IRRI Pioneer Interviews--Challenges for IRRI: Hubert Zandstra

Hubert Zandstra IRRI agronomist, 1975-80 IRRI deputy director general for research, 1989-91 director general, International Potato Center (CIP), 1991-2005 A continued response to the environmental challenges, including biodiversity, is going to be an important one. Farmers are very capable in making adjustments to their production systems in response to changes in climate if they know what these are going to be. So, working with farmers and keeping them informed is going to be a very important aspect of accommodating environmental changes. Water, of course, is going to be more and more an issue. The sustainable management of water both on the flooding side and on the drought side—more so with the drought side—is going to be important. And then there is the whole change in the demand structure for rice. Nutritional quality is going to be more important and the changes in diets towards higher protein and vegetable components are going to reduce the relative level of rice demand in the future and, I think, keep the rice prices from going up forever. Prices are high now but I think they will be coming down. This all leads to some different challenges in rice research. The present-day long-term pie-in-the-sky or put-a-man-on-the-moon types of projects are sound, but they must continue to be considered as long shots until a very few really pay off. The other aspect is the whole area of toxins. I think good work is being done in IPM [integrated pest management] in reducing the use of toxins but there has got to be a more hard-nosed approach and policy guidelines need to be influenced regarding the use of toxins in production and subsequent storage of products so that the health aspects of food are captured more efficiently. Again, its very hard to pin down what should be done by IRRI and how IRRI should be doing this in the area of human health and eco-health. Theres a very complex relationship between the impact of the context of agriculture and the effect on the health of the farmers and their families. There can be impact on their ability to produce rice; their decision making is going to be affected as are their health and energy level if they are affected by pesticides and other health challenges. So, I think that IRRI has a responsibility in that component, not just in the nutritional quality of the rice, but also the consequences of the production of rice for the health of the operators, their families, and the ecology. These aspects need to have a more central place in the agenda, because people are going to be more demanding and more sensitive to that in the future.