We face a looming rice crisis

The future of one of the world's most important foodstuffs is mired in a stew of science, politics and economics.

- Anjana Ahuja

There is more to rice than meets the fork. The grain, harvested from a semi-aquatic grass, is a staple food for over half of the world's population. Many countries in Asia have strategic rice reserves: In 2025, Japan dipped into its national stockpile for the first time since the 2011 tsunami, to counter panic-buying and soaring prices.

Nations are chasing self-sufficiency, with China this week announcing a 10-year agricultural masterplan for domestic food security. Indonesia has earmarked an area the size of Jamaica on the eastern fringe of its sweeping archipelago to develop new rice farms.

But there are thorns among the grains, in Indonesia and elsewhere. Researchers have told the journal Science that the South Papua mega-project is doomed to fail, given the poor soil, a relatively dry climate and Indonesia's questionable record of similar efforts. Its government has also been accused of seizing land from indigenous peoples to pursue its aims.

Legal action by Greenpeace, meanwhile, has blocked the commercial cultivation of genetically modified Golden Rice in the Philippines, putting the brakes on an innovation slated to save lives by enriching diets with vitamin A. In a world already beset by food insecurity, climate change, water scarcity and conflict, the future of one of its most important foodstuffs is mired in a heady stew of science, politics and economics.