region over time</a>. The influence of ancient southern East Asians is low on the mainland, but they had a huge impact elsewhere. On islands spanning from the Taiwan Strait to Polynesia live the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00439-015-1620-z">Austronesians</a>, best known for their seafaring. They possess the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aba0909">highest amount of southern East Asian ancestry today</a>, highlighting their ancestry’s roots in coastal southern China.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.25.004606">Other emerging</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aba0909">genetic patterns</a> show connections between Tibetans and ancient individuals from Mongolia and northern China, raising questions about the peopling of the Tibetan Plateau.</p>
<p>Ancient DNA reveals rapid shifts in ancestry over the last 10,000 years across Asia, likely due to migration and cultural exchange. Until more ancient human DNA is retrieved, scientists can only speculate as to exactly who, genetically speaking, lived in East Asia prior to that.</p>
<p>[<em>Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139458/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melinda A. Yang does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
By studying the DNA of people who lived in East Asia thousands of years ago, scientists are starting to untangle how the region was populated.
Melinda A. Yang, Assistant Professor of Biology, University of Richmond
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/139012
2020-06-17T11:19:18Z
2020-06-17T11:19:18Z
Healthier food can contain more contaminants – but there’s a simple way to stay safe
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342543/original/file-20200617-94070-1q0vkn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/food-storage-wooden-shelf-pantry-grain-1681776787">VH Studio/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147651320304401">recent study</a> found that brown and organic rice sold in the UK tends to contain significantly more arsenic than white non-organic varieties that are often considered less healthy. Arsenic is found in many foods but can be <a href="https://www.nutrition.org.uk/nutritioninthenews/headlines/arsenicinrice.html?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=0cfff5cc20203fef57a7f0abe9b1a85152aed58b-1589892797-0-AYmZvmOiiv_74fZJJSryyTnFV43AyehQhet-M_4bgSLRRtAqwafR-5tsQaItVhiyTkpgyDWu4qNaiojRSeuyPNVCq0VsAgXAXN8rlR8qz_OMY5jERQC1Cdjad7JMzUexYlUSTojatdc993jz4re95-qcfjTmRx-sdIdENyvshMVwv-lczOfB2175XG57sesDjGYzcSm7j8g93zoItYbUInGTxPQIpZu_kh_BifQ3fu2ZkfsNRlnyZWGtJ0mn36PLb3SdarTfEQ8YnIrrvsDPPbLDRCPO4nZ827AsYOJczhc0HYFSKfCZig15Qzu-h_5fy66oVjfqfUycswAdV1a56EywEzGBQqyj4fnIzQDR1DehECYlOBxWNT_kLYmunTEU0bduR-UtNTpreqBbVuGQ3-0">especially concentrated in rice</a>, particularly in the outer layers, which are removed to produce white rice but retained in brown rice.</p>
<p>Consuming too much arsenic over a long period is thought to be dangerous because it can cause cancer. Yet brown rice is usually considered healthier than white because of the extra fibre and vitamins it contains. Organic rice is less likely to have been exposed to pesticides. </p>
<p>Ascertaining exactly what a healthy diet consists of can be full of these apparent paradoxes. Should you eat brown rice for the fibre or white rice for the lower arsenic levels? The answer shows the potential difficulties of using studies like the one cited above to guide dietary choices and the need to fully understand the complexities of nutrition and dietary choices. </p>
<h2>Arsenic in rice</h2>
<p>For adults, the reality is that even eating one kilogram of cooked brown rice a day is <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18448219/">unlikely to cause</a> the consumption of too much arsenic. Also because brown rice <a href="https://www.bda.uk.com/resourceDetail/printPdf/?resource=wholegrains">is a wholegrain</a>, eating it will also supply you with more fibre (a nutrient very few UK adults reach the recommended 30g per day of), as well as wide range of vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids.</p>
<p>Children under five are more at risk of consuming too much arsenic from rice but a varied diet and <a href="https://www.food.gov.uk/safety-hygiene/arsenic-in-rice">avoiding rice drinks</a> should mitigate this. You can also reduce arsenic in rice by up to 80% by rinsing it and cooking it in copious amounts of water.</p>
<h2>Mercury in fish</h2>
<p>Some varieties of fish can also contain significant amounts of mercury, specifically methylmercury, which can be toxic to humans, causing kidney damage and affecting foetal and infant brain development. Levels of methylmercury can be particularly high in fish that eat other fish, such as shark, swordfish, marlin and tuna.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.2903/j.efsa.2015.3982">European Food Safety Authority</a> says up to 1.3 micrograms of methylmercury per kg of bodyweight per week is a safe amount. For a typical 90kg adult that equals 117mcg a week. The amount of methylmercury in a single portion of fish in this category can vary hugely but EU rules mean 1kg should contain no more than 500mcg.</p>
<p>For the most commonly eaten type of fish in this category, tinned tuna, a 100g drained tin could contain as much as 50mcg of methyl mercury. So eating more than two tins a week could theoretically put you at greater risk. Shark, swordish and marlin tend to contain more mercury so more caution is advised here, and you should avoid them <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/pregnancy/should-pregnant-and-breastfeeding-women-avoid-some-types-of-fish">if you are pregnant</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342544/original/file-20200617-94049-1glqe6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342544/original/file-20200617-94049-1glqe6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342544/original/file-20200617-94049-1glqe6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342544/original/file-20200617-94049-1glqe6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342544/original/file-20200617-94049-1glqe6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342544/original/file-20200617-94049-1glqe6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342544/original/file-20200617-94049-1glqe6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">You’d have to eat a lot of tuna to be harmed by its mercury content.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/food-storage-wooden-shelf-pantry-grain-1681776787">HandmadePictures/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But most tins of tuna aren’t likely to contain the maximum allowed amount of mercury and reports of bodybuilders and other tuna enthusiasts becoming ill with mercury poisoning are rare.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, fish <a href="https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/nutrition/oily-fish?gclid=Cj0KCQjwzZj2BRDVARIsABs3l9IH1K15bUbc8ol3nAJF0QIr0AeKkPiM7SqZ5oVLeQy__nKsO0DmU5caAqpBEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds">contributes to a healthy</a> Mediterranean-style diet linked to lower chances of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and raised cholesterol. Oily fish (such as sardines, mackerel, salmon, trout or herring) are particularly beneficial in this respect and contain nutrients important for foetal and early infancy brain development. So most adults who eat fish <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/fish-and-shellfish-nutrition/">are advised to aim</a> for at least two portions a week including at least one type of oily fish.</p>
<h2>Pesticides in vegetable skins</h2>
<p>It’s well established that the peels and skins of fruit and vegetables are an important source of fibre, helping to <a href="https://journals.rcni.com/nursing-standard/evidence-and-practice/understanding-the-role-of-carbohydrates-in-optimal-nutrition-ns.2019.e11323/print/abs">maintain digestive health</a> and control blood glucose levels. These outer layers also <a href="https://www.bda.uk.com/uploads/assets/622d08b0-c391-4b50-a7e9eeac006f354a/Fruit-Veg-food-fact-sheet.pdf">tend to contain</a> more vitamin C, minerals and other beneficial “phenolic” compounds than the flesh. </p>
<p>But there is <a href="https://www.pan-uk.org/our-food">also some concern</a> that pesticides used to treat seeds, growing plants or harvested crops can collect in particularly high concentrations in skins, although the actual amounts vary hugely. <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/26/16553942/apples-wash-pesticides-baking-soda-chemicals-organic-peel-fruit">Some people argue</a> you should peel your fruits and vegetables as a result.</p>
<p>But the actual amounts of pesticide residue that can be found in fruit and veg is limited. The UK government’s <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/879216/prif-monitoring-2019-quarter3.pdf">most recent research</a> on the issue only found samples that exceeded the maximum legal pesticide residue level in a small number of samples in four out of 14 types of fruit and vegetables tested.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/pesticide-residues-in-food">World Health Organization</a> says: “None of the pesticides that are authorised for use on food in international trade today are genotoxic” (damaging to DNA, which can cause mutations or cancer). </p>
<p>Someone with a healthy or high bodyweight and/or a varied diet is very unlikely to be exposed to enough pesticide to breach this level. In contrast, the evidence for the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables including the skins is overwhelming. So it still seems prudent that we eat as much as we can and, where possible and palatable, consume the skins. </p>
<p>These examples underline why the “everything in moderation” we often see in <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/the-eatwell-guide/">healthy eating guidelines</a> really does seem to be the best approach. The more types of food we eat, the less of each we consume and therefore we can reduce the chance of doing ourselves harm from either too much or too little of something. But knowing what the safe limits are can help answer some of the more difficult questions about what’s the best food choice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139012/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruth Fairchild does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A new study shows high-fibre brown rice also contains more arsenic than white rice – so which is better for you?
Ruth Fairchild, Senior Lecturer in Nutrition, Cardiff Metropolitan University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/129956
2020-02-07T13:50:43Z
2020-02-07T13:50:43Z
The Philippines has rated ‘Golden Rice’ safe, but farmers might not plant it
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313835/original/file-20200205-149747-1qd8v3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=21%2C5%2C3573%2C2382&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Golden rice, right, compared to white rice, left.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_rice#/media/File:Golden_Rice.jpg">IRRI/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.goldenrice.org/">“Golden Rice</a>” is probably the world’s most hotly debated genetically modified organism (GMO). It was intended to be a beta carotene-enriched crop to reduce Vitamin A deficiency, a health problem in very poor areas. But it has never been offered to farmers for planting.</p>
<p>Why not? Because Golden Rice has an activist problem, according to its proponents. They insist that the rice would have prevented millions of child deaths by now had it not been blocked by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/26/gm-golden-rice-delay-cost-millions-of-lives-child-blindness">anti-science activists</a>. </p>
<p>In particular, they single out <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/01/us/stop-bashing-gmo-foods-more-than-100-nobel-laureates-say.html">Greenpeace</a>, which has <a href="https://storage.googleapis.com/planet4-international-stateless/2013/10/08786be5-458-golden-illusion-ge-goldenrice.pdf">campaigned against approval</a> of Golden Rice as part of its broader opposition to GMOs. Greenpeace responds that its actions <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/international/press-release/6866/nobel-laureates-sign-letter-on-greenpeace-golden-rice-position-statement/">are not what has kept Golden Rice from reaching the market</a>.</p>
<p>We study <a href="https://anthropology.wustl.edu/people/glenn-davis-stone">developing-world agriculture</a>, including <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dominic_Glover">use of genetically modified crops</a>, and are conducting ongoing research on Golden Rice, originally funded by the <a href="https://www.templeton.org/">Templeton Foundation</a>. We advocate <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/341532">keeping an open mind</a> about Golden Rice, which may eventually have some nutritional potential in limited cases. But our view, based on numerous scientific studies, is that the rice is still beset by problems that have little to do with activists.</p>
<h2>Filling a nutritional gap?</h2>
<p>Vitamin A is one of many nutrients lacking in the diets of the world’s poorest children. Vitamin A deficiency, or VAD, can cause <a href="https://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/nutritional-disorders/vitamin-deficiency,-dependency,-and-toxicity/vitamin-a-deficiency">blindness and even premature death</a>. </p>
<p>The vitamin comes directly from animal products and indirectly from <a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/252758.php">beta carotene</a> in plants, which the human body can convert to Vitamin A. Plant scientist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingo_Potrykus">Ingo Potrykus</a>, who co-developed Golden Rice, has claimed that “VAD often occurs where <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11627-001-0019-9">rice is the major staple food</a>.” White rice grains contain no beta carotene. </p>
<p>But it’s not rice’s job to provide vitamins. Most diets across Asia and Africa consist of a carbohydrate core such as rice or maize, which provides calories and bulk, and a sauce, stew or soup for flavor and nutrients. </p>
<p>Since rice is a <a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318699.php#7">poor source of vitamins and minerals</a>, any child eating a rice-only diet will be sick. Genetically modifying rice to contain beta carotene is at best a band-aid for extreme cases of VAD, not a corrective for a widespread problem.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312561/original/file-20200129-92977-1mnsd0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312561/original/file-20200129-92977-1mnsd0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312561/original/file-20200129-92977-1mnsd0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312561/original/file-20200129-92977-1mnsd0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312561/original/file-20200129-92977-1mnsd0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312561/original/file-20200129-92977-1mnsd0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312561/original/file-20200129-92977-1mnsd0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312561/original/file-20200129-92977-1mnsd0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Estimated prevalence of vitamin A deficiency in children aged 6 to 59 months by country in 2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(15)00039-X">Stevens et al, 2015</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Decades of development</h2>
<p>Potrykus and colleagues devised a strategy for producing Golden Rice in 1992, and announced in 2000 that they had <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.287.5451.303">developed an experimental prototype</a>. Potrykus appeared on the <a href="http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,997586,00.html">cover of Time magazine</a> with his rice, which the cover proclaimed “could save a million kids a year.”</p>
<p>The biologists were on to something, but the prototype was <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-016-9696-1">nowhere near ready for farmers or consumers</a>. The beta carotene concentration was far too low, and researchers did not know if the plants would grow well. The prototype was also a rice variety that farmers in VAD areas would not grow. </p>
<p>In 2002 Golden Rice research moved to the <a href="https://www.irri.org/">International Rice Research Institute</a> (IRRI) in the Philippines to be developed for Filipino farmers. Meanwhile scientists at the global agricultural company Syngenta, which had <a href="http://www.goldenrice.org/Content1-Who/who4_IP.php">acquired commercial rights to the rice</a>, began to develop a new package of genes to improve the beta carotene levels. By 2005 they unveiled Golden Rice 2, which accomplished this.</p>
<p>Next, researchers inserted these GR2 genes into multiple plants, with the goal of introducing them without disrupting other genes. Each insertion is called an “event.” IRRI breeders took the most promising event and began breeding the trait into two trusty lowland rice varieties.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313839/original/file-20200205-149742-2aj307.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313839/original/file-20200205-149742-2aj307.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313839/original/file-20200205-149742-2aj307.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313839/original/file-20200205-149742-2aj307.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313839/original/file-20200205-149742-2aj307.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313839/original/file-20200205-149742-2aj307.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313839/original/file-20200205-149742-2aj307.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313839/original/file-20200205-149742-2aj307.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Packets of different rice breeds stored in a refrigerated room at the International Rice Research Institute Rice Germplasm Bank, Laguna, Philippines, Nov. 27, 2003.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/tens-of-thousands-of-packets-of-different-rice-breeds-are-news-photo/2769505?adppopup=true">Joel Nito/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>But there was a problem. Field trials showed that the introduced genes had indeed <a href="http://www.goldenrice.orwww.goldenrice.org/PDFs/Dubock-The_present_status_of_Golden_Rice-2014.pdf">disrupted other genes and lowered the rice’s productivity</a>, so breeders turned to a different event. By 2017 field trials showed that this rice <a href="https://www.irri.org/golden-rice-faqs">grew adequately</a>. The rice was submitted to the Philippine Bureau of Plant Industry, which <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2228793-gm-golden-rice-gets-landmark-safety-approval-in-the-philippines/">designated it as safe</a> in December 2019.</p>
