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40 Rice Today October-December 2014

Scientists at the International

Center for Tropical Agriculture

(CIAT) are crunching big data to

avoid great economic losses for

rice growers

CGIAR scientists wielding

 big data tools to blunt theimpacts of climate changeon Latin America’s rice

production have been named one oftwo winners of the Big Data ClimateChallenge at the recent UnitedNations Climate Summit held in NewYork City, U.S.A. The other winnerwas the World Resource Institute’s

Global Forest Watch.The challenge was launched

in May by the Global Pulse—a UNinitiative created to harness big data,as a public good, for sustainabledevelopment—together with theSecretary-General’s Climate ChangeTeam. The initiative aims to “addressclimate change by sourcing the bestideas in the world to strengthen thecase for climate action.”

Making agroecosystems more

resilient in the face of climate changewas also a key theme of the CGIARDevelopment Dialogues, which tookplace alongside UN deliberationson climate change and on theSustainable Development Goals.

From analysis to actionClimate action is what Colombianrice farmers desperately need, asseemingly crazy weather—subtleshifts in rainfall plus more extremeclimate events—forces them to toss

aside familiar assumptions on whenand what to plant. In the last 5 years,emerging climate change impactshave already driven down yields ofirrigated rice from an average of 6tons per hectare to 5 tons, accordingto FEDEARROZ, the national ricegrowers association.

At stake is the ability ofColombia’s rice sector to remaincompetitive—catering to its ownconsumers while also trying to

Harnessingbig data

for climatechangeby Nathan Russell

CIAT's award-winning data crunchers:(From left – above) María Camila Rebolledo, Daniel Jiménez,Víctor Hugo Patiño, Juan Felipe Rodríguez.(From left – below ) Hugo Andrés Dorado, Sylvain Delerce.

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