TDRI researcher urges research to improve rice species

 

BANGKOK:-- A former president of Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) has urged the government to conduct a research and development of rice genus to increase values in the long run. 

 

According to National News Bureau of Thailand, TDRI distinguished fellow Nipon Poapongsakorn said the low rice prices resulted from a profiteering mechanism in the domestic market as many rice millers earlier projected the price of jasmine rice to go up, prompting the storing of jasmine rice and the drop in the rice price incurred a loss to those who may have overstocked the produce.

 

Full story: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/tdri-researcher-urges-research-to-improve-rice-species/

 

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2016-11-05

 

Does this guy obviously lives on a different planet!

Rice is constantly being developed and research has been ongoing for ages.....

There are merits in Khun Nipon suggestions. Rice consumption grows 1.2 -1.5% each year and it is estimated that by 2020, rice consumption exceeds 500 M tons annual. There will still be demand for rice and Thailand play an important role in global food security.

 

Research in higher yielding species, flood resistance species, insect resistance species and species requiring less fertilizer will help improve productivity. I feel also that Hom Mali species should be reduce for more paddy rice which has a bigger price sensitive markets. Just my take from a farming novice.

29 minutes ago, ChrisY1 said:

Does this guy obviously lives on a different planet!

Rice is constantly being developed and research has been ongoing for ages.....

He is an academic. They have a need to be sounding important outside their own egghead university campuses.

They would be better off carrying out research to find out why Vietnam and India can get more rice per hectare than Thailand can ever hope to get.

For example rice yield in India over the last 10 years has improved by more than 600kg/hectare while Vietnam yield per ha is twice that of Thailand.

This table pretty much explains why the Thai rice industry is going down the gurgler. These figures are a couple of years old but I expect nothing much has changed except that Vietnam has probably further improved it's yield while Thailand has more than likely dropped back. And now the military and academics are furiously scratching their heads to find a solution.

If Thailand could produce more rice per ha then how much more would they have to put in sheds because they can't get sell it?

The current crisis has been coming for many years and it seems to be getting worse right now as the brains trusts of the nation start to panic.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/aec/aec/30236115

 

Asean paddy yields

country/tonnes per hectare 

Vietnam/5.60

Indonesia/4.73

Malaysia/3.82

Philippines/3.72

Thailand/2.85

Laos/2.68

4 hours ago, Brer Fox said:

He is an academic. They have a need to be sounding important outside their own egghead university campuses.

They would be better off carrying out research to find out why Vietnam and India can get more rice per hectare than Thailand can ever hope to get.

For example rice yield in India over the last 10 years has improved by more than 600kg/hectare while Vietnam yield per ha is twice that of Thailand.

This table pretty much explains why the Thai rice industry is going down the gurgler. These figures are a couple of years old but I expect nothing much has changed except that Vietnam has probably further improved it's yield while Thailand has more than likely dropped back. And now the military and academics are furiously scratching their heads to find a solution.

If Thailand could produce more rice per ha then how much more would they have to put in sheds because they can't get sell it?

The current crisis has been coming for many years and it seems to be getting worse right now as the brains trusts of the nation start to panic.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/aec/aec/30236115

 

Asean paddy yields

country/tonnes per hectare 

Vietnam/5.60

Indonesia/4.73

Malaysia/3.82

Philippines/3.72

Thailand/2.85

Laos/2.68

The countries with the highest yields are all growing varieties bred by IRRI in the Philippines.  However, there is a big problem because most of these varieties have an eating quality akin to sawdust.... hard dry grains which stick in the throat. The problem cannot be cured by adding more water, as the grains then break up.

Malaysia tries to solve the problem by buying Thai quality rice to blend with their homegrown rubbish, but the result is not good.

Many poor people in the region are forced to eat this crap because they have no other choice.

Thailand has operated a very successful Rice Breeding Programme for many years, with an emphasis on Quality.

I can remember a glut on world markets maybe 10 years back?   Quality rice continued to demand a significant premium. 

I wonder if by "research and development of rice" he means getting into GM rice, which would in my opinion be an absolute disaster.

And farang help improve the Thai species 

20 hours ago, thaiturkey said:

The countries with the highest yields are all growing varieties bred by IRRI in the Philippines.  However, there is a big problem because most of these varieties have an eating quality akin to sawdust.... hard dry grains which stick in the throat. The problem cannot be cured by adding more water, as the grains then break up.

Malaysia tries to solve the problem by buying Thai quality rice to blend with their homegrown rubbish, but the result is not good.

Many poor people in the region are forced to eat this crap because they have no other choice.

Thailand has operated a very successful Rice Breeding Programme for many years, with an emphasis on Quality.

I can remember a glut on world markets maybe 10 years back?   Quality rice continued to demand a significant premium. 

I agree. Vietnamese rice is little more than sugar in grain form. which does little more than give an instant "hungry" fix and contribute to diabetes.

On the other hand it seems that growing quality rice which might be better for the health of the consumer has it's drawbacks because few want to pay a premium price for it. It is all about money like it is with just about everything else in the consumers world. It appears that in Asia at least the philosophy is that rice is a necessity of life and the less one pays for it the better. So growing cheap crap rice gets to win domestically and on the export market.

I only hope some sort of balance can be found for the grower and that the military generals and the academics can pull a rabbit out of the hat; but I doubt it.

Those average yields may be low because so many rice farmers in the North-east don't use chemicals, fertilizer etc. and have very low yields. I doubt if my Father-in-law EVER got even a tonne per hectare .....inputs were as low as possible (broadcast seed, just one ploughing) and money only spent on harvesting.