<p>However, Golden Rice still has to be approved for commercial sale and still needs a company to grow marketable quantities of seed. Proponents’ claim that the rice would be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nbt.2010.07.012">given free to farmers</a> is false: No one has offered to produce and distribute the rice seed for nothing. And even if someone were to grow marketable quantities of seed for sale, two crucial problems remain.</p>
<h2>Unanswered questions</h2>
<p>First, the claim that Golden Rice will remedy Vitamin A deficiency remains unproven. As <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150813165459/http://irri.org/blogs/item/clarifying-recent-news-about-golden-rice">IRRI scientists themselves stressed in 2013</a>, “It has not yet been determined whether daily consumption of Golden Rice does improve the vitamin A status of people who are vitamin A deficient.”</p>
<p>Vitamin A is fat-soluble, and children with VAD rarely have fats in their diet. Moreover, they usually suffer from gut parasites and infections that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0002-8223(01)00073-6">make it harder to convert beta carotene to vitamin A</a>. </p>
<p>A 2012 study, which has been cited over 70 times – despite being <a href="https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.114.093229">retracted in 2015</a> for breaching research ethics – seemed to show that Golden Rice would <a href="https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.111.030775">raise children’s vitamin A levels</a>. But children in the study were fed balanced meals that included fats, thus demonstrating only that Golden Rice worked in children who did not need it. </p>
<p>Even the latest analysis of Golden Rice’s safety points out that research <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-57669-5">has yet to show that it will mitigate VAD</a>. And by the time Golden Rice gets to undernourished children, its beta carotene level may be very low, since the compound <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2018.11.121">deteriorates fairly quickly</a>.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4dxnw4MMfoQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Fortifying foods like rice with micronutrients is an established strategy for reducing malnutrition. But Golden Rice is the first effort to do this through genetic engineering.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Second, there is no clear way for the rice to get to the children who need it. Projections of the benefits of Golden Rice assume that farmers will immediately grow it, but families poor enough to be affected by VAD often lack land to grow rice for themselves. VAD in the Philippines has been highest in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Province">Mountain Province</a>, where farmers are unlikely to plant lowland rice varieties, and in part of metro Manila where no rice farming occurs.</p>
<p>To reach undernourished kids in areas like these, Golden Rice would have to be grown by commercial farmers and sold in markets. We examined whether farmers would plant Golden Rice in a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X19304804?via%3Dihub">new study of seed selection practices</a> in a “rice bowl” area of the Philippines.</p>
<p>Farmers choose from a large and rapidly changing array of rice seeds, based on agronomic performance, market demands and local trends. Their choices show that varieties containing the “Golden” trait are out of fashion, overtaken by newer and better performing varieties.</p>
<p>Some might adopt Golden Rice if it could fetch a premium in the market, but extremely poor customers are unlikely to pay it. Farmers may need subsidies to plant Golden Rice, but it is unclear who would pay them to plant it.</p>
<h2>An oversold solution</h2>
<p>The old claim, repeated again in a <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/golden-rice">recent book</a>, that Golden Rice was “<a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/17/golden-rice-genetically-modified-superfood-almost-saved-millions/">basically ready for use in 2002</a>” is silly. As recently as 2017, IRRI made it clear that Golden Rice still had to be “successfully developed into rice varieties suitable for Asia, approved by national regulators, and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170217145954/http://irri.org/golden-rice/faqs/what-is-the-status-of-the-golden-rice-project-coordinated-by-irri">shown to improve vitamin A status in community conditions</a>.”</p>
<p>The Philippines has managed to cut its childhood VAD rate in half with <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140731160310/https://www.irri.org/golden-rice/faqs/why-is-golden-rice-needed-in-the-philippines-since-vitamin-a-deficiency-is-already-decreasing">conventional nutrition programs</a>. If Golden Rice appears on the market in the Philippines by 2022, it will have taken over 30 years of development to create a product that may not affect vitamin levels in its target population, and that farmers may need to be paid to plant. </p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklysmart">You can get our highlights each weekend</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129956/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Glenn Davis Stone has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundatioin for Anthropological Research, the John Templeton Foundation, and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dominic Glover has received funding from various sources to support different pieces of work on the spread and impacts of transgenic crop technologies in the global South, including the John Templeton Foundation, the UK's Economic and Social Research Council and the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights (UNHCHR, on behalf of the UN's Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food).</span></em></p>
Golden Rice – a controversial genetically modified product designed to combat malnutrition – has been approved as safe in the Philippines. But key questions remain unanswered.
Glenn Davis Stone, Research Professor of Environmental Science, Sweet Briar College
Dominic Glover, Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/125592
2019-10-27T07:57:32Z
2019-10-27T07:57:32Z
Nigeria’s border closure has implications for Africa’s economic integration
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298698/original/file-20191025-173548-1z8y5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The border closure has affected goods from other West African countries</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nigeria recently partially closed its border with Benin in an effort to stem the smuggling of rice. It then <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/nigeria-trade/update-1-nigerias-land-borders-closed-to-all-goods-customs-chief-idUSL5N2706CO">went on to close its land borders</a> to the movement of all goods from Benin, Niger and Cameroon, effectively banning trade flows with its neighbours.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.africanews.com/2019/10/18/why-african-nations-close-borders-nigeria-sudan-rwanda-kenya-eritrea/">Border closures are not new in Africa</a>. But Nigeria’s actions raise important concerns about the seriousness and prospects of regional integration in Africa. </p>
<p>Nigeria acted just three months after it had signed the African Continental Free Trade Agreement. With 55 member countries, a combined GDP of $2.4 trillion and a total population of 1.2 billion, the agreement will create the world’s largest free trade area. Its aim is to promote intra-Africa trade, which is abysmally low at <a href="https://www.afdb.org/fr/news-and-events/intra-african-trade-is-key-to-sustainable-development-african-economic-outlook-17022">16%</a>.</p>
<p>To restrict trade flows so shortly after this momentous feat is a major blow to integration efforts. It also shows how unprepared African countries might be for free trade. It’s hard to see how the free trade deal can increase intra-Africa trade to 60% by 2022, as <a href="https://au.int/sites/default/files/documents/36085-doc-qa_cfta_en_rev15march.pdf">projected</a> , when it is being undermined from the start. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-work-lies-ahead-to-make-africas-new-free-trade-area-succeed-118135">More work lies ahead to make Africa's new free trade area succeed</a>
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<p>These early trade tensions between Nigeria and its neighbours are hardly surprising. They underlie some of the fundamental problems that must be addressed before cordial free trade can succeed on the continent.</p>
<p>In the case of Nigeria, Africa <a href="https://www.tralac.org/resources/our-resources/13595-nigeria-intra-africa-trade-and-tariff-profile.html">accounts</a> for only 13% of its exports and 4% of its imports. These statistics probably underestimate the true volume of trade between Nigeria and its neighbours. But they show that Africa is a dispensable market. </p>
<h2>Border closure</h2>
<p>Nigeria’s economy declined in 2015 and further <a href="https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDP_RPCH@WEO/NGA">contracted</a> by 1.6% in 2016 . This was largely due to a worldwide drop in the price of crude oil in <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2014/12/08/why-the-oil-price-is-falling">2014</a>. The country has since fallen on hard times. Foreign direct investment inflows have plunged by <a href="https://unctad.org/en/Pages/DIAE/FDI%20Statistics/FDI-Statistics.aspx">55%</a> . There have also been shortages of foreign exchange which have put the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nigeria-currency/nigerian-naira-tumbles-30-percent-after-peg-removed-idUSKCN0Z61F7">Naira</a> in a tailspin, causing the government to implement stringent foreign exchange controls.</p>
<p>Crude oil accounts for over <a href="http://www.nationalplanning.gov.ng/images/docs/ERGP%20%20CLEAN%20COPY.pdf">95% </a>of Nigeria’s total exports and <a href="http://www.nationalplanning.gov.ng/images/docs/ERGP%20%20CLEAN%20COPY.pdf">90%</a> of its foreign exchange earnings. This shows that Nigeria has neglected other sectors of the economy.</p>
<p>The recent oil crisis highlighted the need for the country to diversify and restructure its economy. The result was increased attention being accorded the agriculture sector, which had declined significantly since the late 1960s. </p>
<p>Nigeria’s 2017 <a href="http://www.nationalplanning.gov.ng/images/docs/ERGP%20%20CLEAN%20COPY.pdf">Economic Recovery and Growth Plan</a> aimed to deepen investments in agriculture and increase the sector’s contribution to economic growth from 5% in 2017 to 8.4% by 2020. The idea is to revive domestic farming and save on food imports (over $22 billion a year).</p>
<p>It is this national plan that precipitated the border closure. The government wants to protect domestic farmers from cheap imported foodstuff. </p>
<p>While Nigerian rice farmers are happy about their government’s actions, there are concerns about whether domestic food production can meet domestic demand. In 2017, demand for rice in Nigeria reached <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-14/usda-sees-nigeria-rice-imports-increasing-to-3-4m-tons-in-2019">6.7 million tons</a>, almost double the 3.7 million tons produced domestically. </p>
<p>Since the border closure, the price of a 50 kilogram bag of rice has <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/border-closure-leaves-rice-loving-nigerians-steaming/ar-AAHwRo1">increased</a> from 9,000 naira ($24) to 22,000 naira ($61). </p>
<p>This is good for the farmers. But it is hurting consumers.</p>
<h2>Oil exports and fuel imports</h2>
<p>Then there is the bigger problem of government-subsidised petroleum being smuggled out of Nigeria and sold in neighbouring countries. </p>
<p>World Bank <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EP.PMP.SGAS.CD">data</a> show that between 2010 and 2016, the average pump price of petrol was $0.52 per litre in Nigeria, $1.01 in Benin, $1.14 in Cameroun and 1.04 in Niger. <a href="https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/gasoline_prices/">Current data</a> show that petrol is sold at $0.40 per litre in Nigeria and at $0.91 and $1.07 in Benin and Cameroon respectively. </p>
<p>The price difference creates the incentive to smuggle petrol out of Nigeria.<br>
Nigeria’s largest export is crude oil, and its largest import is refined oil. Domestic refineries are reportedly operating well below their capacity, causing fuel imports to average <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/TM.VAL.FUEL.ZS.UN?locations=NG&view=chart">29%</a> of total imports over the past three years. Roughly 90% of fuel in Nigeria is imported, and all of it is subsidised. Last year, the subsidy bill was estimated to reach <a href="https://allafrica.com/stories/201810150083.html">$3.85 billion</a>. </p>
<p>Smuggling fuel out amounts to the use of public resources to subsidise neighbouring countries. Since the border closure, reports suggest that the delivery of fuel in Nigeria has dropped by <a href="https://www.voanews.com/africa/nigerias-land-borders-closed-all-goods-customs-chief-says">20%</a> and sales by <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2019-10-22-00-border-closure-has-mixed-impact-for-nigerias-economy">12.7%</a>. </p>
<p>This suggests that the demand for fuel in Nigeria is high because some of it is bought and smuggled out.</p>
<h2>Why the border closure is worrying</h2>
<p>African countries have different economic configurations and strategic priorities. The huge number of diverse countries within the free trade area isn’t going to make things easy.</p>
<p>Indeed, free trade has its benefits, but it also has costs. Nigeria’s bid to protect a declining rice farming industry and save foreign exchange has led to protectionism that defies the principles of a free trade area. </p>
<p>The African Union (AU) has been muted on the issue of the border closures. This might be because it does not yet have detailed institutional arrangements for settling disputes within the free trade area. </p>
<p>Another factor might be that it has been quiet because Nigeria is involved. As Africa’s largest economy, the AU courted it earnestly to sign. The agreement needs Nigeria, arguably at whatever cost. </p>
<p>The regional trade bloc ECOWAS has also failed to bring Nigeria to heel. Both Nigeria and Benin are members of the <a href="https://www.ecowas.int/member-states/">bloc</a>, created in 1975. All it has done so far is to <a href="https://www.pulse.ng/news/local/ecowas-parliament-appeals-to-buhari-to-reopen-borders/513nqmk">appeal</a> for the borders to be opened. It clearly has no enforcement power.</p>
<p>Nigeria’s border closure may be a precursor. More incidents like this can be expected as the realities of free trade kick in. Some countries will lose, others will gain. </p>
<p>The AU needs protocols and measures to manage free trade, as well as programmes to prepare political leaders for the realities that will follow. </p>
<p>The free trade area should not be a mere symbol. It must be fully understood and appreciated for it to succeed.</p>
<p>The Nigeria border closure must be resolved as soon as possible. It is diverting attention and positive energy from matters that can promote the free trade area, such as investments in transport infrastructure, trade data capture and border protection. </p>
<p>More importantly, it is a bad precedent that could reduce other countries’ commitments to economic integration in Africa. The AU must act now, or prepare to bury the free trade deal.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125592/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tahiru Azaaviele Liedong does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Efforts to increase trade within the continent are being undermined from the start
Tahiru Azaaviele Liedong, Assistant Professor of Strategy, University of Bath
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/117601
2019-08-09T11:43:53Z
2019-08-09T11:43:53Z
Feeding the world: archaeology can help us learn from history to build a sustainable future for food
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287507/original/file-20190809-144843-4ls8ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1917%2C1348&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/photos/rice-cultivation-rice-fields-4165415/">HoangTuan_photography/Pixabay</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What we eat can harm not only our health, but the planet itself. About a quarter of all the <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-environ-020411-130608">greenhouse gas emissions</a> that humans generate each year come from how we feed the world. Most of them are methane released by cattle, nitrogen oxides from chemical fertilisers and carbon dioxide from the destruction of forests to grow crops or raise livestock. </p>
<p>All of these gases trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. Extreme weather events like floods and droughts are becoming more frequent and severe in our warming world, destroying crops and disrupting growing seasons. As a result, climate change could wreak havoc on already precarious food supplies. The challenges for agriculture are vast, and they’ll only mount as the world’s population grows.</p>
<p>The new <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2019/08/4.-SPM_Approved_Microsite_FINAL.pdf">special report on climate and land</a> by the IPCC warns that without drastic changes in global land use, agriculture and human diets, efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions will fall significantly short of targets to hold global temperature rise <a href="https://report.ipcc.ch/sr15/pdf/sr15_spm_final.pdf">below 1.5°C</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ipccs-land-report-shows-the-problem-with-farming-based-around-oil-not-soil-121643">IPCC's land report shows the problem with farming based around oil, not soil</a>
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<p>A food system that produces nutritious food without harming the environment or other aspects of our well-being is <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-food-system-is-at-risk-of-crossing-environmental-limits-heres-how-to-ease-the-pressure-104715">sorely needed</a>. But <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-018-0114-0">can it produce enough food</a> to feed billions of people while reversing biodiversity loss and pollution? </p>
<p>This is where I believe archaeologists and anthropologists can help. Our recent paper in <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00438243.2019.1610492">World Archaeology</a> explores past agricultural systems and how they could help make agriculture more sustainable today. </p>
<h2>Canals and corn in South America</h2>
<p>There’s a long history of societies around the world experimenting with the way they produce food. Through these past successes and failures comes perspective on how humans have <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/4128399">transformed local environments</a> through agriculture and affected soil properties over thousands of years.</p>
