BioVision Alexandria 2010New Life Sciences: Future

Prospects

The 21st Century Challenge:

A Green Way to Global Food Security

Resource-Conserving Increases in Agricultural

ProductionNorman Uphoff, Cornell University, USA

April 14, 2010

Our Challenge for 21st Century Is:Can We Produce MORE with LESS?

Necessary to achieve sustainable development

• While this may sound like the mythical ‘perpetual motion machine,’ it may be attained by working more successfully within the realm of BIOLOGY - which operates differently from the realms of chemistry and engineering

All represent transformations of inputs into outputs – but BIOLOGY, operating with open systems, has more possibilities for mobilizing additional energy/nutrients

Proposition: 21st Century Agriculture

Cannot Just Do ‘More of the Same’• Arable land area per capita is reducing

• Population continues to grow, while

• Land area is being lost to urban spread and

• Land degradation increases year by year

• Water supply for agriculture is declining

• Competing demands for domestic use and industry

• Climate change is reducing amount and reliability

• Pests and diseases are likely to increase

In US, with 14x more insecticides losses rose from 7

to 13%

Proposition: 21st Century Agriculture

Cannot Just Do ‘More of the Same’• Energy prices will surely be higher in the 21st than in 20th century, affecting:

• Production costs: fuel, fertilizer, agrochemicals

• Transport cost: long-distance trade more costly

• Climate patterns will be less favorable

• Accessability of technology is an issue

• Many of world’s poor were by-passed by GR

• Productivity gains have slowed down

Intensification is needed: 2 kinds

1. Intensification of INPUTS – made more productive by plant breeding efforts

2. Intensification of MANAGEMENT – to get most benefit from inputs, by evoking more productive PHENOTYPES from any given GENOTYPE (close yield gap)

Well-known symbolic equation: G x E = P• We should make further improvements in

G• But potential for making major

improvements through E can be seen in rice and other crops

Extensive modes of production will be less tenable

NEPAL:Single rice

plant grownwith SRI methods, Morang district

CUBA: farmer with two plants of same variety (VN 2084) and same age (52

DAP)

IRAQ: Comparison trials Al-Mishkhab Rice Research Station, Najaf

SRI Shows Potential from Changing Practices:

1. Transplant young seedlings to preserve their growth potential (direct seeding is becoming an option)

2. Avoid trauma to the roots -- transplant quickly and shallow, not inverting root tips which halts growth

3. Give plants wider spacing -- one plant per hill and in square pattern to achieve “edge effect” everywhere

4. Keep paddy soil moist but unflooded -- soil should be mostly aerobic -- not continuously saturated

5. Actively aerate the soil as much as possible6. Enhance soil organic matter as much as possible

These practices stimulate root growth and the abundance and diversity of soil biota – raising productivity of land, labor, water and capital

Other Benefits from Changing Practices:

1. Saving of water – making rice production more viable with climate change; also rainfed versions developed

2. Resistance to biotic stresses and abiotic stresses – less damage from pests and diseases and from drought, storms, cold spells (will discuss tomorrow)

3. Shorter crop cycle – higher yields are harvested with 1-3 weeks less time, less exposure to hazards

4. Higher milling outturn – about 15% more rice per bushel of paddy, due to less chaff, less breakage

5. Reductions in labor requirements – incentive for adoption in China and India; mechanization starting

6. Lower costs of production – increase farmer incomes by even more than the increase in yield

7. Methods are now being extended to other crops

I NDI A: I mproved variety of fi nger millet(ragi) with new methods (lef t); regular

management of improved variety (middle) and traditional variety (right)

ICRISAT-WWF Sugarcane Initiative: at least 20% more

cane yield, with: •30% reduction in water, and •25% reduction in chemical inputs

“The inspiration for putting this package together is from the successful approach of SRI – System of Rice Intensification.”

New farming method boosts food output for India's rural poor

In Ghantadih village in Gaya district, more than half of the 42 farming households have switched to SWI from traditional practices.

Manna Devi, mother of three, was the first woman to use the technique in Bihar state. She says she decided to take a gamble despite jibes from neighbouring farmers who mocked her cultivation methods.

"We were living a hand-to-mouth existence before and we just couldn't manage to eat, let alone put our children through school," she says. "We were only producing about 30 kg of wheat which lasted us four months and we had to take loans, and my husband had also taken a second job as a rickshaw puller in order to make ends meet."

Devi says she now produces about 80 kg of wheat - enough to feed her family for a year – and hopes to start selling extra crop.

