Climate change will influence crop distribution and production and increase risks associated with agriculture. Crop productivity has already experienced detrimental impacts, underlining the necessity of taking adaptive measures. Although, in few regions (mainly in temperate latitudes) may experience improved conditions for production. Globally, climate change is expected to reduce cereal production by 1% to 7% by 2060. Both the changing climate and growing population has been increasing the pressure on our food resources. The sustainability of feedable resources is looking difficult in present changing scenario of climate. Almost, more than half of the world’s population, near about 4 billion people eating rice as their staple food (Mohanty, 2014). But on another hand, the changing climate is making it tenacious for rice growing communities to maintain the productivity. So that, there is an urgent need to make a climate suitable genotypes to resist changing climate. Presently, new stress tolerant rice cultivars can help make farmers more resilient against the calamitous effects of climate. Dr. Matthew Morell (Australian scientist), who heads the International Rice Research Institute, Philippines described the climate change ready rice as “the engine of food security” during the delivering the Millennium Lecture at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai, India. Dr. M. S. Swaminathan named rice crop as “the crop of the future” due to its versatility (Environment New Service, 2017).

1. BIOTECH EXPRESS | Vol 4, Issue 47 June 2017 www.biotechexpressmag.in page 8
GuestArticle
Climate Smart Rice
(CSR): Boosting the
food security in the
changing climate
Sandeep Kumar1
, S. Prasad1
, Rajkumar Dhakar2
, Shakeel A. Khan1
1
CESCRA, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110012
2
ICAR- Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad, Telangana 500070
Corresponding Author- sandeep2011iari@gmail.com
Climate change will influence crop distribution and production and increase risks associated with agriculture.
Crop productivity has already experienced detrimental impacts, underlining the necessity of taking adaptive
measures. Although, in few regions (mainly in temperate latitudes) may experience improved conditions for
production. Globally, climate change is expected to reduce cereal production by 1% to 7% by 2060. Both
the changing climate and growing population has been increasing the pressure on our food resources. The
sustainability of feedable resources is looking difficult in present changing scenario of climate. Almost, more

2. www.biotechexpressmag.in Vol 4, Issue 47 June 2017 | BIOTECH EXPRESSpage 9
Guest Article
than half of the world’s population, near about 4 billion people eating rice as their staple food (Mohanty, 2014).
But on another hand, the changing climate is making it tenacious for rice growing communities to maintain the
productivity. So that, there is an urgent need to make a climate suitable genotypes to resist changing climate.
Presently, new stress tolerant rice cultivars can help make farmers more resilient against the calamitous effects
of climate. Dr. Matthew Morell (Australian scientist), who heads the International Rice Research Institute,
Philippines described the climate change ready rice as “the engine of food security” during the delivering the
Millennium Lecture at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai, India. Dr. M. S. Swaminathan
named rice crop as “the crop of the future” due to its versatility (Environment New Service, 2017).
Rice cultivation supports more than 144 million farm families across the world. Hence it draws the attention
of scientific communities and research organizations to resilient this crop in the present scenario. The climate
changing events like temperature, flooding, drought, and soil salinity has been increased, and these changes
are responded by developing tolerant and high yielding rice varieties at IRRI, Philippines. Dr. Matthew Morell
has also said that Dr. M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) is helping the farmers apart from
productivity and sustainability, small and marginal land holding farmers can greatly benefit from using every
part of rice biomass in farming practices also mentioned that MSSRF has set up a Rice Bio Park in Myanmar
that will help utilize every part of the rice plant.
Rice crop growing in water, but flooding can be damage to rice plants as drought. Rice plants normally die
within four days of submergence (USAID, 2017). Farmers in flood-prone countries with rice areas, such as the
India, Philippines and Bangladesh, are losing millions of tons of rice every year due to floods. Research trials
at IRRI, Philippines indicate that the average yield advantage of drought tolerant rice varieties over drought
susceptible ones is 0.8 to 1.2 t/ha under drought conditions. Rice productivity in salt affected areas is very low,
less than 1.5 t/ha.
Millions of farmers presently have access to growing climate-smart rice. These new and improved rice
varieties, developed by the IRRI and its partners, can withstand flooding, drought, and salinity in soil and
water. IRRI is also developing rice varieties that can thrive despite pests, extreme heat or cold and under
different problematic soils.
Researchers of IRRI has developed and released drought-tolerant varieties these include Sahbhagi dhan in
India, Sahod Ulan in the Philippines, and the Sukkha dhan varieties in Nepal. Research trials showed that the
average yield advantage of drought tolerant rice varieties over drought sensitive ones is 0.8–1.2 t/ha under
drought conditions. Flood tolerant varieties include IR64-Sub1 (Submarino 1) in the Philippines and Swarna-
Sub1 were released as improved Swarna in India, BRRI dhan51 in Bangladesh, and INPARA 3 in Indonesia;
and Samba Mahsuri-Sub1 released as Samba-Sub1 in India and BINA dhan12 in Bangladesh. Several salt
tolerant varieties field trials showed a yield advantage of at least 2 t/ha compared with non tolerant varieties in
salt-affected region across the world by incorporating Saltol, a salt tolerant gene. CSR 43 in India and BINA
dhan8 and 10 in Bangladesh are popular salt-tolerant varieties (IRRI, 2016). These impacts are estimated to
have the effect of increasing average prices by 32-37% and reducing yields by 10-15% by 2050 (IRRI, 2014).