<p>Ancient agricultural practices weren’t always in balance with nature – there’s some evidence that early food growers <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/34cd/6f0dd9d2c8c46b41de06e894637ec5f3dfd3.pdf">damaged their environment</a> with overgrazing or mismanaging irrigation which made the soil saltier. But there are also many instances where past systems of growing food improved soil quality, increased crop yields and protected crops against flooding and drought.</p>
<p>One example originated in Pre-Incan South America, and was commonly used between 300 BC and 1400 AD. The system, known today as Waru Waru, consisted of raised soil beds up to two metres high and up to six metres wide, surrounded by water channels. First discovered by researchers in the 1960s around Lake Titicaca, these raised field systems were introduced into wetland and highland areas of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3060444">Bolivia and Peru</a> over the following decades. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287505/original/file-20190809-144851-dxuycj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C700%2C392&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287505/original/file-20190809-144851-dxuycj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C700%2C392&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287505/original/file-20190809-144851-dxuycj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287505/original/file-20190809-144851-dxuycj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287505/original/file-20190809-144851-dxuycj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287505/original/file-20190809-144851-dxuycj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287505/original/file-20190809-144851-dxuycj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287505/original/file-20190809-144851-dxuycj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The canals used in Waru Waru farming could make food production more resilient to climate change.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://tuymihistoria.blogspot.com/?fbclid=IwAR0JGt7rCejaBOVvpT8TIFLpUazKuvpDtKh5zTJhsWN4DfigfzldHFPAxwE">Blog de Historia General del Perú</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Although some projects failed, the majority have allowed local farmers to improve crop productivity and soil fertility without using chemicals. Compared to other local agricultural methods, the raised beds capture water during droughts and drain water when there’s too much rain. This irrigates the crops all year round. The canal water retains heat and raises the air temperature surrounding the soil beds by 1°C, protecting crops from frost. The fish that colonise the channels also provide an additional food source. </p>
<p>Research is still ongoing, but today these Waru Waru systems are regularly used by farmers throughout South America, including in the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S034181621830331X">Llanos de Moxos, Bolivia</a> – one of the largest wetlands in the world. Waru Waru farming could prove more resilient to the increased flooding and drought that’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/droughts-and-flooding-rains-climate-change-models-predict-increases-in-both-5470">expected under climate change</a>. It could also grow food in degraded habitats once considered unsuitable for crops, helping ease pressure to clear rainforest.</p>
<h2>Fish as pest control in Asia</h2>
<p>Monocultures are a much more familiar method of agriculture to people today. These are the vast fields that contain one type of crop, grown on a huge scale to guarantee higher yields that are easier to manage. But this method can also degrade <a href="https://theconversation.com/ipccs-land-report-shows-the-problem-with-farming-based-around-oil-not-soil-121643">soil fertility</a> and damage natural habitats and <a href="https://theconversation.com/single-crop-farming-is-leaving-wildlife-with-no-room-to-turn-38991">decrease biodiversity</a>. Chemical fertilisers used on these farms leach into rivers and <a href="https://theconversation.com/ocean-dead-zones-are-spreading-and-that-spells-disaster-for-fish-39668">oceans</a> and their pesticides kill wildlife and create resistant pests.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.fao.org/3/CA3129EN/CA3129EN.pdf">Growing multiple crops</a>, rearing different species of livestock and reserving different habitats for conservation could make food supplies more nutritious and resilient to future shocks in the weather, while also creating more livelihoods and regenerating biodiversity. </p>
<p>That may sound like a lot to consider, but many ancient practices managed to achieve this balance with rather simple means. Some of them are even used today. In southern China, farmers add fish to their rice paddy fields in a method that dates back to the later Han Dynasty (25–220 AD). </p>
<p>The fish are an additional protein source, so the system produces more food than rice farming alone. But another advantage over rice monocultures is that farmers save on costly chemical fertilisers and pesticides – the fish provide a <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/108/50/E1381.short">natural pest control</a> by eating weeds and harmful pests such as the <a href="http://www.knowledgebank.irri.org/training/fact-sheets/pest-management/insects/item/planthopper">rice planthopper</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287510/original/file-20190809-144868-15e9lpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287510/original/file-20190809-144868-15e9lpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287510/original/file-20190809-144868-15e9lpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287510/original/file-20190809-144868-15e9lpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287510/original/file-20190809-144868-15e9lpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287510/original/file-20190809-144868-15e9lpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287510/original/file-20190809-144868-15e9lpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287510/original/file-20190809-144868-15e9lpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rice-fish farms produce more food and need fewer chemical pesticides.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mina-padi-cultivation-rice-fields-combination-1090069508?src=GMIpY9ixwMjwQPDaWFZ0TA-1-14">Tirtaperwitasari/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Research throughout Asia has shown that compared to fields that only grow rice, rice-fish farming increases <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12562-010-0299-2">rice yields</a> by up to 20%, allowing families to feed themselves and sell their surplus food at market. These rice-fish farms are vital to smallholder communities, but today they’re increasingly pushed out by larger commercial organisations wishing to expand monoculture rice or fish farms. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.fao.org/giahs/giahsaroundtheworld/designated-sites/asia-and-the-pacific/rice-fish-culture/en/">Rice-fish farming</a> could feed more people than current monocultures while using less of the agricultural chemicals which pollute water and <a href="https://theconversation.com/ipccs-land-report-shows-the-problem-with-farming-based-around-oil-not-soil-121643">generate greenhouse gas emissions</a>.</p>
<p>The enduring success of these ancient methods remind us that we could reimagine our entire food system to feed ten billion people while rejuvenating wildlife and locking carbon away. Instead of reinventing the wheel, we should look to what worked in the past and adapt it for the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117601/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kelly Reed does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A new IPCC report has called for radical changes in food production to avoid catastrophic climate change. Rice-fish farming and mixed crops could help.
Kelly Reed, Programme Manager and Researcher in Archaeobotany, University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/120342
2019-07-15T19:41:59Z
2019-07-15T19:41:59Z
Meet the endangered Bunyip bird living in Australia’s rice paddies
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284028/original/file-20190715-173329-d5bhal.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Endangered species are living happily in rice fields. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bitterns in Rice/Matt Herring</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The debate around the Murray-Darling Basin is often sharply polarised: irrigation is destroying the environment, or water reforms are ruining farming communities. </p>
<p>But there is another story. In the Riverina region of southern New South Wales, a strange waterbird is using rice fields to live in and breed. </p>
<p>The endangered Bunyip Bird, also called the Australasian Bittern, is famous for its deep booming call – for thousands of years thought to be the sound made by the mythical Bunyip. </p>
<p>It’s a sound now familiar to most rice growers. In 2012, Birdlife Australia and the Ricegrowers’ Association teamed up to learn more about <a href="http://www.bitternsinrice.com.au">bitterns in rice</a>. The total bittern population, including New Zealand and New Caledonia, is estimated at <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22697353/93610014">no more than 2,500 adults</a>.</p>
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<p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-a-wetland-might-not-be-wet-103687">Why a wetland might not be wet</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>The first question was how many bitterns are using rice crops. After surveying the birds on randomly selected farms, we crunched the numbers. Our results, <a href="https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1ZMtHcA-IZq0A">just published</a>, are staggering.</p>
<p>Across the Riverina, we conservatively estimate these rice crops attract 500-1,000 bitterns during the breeding season, about 40% of global population. It turns out the way rice is grown provides ideal water depths and vegetation heights for bitterns. It’s also favourable for their prey: frogs and tadpoles, fish and yabbies.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284029/original/file-20190715-173325-19fcvhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284029/original/file-20190715-173325-19fcvhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284029/original/file-20190715-173325-19fcvhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284029/original/file-20190715-173325-19fcvhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284029/original/file-20190715-173325-19fcvhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284029/original/file-20190715-173325-19fcvhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284029/original/file-20190715-173325-19fcvhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284029/original/file-20190715-173325-19fcvhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A bittern nest with chicks and eggs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matt Herring</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is a growing body of global research investigating how human-made habitats can help fill the gap left by our vanishing wetlands, from <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecs2.1228">ditches for rare turtles</a> to constructed ponds for <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11273-019-09662-7">threatened amphibians</a>. Rice fields around the world show great promise as well, with various “wildlife-friendly” farming initiatives. In California, farmers re-flood harvested fields to support thousands of <a href="https://birdreturns.org/">migratory shorebirds and waterfowl</a>, while in Japan consumers pay a premium for “<a href="https://visitkinosaki.com/things-to-do/stork-natural-rice/">Stork Rice</a>” to help endangered species.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/for-the-first-time-weve-looked-at-every-threatened-bird-in-australia-side-by-side-107432">For the first time we've looked at every threatened bird in Australia side-by-side</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>However, rice fields are no substitute for natural wetlands, and it’s now clear both play a crucial role in sustaining the bittern population. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.bitternsinrice.com.au/tracking-bunyip-birds/">Satellite tracking</a> has shown us that at harvest time bitterns disperse to some of southeastern Australia’s most important wetlands, including the Barmah-Millewa system along the Murray River, Coomonderry Swamp near Shoalhaven Heads in New South Wales, Pick Swamp in South Australia, and Tootgarook Swamp on the Mornington Peninsula near Melbourne.</p>
<h2>Water efficiency might be bad news for the bittern</h2>
<p>Rice farming in Australia’s Riverina has a century-long history. The amount grown varies greatly from year to year, depending on water allocations, and ranged from 5,000-113,000 hectares over the past decade. Around 80% is exported and it provides food for up to <a href="https://www.rga.org.au/">20 million people each year</a>.</p>
<p>Driven by water efficiency, many rice growers in the Riverina are switching their methods to intermittent flooding and not “ponding” the water – maintaining inundated fields – until later in the season. </p>
<p>A shorter ponding period will likely reduce opportunities for the bitterns to breed successfully before harvest. Another threat to bitterns is farmers switching to alternative crops and horticulture, none of which provides them habitat. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284030/original/file-20190715-173355-bfifm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284030/original/file-20190715-173355-bfifm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284030/original/file-20190715-173355-bfifm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284030/original/file-20190715-173355-bfifm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284030/original/file-20190715-173355-bfifm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284030/original/file-20190715-173355-bfifm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284030/original/file-20190715-173355-bfifm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284030/original/file-20190715-173355-bfifm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Around 40% of the global Australasian bittern population come to the Riverina’s rice fields.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matt Herring</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During the 2017-18 irrigation season, there was more cotton grown than rice for the <a href="https://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/agribusiness/cotton-plantings-in-southern-nsw-to-outstrip-rice-for-first-time/news-story/571a8ff95e7cff002be96a6b09fc7a6d">first time in the Riverina</a>. It’s usually simple economics: irrigators will generally grow whatever gives them the best return per megalitre of water, with their choice having no net effect on the overall amount of irrigation water used in the system.</p>
<p>Water management in the Murray-Darling Basin is complicated, with fluctuating temporary water prices and trading between catchments. Water is allocated to either agriculture <em>or</em> the environment, setting up a dichotomy. But we think allocations to serve a single purpose may be overly simplistic, and the way bitterns use rice offers a case study for considering multi-purpose water use. </p>
<p>Working closely with growers, we are identifying ways to develop cost-effective incentive programs for bittern-friendly rice growing, where a sufficient ponding period is provided, with complementary habitat on banks, in crop edges and adjacent constructed wetland refuges. The aim is to boost the bittern population with the help of rice farmers. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284031/original/file-20190715-173338-5n0iqg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284031/original/file-20190715-173338-5n0iqg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284031/original/file-20190715-173338-5n0iqg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284031/original/file-20190715-173338-5n0iqg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284031/original/file-20190715-173338-5n0iqg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284031/original/file-20190715-173338-5n0iqg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284031/original/file-20190715-173338-5n0iqg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284031/original/file-20190715-173338-5n0iqg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bitterns can nest and feed in rice paddies, but they depend on fields being flooded.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matt Herring</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We are also surveying consumers about their attitudes towards bittern-friendly rice. Would you pay a premium for rice products that offset additional costs to growers for bittern conservation? How do you feel about adjusting water and conservation policies? </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-good-are-wetlands-5-essential-reads-110849">What good are wetlands? 5 essential reads</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Bitterns are not the only threatened species that use the Riverina’s rice fields. The endangered Southern Bell Frog and Australian Painted Snipe have also adapted to rice crops, and it’s likely there are significant populations of other species too.</p>
<p>With <a href="https://www.nff.org.au/get/news/1899-0.pdf">61% of Australia</a> managed by farmers, the need to incorporate wildlife conservation on farms has never been greater. We hope our work will help address the divisive, sometimes toxic debate around water use in the Murray-Darling Basin, uniting irrigators and environmentalists.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120342/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Herring also works as a private consultant for the Bitterns in Rice Project, a collaboration between Birdlife Australia, Ricegrowers' Association of Australia and Riverina Local Land Services, with funding from the Australian Government's National Landcare Program. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kerstin Zander receives funding from the Threatened Species Recovery Hub (National Environmental Science Programme)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Garnett receives funding from the National Environment Science Program and the Australian Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wayne A. Robinson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The endangered Australasian bittern offers a way past the ‘farmers vs environmentalist’ debate in the Murray-Darling basin.
