Rice production in the cone of South
America – what can we learn for
GRiSP-Asia?
Bas Bouman,
Program leader Sustainable Rice production Systems
Head, Crop and Environmental Sciences Division
International Rice research Institute, Philippines

Content
General and brief overview rice in South America
The Agronomy Revolution
A few words about the rice industry
Extension models
Reflections for GRiSP-Asia

Latin-America Rice:
26 Million t/y
6.5 Million ha
(4% of global)
Uruguay
NE Argentina
- Entre Rios
- Corrientes
South Brazil
- Rio Grande do Sul

Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul
[hide]Climate data for Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record 39 36.5 37.4 35.1 31.6 29.4 31.8 33 35.6 34.4 39.2 39.6 39.6
high °C
Average 27 26 26 22 19 17 16 18 19 21 24 26 21.5
high °C
Daily 23 22 21 18 14 13 12 13 14 17 19 21 17.5
mean °C
Average 19 18 17 14 10 9 8 9 10 13 15 17 13.5
low °C
Record 10 9.8 5 2.7 1.2 −3 −2.7 −1 0.2 2.6 6 7.9 −3
low °C
Precipita
118 145 120 100 95 118 132 123 135 112 86 95 1,379
tion mm
(inches)
% humid
77.4 79.9 80.5 82.3 83.6 84 84.9 83.2 81.8 79.5 76 75.5 80.7
ity
precipita
tion 11.7 11.5 10.3 8.9 9.2 10.5 11.4 9.7 10.8 10.6 10 9.5 124.1
days
Sunshin
251.2 204.7 213 189.5 177.7 146.2 149.9 160.8 199.6 234.5 265.9 196.2 2,389.2
e hours
Source: Federal University of Pelotas - UFPel.[17]

Some rice sector characteristics
Uruguay: 180,000 ha; 550-600 growers; all export
Argentina: 250,000 ha; all export
Rio Grande do Sul: 1,100,000 ha; 18,500 growers
Large farms, average Uruguay 300 ha; small = 25 ha
in Argentina and Brasil; large is > 1000 ha
All irrigated lowland
High yields: 6.5- 8 t/ha; yield potentials 12-13 t/ha?
Large machines, airplanes
Rice (1-2 year) - pasture (3-4 year) rotations

Kill pasture with glyphosate Ploughing, harrowing
Bunds along contour lines Scraping
Summer plus winter fallow

Spring dry seeding first
rice crop
Picture: Gonzalo Zorilla, FLAR Picture: Gonzalo Zorilla, FLAR
120-140 d duration
Seed density 100-170 kg/ha
50-70 kg N/ha
100% area under herbicide
5% area under insecticide
80-100% area under fungicide
100% area under irrigation

Picture: Neil Palmer, CIAT, 2012

Winter fallow, or winter rye
Late winter/early spring:
herbicides, maybe scraping
and bund reshaping
Second year rice, no till
(65%)

Year 3-6. Pasture and cattle grazing
Picture: Gonzalo Zorilla, FLAR

The “Agronomy Revolution”
9000
Paddy yield (kg/ha)
8000 Rio Grande del
Sur
7000
Uruguay
6000
Argentina
5000
Colombia
4000
Chile
3000
Paraguay
2000
2002
2000
2001
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
Gonzalo Zorilla, FLAR, 2012

Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
8000
Kg/ha
7500  Extension focused on
integrated and
7000
efficient management
6500
 Focus on a few
6000
fundamental points
5500
 New Clearfield
5000
varieties with similar
4500 yield potential
4000
20…
20…
20…
20…
20…
20…
20…
20…
20…
20…
20…
20…
Source: IRGA statistics
Gonzalo Zorilla, FLAR, 2012

Rice varieties in Rio Grande do Sul, 2011-12
50
45 a) Maturity group b) CLEARFIELD cultivars
70
50
40
Área cultivada (%)
Área cultivada (%)
60 54,2
50 63,2 40
Cultivated area (%)
45,8
35 40 30
30
20
30 20 27,3
10 9,6 10
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Sérgio Iraçu Gindri Lopes, IRGA, 2012 Cultivars

Before Clearfield: 4 t/ha After Clearfield: 8 t/ha
Only 50-70% use of certified/clean seed
Sérgio Iraçu Gindri Lopes, IRGA, 2012

Rice yield (t/ha), Rio Grande do Sul
Valmir Gaedke Menezes, IRGA, 2012

Valmir Gaedke Menezes, IRGA, 2012

Valmir Gaedke Menezes, IRGA, 2012

Shallow poorly-drained soils: too wet after winter to
cultivate early
Summer tillage (fallow) or winter rye grass followed by
minimum/zero till sowing early spring (60-65% in Uruguay;
70% in RGdS Brasil)
3 times application
of herbicides (glyphosate)
Picture: Gonzalo Zorilla, FLAR

Uruguay
Varieties: 5-7% Clearfied) Yield
100% 9.0
90% 8.5
80% 8.0
70% 7.5
60% 7.0
50% 6.5
40% 6.0
30% 5.5
20% 5.0
10% 4.5
0% 4.0
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
El Paso 144 Tacuarí Olimar Otras
Use of certified/clean seed every year
Gonzalo Zorilla, FLAR, 2012