3. BIOTECH EXPRESS | Vol 4, Issue 47 June 2017 www.biotechexpressmag.in page 10
In Africa and parts of South Asia, climate change already had a significant impact on the productivity of
rice crops, farmer’s income and national food security (IRRI, 2014, Rice today blog). Climate-smart rice
varieties could have the potential to improve future food security and increase incomes for poor farmers
in developing countries. The best adaptation to climate change is a breeding and seed system that rapidly
develops, deploys, and then replaces varieties so that farmers will always have access to varieties adapted to
their current conditions,” said Gary Atlin, senior program officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Rice breeding at IRRI had developed several rice variants like climate change ready rice, drought tolerant rice,
submergence tolerant rice, cold tolerant rice, heat tolerant rice and salt tolerant rice. The aim to develop these
rice varieties is that they can withstand conditions forecast to become more frequent and intense with climate
change. Cultivating climate smart rice varieties in unfavorable environments could boost local rice production.
Rice can withstand the ill effects of drought, flooding, and salinity that pose great threats to rainfed rice areas.
Recently, a new climate-smart practice is being developed, called “Climate Informed Rice Crop Low Emission”
(CIRCLE). This can allow the RCM (Rice Crop Manager, a decision-making tool that can be accessed via
smart phone or computer with an internet connection developed by IRRI) to collect information on climate
adjusted crop yields, climate and environmental risks and low emission options for rice cultivation practices.
Climate-smart practices unite numerous issues related to agricultural production in changing and adverse
climatic conditions in the rapid era of development. Achieving the food security by proper adaptable climate-
smart practices pull the production system towards sustainability and improve the livelihood of marginal
farmers across the world.
References:
1. IRRI. 2016. Climate-smart rice. http://books.irri.org/Smart_rice_brochure.pdf
2. FAOSTAT, Mohanty, S (2014). Trends in global rice consumption. International Rice Research Institute
(IRRI). http://irri.org/rice-today/trends-in-global-riceconsumption
3. IRRI (2014). http://irri.org/news/hot-topics/rice-and-climate-change
4. USAID. 2017. climate-smart rice increases yields and profits in Vietnam. https://www.usaid.gov/results-da-
ta/success-stories/climate-smart-rice-practices-win-win-win-vietnam
5. IRRI, 2014. Rice today blog. A new generation of climate smart rice for Africa and South Asia. http://www.
cgiar.org/consortium-news/a-new-generation-of-climate-smart-rice-for-africa-and-south-asia/
6. Environment News Service, 2017. Climate-smart rice the ‘crop of the future’. http://ens-newswire.
com/2017/02/24/climate-smart-rice-the-crop-of-the-future/
Guest Article