Matt Herring, PhD Candidate, Charles Darwin University
Kerstin Zander, Associate professor, Charles Darwin University
Stephen Garnett, Professor of Conservation and Sustainable Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University
Wayne A. Robinson, post doctoral research fellow, Charles Sturt University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/110599
2019-02-12T08:20:53Z
2019-02-12T08:20:53Z
Why rice self-sufficiency has such a grip on the Indonesian public imagination
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257413/original/file-20190206-174851-4irtwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C3792%2C2539&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Despite being economically damaging and nearly impossible to achieve, politicians continue to cling to a policy of rice self-sufficiency.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mazur Travel/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Being known by the Indonesian public to support importing rice over self-sufficiency can jeopardise a politician’s place in Indonesian politics. Recently, supporters of Prabowo Subianto, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s opponent in the country’s upcoming election, tried to attack the incumbent using this issue. </p>
<p>An economist in Prabowo’s camp, Dradjad Wibowo, criticised Jokowi for having a “<a href="https://www.cnbcindonesia.com/news/20190131162553-4-53339/soal-jokowi-hobi-impor-beras-kemendag-keluarkan-data-baru">hobby of importing rice</a>”. Dradjad claimed that Jokowi has imported the largest amount of rice since the New Order regime. The agriculture minister <a href="https://www.cnbcindonesia.com/news/20190201095921-4-53421/tim-prabowo-jujurlah-soal-data-impor-beras-kemendag">has refuted</a> this. </p>
<p>Interestingly, no officials in Jokowi’s administration has appeared to refute an allegation Prabowo made during the televised presidential debate of January 2019 that elements within Jokowi’s government were benefiting financially (that is, illegally) from rice imports. </p>
<p>That political insiders have taken advantage of state-controlled rice imports in Indonesia has long been an open secret. So what may have transpired under Jokowi was nothing new. </p>
<p>That both presidential candidates have pledged to achieve self-sufficiency in rice, just as they did during the 2014 election campaign, is also to be expected. </p>
<h2>Self-sufficiency: a difficult promise to keep</h2>
<p>It is exceedingly difficult to pinpoint why today’s politicians in Indonesia cling to a policy of self-sufficiency in the country’s primary staple food when the country has so rarely achieved this feat on an annual basis. </p>
<p>The simple answer is because the policy seems to be popular. But why? Why is the idea of reaching rice self-sufficiency so popular among the public? Why is it political suicide for a national politician to support a policy that aims to increase the annual supply of foreign rice? </p>
<p>After all, according to many mainstream (admittedly mostly foreign) economists, doing so would bring <a href="https://www.atlasnetwork.org/news/article/opening-up-food-trade-in-indonesia-a-win-for-former-think-tank-shark-tank-w">many benefits</a>. Since foreign rice, mostly sourced from Vietnam and Thailand, is more cheaply produced, lower rice prices in Indonesia would amount to less household spending on this staple food among the poor. </p>
<p>In turn, the poor could spend more on food with higher nutritional content than white rice, on health care and on their children’s education. This does not only apply to the urban poor. Because many rural poor, even small-scale rice farmers, remain net consumers of rice, cheaper foreign rice would <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2018/01/18/editorial-the-unreliability-of-rice-data.html">reduce rural poverty as well</a>.</p>
<p>Lastly, by suspending expensive rice self-sufficiency efforts – Jokowi oversaw significant state spending to build a few dozen reservoirs to <a href="https://en.tempo.co/read/1164597/jokowi-only-11-percent-of-rice-fields-irrigated-by-dams">increase rice production</a> – the government would be able to spend public money elsewhere. </p>
<p>For example, the government could use the money to help marginal farmers who might be forced to sell their crop at lower prices. Public funding could be used for income support or for extension services to help growers shift to crops of higher value than rice. Both possibilities, it seems, would make inroads into rural poverty. </p>
<h2>The populism of rice self-sufficiency</h2>
<p>Several reasons have been proposed for why self-sufficiency in rice remains so popular. </p>
<p>Some suggest the public just does not realise that higher rice prices actually hurt the rural poor since they believe what the government tells them — that higher domestic prices mean the farmer will receive more money for his crop. This might be true for the large-scale farmers, but they are small in number. </p>
<p>Others insist that <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S104900781400075X">the rice milling lobby</a> is behind self-sufficiency. Higher domestic production means more milling and therefore more profits. </p>
<p>Officials from the National Food Security Council that I interviewed highlighted the simmering nostalgia for the glory days of the New Order, especially when under Soeharto in the mid-1980s Indonesia last achieved rice self-sufficiency, albeit briefly. </p>
<p>The populism generated by Indonesia’s competitive elections may also play a role here. </p>
<p>Yet these factors are also found in regional neighbours that share similarities with Indonesia. Malaysia and the Philippines, for example, also grow rice in abundance yet rely on imports to fulfil national requirements. There, high domestic rice prices hurt the poor as well. </p>
<p>These two countries rely on state agencies to import rice, which leads to considerable rent-seeking. Milling lobbies are robust in the Philippines and Malaysia as well. These two countries also experienced impressive production spurts during the Green Revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, and each has competitive electoral regimes that have spurred populist sentiments. </p>
<p>But, significantly, new governments in Malaysia and the Philippines have taken concrete steps toward liberalising their rice trade policies. This means extinguishing dreams of achieving rice self-sufficiency. In short, they have begun serious discussions to revoke the monopoly import licences of their rice parastatals in order to involve more private traders in the buying and selling of imported rice. </p>
<p>While it is uncertain precisely what will come of these policy changes, one thing is sure — neither Jokowi nor Prabowo between now and the April election will make pledges like this. In Indonesia, the rice self-sufficiency dream remains alive.</p>
<h2>A legacy of nationalism</h2>
<p>Indonesia’s current distinctiveness might lie with the legacy of the country’s nationalist, anti-colonial movement, and specifically the central role the rice peasant holds as a stirring symbol of independence.</p>
<p>Soekarno, Indonesia’s first president, famously espoused an ideology of Marhaenism, where the average, poor Indonesian (read Javanese) peasant embodied the ideals of self-sufficiency and perseverance in the face of aggressive, foreign intrusion.</p>
<p>This belief, ironically carried forth by Soeharto who liked to portray himself as the patron of the Indonesian peasant, continues to resonate powerfully in Indonesia. Idolisation of the rice peasant was absent or less prominent in the ethnically fractured nationalist movement of Malaya/Malaysia, and in the oligarchic, top-down, elite-controlled movement in the Philippines.</p>
<p>In short, it falls on us to consider how specific histories and ideologies continue to shape critical public policies in Indonesia and elsewhere. Liberalisation can be achieved easily with the stroke of a pen. Altering creeds rooted in one’s nationalist past cannot be as easily undone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110599/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jamie S. Davidson has received funding from the National University of Singapore in order to conduct research on rice policies in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia.</span></em></p>
Even though almost impossible to achieve, the goal of national rice self-sufficiency remains deeply ingrained in Indonesia’s national psyche.
Jamie S. Davidson, Associate Professor of Political Science, National University of Singapore
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/109953
2019-01-16T19:10:13Z
2019-01-16T19:10:13Z
Cotton and rice have an important place in the Murray Darling Basin
<p>The widespread deaths of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-darling-river-is-simply-not-supposed-to-dry-out-even-in-drought-109880">fish in the Darling River</a> – with more predicted to come – has raised serious questions about the allocation of water between agriculture and the environment. Water-hungry crops like cotton and rice are also raising eyebrows: are they worth growing in the Murray Darling Basin?</p>
<p>The situation is a little more complicated than it may appear. Cotton and rice need plenty of water, but they might actually be some of the best crops to help cope with a rapidly changing climate. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-darling-river-is-simply-not-supposed-to-dry-out-even-in-drought-109880">The Darling River is simply not supposed to dry out, even in drought</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Flexible crops are vital</h2>
<p>It’s true cotton and rice are both “<a href="https://cottonaustralia.com.au/cotton-library/fact-sheets/cotton-fact-file-water">thirsty</a>” crops. Cotton requires about 7.8 million litres per hectare to grow, while rice needs roughly 12.6 million litres per hectare.</p>
<p>More importantly however, they are both annual crops. Farmers plant, grow and harvest in the same 12 month period. This means they can look to the year ahead and decide how much to plant given water availability and seasonal rainfall predictions. </p>
<p>Along the Murray and Darling rivers, which are some of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2007.09.002">most variable in the world</a>, the flexibility to plant more or less in a given year is very valuable. In a drought year with limited water like this one, a rice or cotton farmer may even chose to plant nothing and simply sell their remaining water allocation to another farmer.</p>
<p>During a flood year they can move into full production and grow bumper crops. For an annual crop like this, farmers may only need three good years out of five to have a viable business. </p>
<p>In contrast, perennial crops like orchards or vineyards need a very secure water supply, every year without fail. The trees and vines take years to mature, so a bad drought can be devastating: if they die, a farm could be set back a decade waiting for them to regrow.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-is-oxygen-sucked-out-of-our-waterways-109795">How is oxygen 'sucked out' of our waterways?</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The Murray Darling Basin is an <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13280-014-0495-x">epicentre</a> for the impact of climate change, in terms of water availability. It’s vital we have crops like rice and cotton that can produce in a good year. Then, with relatively minor consequences, <em>not</em> produce in a dry year when it would be better to have the remaining water going to the environment and higher value agricultural crops like citrus, stone fruit and grapes. Our rural communities need to produce a diverse range of agricultural commodities and industries to be more resilient and thrive.</p>
<h2>Do we have the balance right?</h2>
<p>While I think we need the cotton and rice industries, this doesn’t mean that we’re distributing water well. The disastrous <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-causes-algal-blooms-and-how-we-can-stop-them-109646">algal blooms</a> choking the Darling River show clearly taking too much water out of the Murray Darling Basin severely damages freshwater ecosystems during droughts. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-causes-algal-blooms-and-how-we-can-stop-them-109646">Explainer: what causes algal blooms, and how we can stop them</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The sort of tragedy we’re seeing on the Darling River is because too little water has been allocated to the environment. </p>
<p>We need to reallocate water from irrigated agriculture to improve the health of the environment, support people living along the rivers, and other rural industries that depend on healthy rivers, like grazing, recreational fishing and tourism. </p>
<p>This is, I believe, in large part a value judgement. If we, as a society, are going to take water from the rivers, we have to decide how much of the environment to allow to die off in that process. This is how we support irrigated agriculture and associated communities. The fish deaths on the Darling River are a clear sign we have not got that balance right. </p>
<h2>The ‘water stock market’ generally works</h2>
<p>The trade in water allocations – between, for example, rice and cotton growers to a perennial crop producer – is a key <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2013.12.001">drought adaptation measure</a> in the Murray Darling Basin. It will only become more important with climate change, which is predicted to make droughts <a href="https://theconversation.com/recent-australian-droughts-may-be-the-worst-in-800-years-94292">more frequent and intense</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/recent-australian-droughts-may-be-the-worst-in-800-years-94292">Recent Australian droughts may be the worst in 800 years</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In a drought year, we need a grape grower who’s short of water to be able to quickly buy extra water from a farmer who might produce a lower-value crop. This keeps the vineyard alive, able to keep employing the people picking the grapes, and keeping their wine production facility going.</p>
<p>This is critical for rural communities in drought for maintaining employment and small businesses who supply services from nearby towns. Therefore, we need a modest share of annual crop growers like rice and cotton growers in the system to keep our broader communities healthy. </p>
<p>While some irrigators appear to have <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/pumped/8727826">broken the rules</a> and taken water they were not entitled to, this is also a <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-restore-public-trust-in-the-governing-of-the-murray-darling-basin-109797">crisis of management</a>. Our state governments, in particular, have <a href="http://wentworthgroup.org/2018/05/submission-to-sa-royal-commission/2018/">failed to adequately fulfil their duties</a> to the environment and the Australian public as stewards of our rivers. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-restore-public-trust-in-the-governing-of-the-murray-darling-basin-109797">It's time to restore public trust in the governing of the Murray Darling Basin</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109953/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jamie Pittock is a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and is a scientific adviser to WWF Australia.</span></em></p>
Crises in the Darling River have raised questions about cotton and rice farming in the Murray Darling Basin.
