LyrArc Article Gist
Research on agricultural production and improving and protecting rice, wheat and other food crops has suffered in the last decade as budgets for research have been cut. The USA is in the middle of cutting its $59.5 million annual support for a global research network by 75%. This includes the funding for the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines which has suffered from budget cuts for years. Its amazing that this Institute is the world's main repository of rice seeds as well as genetic and other information about rice, the staple food in Asian and many other countries. This includes the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico. Agricultural experts have warned about this neglect for many years but have been ignored as the pace of industrialization took off in many developing countries and agricultural production was taken for granted. With the current crisis in agricultural production one would expect this cutting of research aid to be reversed, as President Bush asked Congress on May 1, 2008, for an extra $770 million to pay for food aid and to help improve agricultural productivity in developing countries. Its ironic that growth of food supplies has suffered just when incomes are improving in the developing countries leading to greater demand for beter food and nutrition and resulting in soaring food prices which cuts into that very effort to improve the nutrition and diets in the developing countries.