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Hello. This is 6 Minute English
from BBC Learning English.
I'm Neil. And I'm Beth.
Neil, what type of foods
do you often eat?
Well, basic things to fill me up.
That's sort of bread, potatoes.
Well, food like this, which
is regularly eaten by many people,
is known as a staple. In Britain,
bread is a popular staple,
but for large parts of the world,
there's another food,
which is number one –
rice.
That's right.
Over half the world's
population eats rice
as the staple food,
especially in Asia.
But rice is a very thirsty crop
which needs lots of water to grow,
and this is becoming a problem
because of droughts and flooding
caused by climate change.
In this programme, we'll be hearing
about a pioneering new technique helping
farmers to grow rice
in the face of a changing climate.
As usual, we'll be learning
some useful new words and phrases.
And remember, you can find all
the vocabulary from this programme
on our website:
bbclearningenglish.com.
But first I have a question
for you, Beth.
Just now I mentioned that rice is
a very thirsty crop.
So, how much water is needed to grow
one kilogram of rice?
Is it a. 1,000 to 3,000 litres,
b. 3,000 to 5,000 litres,
or c. 5,000 to 7,000 litres?
I'm going to say c. 5,000 to 7,000 litres.
Well, we'll find out if that's right
at the end of the programme.
Dr Yvonne Pinto is
director general of the International
Rice Research Institute,
or IRRI for short,
based in the Philippines.
Here, she explains more
about the global popularity of rice
to BBC World Service programme,
The Food Chain.
Between 50
and 56% of the world's population
rely on rice as the principal staple.
Now that's roughly
about four billion people.
And it is one of those commodities
that is grown really extensively,
particularly in South Asia
and Southeast Asia.
But increasingly the appetite for it
is growing in continents like Africa.
And of course, there are also Latin
American and European rice varieties.
Rice is a commodity, a produce
that can be bought and sold.
Like other crops,
rice has varieties, different types,
for example brown rice,
long grained rice, or basmati.
Much of the research into rice today
is focussed
on making new varieties that
can adapt to the changing environment
and grow in conditions of
either too much or too little water.
Over half the world's population
eats rice,
and there's a growing demand
in Africa and Europe too.
So clearly there's an appetite,
a strong desire, for rice worldwide.
So, is it possible to grow rice
in a more eco-friendly way?
Jean-Philippe Laborde,
director of rice company
Tilda thinks the answer lies
in a new growing technique called
alternate wet drying, or AWD for short.
To grow rice, farmers go through cycles
of flooding their fields or paddies,
which then dry out and need
to be flooded again. With AWD, measuring
pipes are placed 15cm underground so
that farmers can check water levels
at any part of the field.
Normally, rice needs 25 cycles
of flooding and drying out to grow,
but using AWD this is reduced
to 20 cycles, saving farmers water
and reducing methane emissions.
Here's Jean-Philippe
Laborde telling
Ruth Alexander, presenter of
BBC World Service's
The Food Chain, how he began
his AWD experiment with farmers in India.
We've got, last year,
1,268 farmers on board,
applying this technique to reduce
the overall methane emissions.
And how did you persuade
those farmers to give it a go?
That was quite challenging because
obviously the main challenge is
for farmers
the apprehension to lose revenues.
They need to see tangible results at the
end of the crop, that they are getting
obviously something better.
Many Indian farmers got on board
with Jean-Phillipe's experiment.
If you get on board with something,
you agree to a plan of action
and get involved.
In other words, you give it a go.
You try doing something to see
if it works.
As it turned out,
the new technique produced
tangible results – results
which are real and measurable.
Using AWD, the amounts of water
and electricity
needed to grow rice decreased,
methane gas emissions reduced,
and on top of that,
the amount of rice yielded increased.
Right, Neil, isn't it time you
revealed the answer to your question?
I asked how many litres
of water are needed to grow
just one kilogram of rice?
And the answer was 3,000 to 5,000 litres,
so thirsty,
but not as thirsty as you thought.
OK, let's recap the vocabulary
we've learned in this programme,
starting with commodity –
a product like rice
that can be bought and sold.
Varieties of something
are different types of it.
If there's an appetite for something,
there's a strong desire
or demand for it.
If you get on board
with an idea or a plan,
you agree to do something
and get involved with doing it.
To give it a go
means to try doing something.
And finally, the adjective tangible
means real and measurable.
Once again, our six minutes are up.
If you've enjoyed this programme, why
not try practising the new vocabulary
you've learnt with our worksheet.
It's available to download now from
our website, bbclearningenglish.com,
and you could also try out the quiz
while you're there.
Goodbye for now.
Bye!
Vocabulary
Word 1 of 15staple
word
0:18
"a food that is regularly eaten by many people as a main part of their diet."
More Listening Practice
About this lesson
Explore whether reducing rice consumption could benefit our health and the environment in this 6 Minute English episode.