Jamie Pittock, Professor, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/108095
2019-01-14T13:15:03Z
2019-01-14T13:15:03Z
Why Nigeria should first support rice farmers before it cuts off imports
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248405/original/file-20181203-194938-7zvz93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rapid urbanisation is one of the reasons that Nigeria's demand for rice is so high.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeremy Weate/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nigeria spends an average of US $22 billion (₦7.92trn) each year on <a href="http://shipsandports.com.ng/evaluation-nigerias-food-import-bill/">food imports</a>. Its major food imports include wheat, sugar and fish. </p>
<p>Another big import, rice, accounts for about <a href="http://thenigerianexpression.com/2018/05/28/buharis-three-year-score-card-lai-mohammed-says-fg-delivering-on-campaign-promises/">US$1.65 billion</a>, or ₦0.59trn. Most of the country’s rice is imported from Thailand and India.</p>
<p>This has led <a href="https://apps.fas.usda.gov/psdonline/circulars/grain-rice.pdf">analysts</a> to predict it will be the world’s <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-14/usda-sees-nigeria-rice-imports-increasing-to-3-4m-tons-in-2019">second largest importer</a> of rice after China in 2019.</p>
<p>There are a few reasons that Nigeria’s demand for rice is so high. Among them is rapid urbanisation; people who arrive in cities and seek out cheap, nutritious, filling food invariably turn to rice. More traditional coarse grains like sorghum and millet have become less popular over the years. This, according to research, <a href="https://gain.fas.usda.gov/Recent%20GAIN%20Publications/Grain%20and%20Feed%20Annual_Lagos_Nigeria_4-12-2018.pdf">is because</a> rice is “a more convenient and easy staple to prepare compared to other traditional cereals across income levels in the urban areas”. </p>
<p>Now Nigeria’s government is trying to stem the tide of imported rice. Towards the end of 2018 it <a href="https://www.icirnigeria.org/rice-importation-will-stop-in-2018-7-things-we-learnt-from-buharis-new-year-message/">announced its intention</a> to halt rice imports entirely. In doing so, it hopes to save a great deal of money. But is this plan realistic? </p>
<p>Unfortunately, it’s not. Nigeria’s agricultural sector simply isn’t equipped to produce the amount of rice to meet demand. It is battling natural and climatic factors, a lack of funding and training for farmers, and a dearth of government support.</p>
<p>To turn this around, the government needs to invest heavily in rice farmers. </p>
<h2>Barriers</h2>
<p>In theory, Nigeria could be growing most or even all of its own rice. <a href="http://nepadbgng.org/downloads/Papers-2ndNRIF-nrif-2014-rifan-paper.pdf">There are</a> 82 million hectares of arable land across the country; five million hectares are suitable for growing rice.</p>
<p>But only about 3.2 million hectares are being used for growing rice; collectively these produce 3.7 metric tons per year and that rice meets about 50% of domestic rice demand. </p>
<p>There are a number of issues that Nigeria will need to address in its agricultural and related sectors to improve the situation. This has been outlined in several pieces of research, most recently in <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jude_Eze4/publication/328555759_Incentivising_Adoption_of_Climate-smart_Practices_in_Cereals_Production_in_Nigeria_Socio-cultural_and_Economic_Diagnosis/links/5bd415ac4585150b2b8a28d0/Incentivising-Adoption-of-Climate-smart-Practices-in-Cereals-Production-in-Nigeria-Socio-cultural-and-Economic-Diagnosis.pdf">a report</a> titled “Incentivising Adoption of Climate-smart Practices in Cereals
Production in Nigeria: Socio-cultural and Economic Diagnosis”.</p>
<p>Some are natural factors, among them changing climates, weeds, pests and diseases. These of course affect farmers all over the world; the problem is that Nigeria lacks the infrastructure (like irrigation facilities) and planning to mitigate these realities.</p>
<p>Money is another big issue. Rice farmers in Nigeria have <a href="https://leadership.ng/2018/01/26/access-financing-agriculture-many-challenges-nigerian-farmers/">limited access</a> to credit facilities. Those who do obtain loans <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/272256-rice-farmers-react-to-premium-times-report-on-anchor-borrowers-programme.html">often default</a> on repayments, and are not able to use the money to build their enterprises. Furthermore, rice farming is an expensive business: machinery, seeds, fertilisers and other agro-chemicals cost a great deal of money. </p>
<p>These factors leave many, especially small-scale, rice farmers in Nigeria living <a href="https://cgscholar.com/bookstore/works/poverty-and-its-determinants-among-rice-farming-households-in-nigeria?category_id=common-ground-publishing">below the poverty line</a>. </p>
<p>The country’s land tenure system is another barrier to farmers’ success. Guaranteed sustainable access to land in Nigeria is mostly by inheritance. Hence, when the initial owner dies, the land is shared among the children of the deceased; thereby breaking, in most cases, vast plantations into pieces. This leaves farmers with small, fragmented spaces in which to try and grow rice.</p>
<p>Nigeria also hasn’t invested enough in training farmers. There’s a lack of knowledge about how to use pesticides and herbicides; how to handle rice once it’s been harvested; and how to market one’s produce. And traders are reluctant to go out and purchase produce from rice farms in the country’s rural areas, because the state of the roads is so bad.</p>
<p>Mechanisation is rare. This is partly because it costs so much money, and partly because farmers tend to stubbornly stick to the old ways of doing things. The average Nigerian rice farmer depends on rudimentary and time consuming crude tools like hoes, slashers, sickles, axes and rakes for various farm operations. </p>
<h2>Government support</h2>
<p>The government could do much more to support rice farmers. It tends to only offer financial support towards the end of rice production season (around August/September), when it’s too late to undo the damage caused by poor planting and harvesting practices.</p>
<p>Government regulations are a problem, too. These include high inputs costs such as cost of credit, imported equipment, agrochemicals due to taxes (multiple, legal and illegal taxation), tariffs and duties as well as policy instability (ban, unban) that makes decision making and planning highly uncertain and putting investments at great risk. </p>
<p>Government <a href="https://leadership.ng/2018/01/26/access-financing-agriculture-many-challenges-nigerian-farmers/">could do more</a> than offering loans and setting up credit facilities by identifying and involving public-private-partnership with stakeholders of proven track records in formulating policies that will help the growth of the Nigerian rice sector.</p>
<p>Research institutes and universities also have a role to play. Academics who have been trained in agriculture can help farmers to learn more about the best, most cost effective and productive methods to improve their businesses.</p>
<p>All of this and more is necessary to ensure that Nigeria’s own rice production improves and that the sector grows. Until then, there is no way the country can entirely shut down rice imports – it simply isn’t equipped to manage without rice grown elsewhere in the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108095/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rahman Akintayo Sanusi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Nigeria’s agricultural sector simply isn’t equipped to produce the amount of rice to meet demand.
Rahman Akintayo Sanusi, Reader, Dept. of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management,College of Agricultural Management and Rural Dev, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/109283
2019-01-03T19:08:47Z
2019-01-03T19:08:47Z
Reclaiming lost calories: Tweaking photosynthesis boosts crop yields
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252353/original/file-20190102-32154-f71x7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A farmer shows smaller-than-usual soybeans harvested due to drought conditions in Tallapoosa, Georgia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Deep-South-Drought/39a0f96509c0426b8ad1bd69fdfe96f5/58/0">AP Photo/David Goldman</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What if your ability to feed yourself was dependent on a process that made a mistake 20 percent of the time? </p>
<p>We face this situation every day. That’s because the plants that produce the food we eat evolved to solve a chemistry problem that arose billions of years ago. Plants evolved to use carbon dioxide to make our food and the oxygen we breathe – a process called photosynthesis. But they grew so well and produced so much oxygen that this gas began to dominate the atmosphere. To plants, carbon dioxide and oxygen look very similar, and sometimes, plants use an oxygen instead of carbon dioxide. When this happens, toxic compounds are created, which lowers crop yields and costs us 148 trillion calories per year in unrealized wheat and soybean yield – or enough calories to feed an additional <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-arplant-043015-111709">200 million people</a> for a whole year. </p>
<p>Improving crop yields to grow more food on less land is not a new challenge. But as the global population grows and diets change, the issue is becoming more urgent. It seems likely that we will have to increase food production by between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/bix010">25 and 70</a> percent by 2050 to have an adequate supply of food. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=MBlLt6sAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">As a plant biochemist</a>, I have been fascinated by photosynthesis for my whole career, because we owe our entire existence to this single process. My own interest in agricultural research was spurred by this challenge: Plants feed people, and we need to quickly develop solutions to feed more people.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252327/original/file-20190102-32130-1bryd9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252327/original/file-20190102-32130-1bryd9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252327/original/file-20190102-32130-1bryd9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252327/original/file-20190102-32130-1bryd9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252327/original/file-20190102-32130-1bryd9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252327/original/file-20190102-32130-1bryd9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252327/original/file-20190102-32130-1bryd9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Amanda Cavanagh tests modified tobacco plants in a specialized greenhouse to select ones with genetic designs that boost the yield of key food crops.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Claire Benjamin/RIPE Project</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Supercharging photosynthesis to grow more food</h2>
<p>It can take decades for agricultural innovations such as improved seeds to reach growers’ fields, whether they are created via genetic approaches or traditional breeding. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Revolution#High-Yielding_Varieties">high-yielding crop varieties</a> that were bred during the first green revolution helped prevent food shortages in the 1960s by increasing the proportion of <a href="http://plantbreeding.coe.uga.edu/index.php?title=The_Green_Revolution">grain-to-plant biomass</a>. It’s the grain that contains most of the plant’s consumable calories, so having more grain instead of straw means more food. But most crops are now so improved that they are close to their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-arplant-042809-112206">theoretical limit</a>.</p>
<p>I work on an international project called Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (<a href="https://ripe.illinois.edu/">RIPE</a>), which takes another approach. We are boosting harvests by increasing the efficiency of photosynthesis – the solar-powered process that plants use to turn carbon dioxide and water into greater crop yields. In <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.aat9077">our most recent publication</a>, we show one way to increase crop yield by up to 40 percent by rerouting a series of chemical reactions common to most of our staple food crops. </p>
<h2>Photorespiration costs a lot of energy</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252299/original/file-20190102-32139-1ecd0o9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252299/original/file-20190102-32139-1ecd0o9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252299/original/file-20190102-32139-1ecd0o9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252299/original/file-20190102-32139-1ecd0o9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252299/original/file-20190102-32139-1ecd0o9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252299/original/file-20190102-32139-1ecd0o9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252299/original/file-20190102-32139-1ecd0o9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252299/original/file-20190102-32139-1ecd0o9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the process of photosynthesis, carbon dioxide and water are transformed into sugars and oxygen. Sunlight powers this chemical reaction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/diagram-showing-process-photosynthesis-illustration-563007307">BlueRingMedia/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/">Two-thirds of the calories</a> we consume across the globe come directly or indirectly from just four crops: rice, wheat, soybean and maize. Of these, the first three are hindered by a photosynthetic glitch. Typically the enzyme that captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, called Rubisco, converts carbon dioxide into sugar and energy. But in one out of every five chemical reactions, Rubisco makes a mistake. The enzyme grabs an oxygen molecule instead. Rather than producing sugars and energy, the chemical reaction yields glycolate and ammonia, which are toxic to plants. To deal with this problem, plants have evolved an energy-expensive process called photorespiration that recycles these toxic compounds. But toxin recycling requires so much energy that the plant produces less food. </p>
<p>Photorespiration uses so much energy that some plants, like maize, as well as photosynthetic bacteria and algae, have evolved mechanisms to prevent Rubisco’s exposure to oxygen. Other organisms, like bacteria, have evolved more efficient ways to remove these toxins. </p>
<p>These natural solutions have inspired many researchers to try to tweak photorespiration to improve crop yields. Some of the more efficient naturally occurring recycling pathways have been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/ers247">genetically engineered</a> in other plants to improve growth and photosynthesis in greenhouse and laboratory conditions. <a href="https://theconversation.com/helping-plants-remove-natural-toxins-could-boost-crop-yields-by-47-percent-97505">Another strategy</a> has been to modify natural photorespiration and speed up the recycling. </p>
<h2>Chemical detour improves crop yield</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252429/original/file-20190103-32148-15ghpt0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252429/original/file-20190103-32148-15ghpt0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252429/original/file-20190103-32148-15ghpt0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252429/original/file-20190103-32148-15ghpt0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252429/original/file-20190103-32148-15ghpt0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252429/original/file-20190103-32148-15ghpt0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252429/original/file-20190103-32148-15ghpt0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252429/original/file-20190103-32148-15ghpt0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The red car represents unmodified plants who use a circuitous and energy-expensive process called photorespiration that costs yield potential. The blue car represents plants engineered with an alternate route to shortcut photorespiration, enabling these plants to save fuel and reinvest their energy to boost productivity by as much as 40 percent.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">RIPE</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These direct manipulations of photorespiration are crucial targets for future crop improvement. Increased atmospheric carbon dioxide from fossil fuel consumption boosts photosynthesis, allowing the plant to use more carbon. You might assume that that this will solve the oxygen-grabbing mistake. But, higher temperatures promote the formation of toxic compounds through photorespiration. Even if carbon dioxide levels more than double, we expect <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-arplant-043015-111709">harvest yield losses of 18 percent</a> because of the almost 4 degrees Celsius temperature increase that will accompany them. We cannot rely on increasing levels of carbon dioxide to grow all the food we will need by 2050. </p>
<p>I worked with <a href="https://ripe.illinois.edu/team/paul-south">Paul South</a>, a research molecular biologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, <a href="https://www.ars.usda.gov/">Agricultural Research Service</a> and professor <a href="https://ripe.illinois.edu/team/don-ort">Don Ort</a>, who is a biologist specializing in crop science at the University of Illinois, to explore whether modifying the chemical reactions of photorespiration might boost crop yields. One element that makes recycling the toxin glycolate so inefficient is that it moves through three compartments inside the plant cell. That’s like taking an aluminum can into three separate recycling plants. We engineered three new shortcuts that could recycle the compound in one location. We also stopped the natural process from occurring.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252325/original/file-20190102-32136-b8lb67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252325/original/file-20190102-32136-b8lb67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252325/original/file-20190102-32136-b8lb67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252325/original/file-20190102-32136-b8lb67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252325/original/file-20190102-32136-b8lb67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252325/original/file-20190102-32136-b8lb67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252325/original/file-20190102-32136-b8lb67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252325/original/file-20190102-32136-b8lb67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Four unmodified plants (left) grow beside four plants (right) engineered with alternate routes to shortcut photorespiration. The modified plants are able to reinvest their energy and resources to boost productivity by 40 percent.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Claire Benjamin/RIPE Project</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Designed in silico; tested in soil</h2>
<p>Agricultural research innovations can be rapidly tested in a model species. Tobacco is well-suited for this since it is easy to genetically engineer and grow in the field. The other advantage of tobacco is that it has a short life cycle, produces a lot of seed and develops a leafy canopy similar to other field crops so we can measure the impact of our genetic alterations in a short time span. We can then determine whether these modifications in tobacco can be translated into our desired food crops.</p>
<p>We engineered and tested 1,200 tobacco plants with unique sets of genes to find the genetic combination that recycled glycolate most efficiently. Then we starved these modified plants of carbon dioxide. This triggered the formation of the toxin glycolate. Then we identified which plants grew best – these have the combination of genes that recycled the toxin most efficiently. Over the next two years, we further tested these plants in real-world agricultural conditions. Plants with the best combination of genes flowered about a week earlier, grew taller and were about 40 percent larger than unmodified plants. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252351/original/file-20190102-32130-1njbhjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252351/original/file-20190102-32130-1njbhjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252351/original/file-20190102-32130-1njbhjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252351/original/file-20190102-32130-1njbhjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252351/original/file-20190102-32130-1njbhjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252351/original/file-20190102-32130-1njbhjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252351/original/file-20190102-32130-1njbhjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252351/original/file-20190102-32130-1njbhjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Over two years of field trials, scientists Donald Ort (right), Paul South (center) and Amanda Cavanagh (left) found tobacco plants engineered to modify photorespiration are more productive in real-world field conditions. Now they are translating this technology hoping to boost the yield of key food crops, including soybeans, rice, cowpeas and cassava.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Claire Benjamin/RIPE Project</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.aat9077">Having shown proof of concept in tobacco</a>, we are beginning to test these designs in food crops: soybean, cowpea, rice, potato, tomato and eggplant. Soon, we will have a better idea of how much we can increase the yield of these crops with our modifications. </p>
<p>Once we demonstrate that our discovery can be translated into food crops, the Food and Drug Administration and the USDA will rigorously test these modified plants to make sure they are safe for human consumption and pose no risk to the environment. Such testing can cost as much as US$150 million and take more than 10 years. </p>
<p>Since the process of photorespiration is common across plant species, we are optimistic that our strategy will increase crop yields by close to 40 percent and help find a way to grow more food on less land to be able to feed a hungry global population by 2050.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109283/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Cavanagh receives funding from Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE), an international research project that is engineering crops to photosynthesize more efficiently to sustainably increase worldwide food productivity with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR), and the U.K. Government’s Department for International Development (DFID).</span></em></p>
Many of the crop plants that feed us waste 20 percent of their energy, especially in hot weather. Plant geneticists prove that capturing this energy could boost crop yields by up to 40 percent.
