Shaping the future of rice

摘要

Public and private institutions have come together to find solutions to the challenges faced by the rice sector.How will we create a better life and a better future for rice? How can we do much more, with less? These were thequestions posed by Tobias Marchand, head of the Asia Pacific region, Bayer CropScience, to 200 rice experts and policymakers during the Rice Future Forum on 8-9 October in New Delhi, India.These questions are not rhetorical but practical. Mr. Marchand and the forum participants agree on the issues surrounding the rice industry. Increasing global population, rising demand for rice production, malnutrition and poverty, threats of climate change, limited resources (farm land, water, and labor), and gaps in technology were the nagging issues that reverberated during the forum. And it was said that "understanding the problem is half the solution."