Rice

A RICE Did you know... Rice is one of the world's most important crops. It is the staple food for more than 3.5 billion people worldwide, including nearly 600 million living in extreme poverty in Asia. However rice production is vulnerable to weather shocks and climate change. Droughts, floods, higher temperatures, and rising sea levels can have a massive impact on rice production. For example, during the annual monsoon floods, farmers in Bangladesh and India can lose up to 4 million tons of rice, enough to feed 30 million people 30 MILLION 4 MILLION TONNES = 1 MILLION WITHOUT RICE The UK Government is supporting work to develop new varieties of rice that can withstand droughts, floods, extreme heat, extreme cold and soil problems like high salt.* One of the varieties - scuba rice, is flood resistant and can survive up to two weeks under water. Scuba rice is now being planted in India, Bangladesh and the Philippines. It will potentially benefit 18 million farming households in Asia. WEEKS SCUBA RICE *Through the work of the International Rice Research Institute- www.irri.org