Sowing date
Fertilization
Seed density
Pest, disease management
Weed control
Water management
Just “everything a bit better”…
Luciano Carmona, CIAT-FLAR, 2012

Rice industry - Uruguay
Instituto National de Investigacion Agropecuaria
(INIA) – Research
500-600 farmers organized in Asociacion de
Cultivadores de Arroz (ACA)
Millers organized in Gremial de Molineros
Arroceros (GMA):
SAMAN: 47%
Casarone: 14%
Coopar: 14%
Glencore: 11%
75% of area under rice price agreement system

Drying, milling, parboiling, storage, packing; processing (oil)

Millers are also the exporters

Need for consistent and high quality;
same variety
Raul Uraga Berrutti, SAMAN, 2012

Raul Uraga Berrutti, SAMAN, 2012

Raul Uraga Berrutti, SAMAN, 2012

Value-adding; close supply-chain actors;
millers/exporters „driving‟ quality process
Postharvest management Asia
Quality,
Water,
Labor
Laser leveling Min Combine transfer
Physical loss: 12-25%
Market info Loss at market: up to 50%
Farmers don‟t value add Drying system
transfer
Farmers‟ seeds
Quality tools
Rice mill improvement Super bags

Extension systems
1. Uruguay: no government extension since
early 1990s – farmers and millers have
agronomists who interact with INIA
2. Argentina (Corrientes): INTA has a network
of extensionists – doesn‟t work because too
few and too general (all crops)
3. Brazil (RGdS): IRGA has a well functioning
network of extensionists; EMBRAPA?
RiceTec has after sale assistance (field
days, farmer groups)

Alvaro Schwanke, RiceTec, 2012

Alvaro Schwanke, RiceTec, 2012

Valmir Gaedke Menezes, IRGA, 2012

Valmir Gaedke Menezes, IRGA, 2012

RiceCheck is a farmer participatory program
which benchmarks farmer crops to identify
practices (checks) for lifting yields and profits
Rice yield Australia (t/ha)
RiceCheck
John Lacy, 2012

John Lacy, 2012

FLAR
Gonzalo Zorilla, FLAR

Any lessons for GRiSP-Asia?
1. Agronomy Revolution:
• Importance of rotations
• Simple agronomy „checks‟ (get things right);
A few key checks: variety (Clearfield in
Brazil), certified seed (Uruguay), timely
sowing <= zero-tillage machine drilling
• No prescriptive technology push
• Intensive researcher-agronomist-farmer
interaction; farmer learning groups:
measure, monitor, record, analyze

2. Poor drainage-rainfall-tillage => timely
establishment => DSR versus mechanized
transplanting => target domain DSR

3. DSR => risk weeds and weedy rice
• Herbicide tolerant varieties => resistance
development => stewardship need
• Clean (certified) seeds (Uruguay), crop
rotation, establishment rotation
2010: 2 Clearfield
varieties in Malaysia
Soon to appear in
Vietnam

4. Rice sector well developed
• Short value chain, highly value driven
(export), millers important „drivers‟
• Market demand: only few varieties, some
„old‟ => “consistency” important quality
characteristic

Asia is different: poverty and
staple food of the poor
=> Keep price of rice low
“Supermarket revolution”:
High price is driver for
quality and efficiency
=> Opportunities for
adding value in Asia?

Mekong Delta Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar?

“Middle Class” in Developing Countries Could Reach 730 Million
Households By 2020, Up 104% From 2010 Levels
20% of households in these countries are middle class. By 2020, this could
increase to 36% and the impact on food consumption will be large
Developing countries with fastest growing “middle class”
China 223
India 112
Brazil 12
Indonesia 11
Russia 9
Egypt 6
Mexico 5
Thailand 5
Turkey 4
Vietnam 3
Colombia 3
2010 levels Proj gains by 2020
Philippines 3
South Korea 2
Malyasia 2
Taiwan 1
0 25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200 225 250 275 300 325 350 375
“Middle class”: 20,000$ annual PPP
Households with real PPP incomes greater than $20,000 (in millions)
Source: Global Insight’s Global Consumer Markets data as analyzed by FAS/OGA
Courtesy: Michael J. Dwyer, Director of Global Policy Analysis, Office of Global Analysis
Foreign Agricultural Service/USDA

5. Topics for collaboration:
1. The threat of weedy rice => stewardship
guidelines
2. Sustainable production: carbon, water footprint
3. Sustainable rotations => experimental
platforms
4. Yield gap analysis => simulation modeling
5. Best Management Practices => joint framework
for development and extension

Gracias por su atención
(Thanks for your attention)
Picture: Neil Palmer, CIAT, 2012

Recent development: on-farm reservoirs, and rotate crops
around the water (with summer fallows since land is
plenty). All private investments!
Still only 5% of (rain) water resources used, 95% in rice
Picture: Gonzalo Zorilla, FLAR

Brazil, RGdS
2011 Argentina, Corrientes
2008
Uruguay, 2011
IRRI and partners; web-based

Raul Uraga Berrutti, SAMAN, 2012