Can drought-tolerant varieties produce more food with less water? An empirical analysis of rice farming in China
2017
Li, Luping | Huang, Jikun | Hu, Ruifa | Pray, Carl E.
Most of the poorest people live in rural areas worldwide, characterized by uncertainrainfall, low levels of input use, and low returns to land and labor. Farmers in theserisky production environments often face drought that interacts with many otheragronomic stresses to reduce yields and push them deeper into poverty and hunger.The primary objective of this paper is to estimate the effects that have resulted fromthe adoption of drought-tolerant rice. Food security and water shortage are twomajor challenges for China. Rice is a staple food for most Chinese people and hasplayed an important role in ensuring food security in China. This paper assesses theimpacts of Hanyou 3, one of the drought-tolerant rice varieties that have beenreleased to farmers’ fields already in China, on water use and rice production. Theresults indicated that the rice farmers gave less irrigation to DT variety as comparedto non-DT variety, saving about 30-40% of water over non-DT variety. It is also foundthat the DT rice variety in China yielded as much as existing high-yielding varietiesunder normal or high rainfall conditions.
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