The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), WorldFish, and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) have signed a five-year memorandum of understanding to support rice-fish production in Southeast Asia, WorldFish said in a statement.
Under the agreement, the three organizations will co-develop and implement research for development (R4D) activities to discover the impact of rice-fish production systems on environmental, socio-economic, and cultural values on land and waterways in Southeast Asia. The R4D projects will be developed based on themes which include constructed water bodies, rice-fish landscapes, climate resilience and water, trade-offs and foresight analysis, and information and communication technology (ICT) and big data.
“Cambodia, Myanmar, and Bangladesh are focus countries for WorldFish, although we do carry out some research in Vietnam under the framework of the CGIAR Research Program on Fish Agrifood Systems, which WorldFish leads,” a spokesperson from WorldFish told SeafoodSource Wednesday. CGIAR is the short name for the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research.
Under the memorandum of understanding, WorldFish and its partners plan to do a regional and global study on rice-fish food systems.
ACIAR and USAID are major donors, as well as the CGIAR Trust Fund, the spokesperson said, adding that WorldFish already collaborates with the relevant National Agricultural Research institutes and several local and international NGOS in focus countries.
WorldFish Director General Gareth Johnstone said in the statement that the partnership provides a strategic push for wider research, promotion, and implementation of integrated rice-fish systems and builds on previous successes of WorldFish and its partners.
The three organizations had already participated in previous individual and joint program partnerships, including the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (2004), and an earlier project on fish-rice between IRRI and WorldFish with Bangladesh research and non-profit agencies.
The WorldFish, IRRI, and IWMI have recently taken part in the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)-funded Development of Rice Fish Systems (RFS) in the Ayeyarwady Delta project. The project aims to improve the productivity and profitability of rice-fish systems in Myanmar and seeks to benefit small-scale rice farming households and fishers by diversifying production in rice-based farming systems and landscapes, enhancing resilience of rice-based farming systems, according to the statement.
Research on rice-fish food systems in Southeast Asia is also part of WorldFish’s partnership work with the FAO in the context of global review and policy development, a WorldFish spokesperson told SeafoodSource.