Amanda Cavanagh, Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/97914
2018-06-13T10:40:10Z
2018-06-13T10:40:10Z
Climate change will make rice less nutritious, putting millions of the world’s poor at risk
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222618/original/file-20180611-191940-siw4qq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rice farmer in Longsheng, China.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/6vLP2b">kevincure</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Rice is the primary food source for more than 3 billion people around the world. Many are unable to afford a diverse and nutritious diet that includes complete protein, grains, fruits and vegetables. They rely heavily on more affordable cereal crops, including rice, for most of their calories. </p>
<p>My research focuses on health risks associated with climate variability and change. In a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaq1012">recently published study</a>, I worked with scientists from China, Japan, Australia and the United States to assess how the rising carbon dioxide concentrations that are fueling climate change could alter the nutritional value of rice. We conducted field studies in Asia for multiple genetically diverse rice lines, analyzing how rising concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere altered levels of protein, micronutrients and B vitamins. </p>
<p>Our data showed for the first time that rice grown at the concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide scientists expect the world to reach by 2100 has lower levels of four key B vitamins. These findings also support research from other field studies showing rice grown under such conditions <a href="http://www.environment.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/myers_2014_increasing_co2_threatens_human_nutrition_aop_version.pdf">contains less protein, iron and zinc</a>, which are important in fetal and early child development. These changes could have a disproportionate impact on maternal and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1159/000371618">child health</a> in the poorest rice-dependent countries, including Bangladesh and Cambodia.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222621/original/file-20180611-191962-177718c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222621/original/file-20180611-191962-177718c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222621/original/file-20180611-191962-177718c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222621/original/file-20180611-191962-177718c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222621/original/file-20180611-191962-177718c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222621/original/file-20180611-191962-177718c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222621/original/file-20180611-191962-177718c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222621/original/file-20180611-191962-177718c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many of poorest regions in Asia rely on rice as a staple food.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://irri.org/global-effort/poverty-is-where-rice-is-grown">IRRI</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Carbon dioxide and plant growth</h2>
<p>Plants obtain the carbon they need to grow primarily from carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and draw other required nutrients from the soil. Human activities – mainly fossil fuel combustion and deforestation – raised atmospheric CO2 concentrations from about 280 parts per million during pre-industrial times to <a href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide">410 parts per million today</a>. If global emission rates continue on their current path, atmospheric CO2 concentrations could reach over 1,200 parts per million by 2100 (including methane and other greenhouse gas emissions). </p>
<p>Higher concentrations of CO2 are generally acknowledged to stimulate plant photosynthesis and growth. This effect could make the cereal crops that remain the world’s most important sources of food, such as rice, wheat and corn, more productive, although recent research suggests that predicting impacts on plant growth is <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-rising-carbon-dioxide-levels-really-boost-plant-growth-95265">complex</a>. </p>
<p>Concentrations of minerals critical for human health, particularly iron and zinc, do not change in unison with CO2 concentrations. Current understanding of plant physiology suggests that major cereal crops – particularly rice and wheat – respond to higher CO2 concentrations by synthesizing more carbohydrates (starches and sugars) and less protein, and by reducing the quantity of <a href="https://elifesciences.org/articles/02245">minerals in their grains</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222665/original/file-20180611-191943-g7d1tz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222665/original/file-20180611-191943-g7d1tz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222665/original/file-20180611-191943-g7d1tz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222665/original/file-20180611-191943-g7d1tz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222665/original/file-20180611-191943-g7d1tz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222665/original/file-20180611-191943-g7d1tz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222665/original/file-20180611-191943-g7d1tz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222665/original/file-20180611-191943-g7d1tz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">After steadily declining for over a decade, global hunger appears to be on the rise, affecting 11 percent of the global population.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.fao.org/state-of-food-security-nutrition">FAO</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The importance of micronutrients</h2>
<p>Worldwide, approximately 815 million people worldwide are <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/a-I7695e.pdf">food-insecure</a>, meaning that they do not have reliable access to sufficient quantities of safe, nutritious and affordable food. Even more people – approximately 2 billion – have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1159/000371618">deficiencies of important micronutrients</a> such as iron, iodine and zinc. </p>
<p>Insufficient dietary iron can lead to iron deficiency anemia, a condition in which there are too few red blood cells in the body to carry oxygen. This is the most common type of anemia. It can cause fatigue, shortness of breath or chest pain, and can lead to serious complications, such as heart failure and developmental delays in children. </p>
<p>Zinc deficiencies are characterized by loss of appetite and diminished sense of smell, impaired wound healing, and weakened immune function. Zinc also supports growth and development, so sufficient dietary intake is important for pregnant women and growing children.</p>
<p>Higher carbon concentrations in plants reduce <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1744-7909.2008.00754.x">nitrogen amounts in plant tissue</a>, which is critical for the formation of B vitamins. Different B vitamins are required for key functions in the body, such as regulating the nervous system, turning food into energy and fighting infections. Folate, a B vitamin, reduces the risk of birth defects when consumed by pregnant women.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222667/original/file-20180611-191962-3tghlb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222667/original/file-20180611-191962-3tghlb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222667/original/file-20180611-191962-3tghlb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222667/original/file-20180611-191962-3tghlb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222667/original/file-20180611-191962-3tghlb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222667/original/file-20180611-191962-3tghlb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222667/original/file-20180611-191962-3tghlb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222667/original/file-20180611-191962-3tghlb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anemia affects one-third of women of reproductive age globally – or about 613 million women.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.fao.org/state-of-food-security-nutrition">FAO</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Significant nutrition losses</h2>
<p>We carried out our field studies in China and Japan, where we grew different strains of rice outdoors. To simulate higher atmospheric CO2 concentrations, we used <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-air_concentration_enrichment">Free-Air CO2 Enrichment</a>, which blows CO2 over fields to maintain concentrations that are expected later in the century. Control fields experience similar conditions except for the higher CO2 concentrations.</p>
<p>On average, the rice that we grew in air with elevated CO2 concentrations contained 17 percent less vitamin B1 (thiamine) than rice grown under current CO2 concentrations; 17 percent less vitamin B2 (riboflavin); 13 percent less vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid); and 30 percent less vitamin B9 (folate). Our study is the first to identify that concentrations of B vitamins in rice are reduced with higher CO2.</p>
<p>We also found average reductions of 10 percent in protein, 8 percent in iron and 5 percent in zinc. We found no change in levels of vitamin B6 or calcium. The only increase we found was in vitamin E levels for most strains.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222789/original/file-20180612-112631-y1ply.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222789/original/file-20180612-112631-y1ply.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222789/original/file-20180612-112631-y1ply.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222789/original/file-20180612-112631-y1ply.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222789/original/file-20180612-112631-y1ply.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222789/original/file-20180612-112631-y1ply.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222789/original/file-20180612-112631-y1ply.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222789/original/file-20180612-112631-y1ply.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rice within the octagon in this field is part of an experiment designed to grow rice under different atmospheric conditions. Rice grown under carbon dioxide concentrations of 568 to 590 parts per million is less nutritious, with lower amounts of protein, vitamins and minerals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dr. Toshihiro HASEGAWA, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization of Japan</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Worsening micronutrient deficiencies</h2>
<p>At present, about 600 million people — mostly in Southeast Asia — get more than half of their daily calories and protein directly from rice. If nothing is done, the declines we found would likely worsen the overall burden of undernutrition. They also could affect early childhood development through impacts that include worsened effects from diarrheal disease and malaria. </p>
<p>The potential health risks associated with CO2-induced nutritional deficits are directly correlated to the lowest overall gross domestic product per capita. This suggests that such changes would have serious potential consequences for countries already struggling with poverty and undernutrition. Few people would associate fossil fuel combustion and deforestation with the nutritional content of rice, but our research clearly shows one way in which emitting fossil fuels could worsen world hunger challenges.</p>
<h2>How could climate change affect other key plants?</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, today there is no entity at the federal, state or business level that provides long-term funding to evaluate how rising CO2 levels could affect plant chemistry and nutritional quality. But CO2-induced changes have significant implications, ranging from medicinal plants to nutrition, food safety and food allergies. Given the potential impacts, which may already be occurring, there is a clear and urgent need to invest in this research. </p>
<p>It is also critical to identify options for avoiding or lessening these risks, from traditional plant breeding to genetic modification to supplements. Rising CO2 concentrations are driving climate change. What role these emissions will play in altering all aspects of plant biology, including the nutritional quality of the crops that we use for food, feed, fiber and fuel, remains to be determined.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97914/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristie Ebi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
As atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rise, rice plants produce fewer vitamins and other key nutrients. This could worsen hunger, malnutrition, child stunting and other diet-related health problems.