Alert Net: Thomson-Reuters Foundation, March 30, 2010

Other Benefits from Changes in Practices

1. Water saving – major concern in many places, also now have ‘rainfed’ version with similar results

2. Greater resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses – less damage from pests and diseases, drought, typhoons, flooding, cold spells [discuss tomorrow]

3. Shorter crop cycle – same varieties are harvested by 1-3 weeks sooner, save water, less crop risk

4. High milling output – by about 15%, due to fewer unfilled grains (less chaff) and fewer broken grains

5. Reductions in labor requirements – widely reported incentive for changing practices in India and China; also, mechanization is being introduced many places

6. Reductions in costs of production – greater farmer income and profitability, also health benefitsSRI LANKA: Rice fields 3 weeks after irrigation was

stopped; conventionally-grown field on left, and SRI field on right

VIETNAM: Dông Trù village,Hanoi province,

after typhoon

Conventional field and plant on right;SRI field and plant

on left

China National Rice Research Institute:

Factorial trials over two years, 2004/2005

using two super-hybrid varieties with the aim of breaking the ‘plateau’

limiting yieldsStandard Rice Mgmt• 30-day seedlings• 20x20 cm spacing• Continuous

flooding• Fertilization:

– 100% chemical

New Rice Mgmt (SRI)• 20-day seedlings• 30x30 cm spacing• Alternate wetting

and drying (AWD)• Fertilization:

– 50% chemical, – 50% organic

Average super-rice yields (kg/ha) with new rice

management (SRI) vs.standard rice management

at different plant densities ha-1

0100020003000400050006000700080009000

10000

150,000 180,000 210,000

NRMSRM

Plant population per hectare

How are these effects possible? We are learning

more about the contributions of soil

microbial populations and plant-microbial interactions to explain the impact of SRI

methods

Scientific bases are becoming clearer; however, much more work remains to

be done

Effects of Active Soil Aeration with Mechanical

WeederMechanical Weedings

(N) Yield (t ha-1)

MADAGASCAR: 1997-98 main season -- Ambatovaky (N = 76)

None 2 5.97One 8 7.72Two 27 7.37

Three 24 9.12Four 15 11.77

NEPAL: 2006 monsoon season – Morang district (N = 412)One 32 5.16

(3.6 – 7.6)Two 366 5.87

(3.5 – 11.0)Three 14 7.87

(5.85 – 10.4)

Total bacteria Total diazotrophs

Microbial populations in rhizosphere soil in rice crop under different management at active tillering, panicle initiation

and flowering (SRI = yellow; conventional = red) – IPB research

[units are √ transformed values of population/gram of dry soil]

Phosphobacteria \ Azotobacter

Dehydrogenase activity (μg TPF) Urease activity (μg NH4-N))

Microbial activities in rhizosphere soil in rice crop with different management (SRI = yellow; conventional = red) at active tillering, panicle initiation and flowering stages

[units are √ transformed values of population/gram of dry soil per 24 h]

Acid phosphate activity (μg p-Nitrophenol) \

Nitrogenase activity (nano mol C2H4)

We see also contributions of symbiotic endophytic

microbes - both bacteria and fungi - to rice plant productivity

not only in the rhizosphere

But also in the leaves (phyllosphere) and seeds

Ascending Migration of Endophytic Rhizobia, from Roots and Leaves, inside Rice Plants and Assessment of Benefits to

Rice Growth Physiology Feng Chi et al.,Applied and Envir. Microbiology 71 (2005),

7271-7278Rhizo-bium test strain

Total plant root

volume/pot (cm3)

Shoot dry weight/ pot (g)

Net photo-synthetic

rate (μmol-2 s-1)

Water utilization efficiency

Area (cm2) of flag leaf

Grain yield/ pot (g)

Ac-ORS571 210 ± 36A 63 ± 2A 16.42 ± 1.39A 3.62 ± 0.17BC 17.64 ± 4.94ABC 86 ± 5A

SM-1021 180 ± 26A 67 ± 5A 14.99 ± 1.64B 4.02 ± 0.19AB 20.03 ± 3.92A 86 ± 4A

SM-1002 168 ± 8AB 52 ± 4BC 13.70 ± 0.73B 4.15 ± 0.32A 19.58 ± 4.47AB 61 ± 4B

R1-2370 175 ± 23A 61 ± 8AB 13.85 ± 0.38B 3.36 ± 0.41C 18.98 ± 4.49AB 64 ± 9B

Mh-93 193 ± 16A 67 ± 4A 13.86 ± 0.76B 3.18 ± 0.25CD 16.79 ± 3.43BC 77 ± 5A

Control 130 ± 10B 47 ± 6C 10.23 ± 1.03C 2.77 ± 0.69D 15.24 ± 4.0C 51 ± 4C

Data are based on the average linear root and shoot growth of three symbiotic (dashed line) and three nonsymbiotic (solid line) plants.

