Files
Abstract
Most of the poorest people live in rural areas worldwide, characterized by uncertain
rainfall, low levels of input use, and low returns to land and labor. Farmers in these
risky production environments often face drought that interacts with many other
agronomic stresses to reduce yields and push them deeper into poverty and hunger.
The primary objective of this paper is to estimate the effects that have resulted from
the adoption of drought-tolerant rice. Food security and water shortage are two
major challenges for China. Rice is a staple food for most Chinese people and has
played an important role in ensuring food security in China. This paper assesses the
impacts of Hanyou 3, one of the drought-tolerant rice varieties that have been
released to farmers’ fields already in China, on water use and rice production. The
results indicated that the rice farmers gave less irrigation to DT variety as compared
to non-DT variety, saving about 30-40% of water over non-DT variety. It is also found
that the DT rice variety in China yielded as much as existing high-yielding varieties
under normal or high rainfall conditions.