Kristie Ebi, Professor of Global Health and Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/92974
2018-05-03T10:41:48Z
2018-05-03T10:41:48Z
Another problem with China’s coal: Mercury in rice
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216695/original/file-20180427-135830-1j2fmqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mercury enters rice through local industrial activities and through burning coal. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mckln/2360119409/in/photolist-4AyegX-ZcE6HS-7KuthL-7KvjpA-7JQerR-7KqFPr-5P3gyt-CxTfcT-3ivxds-74Abwn-7J92KC-6m3CPS-apL4D-aojmx-4aZyJv-sfWk1-6MwgeC-dTqitg-7J5m1x-aojhc-SPhwc2-qzMR51-44ouuc-7J8uAQ-fN3jo-rqfUN-7LhacE-4pdCVj-skCDB-7J9Wbj-aojii-7J4ezM-7JUhNC-kPHZsU-kPkLjU-7KHdUT-hNnoHK-5TQ4n4-PmjbK-aLXCaH-7K6T8s-7JU78J-7K2wED-7K2Xur-7LhiuA-9Udxv3-ZQ7YYQ-7CMC7S-7KhCBJ-7KveNo">David Woo</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mercury pollution is a problem usually associated with fish consumption. Pregnant women and children in many parts of the world are advised to eat fish low in mercury to protect against the adverse health impacts, including neurological damages, posed by a particularly toxic form of mercury, methylmercury. </p>
<p>But some people in China, the world’s largest mercury emitter, are exposed to more methylmercury from rice than they are from fish. In a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GB005824">recent study</a>, we explored the extent of this problem and which direction it could go in the future. </p>
<p>We found that China’s future emissions trajectory can have a measurable influence on the country’s rice methylmercury. This has important implications not only in China but across Asia, where <a href="https://instituteforenergyresearch.org/analysis/southeast-asias-coal-demand-boom/">coal use is increasing</a> and rice is a staple food. It is also relevant as countries across the world implement the <a href="http://www.mercuryconvention.org">Minamata Convention</a>, a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from mercury. </p>
<h2>Why is mercury a problem in rice?</h2>
<p>Measurements of methylmercury in rice in China from the early 2000s were in areas where mercury mining and other industrial activities led to high mercury levels in soil that was then taken up by rice plants. More recent research, however, has shown that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24972509">methylmercury in rice is also elevated in other areas of China</a>. This suggests that airborne mercury – emitted by sources such as coal-fired power plants and subsequently settling onto the land – might also be a factor. </p>
<p>To better understand the process of methylmercury accumulation in rice through deposition – that is, mercury originating from the air that rains out or settles to the land – we constructed a computer model to analyze the relative importance of soil and atmospheric sources of rice methylmercury. Then we projected how future methylmercury concentrations could change under different emissions scenarios. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216697/original/file-20180427-135806-axii5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216697/original/file-20180427-135806-axii5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216697/original/file-20180427-135806-axii5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216697/original/file-20180427-135806-axii5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216697/original/file-20180427-135806-axii5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216697/original/file-20180427-135806-axii5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216697/original/file-20180427-135806-axii5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216697/original/file-20180427-135806-axii5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Atmospheric mercury from burning coal and other industrial activities accumulates in fish, but not as much research has been done on the concentration in rice in China and the rest of Asia where coal use is spreading.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/maximmelnikov/5378753723/in/photolist-9b32GM-bwJZ4g-qocNPB-W61rLT-9AXst-d6X47L-Six8ti-RHMGDC-9ciw6a-9YqdyM-R4uLqF-9cmCyd-5vfmhF-bBbXXH-rfCspp-qBXhFs">Maxim Melnikov</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Concentrations of methylmercury in rice are lower than those in fish, but, in central China, people eat much more rice than fish. Studies have calculated that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2905572/">residents in areas with mercury-contaminated soil consume more methylmercury</a> than the U.S. EPA’s reference dose of 0.1 microgram methylmercury per kilogram of body weight per day, a level set to protect against adverse health outcomes such as decreased IQ. Recent data suggest that other neurodevelopmental impacts from methylmercury <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.est.6b00239">might occur at levels below the reference dose</a>. Few health studies, however, have examined impacts of methylmercury exposure to rice consumers specifically. </p>
<p>To identify the potential scope of the problem, we compared the areas in China where mercury deposition is expected to be high based on mercury models, with maps of rice production. We found that provinces with high mercury deposition also produce substantial amounts of rice. Seven provinces in central China (Henan, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guizhou, Chongqing and Hubei) account for 48 percent of Chinese rice production and receive nearly double the atmospheric mercury deposition as the rest of China. </p>
<p>We calculated that mercury deposition could increase nearly 90 percent or decrease by 60 percent by 2050, <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.5b00074">depending on future policies and technologies</a>.</p>
<h2>Our modeling approach</h2>
<p>To understand how mercury from the atmosphere might be incorporated into rice as methylmercury, we built a model to simulate mercury in rice paddies. Methylmercury is produced in the environment by biological activity – specifically, by bacteria. Often, this occurs in flooded environments such as wetlands and sediments. Similarly, rice paddies are kept flooded during the growing season, and the nutrient-rich environment created by rice roots support both the bacterial growth and methylmercury production. </p>
<p>Our rice paddy model simulates how mercury changes form, accumulates and converts to methylmercury in different parts of the ecosystem, including in the water, the soil and the rice plants. </p>
<p>In our model, mercury enters the standing flooded water via deposition and irrigation processes, and then moves among water, soil and plants. After initializing and calibrating the model, we ran it for the typical five-month duration from planting seedlings to rice harvest and compared our results to measurements of mercury in rice from China. We also conducted different simulations with varying atmospheric deposition and soil mercury concentrations. </p>
<p>Despite its simplicity, our model was able to reproduce how rice methylmercury concentrations vary across different Chinese provinces. Our model was able to accurately reflect how higher soil mercury concentrations led to higher concentrations in rice. </p>
<p>But the soil wasn’t the whole story. Mercury from water – which can come from the flooded water in rice paddies or the water held in the soil – can also influence concentrations in rice. How much depends on the relative rates of different processes within soil and water. Under some conditions, a portion of the mercury in rice can come from the mercury in the atmosphere, once that mercury is deposited to the rice paddy. This suggested that changing emissions of mercury could potentially affect concentrations in rice. </p>
<h2>Future emissions can influence rice</h2>
<p>How will the rates of mercury in rice change in the future? </p>
<p>We examined a high emission scenario, which assumes no new policies to control mercury emissions by 2050, and a low emission scenario, where China uses less coal and coal-fired power plants have advanced mercury emission controls. Median Chinese rice methylmercury concentrations increased by 13 percent in the high scenario and decreased by 18 percent under the low scenario. Regions where rice methylmercury declined the most under strict policy controls were in central China, where rice production is high and rice is an important source of methylmercury exposure.</p>
<p>Managing mercury concentrations in rice thus requires an integrated approach, addressing both deposition and soil and water contamination. Understanding local conditions is also important: Other environmental factors not captured by our model, such as soil acidity, can also influence methylmercury production and accumulation to rice. </p>
<p>Different rice production strategies can also help – for example, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969716314620">alternating wetting and drying cycles</a> in rice cultivation can reduce water consumption and methane emissions as well as rice methylmercury concentrations. </p>
<p>Our scenarios likely underestimate the potential health benefits of Minamata Convention controls in China, which is a party to the Convention. We include in our scenarios only changes in air emissions from power generation, while the Convention controls emissions from other sectors, bans mercury mining and addresses contaminated sites and land and water releases. </p>
<p>Reducing mercury could also be beneficial for other rice-producing countries, but at present, there are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24972509">few data available outside China</a>. However, our research suggests that the problem of mercury is not just a fish story – and that policy efforts can indeed make a difference.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92974/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Noelle Eckley Selin receives funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The research described in this article was supported by the MIT Abdul Latif Jameel World Water and Food Security Laboratory (J-WAFS) and the MIT Leading Technology and Policy Initiative. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sae Yun Kwon receives funding from the MIT Abdul Latif Jameel World Water and Food Security Laboratory (J-WAFS) and the MIT Leading Technology and Policy Initiative.</span></em></p>
Study finds that coal pollution in China is leading to people getting significant levels of mercury poisoning from rice.
Noelle Eckley Selin, Associate Professor of Data, Systems, and Society and Atmospheric Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Sae Yun Kwon, Assistant Professor at the Division of Environmental Science & Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/94917
2018-04-12T12:13:54Z
2018-04-12T12:13:54Z
Masterchef row puts chicken rendang and nasi lemak at the top of the menu
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214468/original/file-20180412-543-110hrvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/success?src=ysvk0ult5Y4_c16ewPbz8Q-1-0">AngieYeoh via Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Masterchef judges John Torode and Greg Wallace were no doubt shocked at the depth of feeling on display when their <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/apr/03/i-would-rendang-his-head-uk-masterchef-judges-stir-up-a-storm">decision to eliminate a contestant</a> because the skin on her chicken rendang was not crispy enough was greeted with howls of dismay from the people of two countries.</p>
<p>Malaysians and Indonesians have long been divided on the provenance of chicken rendang. But they were united in their disdain for the Masterchef judges’ decision to kick out Malaysian contestant Zaleha Kadir Olpin for cooking the chicken, with soft skin, which was served as part of the iconic rice dish nasi lemak.</p>
<p>“I like the rendang flavour, there’s a coconut sweetness, however, the chicken skin isn’t crispy. It can’t be eaten and all the sauce is on the skin, I can’t eat,” Wallace said at the time as Torode nodded his agreement.</p>
<p>Cue uproar: Twitter exploded with complaints from angry Malaysians and Indonesians who felt the two judges had displayed their profound ignorance about what both countries consider to be national dishes. The row even drew in the Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak who tweeted: “Who eats ‘crispy’ chicken rendang?”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"981088874523848704"}"></div></p>
<h2>Matter of taste</h2>
<p>So what’s all the fuss about? What exactly are these two dishes and where do they come from? </p>
<p>Once a month, on my drive out to Semenyih, about 20 miles south of Kuala Lumpur, to teach at the <a href="https://www.nottingham.edu.my/index.aspx">University of Nottingham Malaysia</a>, I would stop over in Kajang at a Malay restaurant for a nasi lemak breakfast. It was a guilty stop because the coconut-coated rice was not just creamy and fattening – indeed the Malay word <em><a href="https://guide.michelin.sg/en/what-is-lemak">lemak</a></em> has connotations implying rich and creamy – but also because of the tempting buffet spread of condiments and dishes that accompanied the rice. </p>
<p>This spanned the usual crunchy anchovies and roasted peanuts, sliced cucumber, sweetish chilli sambal, fried egg, hard-boiled egg and numerous types of fried fish, cockles or cuttlefish sambal, beef rendang, deep-fried chicken, red chilli chicken (<em>sambal masak merah</em>), fried long beans, tempeh – the list goes on. </p>
<p>This lavish spread is a result of the rise of middle-class consumption beginning from the 1990s. Back in the 1970s, the nasi lemak was a poor man’s full breakfast at an affordable 30 to 50 cents per packet. Within the folded banana leaf you would find coconut rice, a sliver of cucumber, a quarter of a hard-boiled egg, a teaspoon of chilli sambal and a tablespoon of peanuts and anchovies. An added luxury might be a piece of fried fish – the smallest kind there was in the market (too small to sell anyone, really) – or one or two small tamarind-marinated prawns. Fried chicken, beef rendang or its faster-cooking healthier alternative, chicken rendang, came much later. </p>
<p>So with its combination of carbohydrates, protein and minerals, the nasi lemak may be regarded as a well-balanced meal for the farmer and the fisherman. It is then commonly accepted and adopted to be the national dish by Malaysians of Chinese and Indian descent, as rice is still the common staple across cultures.</p>
<h2>Regional specialities</h2>
<p>Rendang has <a href="https://kwgls.wordpress.com/2015/01/06/a-dish-that-existed-in-the-15th-century-or-earlierrendang-ayam-%E9%A9%AC%E6%9D%A5%E4%BB%81%E5%BD%93%E9%B8%A1%EF%BC%89/">its own proud history</a> as a dry spicy beef dish originally from <a href="http://www.indonesia-tourism.com/west-sumatra/padang.html">Padang, West Sumatra</a> in Indonesia that is cooked with chillies, galangal, ginger, garlic, shallots, lemongrass and coconut milk. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214472/original/file-20180412-549-ntoqrg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214472/original/file-20180412-549-ntoqrg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214472/original/file-20180412-549-ntoqrg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214472/original/file-20180412-549-ntoqrg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214472/original/file-20180412-549-ntoqrg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214472/original/file-20180412-549-ntoqrg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214472/original/file-20180412-549-ntoqrg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Malay-Indonesian curry, beef rendang.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/success?src=DCcSTGwJnfnwPfiX2oT_Fg-1-7">Paul_Brighton via Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When Minang migrants from Indonesia came to settle in Malaya, they brought their recipe and over the decades, there has been enough innovation, adaptation and customisation, as well as variation, that each state in Malaysia is said to have its own rendang: Rendang Tok in Perak, Rendang Sri Nabon (Bugis-style) in Johor, and so on. </p>
<p>Including a thickener, <em><a href="https://www.rotinrice.com/kerisik-pounded-toasted-coconut/">kerisik</a></em>, a sort of coconut paste loosely described as “coconut butter”, is the Malaysian claim to innovation. The spice mixture in the rendang helps make the meat flavourful – and was used to preserve it during the pre-refrigeration era. The dish is stirred constantly and let to simmer until the meat softens and the coconut-textured gravy dries up into a dark red aromatic curry that coats tender meat. Suffice it to say if there is skin over the chicken it would most definitely not be crispy by this end stage.</p>
<h2>Festive favourite</h2>
<p>In the past rendang was cooked and served only during festivities as beef was considered a luxury. Today, rendang is on the daily menu. Chicken is the preferred choice of meat in rendang as it is cheaper and not taboo to Hindus and Kuan Yin (Chinese) devotees in Malaysia who cannot eat beef.</p>
<p>Rendang is also iconic for non-Malay Malaysians who associate it with the halcyon Open House invitations to Malay friends’ houses as part of the end of Ramadan celebrations where such food becomes a symbol of eating together and a national glue for a multicultural society.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RX7siurqvSc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>This explains why rendang-gate has Malaysians of all ethnicities up in arms defending their culture.</p>
<p>Outside of London, Malaysian cuisine is neither as popular nor as well known as Thai food – which is an irony considering that at least two Malaysian contestants have made it into the shortlist of UK Masterchef – and <a href="https://www.thestar.com.my/lifestyle/food/features/2014/05/17/ipohborn-wins-masterchef-uk-with-nasi-lemak-wanton-soup/">Catherine Chin Wang Ping Coombes</a> even won in 2014 with none other than: the nasi lemak.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94917/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gaik Cheng Khoo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
It was more than a storm in a teacup when the judges of UK Masterchef displayed their ignorance about South-East Asian food.
