Colombia

General Information

· Main climates: Tropical Wet, Tropical at 1 000 m above sea, Tropical Wet and Dry

· Total land area: 113 891 000 ha

· Internal renewable water resources: 1 070 km³

· GNP per capita, 1998: PPP$ 5 861

· Main food consumed: Sugar & honey, Rice, Maize, Oil & fat, Meat

· Rice supply, 1999: 43.9 kg paddy/capita/year

Basic Statistics

Producing Zones and Cropping Seasons

Rice production takes place in four northwestern, central, northern and eastern regions. The following table shows the harvested areas in different producing zones.

Rice is produced throughout the year, but is mainly cultivated in two seasons.

Production Practices

The following figure shows the harvested areas from different ecologies during 1995-2000 period.

There are two distinct production systems in the country: mechanized and manual or traditional upland rice. Mechanized rice represents 95 percent of the rice area and 98 percent of production. However, almost half of rice producers in the country (47 percent of a total of 28 128 rice farmers) are found in traditional upland rice system. Average yield of traditional upland rice is about 1.1 tons/ha, compared with 4.8 tons/ha in mechanized rice. In traditional upland rice is planted in association or mixture with perennial and annual crops. In irrigated and rainfed lowland systems, rice is planted in monoculture. Most of rice varieties planted in lowland systems belong to indica type. The following table shows the rice varieties planted in the country.

· Irrigated rice varieties

· Upland rice varieties

Direct seeding is the dominant method of crop establishment. Farmers in lowland systems applied chemical fertilizers and other agro-chemical products. The following table shows responses of rice to fertilizer application.

Constraints and Issues of Sustainable Production

There are several constraints to sustainable rice production in Colombia. Following are the majors:

• High production cost and shrinking local market due to a reduction in national consumption.

• Blast, Rice Hoja Blanca Virus, Togasodes oryzicolus, crinkling or entorchmiento virus, rhynchosporium, helminthosporium.

• Weed and Red rice competition.

• Infertile and aluminum toxic soil in eastern Llanos upland rice areas.

• Yield potentials of irrigated rice varieties have reached a plateau, especially in Central region.

• Tenancy problem: 49% of the rice growers are owners and 51%, renters.

Following table shows the rice production costs

Sustainable rice production in the country would require the development of higher yielding rice varieties and the introduction and adoption of alternative crop management approach such as Integrated Crop Management, the Ricecheck system.

Research and Development Institutes

· Caja de Credito Agrario Industrial y Minero, Carrera 8 No.15-43, Bogota, Phone: 284-4600 Telex: 45255

· FEDEARROZ, Calle 72 # 13-23 piso 10, Bogotá, Colombia

· Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), AA 6713, Cali, Colombia; Tel (57-23) 6675050; Fax (57-23) 6647243; Email [email protected]

· Fedearroz, Calle 72 No. 13-23 P.12, Bogota, D.E., Phone: 2550643 Telex: 044592

· Socrarroz Ltda., Saldana (Tolima), Semillano Ltda., A.P. 2012, Carrera 33 No.19-63, Villavicencio, Meta, Phone: 3292

· Ministerio de Agricultura, Ave. Jimenez No. 7-65, Edif. Pedro A. Lopez, Santafe de Bogota, Phone: (1) 334-1199, Fax: (1) 243-468