Save Our Rice!

Children in rice field

If you have a deep love for rice and would like to save the rice and rice farmers of Asia, these are some things you can do:

1. Visit the Rice Webpage at www.panap.net and write to us for more information.

2. Write about rice and get these articles published.

3. “Buy local and buy small” – buy local rice from small shops rather than big establishments like Wal-Mart or Tesco, even if it’s a little more expensive. In this way, you protect your domestic rice market, rice farmers and small retailers, and prevent large corporations from monopolistic control of the food chain.

4. Say NO to genetically engineered rice. Insist on buying only native rice varieties.

5. Say NO to rice as agrofuel. The answer to saving fossil fuel is to change wasteful consumption habits, not to use food crops as fuel. This will only deplete precious natural resources and put our food security at risk.

6. Support global and national initiatives to preserve, protect and uphold rice culture and biodiversity-based ecological rice agriculture.

7. Support the preservation and protection of rice lands and food sovereignty, rights and livelihoods of peasant rice farmers and rice farming communities, especially indigenous communities.

8. Protest against agreements (e.g. free trade agreements), policies and laws that enable the liberalization of trade in rice and agriculture.

9. Sign The People’s Statement on Saving the Rice of Asia

10. Enjoy and Celebrate Rice! – through food, songs, poetry, stories, everything!

11. Join local rice activities like YORA (the Year of Rice Action 4 April 2009 - 4 April 2010) in your country. (See list of local organizations.)

12. Take part in these competitions: The Asia Pacific Rice Journalist Award and the Asia Pacific Rice Film Award. For details, please go to www.panap.net

Women planting

If you are a rice farmer

In addition to the above, practice biodiversity-based ecological cultivation of rice. It’s much safer and healthier for you and your family and those who eat the rice you grow. It will also provide you with a better income.

1. Stop using synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Use organic manure and alternative pest control methods for example, using owl perches in the rice fields so that the owls can eat the rats in the fields.

2. Protect your rice farm’s ecosystem – trees, birds, insects, fish, frogs, beneficial predators of pests, etc.

3. Grow vegetables and other crops besides rice to supplement your family’s diet.

4. Practise crop rotation so as to improve the quality of your soil.

5. Rear fish and ducks in your rice fields. The ducks will also help remove weeds from your field and provide eggs for you.

6. Practice the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) using organic fertilizers and non-harmful pest control methods.

Women planting

Links for SRI:
Rice fact sheet on SRI
e-updates (with expanded links) and archives on the SRI website
Full reports and/or pictures from the SRI home page
Interactive SRI discussion list

7. Avoid the over-use of groundwater which will deplete your water resources. Groundwater may also contain arsenic, a poisonous substance.

8. Use only native rice seeds. Save, conserve and breed native seeds with your fellow farmers. Do not buy or use high yielding varieties, hybrid varieties and genetically engineered seeds.

Threshing

Baby rice plant

Local organizations working on rice in your country