Gaik Cheng Khoo, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, University of Nottingham
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/88791
2018-01-09T11:09:17Z
2018-01-09T11:09:17Z
Climate change is triggering a migrant crisis in Vietnam
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202070/original/file-20180116-53292-1g5njws.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tonkinphotography / Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Vietnamese Mekong Delta is one of Earth’s most agriculturally productive regions and is of global importance for its exports of rice, shrimp, and fruit. The 18m inhabitants of this low-lying river delta are also some of the world’s most vulnerable to climate change. Over the last ten years around <a href="https://www.gso.gov.vn/">1.7m</a> people have migrated out of its vast expanse of fields, rivers and canals while only <a href="https://www.gso.gov.vn/">700,000</a> have arrived.</p>
<p>On a global level migration to urban areas remains as high as ever: <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS">one person in every 200</a> moves from rural areas to the city every year. Against this backdrop it is difficult to attribute migration to individual causes, not least because it can be challenging to find people who have left a region in order to ask why they went and because <a href="https://urban.yale.edu/research/theme-2">every local context is unique</a>. But the high net rate of migration away from Mekong Delta provinces is more than double the national average, and even higher in its most climate-vulnerable areas. This implies that there is something else – probably climate-related – going on here.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200964/original/file-20180105-26145-1xzoywv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200964/original/file-20180105-26145-1xzoywv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200964/original/file-20180105-26145-1xzoywv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200964/original/file-20180105-26145-1xzoywv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200964/original/file-20180105-26145-1xzoywv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200964/original/file-20180105-26145-1xzoywv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200964/original/file-20180105-26145-1xzoywv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200964/original/file-20180105-26145-1xzoywv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Mekong delta.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alex Chapman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2013 we visited An Thạnh Đông commune in Sóc Trăng Province aiming to collect survey data on agricultural yields. We soon realised that virtually no farmers of An Thạnh Đông had any yields to report. The commune had lost its entire sugarcane crop after unexpectedly high levels of salt water seeped into the soil and killed the plants. Those without a safety net were living in poverty. Over the following weeks hundreds of smallholders, many of whom had farmed the delta for generations, would tell us that things were changing and their livelihoods would soon be untenable. </p>
<p>In 2015-2016 disaster struck with the worst drought in a century. This caused salt water to intrude over 80km inland and destroyed at least <a href="http://khoahocvacongnghevietnam.com.vn/khcn-trung-uong/13123-han-man-lich-su-2016-o-dong-bang-song-cuu-long-bai-hoc-kinh-nghiem-va-nhung-giai-phap-ung-pho.html">160,000ha</a> of crops. In Kiên Giang (pop. 1.7m), one of the worst affected provinces, the local net migration rate jumped and in the year that followed around <a href="https://www.gso.gov.vn/">one resident in every 100 left</a>.</p>
<p>One relatively <a href="http://ijiset.com/vol4/v4s8/IJISET_V4_I08_13.pdf">low profile article</a> by Vietnamese academics may be a vital piece of the puzzle. The study, by Oanh Le Thi Kim and Truong Le Minh of Van Lang University, suggests that climate change is the dominant factor in the decisions of 14.5% of migrants leaving the Mekong Delta. If this figure is correct, climate change is forcing 24,000 people to leave the region every year. And it’s worth pointing out the largest factor in individual decisions to leave the Delta was found to be the desire to escape poverty. As climate change has a growing and complex relationship with poverty, 14.5% may even be an underestimate.</p>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/7WkBm/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>There are a host of climate-linked drivers behind migration in the delta. Some homes have quite literally fallen into the sea as the coast has eroded in the Southwestern portion of the delta – in some places 100m of coastal belt has been <a href="https://tuoitre.vn/sat-lo-de-doa-tuong-lai-dong-bang-song-cuu-long-20170925111708353.htm">lost in a year</a>. Hundreds of thousands of households are affected by the intrusion of salt water <a href="http://dmc.gov.vn/chi-tiet-thien-tai/han-han-xam-nhap-man-cac-tinh-dong-ban-song-cuu-long-nam-2016-dis164.html?lang=vi-VN">as the sea rises</a> and only some are able to switch their livelihoods to salt-water tolerant commodities. Others have been affected by the <a href="http://www.rfa.org/vietnamese/in_depth/mekong-delta-facing-menaces-06302017110825.html">increased incidence of drought</a>, a trend which can be attributed in part to climate change, but also to upstream dam construction.</p>
<p>Governments and communities in developing countries around the world have already begun taking action to manage climate change impacts through adaptation. Our recent <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-016-1684-3">research in Vietnam</a> flags a warning about how this is being done. We show that a further group of people are being forced to migrate from the Mekong due to decisions originally taken to protect them from the climate. Thousands of kilometres of dykes, many over four metres high, now criss-cross the delta. They were built principally to protect people and crops from flooding, but those same dykes have fundamentally altered the ecosystem. The poor and the landless can no longer find fish to eat and sell, and the <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969716303734">dykes prevent</a> free nutrients being carried onto paddies by the flood.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201317/original/file-20180109-83550-1k25ikj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201317/original/file-20180109-83550-1k25ikj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201317/original/file-20180109-83550-1k25ikj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201317/original/file-20180109-83550-1k25ikj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201317/original/file-20180109-83550-1k25ikj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201317/original/file-20180109-83550-1k25ikj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201317/original/file-20180109-83550-1k25ikj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Harvesting rice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Phuong D. Nguyen / Shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All this demonstrates that climate change threatens to exacerbate the existing trends of economic migration. One <a href="http://www.deccma.com/deccma/">large scale study</a> of migration in deltas has found that climate factors such as extreme floods, cyclones, erosion and land degradation play a role in making natural resource-based livelihoods more tenuous, further encouraging inhabitants to migrate.</p>
<p>To date, traditional approaches to achieving economic growth <a href="http://wer.worldeconomicsassociation.org/files/WEA-WER-4-Woodward.pdf">have not served the most vulnerable</a> in the same way they have served those living in relative wealth. This was demonstrated most dramatically by the revelation that the number of undernourished people on earth rose by <a href="http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1037253/icode/">38m last year</a> – a shift for which climate change is partly responsible. This took place despite global GDP growth of 2.4%. </p>
<p>It is with these failures in mind that society must prepare an equitable and sustainable response to climate change and what seems a looming migrant crisis.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88791/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Chapman receives funding from the ESPA programme (<a href="http://www.espa.ac.uk/">http://www.espa.ac.uk/</a>), a collaboration between multiple British research councils and government agencies.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Van Pham Dang Tri works for Can Tho University, Viet Nam. He receives funding from different international and national organisations to study about water resources changes and consequent impacts on the livelihood of local residents. </span></em></p>
It looks as if climate change is forcing 24,000 people to leave the Mekong Delta every year.
Alex Chapman, Research Fellow in Human Geography, University of Southampton
Van Pham Dang Tri, Head of the Department of Water Resources, Can Tho University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/79142
2017-06-20T13:23:13Z
2017-06-20T13:23:13Z
Scientists at work: bridging the divide between development and conservation in Cambodia
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174660/original/file-20170620-24868-hvo0c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Harriet Ibbett</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Gentle groans of cattle gradually woke me from my slumber. It had been another hot, humid night spent shuffling to sleep on wooden slats – my three research assistants had adopted hammocks, but I simply couldn’t stand being surrounded by polyester in 35°C. Even at 4am, it was just too hot. Above me, the deep fiery hue of dawn spanned the sky as far as the eye could see. Swifts swept in among the palms, clearing the skies in a feeding frenzy.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173622/original/file-20170613-18626-12q8shh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173622/original/file-20170613-18626-12q8shh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173622/original/file-20170613-18626-12q8shh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173622/original/file-20170613-18626-12q8shh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173622/original/file-20170613-18626-12q8shh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173622/original/file-20170613-18626-12q8shh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173622/original/file-20170613-18626-12q8shh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sunrise on the floodplain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Harriet Ibbett</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I’d been in Cambodia six weeks, and this was one of the last villages left to survey. I was researching the impact of local communities’ livelihoods on a critically endangered bustard species; the <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/22692015/0">Bengal florican</a> (<em>Houbaropsis bengalensis</em>). Fewer than 1,500 florican remain globally, over 60% of which seasonally reside in the grasslands of Kampong Thom province, central Cambodia.</p>
<p>Male florican are distinctive. If you’re lucky, between February and April you may spy their beautiful black and white bodies leaping 30 metres into the air; performing to impress shy females. However, opportunities for encountering such moments are increasingly rare. <a href="http://people.ds.cam.ac.uk/cns26/NJC/Papers/2014%20Packman%20ea%20Rapid%20decline%20of%20Cambodia%27s%20Bengal%20Florican.pdf">In recent decades</a> florican have undergone dramatic population declines, initially driven by over-hunting, but now by widespread habitat loss, primarily due to rice cultivation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173628/original/file-20170613-25827-kcs0yo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173628/original/file-20170613-25827-kcs0yo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173628/original/file-20170613-25827-kcs0yo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173628/original/file-20170613-25827-kcs0yo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173628/original/file-20170613-25827-kcs0yo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173628/original/file-20170613-25827-kcs0yo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173628/original/file-20170613-25827-kcs0yo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A florican flying in the distance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Harriet Ibbett</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People I’ve met typically assume my time is spent in vast vistas, surrounded by swathes of jungle, spotting exotic wildlife. For me the reality is sleeping on a plank alongside cattle, surrounded by farmlands. I’m a member of the <a href="http://www.iccs.org.uk/">Interdisciplinary Centre of Conservation Science</a> at Oxford University, and unlike typical ecological or biological approaches to conservation, we use a broad range of techniques developed from disciplines as varied as sociology, anthropology, psychology and economics to enhance understanding of complex socio-ecological systems. My research in Cambodia, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/oryx/article/conserving-a-globally-threatened-species-in-a-seminatural-agrarian-landscape/B2C13344E9289381FB8DA05F4D73DEDB/core-reader">recently published in Oryx</a>, is reflective of our lab as a whole; instead of spending time in the field monitoring wildlife, we usually work in communities, trying to understand human behaviour.</p>
<h2>Floodplain fieldwork</h2>
<p>My team and I travelled by motorbike from village to village along dusty dirt roads. We spent a short time in each village conducting household surveys with a wide variety of people in a bid to better understand how communities live, and how their activities overlap with surrounding grasslands. Sometimes we were invited into peoples’ homes; others we sat beneath their stilted houses, perched on wooden beds or plastic chairs. Around our feet scabby puppies and occasionally piglets snuffled, grunted and squealed.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173621/original/file-20170613-18626-z1bowc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173621/original/file-20170613-18626-z1bowc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173621/original/file-20170613-18626-z1bowc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173621/original/file-20170613-18626-z1bowc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173621/original/file-20170613-18626-z1bowc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173621/original/file-20170613-18626-z1bowc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173621/original/file-20170613-18626-z1bowc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Interviewing local people.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Harriet Ibbett</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Agriculture has long played a role sculpting the landscape of central Cambodia, with rice cultivated on the floodplains since the Empire of Angkor (c.800-1400AD). But over the last two decades the production of rice has intensified. Whereas once rice was only grown for subsistence in wet season, usually in paddies naturally inundated by seasonal floods, nowadays rice is also grown throughout the dry season in newly converted fields, primarily for commerce. Great reservoirs and canal networks sprawl across the landscape, carved where grasslands once were. Across the dusty floodplain, dry season rice fields glow like green irrigated iridescent beacons.</p>
<p>Large scale dry season rice production <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.12025/abstract">emerged at the turn of the millennium</a>, initially driven by profiteering businessmen. From my interviews I learned that this practice is now <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/oryx/article/conserving-a-globally-threatened-species-in-a-seminatural-agrarian-landscape/B2C13344E9289381FB8DA05F4D73DEDB/core-reader">widespread among local communities</a>, with nearly half of all households capitalising on the infrastructural investments made by urban elites to cultivate dry season rice. <em>Koyuns</em>, small hand-driven tractors, can be seen dotted alongside channels, extracting water. Plastic, python like tubes pump water back to paddies to grow this perceived “green gold”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173629/original/file-20170613-25846-4snj3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173629/original/file-20170613-25846-4snj3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173629/original/file-20170613-25846-4snj3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173629/original/file-20170613-25846-4snj3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173629/original/file-20170613-25846-4snj3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173629/original/file-20170613-25846-4snj3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173629/original/file-20170613-25846-4snj3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dry season rice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Harriet Ibbett</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It was believed dry season rice was typically grown between December and March. However, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/oryx/article/conserving-a-globally-threatened-species-in-a-seminatural-agrarian-landscape/B2C13344E9289381FB8DA05F4D73DEDB/core-reader">my interviews revealed</a> that nearly half of all dry season rice farmers now farm two crops of rice a year, extending the rice cultivation season into June. This is a relatively recent and previously undocumented trend, with significant implications for florican, who visit grasslands from February to July. Expansion of dry season rice not only means less habitat is available for floricans to forage and breed, but it also reduces the time for which it is available. Floricans return to the same large territories each year to mate. This means the miniscule populations that remain are likely returning to increasingly sub-optimal habitat.</p>
<p>In addition, around 95% of the dry season rice farmers I spoke to said that they use fertiliser or pesticides on their crop. Many have to borrow money in order to do so, and sometimes if their crops fail or the market collapses, they may find themselves indebted to credit lenders, forced to sell land to clear their debts. There are also considerable environmental and ecological implications. Agro-chemicals not only <a href="http://www.ardeola.org/files/511.pdf">reduce food availability</a>, but they typically include substances banned in the West, including DDT, a chemical <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1518881/">known to cause egg thinning in birds</a>. Fertilisers also filter into groundwater, impacting food webs. This is highly concerning, especially given the proximity to the <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901102000242">Tonlé Sap</a>, the largest inland fishery in Cambodia, and the lifeline of many throughout the land.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173630/original/file-20170613-31635-44zrie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173630/original/file-20170613-31635-44zrie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173630/original/file-20170613-31635-44zrie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173630/original/file-20170613-31635-44zrie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173630/original/file-20170613-31635-44zrie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173630/original/file-20170613-31635-44zrie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173630/original/file-20170613-31635-44zrie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dry season rice reservoir carved out of the floodplain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Harriet Ibbett</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Conservation’s future</h2>
<p>Conservation is complex, and we live in a rapidly changing world. Whereas once people measured their prosperity, health and happiness against that of their neighbours, today the advent of social media and the internet means that people compare themselves to others across the world. Nearly a half of households I surveyed had children that had left home to seek prosperity in the factories and sweatshops of Phnom Penh and Thailand. <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/oryx/article/conserving-a-globally-threatened-species-in-a-seminatural-agrarian-landscape/B2C13344E9289381FB8DA05F4D73DEDB/core-reader">Priorities have changed</a>. More of my interviewees owned a mobile phone (87%) than had access to a toilet (just 36%). Understanding how these changing priorities affect natural resource use is critical to the success of global conservation efforts.</p>
<p>For this reason, we also hosted focus groups in each village, bringing people together to discuss both conservation and options for the future. We asked about local perceptions of conservation work in the area. Some were unaware of conservation activities, whereas others applauded efforts – these were usually communities that had seen some returns from tourism. Others resented the limitations conservation placed on their livelihoods, citing too many costs and too few benefits.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173623/original/file-20170613-21449-1hif5mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173623/original/file-20170613-21449-1hif5mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173623/original/file-20170613-21449-1hif5mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173623/original/file-20170613-21449-1hif5mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173623/original/file-20170613-21449-1hif5mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173623/original/file-20170613-21449-1hif5mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173623/original/file-20170613-21449-1hif5mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Focus group.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Harriet Ibbett</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If we are to successfully secure both the livelihoods of local people and the future of endangered species, then it is essential conservation is reconciled with development. One such medium is the <a href="http://www.sustainablerice.org/">Sustainable Rice Platform</a>, an industry led initiative that encourages production of rice that meets sustainability standards. These include measures for protecting biodiversity, reducing pollution, gender equality, and supporting fair wages. In return, farmers that are supported to meet the standards receive stable, premium prices for their crop. <a href="https://cambodia.wcs.org">NGO Wildlife Conservation Society</a> are now piloting this in some surveyed villages.</p>
<p>It is clear that typical biological approaches are no longer enough. Too often conservation is filled with doom and gloom; relying on research that counts species to extinction. Instead, interdisciplinary, social research that engages local communities should be the norm. Luckily, I am not alone in this belief: there is a growing generation of conservationists for whom this is and always will be the way conservation is done.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79142/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Harriet Ibbett received funding and support for this research from Chester Zoo Act for Wildlife Fund, the Tropical Agricultural Award Fund, Imperial College London, WCS Cambodia and the UK National Environment Research Council (Grant ref. NE/N001370/1).</span></em></p>
Intensified rice production in Cambodia’s dry season is wreaking havoc on local bird populations.
Harriet Ibbett, Research Assistant in Conservation Science, University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.