Rice

In my hand I am holding something which, to many of you may appear insignificant - if you can see it at all. Nevertheless, the technology it contains is powerful enough to sustain the lives of half of the world's population, providing them with the means to survive and to grow. For those of you who have forgotten your glasses, I am not holding a microchip, but what I have in my hand is - a simple grain of rice.

But why is rice so important? Looking around the room this evening, I can see many Europeans, who eat an average of 3kg of rice each year. For many of you, rice is no more than the side-dish to an occasional curry, or stir-fry. Living in Europe it is difficult to imagine that one crop could be so important. Supermarkets offer such great variety of foods - thousands of products in every shape and colour, and providing so many alternatives for rice, such as potatoes, breads, pastas or noodles. For most of you rice is part of your lifestyle - it is for you to choose.

For other countries such as India, China and Japan, rice is a way of life. In fact this tiny grain has shaped the cultures, economies and diets of billions of people, especially in Asia. For them, life without rice is simply unthinkable.

Rice is firmly bound to the culture of nations, and rice is embedded in the literature, art forms and languages of many Asian and African countries. In Japan, the word eating is synonymous with eating rice, and the phrase we all know as 'Bon appetit' when translated into Vietnamese means 'enjoy your rice'.

When travelling through China, it is common to be greeted with the phrase 'Have you had your rice today?' And there are many poems which use similar linguistic tools especially metaphors using rice to allude to something else. However, the attachment of people to rice can be hugely problematic when they try new styles of cooking. Last week I heard about a man who attempted to barbeque rice ----- but unfortunately for him it kept falling through the grill!

Almost everywhere rice grows, it is part of paintings, literature, and music, and has been given a religious function. The festivals for these events are particularly colourful. In Cambodia, for example, spirits inhabit the rice fields. In Bali, rice embodies Dewi Sri, the rice mother and goddess of life and fertility. In Thailand, for over 700 years, the time-honoured Royal Ploughing Ceremony has been a grand event in front of the Palace in Bangkok. This ancient Brahmanical rite is held during the sixth lunar month to produce bountiful crops and boost farmers’ morale.

Europe has missed out on the rice culture. In the European Union, rice is just another foodstuff for which we seem to need an ever-increasing amount of legislation. Apparently we need legislation to determine whether a grain of rice really is a grain of rice, and thus whether it should be allowed to enter the EU market, and if so on what terms. It is like bananas or cocoa, which are not considered crucial to people’s lives in Europe but which are ordinary commodities, subject to European and international negotiations in the framework of the Common Agricultural Policy and the World Trade Organisation.

Last year with enlargement looming, the EU Member States finally took the plunge and voted to reform the controversial Common Agricultural Policy and to substitute the old 'margin of preference' import tariff regime, with a new fixed duty system. The new import duty for brown rice is fixed at 65€ per tonne and for milled rice at 175€ per tonne. These rates are designed to guarantee protection for European rice producers whilst respecting WTO rules by allowing sufficient imports of rice into the EU.

The Council also approved a 50% cut in the intervention price of rice for European farmers, but they are being compensated with direct payments; and supplemental payments are being made for private storage. As of 2006 direct payments will be partially de-coupled from production, with the first 60% being triggered no matter what the farmer produces and the other 40% subject to productivity.

Last year, the Commission was given permission to open negotiations with third countries and renegotiate the margin of preference concession concerning rice. Using the WTO Article 28 procedure this opening was used to withdraw previously negotiated rice MOP concessions with the U.S. Indeed, following negotiations with the four main suppliers to the EU rice market, which make up over 80% of EU rice imports, only India and Pakistan reached an agreement and will face zero duties for basmati rice exported to the EU, with the EU agreeing to recognise some new hybrid varieties of basmati rice.

For all of these changes to become permanent, a change to the EU’s rice market organization legislation will be needed and will be completed early next year.

This is all very well for European rice producers, but rice is not of fundamental importance to the lives of EU citizens. Europeans LIKE to have rice to eat, but they do not actually NEED it. The people who DO need it, live for the most part in Asia Africa, and parts of Latin America, where rice is the guarantor of life itself. We need to find ways to ensure that those people have enough rice to eat, at affordable prices, before rice is exported to people who do not really need it.

Rice is also the means for many people in those countries to earn a living and for their country to compete on the international market. According to the UN, rice production is the world's single most important economic activity. Rice is grown in 113 countries and only one continent is not suitable for growing it. That continent is ------ Antarctica.

In this connection I would pay tribute to Dr. Monty Jones, who is here today, and has developed a new variety of rice which can be grown in parts of the world where rice production has not until now been possible. I doubt however that even his variety of rice could be grown in Antarctica!

