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Last week the Executive Secretary of the International Rice Commission, Mr Nguu Nguyen, announced to an international scientific conference on sustainable rice production in Krasnodar, Russia that Egypt had the world's highest national rice yield average for 2005, at 9.5 tonnes per hectare. The FAO then sent out a press release making it appear that hybrid varieties developed through an FAO-led project were behind these high yields. The press release was picked up by media around the world. "High rice yield in Egypt due to hybrid variety,'" raved the India Daily.

It would be nice if the FAO could back up their claims with a little data. In all of the litterature that the FAO devotes to hybrid rice, nowhere is there any mention of the area grown to hybrid rice in Egypt. It seems that hybrid rice remains marginal at best. Plus the big yield increases that have happened in Egypt over the past few decades have nothing to do with hybrid rice, and perhaps little to do with plant breeding.

Between 1985-1995, yields rose by nearly 30%. Over that period of time there was little change to the varieties used. The popular long-season traditional varieties, Giza 171 and Giza 172, still accounted for 95% of the rice growing area in 1995. Over the following decade, from 1995-2005, yields increased a less remarkable 15%, from 8.2 t/ha to 9.5 t/ha. During this period, the government phased out Giza 171 and Giza 172 to usher in new short-season varieties, leaving the older long-season varieties to less than 10% of the land.

What FAO cleverly avoids saying is that production costs for Egypt's rice farmers have exploded over these years. Production costs more than doubled between 1990-1995, fuelled by increasing use of chemical fertlisers and other inputs. These costs have continued to rise, as farmgate paddy prices have declined. The net revenue for paddy farmers in 2000 was actually less than what it was in 1985!

So, just how are new expenisve hybrid rice seeds supposed to resolve this problem?

Egypt tops the yield charts, but what's hybrid rice got to do with it?