The Future of Rice - ATCC UGM

The Future of Rice
SUSTAINABILITY TRANSITIONS SUMMER SCHOOL 2015
27th July – 9th August 2015, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
PROJECT BRIEF
BACKGROUND
Natural resources are at the heart of global sustainability and ecosystem health. On the one hand,
access to and quality of natural resources influence human and environmental wellbeing. On the
other hand, human decisions and changing economic preferences impact on the quality and
distribution of natural resources. Current challenges to socio-ecological systems, such as food
scarcity, energy poverty, environmental degradation and social inequality are complex phenomena
which cannot be explained using linear thinking and causalities. These symptoms can be seen,
though, as properties of acutely or chronically unhealthy systems. In future, natural resources
management must become more sustainable, fair and must respect natural boundaries. This
ultimately requires coordinated changes in economic, social, cultural and political domains. We
argue that change agents with the capacity to formulate conceptually sound, authentic and value
driven messages are essential in this process. The Sustainability Transitions Summer School shall be
one element that contributes to the success of those change agents.
FRAMEWORK AND OBJECTIVE
This Summer School is embedded in a three-year project cycle running from 2015 to 2017. Each year,
the Summer School will address a pressing issue in the field of natural resources management where
fundamental change processes are either urgently required or already taking place. The participating
universities will take turns in hosting the training course. An alumni network will enable participants
to stay in touch with each other and form a network of global change facilitators.
The overall objective of the Summer School is to promote change facilitation towards sustainable
natural resources management by increasing the number of university graduates with relevant
theoretical and practical understanding of socio-ecological transitions. Guided by this objective, the
course will achieve three interrelated results:
1. Per year of implementation, thirty-two graduate students from Asia and Europe will develop
competences in understanding management transitions of natural resources systems.
2. University staffs at Southeast Asian universities increase their capacity to facilitate multistakeholder learning in an innovation systems setting, particularly with reference to global
change processes.
3. A global network of change facilitators is developed and maintained, encouraging exchange
between universities, supporting creativity and innovation, and promoting new didactic
approaches for learning between theory and practice.
A joint initiative of University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences,
Austria I Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia I Kasetsart University,
Thailand I Royal University of Agriculture, Cambodia
2
THE 2015 TOPIC: THE FUTURE OF RICE
More than half of the world’s population depends on rice. But not all rice cultivation is ecologically
sensitive, and rice trade is not always fair. Southeast Asian countries are struggling to meet growing
demands when rice accounts for up to three-quarters of their population’s caloric intake. Being
subjected to global market dynamics further means that even European or American consumption
patterns influence the rice production systems in Indonesia and elsewhere, making this a challenge
of global relevance. Furthermore, the effects of rice cultivation on greenhouse gas emissions and
climate change suggest that fundamental changes are required to meet global demands in a
sustainable manner. The 2015 Summer School will be hosted by Gadjah Mada University in
Yogyakarta and focus on “The Future of Rice”, asking how to make the shift to sustainable and
resilient rice cultivation in the global food system.The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is one of
the options that could help to achieve this goal.
The Summer School shall acquaint participants with principles and practices of such transition
processes and provide them with scientific and practical knowledge. Participants will understand
underlying patterns and rules of the production system, discover potentials for transitions and learn
how to create incentives for change. The Summer School combines preparations at the university
with hands-on experiences in the field. Learning from and with relevant stakeholders, students will
get an in-depth insight into the training topic. They will work in interdisciplinary teams with
European and Asian participants, farmers, and stakeholders around Yogyakarta to explore
opportunities of meeting the future demand for rice in a sustainable way.
The 2015 Summer School is structured into five consecutive training phases:
PHASE
DURATION
LOCATION
GOAL
Phase 1:
April - June
Web-based
platform,
Universities
Yogyakarta
Understanding basics of:

Rice and global food systems

Transitions management
Understanding principles of agroecosystem health and related
sustainability transitions at global
scale.
E-learning
Phase 2:
4 days
Introduction
FORMAT






Phase 3:
7 days
Field site
Implementation
Conducting health checks and
exploring transition pathways
together with rice farmers and
other stakeholders



Phase 4:
3 days
Yogyakarta
Presentation
Phase 5:
Follow-up
From
August
onwards
Web-based
platform,
Universities
Reflecting on field work
experiences and disseminating
results to a broader audience of
global change agents
Establishing a network of global
change facilitators that jointly
seeks opportunities to make
further use of their newly gained
knowledge and skills
A joint initiative of University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences,
Austria I Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia I Kasetsart University,
Thailand I Royal University of Agriculture, Cambodia




Blog-based e-learning
Preparatory seminars
Written assignments
Lectures on different aspects
of rice cultivation
Excursions to relevant actors
along the value chain
Intensive workshops on field
methods
Exploration workshops with
relevant stakeholders
Field work with natural
resources users
Feedback workshop with
resources users and district
stakeholders
Reflection and integration
workshops
Preparation of public
conference
Exchange on web-based
platform
Other activities to be
determined
3
STEERING COMMITTEE
This Summer School is a joint initiative of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in
Austria, Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia, Kasetsart University in Thailand, and Royal University
of Agriculture in Cambodia. The universities will jointly manage the preparation, implementation and
follow-up of the Summer School. Every year of implementation, a committee of all four universities
will collect and evaluate students’ applications and select 32 students (8 students per country)
according to pre-defined criteria. Every university will delegate one university trainer to the course
which ensures a coordinated implementation of the multi-faceted preparation phase. External
trainers will be selected by the steering committee to facilitate courses for the two-week core
training phase. A follow-up to the two-week Summer School will be organised by all universities back
in their respective home countries.
Contact person at BOKU University
Dr. Michael Hauser
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU)
Centre for Development Research
Peter Jordan Strasse 82
1180 Vienna, Austria
Contact person at Gadjah Mada University
Dr.nat.techn. Francis M.C. Sigit Setyabudi
Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Agricultural Technology
Jalan Flora, Bulaksumur
Yogyakarta, Indonesia - 55281
Contact person at Kasetsart University
Dr. Hathairat Chokthaweepanich
Kasetsart University
Faculty of Natural Resources and Agro-Industry
Chalermphrakait Sakon Nakhon province campus
59/4 Moo 1 Sakon Nakhon-Nakhon Phanom Road
Chiangkrua Subdistrict, Sakon Nakhon Province 47000, Thailand
Contact person at Royal University of Agriculture
Dr. Mom Seng
Royal University of Agriculture
Vice Rector
Khan Dangkor, Phnom Penh, Poste Code 1241
Cambodia, P.O. Box 2696
A joint initiative of University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences,
Austria I Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia I Kasetsart University,
Thailand I Royal University of Agriculture, Cambodia