Approximately 154 million hectares worldwide are planted with a rice crop, which accounts for approximately 11% of the world's cultivated land. This is hardly surprising if you consider that rice has a history dating over 7,000 years and there are currently over 10,000 varieties worldwide.

Rice is also an extremely versatile crop and is not only used to produce food and drinks, for animals and humans, but it is also used as a powder base for cosmetics, and a finishing material for textiles and shoes. It is incredible to think that the same grains of rice that we cook can yield fat in the process of candle and soap–making, and can also be used in paper-making.

The rice production industry employs a total of 1,000 million people in rural areas of developing countries. About 80% of the world's rice is grown by small-scale farmers in low-income and developing countries. Worldwide average production between 2000-2002 was 592 million tonnes and having risen from 257 million tonnes in 1996, demand is predicted to rise to 771 million tonnes by 2030.

Developing countries account for 95% of rice production. India and China together account for more than 50% of world output (almost 300 million tonnes). Rice cultivation employs over 100 million households and 1 billion individuals in Asia and Africa, all depending on rice for their main source of employment or livelihood. If one includes the Americas this figure rises to over 1 billion households.

But as Sir John Boydorr, the first Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, said in 1946, "Food is more than a trade commodity. It is essential to life." Rice too is more than just a commodity. Percentage-wise not much rice is traded outside the countries in which it is produced, and 92% of the crop is grown and consumed in Asia.

At the World Summit in 1996, 186 countries agreed to reduce the number of undernourished people in the world by at least 50% before 2015. Yet, according to the FAO, 840 million people continue to starve and many more suffer from poor nutrition. Every day, 24,000 people die from hunger and related causes. This is the equivalent to one person every 3.5 seconds, or one child every seven seconds.

The nutritional values of rice are vital. Did you know that in the developing world a lack of vitamin A is one of the most common causes of blindness amongst children? Vitamin A is found in rice. Indeed, natural or brown rice contains all of the vital substances, such as ballast materials, carbohydrates, fats, proteins, minerals and vitamins.

Many people simply fail to understand the importance of a balanced diet of cereals, vegetables, meats, dairy products and other items. This is something that most Europeans take for granted, learning from their parents, teachers, the media or their health services. Malnutrition not only causes a range of diseases but has been known to cause mental retardation and physical stunting in children.

It is, therefore, no surprise that this year the United Nations has chosen to focus on this unique crop, which supplies 700 calories per day to some 3 billion people.

I am sure you are all aware that there is currently enough food in the world for everyone, so why do we allow people to continue to starve? Often the problem is distribution – bags of rice are no good to anyone if they are lying in a warehouse, more often than not getting damp, or being eaten by birds and rats. Sometimes the food is stolen or removed by means of corruption and sold on the black market at prices which people in need cannot afford. All too often the problem is war, which drives people away from their land, and disrupts the entire system of production and distribution.

We don’t like to be reminded but we are partly to blame for all of this. We, in the West influence much of the production in the developing world, moving countries’ economies away from their peoples’ needs, to fulfil OUR needs. All too often as well we do not carefully think out the implications of our aid-giving in the developing world. We have to challenge ourselves and ask if we are building roads, airports and other infrastructure for the sake of building something tangible even if this is at the expense of people who are starving.

We, in the West, also need to help the world's poorest and hungriest nations to learn how to better distribute their wealth, by also helping them to remove barriers of ethnic and religious and gender discrimination, which in many countries can hinder the world’s poorest from being fed.

Yet how do we help rice farmers to boost production to feed the starving? Rice needs to become part of a sustainable development strategy. In order to have a rice paddy a farmer needs unpolluted land and water. Yet environmental damage is seriously disrupting food production in many developing countries. Water, along with many other natural resources, is being depleted in several countries. Some people lack the means to cultivate crops, or perhaps their attempts have been thwarted by conflict, parasites, or weather conditions.

Governments need to be more wholeheartedly supported and encouraged to better use their land and resources, ceasing to exploit their land, which in the long term does not bring prosperity, and introducing legislation to combat environmental damage. Unfortunately issues such as water do not always get the place they deserve on a national agenda. Companies too should be encouraged to reach out into the communities around them and realise that it is in their interests to support the creation of a healthier happier workforce. Practices such as child labour also need to be brought to an end. If we look to the future generation child labour is a significant problem, preventing education and thus, the chance to break the poverty cycle.

When I heard about this evening's event, I really did not want to miss the chance to speak to you on this topic. ----- Rice is not just another crop, but this tiny grain ------ is a wonder of nature, which we can use to make a real difference to the lives of so many of our fellow human beings.