Boosting the Returns from China's Growing Investment in Agriculture

China's central government recently announced that in 2006 it is raising investment in agricultural development by nearly 8 percent. Signaling a strong commitment to agriculture, this decision also underscores the importance of high-quality research for boosting the returns from China's investment.

Yunnan 's Upland Miracle

Research on upland rice, for example, has revolutionized agricultural production in mountainous Yunnan Province, bolstering food security and raising rural incomes.

Among the protagonists in this story are four improved rice varieties, developed for difficult upland environments by scientists from the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences (YAAS). The result of breeding begun in 1989, according to Professor Dayun Tao, the Academy's deputy director, the first two varieties were derived from crosses between local upland varieties. The third was created in Africa by the French Agricultural Research Center for International Development, while the forth, originating in Indonesia, was supplied to YAAS by the International Network for Genetic Evaluation of Rice (INGER), based at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

To promote adoption of the new varieties, YAAS provided seed and fertilizer to selected innovative farmers as well as assistance with transportation, marketing, and the construction of cropping terraces on sloping uplands. By the second cropping season, farmers had tripled their rice yields, removing the burden of food insecurity and providing surplus grain for the market.

Because the new varieties enabled farmers to grow far more rice on less land, they were able to diversify into other, higher value products, such as sugarcane, soybeans, peanuts, and livestock. Some farmers are even returning land to forest. They earn enough money now from surplus rice and other products not only to cover the costs of inputs, but also to acquire luxuries-such as new houses, tractors, motorcycles, and home appliances-that were unthinkable just a few years ago.

Transformations of this sort perhaps help explain how China's agricultural productivity (that is, value added per worker) rose from $242 (in 2000 US dollars) in the early 1990s to $365 in recent years.

A Platform for Regional Innovation

Rarely have scientists and farmers succeeded in replacing the traditional "slash-and-burn" agriculture of the uplands with an economically attractive and environmentally and socially sustainable alternative. So, an obvious question is whether the Yunnan miracle can be repeated in the uplands of other Asian countries.

IRRI Director General Dr. Robert Zeigler believes the answer is a resounding "yes." Visiting the Yunnan uplands in October 2005, he came away convinced that something momentous was taking place and that "the Yunnan experience can serve as a model for other upland areas in the region."

Though busy creating new generations of upland rice varieties for Chinese farmers, the country's scientists are also prepared to help other countries meet the challenge of upland agriculture. IRRI is helping build a platform for such collaboration through a new project in Lao PDR. According to the project's leader, Dr. Sushil Pandey, "the Yunnan experience has rejuvenated efforts to improve agriculture in the notoriously difficult upland environments of the Greater Mekong Subregion."

The CGIAR Centers and China's Regional Role

IRRI and other CGIAR centers can thus play a dual role in their collaboration with China, contributing to research for the country's own agricultural development while also facilitating its contribution to technical innovation throughout the region.

In Sichuan Province, for example, the Africa-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the International Potato Center, with headquarters in Peru, are working with two Chinese partner organizations to show how small upland farmers can intensify the production of pigs by feeding them with nutrious sweetpotato. Given rising demand for pork in China, these farmers have an unprecedented chance to raise their incomes through stronger links with livestock markets.

Upland farmers in other countries have similar opportunities, and technologies developed through the Crop-Animal System Research Network (CASREN) better enable them to respond. Providing a framework for Chinese research on the use of sweetpotato as pig feed, the network brings together researchers from China and three other Asian countries, with funding from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Through initiatives like these, scientists and farmers throughout Southeast Asia could gain the opportunity to create their own upland miracles.

Useful Links

International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)