Arrows indicate the times when root hair development started.

Ratio of root and shoot growth in symbiotic and nonsymbiotic rice plants --

symbiotic plant rice seeds were inoculated with Fusarium culmorum

Russell J. Rodriguez et al., ‘Symbiotic regulation of plant growth, development and reproduction,’

Communicative and Integrative Biology, 2:3 (2009).

Growth of nonsymbiotic (on left) and symbiotic (on right) rice seedlings. On growth of endophyte (F. culmorum) and plant

inoculation procedures, see Rodriguez et al., Communicative and Integrative Biology, 2:3 (2009).

More productive phenotypes also can give higher water-use efficiency as

reflected in the ratio of photosynthesis to transpiration

For each 1 millimol of water lost by transpiration:

3.6 millimols of CO2 are fixed in SRI plants,

1.6 millimols of CO2 are fixed in RMP plants

Climate change makes this increasingly

important

‘An assessment of physiological effects of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) compared with recommended

rice cultivation practices in India,’ A.K. Thakur, N. Uphoff and E. Antony

Experimental Agriculture, 46(1), 77-98 (2010)

ParametersCultivation method

SRI RMP SRI % LSD.05

Total chlorophyll (mg g-1FW)

3.37 (0.17)

2.58 (0.21)

+30 0.11

Ratio of Chlorophyll a/b 2.32 (0.28)

1.90 (0.37)

+22 0.29

Transpiration (m mol m-2 s-1)

6.41 (0.43)

7.59 (0.33)

-16 0.27

Net photosynthetic rate (μ mol m-2 s-1)

23.15 (3.17)

12.23 (2.02)

+89 1.64

Stomatal conductance (m mol m-2 s-1)

422.73 (34.35)

493.93 (35.93)

-15 30.12

Internal CO2 concentration (ppm)

292.6 (16.64)

347.0 (19.74)

-16 11.1

Comparison of chlorophyll content, transpiration rate, net photosynthetic rate,

stomatal conductance, and internal CO2 concentration in SRI and RMP

Standard deviations are given in parentheses [N = 15]

This experience and these results do not argue against

making further genetic improvements or against the

use of external inputs

They suggest that within the context

of 21st century agriculture, more attention be given to

management – and especially to roots and soil

biota- Green way to global food

security?

HIGH-TILLERING TRAIT IN TEFF WHEN TRANSPLANTED WITH WIDER SPACING

Dr. Tareke Berhe, SAA, ‘Recent Developments in Teff, Ethiopia’s Most Important Cereal and Gift to the World,’ Cornell seminar, 7/23/09 –

Berhe was CIMMYT post-doctoral fellow with Norman Borlaug in 1970

FIRST TRIALS, 2008 – Duplication of Earlier Findings

VARIETYVARIETY SOWING SOWING METHODMETHOD

PELLETINGPELLETING YIELD YIELD (Kg/Ha)(Kg/Ha)

Cross 37Cross 37 BroadcastBroadcast NoneNone 1,0141,014BroadcastBroadcast YesYes 483483

20 cm x 20 cm20 cm x 20 cm NoneNone 3,3903,39020 cm x 20 cm20 cm x 20 cm YesYes 5,1095,109

Cross 387Cross 387 BroadcastBroadcast NoneNone 1,1811,181BroadcastBroadcast YesYes 1,0361,036

20 cm x 20 cm20 cm x 20 cm NoneNone 4,1424,14220 cm x 20 cm20 cm x 20 cm YesYes 4,3854,385

YIFRU ( 1998 ) M. Sc. THESIS

Reported yield of 4-5 tons/ha for

non-lodged teffvs.

2-3 t/ha for lodged teff

Yields even higher when NPK plus micronutrients (S, Mg, Zn, Cu) added

In the tradition of Norman Borlaug, we should continue with science-based agricultural development –

but not only focused on genes and inputs

Capitalize on soil biology and soil ecology and on epigenetics -

emerging bioscience field that seeks to understand and explain

the expression of genetic potential

Norman Borlaug legacy: “Work for a hunger-free world and help those in need.”

Gurdev Khush

INDONESIA

Comparison of SRI vs. usual rice plants of

same variety, showing the

effects of management

Miyatty JannahCrawuk

village, Ngawi, E. Java

INDONESIA:Single SRI rice plant

Variety: CiherangNo. of fertile tillers: 223

Sampoerna CSR Program,

Malang, E. Java, 2009